Trust Her by Flynn Berry was a riveting novel!
I loved every moment of this novel!
This was a quick, tense read and I enjoyed every minute of it.
A great and surprising story.
The characters were skillfully executed and evolved throughout the story.
Terrific story told with great heart and understanding.

Thank You NetGalley and Viking for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

If you want an edge of your seat thriller, Flynn Berry's Trust Her is the novel for you! Two sisters in Ireland are trying to outrun their past, which is harder than it seems. Years before, the sisters. Tessa and Marian, turned informers on the IRA, and they've been running from that past since. They have both settled down, built new lives, but the past has a way of finding people. When Tessa is kidnapped and forced to convert her handler, she knows it's the wrong thing to do, but how can she protect her family and the ones she loves?

This book has a great premise! However, for me, I could not get into it. I think part of it was my lack of knowledge of the historical background, which was not explained at all in this book. I think I could have really enjoyed this one if I understood more about the IRA, the political unrest, and what Tessa and Marian were running from. Without understanding this, I could not get into it. However, it was still a very well written book, and for those who are more familiar with the situation this may easily be the book for you!

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a sequel to the book, Northern Spy, which I have not read. I don't think you need to read it for this story to make sense, which is great!

Having visited Ireland recently and understanding the split between Belfast/Northern Ireland and Dublin/Southern Ireland, this story offers an interesting perspective on the civil war and unrest in the 2 countries.

Tessa and Marian Daly are sisters who live in the post-war Dublin with their children. Life is improving for the 2 women who were spies until someone from their past appears and tells Tessa she must turn her old handler from MI5 into an IRA informant or they will lose everything.

This is definitely a slow burn, psychological thriller that starts off with a suspenseful kidnapping and continues to grow as the 2 women re-enter the world of terrorists, discover more secrets and are forced to make decisions that could result in their families dying. The book is very well written and a great read!

Thank you to the publisher and to netgalley. In this book, it serves as a sequel of sorts to Northern Spy (not officially but serves as a good back story and intro) with our two sisters, Tessa Marion drawn back into the IRA three years after the events of Northern Spy. I liked the action which sometimes can lull in follow up books but this one was hard to put down!

I had never heard of the IRA so this book got me really interested in the history of Ireland and the political differences! As a thriller it was great. I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed Northern Spy, and this was a good follow up. I did not know much about Ireland and its politics, so I was intrigued to learn more. A lot of it goes over my head still, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the story. The characters are intriguing and relatable with their struggles.

I actually really liked this book, but there was one huge issue which annoyed me so I’m going to address that first. This is a sequel. Nowhere in any of the marketing or descriptions of this is that made clear to the reader.

Did I need to read the first book to enjoy it? Clearly not because I didn’t even find out it was a sequel until I was finished. However, I would have liked to read the first one since it sounds interesting and now I know everything that happened in it already, which is a shame.

Now onto the story itself. Berry did a good job summarizing the backstory in a way that it felt organic to this story and also made it so you had enough information about the last book to follow this one clearly. This starts off so strong - the first chapter absolutely hooked me. While it does get a bit slow in the middle, the final third of the novel is amazing - non-stop action that I couldn’t stop reading. The tension in this novel is also palpable - I was genuinely worried about the safety of the characters. And speaking of, I adored them and their relationships, both to each other and to the country they clearly love. They were very well-rounded and complex. Overall I thought this was an incredibly well-done thriller. Just, you know, maybe read the first book before this one.

Thank you to Viking and Netgalley for the ARC. Trust Her is out 6/25!

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

I did not realize that this book was a sequel to Northern Spy by this author (or at least has the same characters.) And that is totally my fault. I just had a hard time connecting with the characters because I didn't read the first book in the series. I will probably go back and read Northern Spy and then this one in order to enjoy the experience. I think the writing was good and the suspense was definitely there.

