Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Secrets She Keeps by Michale Robotham. Wow - what a ride. This book is written in two points of view - Agatha, a troubled young woman who is obsessed with another woman and Meghan - a privaledged woman with a family. Both are pregnant, both have secrets, and both of them are about to have their lives changed with the birth of their babies.
This is excellently written, vivid, suspenseful, and overall one of the best books I have read this year. Robotham keeps you on the edge of your seat while going back and forth with each woman's situation.
Excellent reading - you won't be able to put this book down. 5 stars.

A fantastic read! Thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish, particularly as the story was told from both main characters point of view. I felt alternately sympathetic and disturbed as the tale unfolded. Brilliant.

This book was riveting & suspenseful. A definite page Turner! While I enjoyed the story & characters; I only gave it 4 stars due to a couple of points I felt could've been explored deeper..1) Jack (Meghan's husband) learning the truth along with Simon as well & 2) that the story was too "happily ever after" even though there were still questions that needed to be answered (who would really just forget getting a paternity test done for the sake of a friendship) & act like it didn't happen.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book & would recommend it to anyone.

Thank you to the author & Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy to enjoy!

Another excellent read from Michael Robotham, it follows Meghan and Agatha and alternates between their perspectives throughout the book. Both women are pregnant and due around the same time, but there the similarity ends. Meghan is having her third child, in her words her 'oops baby' and has, at least looking from the outside, the perfect life. She is surrounded with supportive friends, has a rich, handsome and famous husband and is successful in her own right as a writer of a mummy blog. But things are never what they seem are they and Meghan has a secret, one that threatens to tear her apart and her perfect life with it.

Agatha on the other hand is having her first baby, on her own (her 'maybe' boyfriend and baby's father is in the Navy and may or may not return to her at the end of his current stint), she works in the local supermarket and is estranged from her family and dreams of the life of privilege that Meghan has. The two women meet and through the common ground of their pregnancies become friendly. Then things seriously start to unravel.

So as not to include any spoilers that's all I'm saying, but the 'unraveling' is brilliantly crafted, the tension builds and builds and builds and it's true what they say, you really cannot put this book down. Loved it. Thanks to Netgalley For an advance copy in exchange for an honest

I debated on giving this one five stars, then I realized I give no craps..I enjoyed the heck out of this book. There are a few tropes that just rope me in and feed my little fat girl soul. Like road trips, grumpy characters and this one.....


I love me some single white femaling in a book. Not in real life though. I would punch a heifer.

This one was all kinds of juicy. You have perfect life Meg, she has handsome husband and two cute kids. Now she is pregnant with baby number three. She gets to stay at home with the kiddies and work on her mommy blog.
Then you have Agatha, she works at the grocery store near Megs home and she is also pregnant. Her life is not all peachy keen though. Her boyfriend is gone since he is in the navy (He broke up with her before leaving but that's a detail that Agatha ain't worrying over.)

Meg spoke to Agatha one day at the grocery and now Agatha just knows that they are besties. She knows all about Meg, her friends, what her house looks like. All the stuff that best girlfriends do.

I can't give all the details..because that would be spoilery and I would get punched or something for that.
I can say that my face went through all kinds of stuff while reading this book.


AND there is some secret super secrets that the characters in this book are keeping.


Go read this so you know what to do if that grocery girl starts being all friendly instead of bagging your bleach in with the hamburger meat.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

Well, that was a treat! I almost never give 5 stars to psychological thrillers but as far as the genre is concerned for me this was as good as it gets. There is very little to say about The Secrets She Keeps before getting into spoilers, but let me say it's a great psychological thriller for those of us who like the complicated people dynamics without the violence. Agatha works in a grocery store, is pregnant and trying to get the father interested. Agatha idolizes Meg who is one of the store's customers and seems to have a perfect life. Meg is also pregnant, writes a mommy blog, is married to a sports reporter and has a life that is not as perfect as Agatha thinks. The story is told in short chapters, alternating between Agatha and Meg's point of view. The key part of the plot -- which I am purposefully not revealing -- is not unfamiliar but what I loved about this one were the characters and their interactions. These are far from perfect women -- especially one of them -- but Robotham approaches them with with a lot of empathy but without any smarminess. And dare I mention that I was particularly impressed with how Robotham depicted Meg and Agatha given that he is a man. There's no condescension or objectification here. Meg and Agatha are the central characters and, while they are flawed, they are smart and have agency. This may be an odd tangent given that this is a psychological thriller, and it's essentially a well plotted page turner. But the characters are what really stood out for me. And the end was especially brilliant -- perfect for the characters. This one makes me feel like finding Robotham's other books. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Compelling and gripping,The Secrets She Keeps packs one hell of a punch. It will stay long with me.

