The primary school in the village of Leedham is the heart of the community. One Friday afternoon teacher Cate & young son Archie set off for home & are never arrive. This is a big shock to all, particularly the head teacher, Oliver, who is the husband & father. Lexi arrives as a substitute teacher. She is of course intrigued by the events that brought her there but when she starts asking questions she receives threats. What has happened to Cate & Archie- & why is Lexi so interested?

This was an engaging read which kept me guessing. There were a couple of things that bugged me- some terms were more attuned to American readers: Substituent teacher - in UK it is Supply teacher. Apartment- flat? Then there was the really huge error of the storm- lightning comes first because light travels faster than sound. This totally distracted me from that bit of the story. That apart it was a good read & thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me do so.

Cate is a teacher and Archie is her son, one day after school the pair go missing - Cate's husband Oliver is acting strangely ..why?
Lexi, the new substitute teacher is also acting differently... when secrets from the past come to light it sets the scene for a devastating twist -
Great, well-paced story with plenty to keep the reader hooked, really enjoyable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this read. I did not quite enjoy this book as it was not that thrilling for me but it had twists and turns. I just didn’t find it my book to read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cate (a teacher) and her son Archie both go missing one Friday after school. Ever since they’ve been missing, Oliver, Cate’s husband has been acting strange. However, the new substitute, Lexi, has also been acting strange. Secrets from their past start to resurface, which makes for a shocking twist, for many of the characters. It took me awhile to get into this book; it felt like the first half moved very slow. But the last half of the book picked up the pace. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. #booksbyashleynicole

The Teacher's Secret is an original all-consuming thriller that gripped me immediately. A small serene village is rocked to its core when a mother and son disappear without a trace on a typical Friday afternoon. What happened to Cate and Archie? Did they run away for unknown reasons or is something more sinister at play? The unpredictable story kept me guessing and racing to the end, trying to solve this intricately well-plotted mystery. It's fast-paced with shocking twists throughout. Entertaining, intriguing, and unputdownable describe every minute of this enthralling thriller. Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for my copy. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Teacher's Secret was a fantastic read. Plenty of action with twists and turns galore and it kept me guessing right to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

This was mostly a miss for me. The multiple character narration was hard to follow. The narration is slow to start and gets frenetic towards the end. Plenty of twists and turns.

This is a great story with some excellent twists. I did find it a bit confusing keeping track of so many characters and their P.O.V's (pen and paper needed to make notes) but it all became clear in the end, and a book I enjoyed.
Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review

Leedham Primary School is home to teacher Cate, her son, Archie, and husband, Oliver Walker who is the head of the school. It was a Friday afternoon when Oliver returned home from class to find Cate and Archie not there. Thinking they had gone to an event for Archie, he did not get concerned until they never returned that night. Now, the police have been contacted and the town is worried for Cate and Archie.

Lexi Mills works as a temporary teacher and immediately agrees to take over Cate’s class until she returns. When Oliver first sees her, he feels like he knows her from somewhere but she just smiles and keeps her secrets. She is there to settle a vendetta and no one knows what that is.

This is a very twisty story that keeps the reader guessing from the first page to nearly the last. I couldn’t figure out how Lexi played into the storyline as the author kept good secrets. It’s scary, graphic, and compelling, Enjoy!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A teacher and her son are last seen leaving school one Friday. Naturally the father who is in charge of the school quickly comes under suspicion. Secrets always come out. I enjoyed this well written thriller.

Book: The Teacher’s Secret
Author: Lauren North
Format: Digital
Genre: Fiction, Crime/Mystery, Thriller
Places Featured: England, United Kingdom
Review Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review: The Teacher’s Secret is an intriguing thriller told from the perspectives of several characters in a small English town, all related to the search for teacher Cate Walker and her son, Archie, who disappeared one day after school. While we don’t hear from Cate or Archie, we do hear from: Lexi, the substitute teacher hired to fill in for Cate; Oliver, the headmaster of the school and Cate’s husband/Archie’s father; Jeanie, the nosy neighbor; and Gemma, the young school receptionist. Everyone seems to be hiding something and there’s just not enough information to figure out what’s happened to Cate and Archie as the hours and days pass by. While there are a few times the story can seem slow and it takes a bit to get the character’s straight, the plot is certainly one that kept me guessing and there were some welcome surprises in the end.

*I was given a version of this book for free in exchange for an honest book review. Thanks to @netgalley and @bookouture.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

I found this book rather fast paced, which is something that I do often appreciate. However, with so many characters in the story, and each hiding their own secrets, I did find it a little difficult at times to keep up with the storyline, and wonder perhaps where it was heading.

With so many twists and turns in the book, right from the start, I couldn't work out "who done it", so I set my mind on one of the characters who didn't really have much input in the book... Which I was mistaken with.

However, the book was entertaining and included a lot of suspenseful moments, where I hoped I would be able to work out what had happened.

The author gave wonderful descriptions of the characters and places involved.

I definitely recommend this book of you are a fan of mysteries and psychological thrillers.

I like the way the author sets this up: everyone has something to hide and is worried that they’ve contributed to the deaths of a beloved wife and son! Then all hell breaks loose in the last 30% when we find out everyone’s secrets. There were just too many characters and secrets to care about any of them, and ultimately the great reveal fell a bit flat for me. But the writing was impeccable and I was entertained throughout.