However, I just was not a huge fan of this one. I think part of it was that I didn't know the characters like I should have. I also just felt like the topics were things that I don't tend to enjoy reading like when children are in danger. (That is just my preference obviously, there is nothing wrong with writing about those things). I also felt like I was missing a lot of background information since I didn't read the first book. I think this should be advertised more as a sequel than it is.

I'll give this one 3 stars because I think I would've liked it more if I read the first one (which is not the author's fault but my own). The writing was good and the suspense was good. It was just not my type of book.

This is the follow up to Berry's 2021 novel Northern Spy. In, Trust Her, we return to Tessa and Marian Daly, who have built a new life in Dublin with their children. Life is headed in a positive direction until someone from their past appears and tells Tessa she must turn her old handler from MI5 to an IRA informant or they will lose everything.

This book is a slow building psychological thriller. Suspense is built as the sisters reenter the world of terrorists, uncover secrets, and weigh decisions that could kill family and friends.

I was so happy to revisit these characters. Loved this read! 4⭐️ for me. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Trust Her.

Thank you Viking for inviting me to review this solid spy novel, Trust Her, from Flynn Berry; I also opted to listen to some of this book via PRH audio, thank you for the free review copy (disclaimer). This is a mesmerizing follow up to Northern Spy and I love a good spy novel, especially one that focuses on women and family, what it might really feel like to be in this role, to be in the conflicts in Ireland and adjacent spaces, and to still also be a mother, sister, human at the same time. Though this book is standalone, Berry does a good job offering the reader background and setting up this story, it never hurts to read the first book, which is great as well.

Stand outs
1. Strong immersive writing. Berry has taken steps to make sure the reader understands the background and plot themes, can learn and want to learn more about Mi5, conflict in Ireland.
2. As noted, compelling voices and character depth that make this story feel not just real but also empathetic when needed.
3. Solid pacing, the book and audiobook were well done in terms of holding my interest and engagement, never feeling too daunting but also allowing me to be challenged to go into this part of the world.

DNF @28%. It’s not that this book isn’t good. It is. The writing is great and the characters are real and believable. But when I requested this ARC I did not realize that this book is the follow up to Northern Spy, which I haven’t read.

Due to that fact I am feeling very lost and not truly connected to these characters as there is heavy reference to backstory and I don’t know said backstory.

Thank you anyway to Netgalley, Viking Press, and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Great sequel to “Northern Spy” however it can be read as a standalone book. The story is about what life is like for Tessa and her sister Marian after the ordeal they went through with being informants against Irelands IRA. The book is told from Tessa’s POV and the writer does a good job of briefing the reader on the past events so if you read this book first you get a good idea of what happened in the first book.
I liked that we got to see what life was like for the sisters and how they were able to rebuild their lives but the past comes back to haunt them. There were some really hard moments that they go through but the ending was absolutely perfect!
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group Viking. All opinions are my own.

Okay, so here’s the thing: I didn’t finish this book. I am enjoyed the action and suspense from the beginning. The concept is cool and I enjoyed the narrator’s persistent concern for her son. That part felt very real and raw. However, I had to do a lot of research on the IRA and MI5 to understand the context. I think reading the first book in this series would have helped me understand the plot and background a lot better. If I knew to read the first book before reading this one, I think I would have been more compelled to finish this one. I think it’s great, but I felt kinda confused throughout. I made it about 25% through.

I did not realize this was a sequel, and while I think you can possibly get thru it without reading the first book I feel that it would have made this book more enjoyable. The story itself was just ok and had a weird type of tension in the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

⭐️: 3.5/5

After escaping the IRA’s punishment for informing to the British government, sisters Tessa and Marian have built new lives in Dublin. When a threatening figure from their pasts reappears and begins to make demands of them, they’re once again at risk of losing everything.