It tells the story of two women, Meghan and Agatha. Both from different social backgrounds and both pregnant with very similar due dates, the story is told from their perspectives, chapters chopping and changing between characters.
Meghan is pregnant with her third child, an unplanned one but she is happy. Her husband less so. A successfull tv sports presenter, Meghan has from the outside an idyllic life. Middle class with a successful husband, two kids a boy and a girl and another one on the way.
Agatha meanwhile works in a supermarket and seems socially withdrawn. Pregnant from a relationship with a much younger man, a sailor Hayden, all she has ever wanted was to be a mother. She knows Meghan from her visits into the supermarket she works at and she is determined to meet her and if possible become friends with her. Meghan has the ideal life. The life that Agatha longs for.

Agatha has had a troubled past and upbringing and a very strained relationship with her mother. Meghan too, although appearing to have a pretty idyllic life has her secrets too, secrets that could ruin everything for her.

To reveal any more of this story would definitely be into spoiler territory. There is so much to this tale but really it can't be talked about in a review as it will spoil the story.

What I will say is what we have is a really fantastic story. The two main characters are beautifully written and fleshed out. We feel empathy with them at times when we know we shouldn't and while the story from the outside may seem(and it is I suppose)a case of good mom - bad mom, the lines are blurred occasionally. This gives the characters much more meat on their bones, makes them more real to the reader and just developes them so well.

The story is creepy as hell and ramps up and up as we read further into the tale. The switching of perspectives works really well as their lives are intertwined, we get the story from both sides. The minor characters as well are all really well written which all adds to sucking the reader into the story.
The tension is raised to unbelieveable levels numerous times throughout the story. You know when all of a sudden your reading speed seems to increase as you get to a really tense part of a story? Well there are plenty of moments like that throughout this book.

It's a fantastic read. It really is. Apart from the tension and the great characterisation there's a really well told story here. It's as vivid as can be in my mind after reading it.

An easy five stars. If you haven't already, get your hands on a copy of this and put some time aside as you will be drawn in from the start and not let go of until the final words.

Thanks to NetGalley, Scribner and Michael Robotham for and ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Recently, new light has been shed on the effects that childhood trauma has on adult behavior. It is often said that children are resilient but that strength has its limitations. Too often, when we read about horrible acts people commit, there is a story of childhood abuse or torture. The child's mind and soul cannot absorb it all and come out as a fully functioning adult.

Michael Robotham's new novel, The Secrets She Keeps, tells a story of one such human who suffered as a child and that suffering continued on through her life. MR's character, Agatha, is immediately depicted as one of those young people who live a life on the edge. Her job is shelving groceries and her boss is both indifferent and disrespectful. Agatha watches other people's lives in London and wishes and wonders why she can't have some of that, a happy life, full of people who like her and want to be with her.

The writing of this psychological thriller is thoroughly researched and written with fluid strokes. Once you begin, you won't be able to stop until you find out what happens. Agatha is neither a good person nor a bad person. She is damaged and I wished for her to have one single person reach out and help. This is a novel that sticks to your heart.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Scribner (pub July 11, 2017).

5+ Masterful Riveting Spellbinding Stars. - Full Review now posted closer to publication date.

