Cover Image: Everything but the Truth

Everything but the Truth

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Member Reviews

Thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would certainly read more by the author. Rachel is pregnant by her boyfriend but starts being suspicious of him as his stories don't add up. Highly recommend

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I enjoyed this book and thank Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read it.

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I requested this book because it seemed quite popular and I love crime/thriller novels but it just was not my type of book at all. Found it difficult to get into, the pace was a bit slow for my liking and the pay-off/ending was very predictable (to me at least).

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Omg wow this book is amazing it's full of twists and turns it will keep you up all night I really enjoyed this book

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Lots of twists and turns. Kept me interested right until the end. Would read more by the same author.

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Everything But The Truth is the debut novel from Gillian McAllister. It tells the story of Rachel who starts to doubt her boyfriend Jack when things just don’t add up. Pregnant with his baby, little things about Jack don’t make sense to Rachel that starts a chain of events that she just can’t seem to stop. Is it her own paranoia or is Jack hiding something? Rachel decides to find out the truth, taking the reader with her. This book does make you question what is appropriate in this situation and if you found yourself in a similar situation, how far would you go, to discover the truth?
A story partly set in Scotland which focuses on trust, morality,identity and truth in the present day.
I loved this book and have since read an awful lot of Gillian McAllisters' work.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the copy of the book

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After getting pregnant by her boyfriend who she's only known a short while, Rachel and Jack jump into a serious relationship and begin to build a life together. However, there are secrets at the heart of their new life - and how much do they really know about each other? After seeing an email that he lies to her about, she starts delving more and more into his past, and so begins the real story. This book is really well written and the characters have great depth - you find yourself easily invested in them both. What would you do in that situation?

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Unfortunately, I read this book back in 2017 but completely forgot to upload a review on here, so can't remember exactly what I was going to say about it!

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A very suspenseful read.
A very enjoyable read.

A whirlwind romance.
Get pregnant, settle down.

But what and how much do you know about each other?

A message on his iPad turns everything upside down.

But is he the only one hiding secrets?

This kept me on my toes so much.
So many questions I wanted answered right away so read, read, read. I couldn’t leave it alone.

I’m off to read book 2

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Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

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When confronted with something we don’t know, is it our instinct to ignore it or dig deeper? When the thing we don’t know pertains to a loved one, the whole scenario becomes a little more murky.
Rachel has done something she regrets. We don’t find out what it is until quite late on, but know it has led to her resigning from her post as a paediatric doctor.
When she meets a new man, Jack, she ends up in a much deeper relationship than she expected. Pregnant. Things seem great, until she reads an email from a friend that implies Jack has done something he shouldn’t have.
Ignoring everything she thinks she should do, Rachel starts digging.
What we learn over the course of the novel is that sometimes people make mistakes. We can never really know why someone does something, unless we understand their situation.
While we were encouraged to understand Rachel’s actions, there was nobody stepping back and offering a commentary on it until we knew a lot more. I found Rachel quite hypocritical and felt some of her actions made little sense.
Thanks NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest thoughts.

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I thought the idea for this book was good, but after that it did seem to cover the same ground repeatedly, which was rather tedious. A shame, because this could perhaps have been edited down to a shorter book, which would have made it less repetitive and more interesting.

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Everything but the Truth is a debut thriller with loads of mystery and a story about deceit, secrets and lies.

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I did like this and I liked the characters. But every time Jack got caught in a lie I thought there was going to be a big shocking admission but there wasn’t. Still a good read.

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Gillian McAllister’s second novel, Everything But The Truth, is a dark and compelling tale of secrets, betrayal and paranoia.

Rachel’s relationship with Jack has been a whirlwind to put it mildly. They meet and become prospective parents in the space of a few months, with barely any time to get to know each other’s likes, dislikes and secrets – and its fair to say there are quite a few of the latter.

Rachel, a legal secretary, narrates the story and she drops quite a few mentions from the start of her previous career as a doctor. It becomes clear as the story progresses that some sort of terrible even to occurred which forced her to make this dramatic career change. Her partner Jack seems perfect – however one furtive email from one of his friends sets off a chain of doubts and suspicions in Rachel’s mind which turn her into a stalker extra-ordinaire as she tries to find out the truth about her boyfriend’s past.

There are few unbelievable moments and co-incidences which stopped this book being a 5* read for me but overall I thoroughly enjoyed i

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I wish I had loved this story, I really do, but unfortunately it was all too similar to other books I've read recently but not quite so well done. The story was a little slow for me, and if I'm being honest, it didn't quite deliver what was promised. The whole 'mystery' was more a woman's paranoia than anything else. As for the ending, I was so disappointed with it. I expected so much more.

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This book started off ok. I have heard good things about this author and was looking forward to a nice quick read. However it loses pace and isn’t really a thriller. Having looked at other reviews this seems to be the least liked of her novels so wont let it stop me from reading the others.

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This was my first book by Gillian but it certainly won't be my last. It was gripping and making me want to turn the pages faster. Social media and the Internet in any format is one of the things I enjoy most in a book, whether that's email, Facebook or Twitter. This book started off with an email that Rachel found on her boyfriends phone and it spiralled from there. I kept wondering was it real or just plain paranoia. The more I delved into the book, the more I wasn't sure - but that wasn't a bad thing because it kept me wanting to read more. I'm looking forward to reading more from Gillian. I did enjoy this book, but found the back and fourth a bit daunting. even though it's labelled present day and a year ago above each chapter it was hard to get to grips what had happened yet and what hadn't.

Thanks goes to net galley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I love thrillers and especially psychological thrillers but find myself so often disappointed. When I find a new author that I love I feel very lucky indeed and this is how I felt about this book. The characters and storyline were engaging and addictive. My only negative is I was expecting a twist at the end of which there was not.

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Plot: Falling pregnant with her new partner’s baby only mere months into their relationship, Rachel begins to suspect that she doesn’t really know the person she’s fallen in love with. It all starts with an email and a different name. She’s driven to find out what the secrets he’s keeping are, while still trying to hold herself together.

My thoughts: Flipping between the past and present so that the truth slowly gets revealed to us, this book definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat, constantly wanting to get through the book to find out everything but wanting to enjoy the ride too.
I really loved the setting in the North East, which is a place so familiar to me but isn’t often given a starring role in books. I also enjoyed the role social media played in the story as it’s something that’s increasingly prevalent in everyone’s lives, but especially in my own.
The characters were both flawed in their own ways, but that made them fascinating to read. In fact, they can really be described best by the title of the book!
Coming back to the book a year later to write about it was interesting – I’d marked it down as one I really enjoyed, but I struggled to place the characters and plot for a little while. Generally if I’ve really enjoyed a book, the storyline will stick with me and I’ll instantly remember it, so that was a little odd – I’m not sure I enjoyed it as much as I think I did then?!

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