I really didn’t know much about Northern Ireland or the politics of that area, including this history of the IRA. Really, the only thing I knew about the IRA was that Fiona from Burn Notice was ex-IRA, which really…actually in retrospect provides a fair amount of context. Anyway, I did some Googling at the beginning of this one to get more contextual information, which I think really helped. What I ALSO didn’t know was that this is a sequel to Northern Spy, a Reese’s Book Club pick from a few years ago that I haven’t read. I do think that some things may have been more clear from the start of this one if I had read Northern Spy, but I also feel that this functioned effectively as a standalone. The story was decently fast paced and kept my attention throughout. It was interesting, partially due to the plot and partially due to the fact that it’s a relatively new subject matter for me, so I felt like I was learning things too. I get irritated easily by books that have a heavy-handed “motherhood is the best thing that ever happened to me regardless of the struggles” theme, which this one did, and lo and behold, parts of this one irked me as well. I also get a little bogged down by novels set in other countries where the criminal justice system or police forces are involved, since I only know the rights of the accused in the US, so sometimes I’ll be like “oh, that cop would never do that” or “oh, that’s illegal of that cop” but then realize I don’t actually know if that’s true, which is generally confusing to me. Overall though, I liked this read, and while I would recommend (probably) reading Northern Spy first, I fully think you don’t HAVE to.

Thank you to @netgalley and @vikingbooks for this free eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

I loved the previous book, Northern Spy. This book was lacking a bit of the captivating drama I felt with the first though. I enjoyed the overall plot and felt the stakes were high enough to give a suspenseful feel. The involvement of the children and families was unsettling to me and I honestly didn’t really like the children being in the mix here. I would have liked more insight into Marian’s point of view and decision-making. I guess overall this was enjoyable, just lacked some of the depth from the first book.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Viking and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review.

An interesting follow-up novel, to be sure. While a lot of passages are mundane, the writing is descriptive so other passages made me acutely feel the character’s distress.

I do feel this novel and the first, Northern Spy, are best enjoyed if you’re at least somewhat familiar with Ireland’s “The Troubles,” as there’s not a lot of historical context or explanation given if you’re going in blind.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for an eARC copy of Trust Her by Flynn Berry.

While you can certainly read Trust Her as a stand alone novel, it would certainly help to read the first book "Northern Spy" for an introduction the characters and more understanding of what is going on in their world. I was a bit thrown off as it wasn't listed as a sequel and listed as just a novel. The novel itself takes place three years after Tessa and Marian Daly escaped the IRA and have since resettled in Dublin, trying to forge new lives and make better ones for their children.

Flynn Berry does a wonderful job going straight into the action, which is what I really enjoyed most as some novels (especially sequels) tend to drag a bit to make up for the time between books. It also made for the tension and the danger more real, because even though it had been three years, they still weren't exactly safe per se. Their enemies were just biding their time. But, what I really wanted was to hear more of Marian's side, after looking up what happened in "Northern Spy" I feel like it would have been nice to see everything from her side as well.

Honestly, I got through it pretty quickly, but the ending left much to enjoy and I'd certainly let people know that this is a sequel.

While you could read this as a standalone, this is even better as the follow up to Northern Spy which introduces Tessa and Marian, the IRA, and the struggle for/against Ireland's independence. Resettled in Dublin after the events in Northern Spy (see......trying to be as spoiler free as possible!), I appreciated that while the names they use are new ones, the reader doesn't have to relearn new ones. Once again, though, their world is upended with the reintroduction of an old character and Tessa has to face the fears she thought she had left behind. In many parts, the writing is contemplative and nostalgic as Tessa misses her old life and wonders what her world could be like. This is in sharp contrast to her present concerns. I do wish that more time had been spent on the actual ending of the drama. After the long lead up, it felt rushed and a bit unsatisfying. I'd say I don't want more danger to come to Tessa and Marian, but that would mean no future book in the series.

This book was sent to me as a widget. I have never read the author and the storyline sounded interesting. Unfortunately, it did not pick my interest as much as I thought it would.

Thanks for the opportunity and chance to try out a new author