I really really really enjoyed this book, i read it in one sitting because it was so gripping and i desperately wanted to find out about the secrets they were both harbouring. The ending was very realistic and i warmed to both characters, I found it a very enjoyable and relate-able story. Especially in this day and age with internet dating, you never really know who you are getting involved with.

Excellent story,very well developed characters. I enjoyed this book.a lot.. I liked the way it was written, and I recommend it.

3 stars.

This was an easy going, easy to read book, enjoyable.

I do think it was slow going though, and I'm not sure I'd agree with other reviews that it has twists and turns.

I thought it was very good at detailing the relationship build up of the couple and the dynamics of their friends and family.

Maybe I'm missing something?!

Thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for the advance copy.

I’d heard loads about this book on Twitter and was very excited to read ahead of its publication in March. I’m a lawyer and did guess the twist in this tale quite early on. However, this didn’t concern me in the slightest because I actually found Rachel to be a far more intriguing (and way more mysterious) character than Jack – I was desperate to know more about her and why she was ‘the way she was’. Some very interesting moral parallels are raised and I really enjoyed the slow burning, niggling doubts which ate at Rachel’s character throughout the book, build to a climax. Gillian McAllister is an incredible writer. She has a way with words which makes you never want to put the book down. This is an excellent debut and I look forward to reading more from the author. Thank you to Michael Joseph and NetGalley for providing me with a copy.

I enjoyed this book immensely, the only problem I had is that at the beginning it felt like a thriller but towards the end I realised it wasn't, it was more a character exploration than a thriller. I liked the journey that the characters took and the shift in perspectives of how we justify our own actions but don't give other people the same credit.

I admit I started this book with a bit of trepidation - I wasn't sure I was going to like the narrator or care hugely about her plight. Half way in, however, it had completely won me over. Deceptively clever, a twist on your average domestic noir, and very enjoyable.

I think I must have read a different book to other reviewers...

I only read this ARC 4 books ago (1 week ago) and despite re-reading the blurb and all other reviews on Goodreads I cannot remember for the life of me what happened, what Rachel or Jack's 'secrets' were. Seriously, I have not a single clue!

According to Goodreads I read it in a single day and gave it 4 Stars?

I will have to read it again in order to write a review.

Thanks to Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This is a great debut novel from Gillian McAllister which kept me turning the pages as I wanted to know what happened. It all starts with Rachel catching a glimpse of an email on her boyfriend, Jack’s, laptop which concerns her. Jack’s actions and body language of apparent secretiveness eat away at Rachel as she wonders if she should be suspicious or he is just a private person who doesn’t like sharing his life 100% with anyone? But when Rachel questions him about the email and other things she is finding odd he always has a plausible answer. Rachel is dealing with some tough things in her life which happened a year or so again so wonders how much they are feeding her tendency to be a little paranoid as she’s already destroyed one relationship that way.

To complicate matters Rachel is unexpectedly (although she argues otherwise at one point) expecting a child with Jack. But maybe Rachel is not entirely without a history she’d like to be private too? Is Jack investigating her the same was as she is delving into his life?

The book is written from Rachel’s point of view with a mixture of present day and from what was happening in her life a year earlier. There’s a lot of introspection in the book which I found a little intense at times but it moved on well and was a great read. I look forward to more books from this author.

It was quite an interesting start, but I felt that the plot didn't really go anywhere and there wasn't many twists and turns.

A pacey, compelling read to satisfy a suspense reader as much as someone looking for an emotionally engaging story about the dark side of a relationship and the secrets we all keep.

Against the unfolding psychological suspense plot, the heroine is brilliantly drawn, for me the most successful element of the novel. She is likeable and difficult and multi-layered, and her personality is revealed and enriched by flashbacks to her own back story which pushes the impact of the front story and provides an additional layer of emotion and suspense.

A strange read..... The overall writing style of short sentences provided a sense of urgency but really didn't go anywhere for me.
I constantly asked myself "and the point is?" but aside from not falling pregnant early in a new relationship I found I still couldn't answer my question.
I'm sure there's a moral buried somewhere in the book, I'm just not sure where or what it is.