A gripping psychological thriller that explores the consequences of a seemingly innocent encounter, with twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.

A fine first effort at something a bit different

A few things have happened recently that I'm not sure how to feel about. Like, for instance, a legal service company writing to my wife, without my knowledge, stating that it's their policy to ask for the written and independently-witnessed consent of every adult over the age of 18 living in the house before approving a mortgage in my name only. My first reaction was to be annoyed by this. But, ultimately, it's done me no harm and if this policy stops another family from becoming homeless, maybe it's a good thing after all.

Then there's the email I received from my work's parent company to remind me that it's a month to go before my car's MOT is due. I really didn't need that, particularly when I've already had the stress of a similar email from the garage that same morning. But I can see that someone had good intentions.

I've also read The Teacher's Secret by Lauren North, and my initial reaction after finishing it was that I wasn't sure how I felt about that either. Here's the issue. Lauren was a new-to-me author when I happened to read her last novel, She Says She's My Daughter, last summer. As you may know, I loved that book so much that I placed it third in my list of favourite books of last year. I'll say here and now that I didn't think The Teacher's Secret was quite that good. But am I being unfairly harsh by judging it against such a high bar?

Some parts of it are excellent. I loved the portrayal of Oliver: the outwardly successful primary school headteacher and the sense of loss that he feels as the school, and the community slowly start to turn on him following the disappearance of his wife, Cate, and son Archie. He couldn't be involved ... could he? I also thought that the infected cut on his hand, which, far from going away of its own accord continued to get more and more ugly and painful, was a very clever metaphor for his own internal state.

I thought the character of Jeanie was very well-written too: not only is there an element of intrigue as to her back story, but the pain she is feeling in the here and now is palpable. But I was a bit less convinced with the character of Lexi - and as she's the main character, that's something of an issue. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, other than to say I struggled to see why she did some of what she did. Even at the end of the book, I still wasn't entirely sure.

The real issue for me though is that one of the book's main aspects is also its biggest problem. Lauren says in her author's note that this is the first time that she has written a book from more than two points of view, and also included a male character's perspective. And whilst she hasn't done a bad job of it by any means, she hasn't quite managed to make it seem effortless in the way that Lisa Jewell and Sheryl Browne are able to do.

I can also see that it's not easy to write a plot around so many characters, and the connection to one strand in particular felt rather flimsy. This isn't the end of the world, but the trouble is that it's magnified by the fact that She Says She's My Daughter is plotted so very, very well.

Let me make it clear though that none of these points are enough to have stopped me from enjoying the book. They're just niggles. Ultimately, I'm happy that Lauren has chosen to write something a bit different to her usual and, as I said at the start, it's a fine first effort. I'm sure that the few, small weaknesses here are things that can be improved upon with experience if she decides to continue writing in this style.

My thanks to Bookouture for including me on the blog tour, and to Netgalley for the digital ARC. I will post my review on Goodreads, Amazon and my social media pages.

Lexi Mills has been drafted in as a substitute teacher at Leedham Primary School after teacher Cate Walker and her son Archie go missing on their way home from school one Friday afternoon, but they are not just teacher and pupil, they are wife and son of the headteacher Oliver Walker and rumours are rife around the village. Very soon Lexi is caught up within the drama of their disappearance and, when she starts asking too many questions, the threats towards her from an unknown source begin, but does Lexi know more than she's letting on and how much danger is she prepared to put herself in to uncover the truth?

The Teacher's Secret is slightly different to what I've previously read and loved by North, as this one has lots of characters and is told from multiple perspectives with each of them having a story to tell and a secret to keep hidden, but who can be trusted and who needs to be given a wide berth? This latest thriller is an intriguing read with a great plot that kept me second guessing throughout, the characters were well crafted and, in the main, very unlikeable individuals, with none of them earning any sympathy from me. Another great read from North, who has firmly cemented herself as one of my go to authors in this genre.

I'd like to thank Bookouture and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this arc in exchange for an honest review. The Teacher's Secret publishes on 2/23/24

While this book seemed like it was going to very gripping it did fall flat for me. It had it moments but not enough to catch my thriller want. The beginning of the book was difficult to read and understand. The multiple POVs didn't help either. It just seemed to drag and not really get any suspense going. it was an easy read for those looking for an easy read.

I will check more books out by this author and I do recommend other to read this book as everyone has different opinions.

An absolutely gripping psychological thriller which enthralls from start to finish. Oliver is the head of a village school where his wife is a teacher and his son a pupil. On a Friday afternoon the latter two disappear and the rumours are rife. A substitute teacher is brought in but is she all she seems? Secrets and lies proliferate and the connections are slowly revealed. Wonderful!

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookoture for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book officially publishes on 2/23/24!

At a quick glance, this story fell a bit flat for me. Given multiple POVs, I found myself not really liking any of the characters and thinking that one POV was almost unnecessary to the rest of the story. The twists in this one were good for a domestic thriller, however, and I did not guess them prior to their reveals. Overall, this story’s main tropes are crime, family drama, secrets, and dark pasts. Please make sure to check any trigger warnings before picking this one up, but I would generally recommend this for anyone new to thrillers or looking to check out the domestic thriller sub genre.