A couple who both have secrets. Finding out the truth will either make or break. NOT knowing can be worse than knowing the truth

You find an email on your boyfriends iPad, you read it and now you can't undo it..you know. That's how this thrilling book starts with loads of twists and turns. I recommend this to all

Once I started reading this brilliantly written book I found it hard to put down as it moves at such a fast paced and you need to know where it’s going next! It’s about love, trust, secrets, and lies. As the title says, everything but the truth.
Rachel didn’t mean to look at the email coming through to partner, Jack. She hasn’t known him long and is pregnant with their child. She has seen it though and she can’t undo that nor the chain of events set in motion. Rachel seems to want to know the truth about Jack at any cost and yet it soon becomes apparent she has secrets of her own. We learn quite quickly what Jack is hiding but there is still a lot more to find out about him and about Rachel.
The author has written a very clever and realistic psychological mind twisting thriller of a book for her debut novel. I found the role of social media and web searches as a key part of the novel quite disturbing – isn’t that what we all might do if trying to find out what secrets a loved one is hiding – or perhaps it is just me! Now I am worried! Perfect read – thoroughly recommended.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a review copy.

I am struggling to define the genre of this book, as whilst I wouldn't call it a thriller, it is definitely gripping and compelling. It's a relationship drama full of secrets that just keep coming, gradually getting uncovered, layer by layer, whilst teasing the reader and keeping on the edge of the seat. It's definitely 'just one more chapter ' kind of book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 4.5 stars from me. Gillian McAllister is certainly an author I am looking forward to reading more of.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I was fortunate to be sent this edition to my Kindle by NetGalley in return for an honest review. I nearly gave up on this book as soon as I started. I wondered just what I was getting into. Told in the first person by the female lead character, Rachel, it begins with her brief account of her break up with her boyfriend, Jack, the father of her unborn baby. Then follows a description of all the things that she loves about him. Then on to the moment when things first started to go wrong. I felt that I couldn’t get a grip on the story and how was it going to be a story anyway. But the book is published by Penguin which meant that it should have some merit. So I persevered. And am I glad that I did.

The plot of the story could probably be told in a few sentences. If you like action this is not for you. It’s an introspective study of two well educated l twenty something’s who accidentally meet and immediately fall deeply in love, moving in together very quickly. They are besotted with one another and everything happens very fast as does the baby. But they are blissfully happy. Then Rachel sees one of Jack’s emails and a small doubt creeps in and she starts to investigate. It emerges that neither had been completely honest with the other and both have secrets, each involving a death. Jack, who comes from Oban, seems to be trying to start life again in Newcastle and Rachel having trained and worked hard to become a doctor, has quit her job as a hospital registrar. How they unpeel each other’s stories ,react to each revelation and finally deal with everything that they have learnt makes for a superbly constructed, intense, in-depth look at their relationship and what really matters to them both in the end.

Despite myself, I was impressed with this book, but am still not sure if it’s the style of tale that I personally want to spend time with. Hence only four stars. Incidentally I want a large ginger cat called Howard too !

I was in bed, it was 11.30pm, and I’d just finished a very mediocre book and thought I’d read just a few pages of this to ‘get the taste out of my mouth’ and to stop me from laying there chuntering to myself about what a stupid ending that was. The next thing I knew it was 2 in the morning and it was only the thought of the builders arriving at the crack of sparrow that made me put the kindle down and switch off the light. This book really is that good. It’s written with such skill that you are immediately placed right there, and within just a few sentences you know the characters intimately, and care about them.

Oh and what characters they all are! I particularly loved the personalities of both protagonists and their stories read so true to life I had to keep reminding myself I was reading fiction. The writing is brilliant, and with such a clever and intensely gripping plot I couldn’t help but tear through it, even though I wanted to make it last.

I read a lot (two to three books a week) and this is the best book I’ve read for years, I was totally captivated throughout.

The front page made me think everything but the truth would be a dark gripping thriller, but in fact it was a gripping book of twists and turns, but not scary, and a really likeable central character. It focuses on a relationship and the couple and their secrets and pasts and how it brought them together. A really good enjoyable read. Thank you

A review of Everything but the Truth will be posted as part of the 'January books reviewed' post at www.writingfromthetub.co.uk.

Gripping and a real page turner. Will definitely look for this author in future.