<b>Have you ever told a lie? One that becomes bigger and bigger the more you tell it? One that makes you keep secrets from those you love? </b> Such that you want to believe your lies more than anything and almost forget what is a lie and what is the truth? <b>I think we’ve all told little white lies but who has told big nasty lies that make you keep secrets from those you love? I think that’s pretty hard to admit to. Yet in “The Secrets She Keeps” by the brilliant Michael Robotham, its easier than it seems and Meghan and Agatha, both of the main characters in this book, are guilty of it to some degree.</b>

Meghan is a happily married mother of two. She seemingly has it all. She is a successful writer of a mommy blog who once had a great career before having children with her husband Jack. Now, they are pregnant again with their “oops” baby. She couldn’t be more thrilled, though it takes Jack a while to warm up to the idea. Life seems idyllic, though things are never as they seem. Meghan’s family is all that matters to her and she will do whatever it takes to protect it, and herself, even when the house falls down around her.

Agatha has struggled all of her life, going through a myriad of trials and tribulations with little or no support from friends or family. She works part-time at a grocery store in a ritzy London suburb, while her on-again, off-again boyfriend Hayden is away at the Royal Army. After years of yearning to have a child, it has finally happened: she is pregnant. While working, she spies Meghan in town and tries to emulate her and then, once Meghan stops into the grocery store, Agatha befriends her, thus altering both of their lives, forever. Meghan is excited to have a normal down-to-earth friend. And Agatha? She finally has everything she wants. And she will go to great lengths to keep her secrets close to the vest or die trying.

<b>“The Secrets She Keeps” is a superbly written psychological thriller from Michael Robotham. I was drawn in immediately.</b> The storyline was gripping and the characters development was in depth and masterfully done. The novel is a brilliant character study of how two women, both pregnant, can have completely different psychological and socio-economic backgrounds and how that can affect how they act towards their families and their children and the extremes they will go to, to protect themselves and their needs. I have always been of the mindset that “lies do not become us”, yet in this novel, somehow “lies become them” as both Agatha and Meghan are masterful at it.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a captivating and compelling mystery/suspense. Michael Robotham is a phenomenal writer. If you haven't read his books, you are seriously missing out. This is a standalone, but his series about Joseph O'Loughlin is perhaps one of the best I have read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner and Michael Robotham for the opportunity to read and review this novel. It was my pleasure.

Final review published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 6.25.17.

* Will be published on Amazon on 7.11.17

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham is fast-paced and suspenseful. It kept me entertained until the last page.
The Secrets She Keeps is about the unexpected friendship between two pregnant woman who couldn’t be more different. Meghan has the perfect life, a perfect sport presenter husband and two perfect kids.
Agatha knows all this about Meghan and much more thanks to her secret hideaway at the bottom of Meghan’s garden. She knows what she likes to eat, where she shops, what time she drops her children off at school.
Meghan doesn’t realise that her chance encounter with Agatha in her local supermarket is anything but and will change her life forever.
Agatha works in a supermarket stacking shelves but that may not be the case for much longer as her boss doesn’t like the fact she is pregnant and makes that abundantly clear. Added to that the father of the baby she is carrying doesn’t even know she is pregnant and broke up with her shortly before returning to his posting in the navy.
Agatha’s interest in Meghan has crossed over the border into obsession. She wants what Meghan has…including her baby. Meghan writes a successful parenting blog which Meghan reads religiously every night.
Agatha doesn’t know she has a secret but she does know that she has many secrets of her own. Secrets related to her own troubled past. Secrets Meghan would be horrified to know.
The Secrets She Keeps was an enthralling book, not least because of it’s well-developed characters. Even Agatha, whilst not a likeable character, is certainly a character who will cause readers to feel empathy.
Meghan is not portrayed not just as a weak, victim but also as someone with guilt and complications of her own.
Meghan’s husband Jack, is not just someone I frequently wanted to punch, he is also someone I felt pity for at times.
Without giving any more information away I will say The Secrets She Keeps was an interesting read.

A real page turner couldn't put it down characters are well developed

Absolutely fantastic! 5 stars all the way!
From the first chapter I was hooked. Start to finish.
Meg and Jack have it all. Jack is a well-known sports broadcaster. Meg is a stay at home mom with 2 beautiful children, and is pregnant again. This is their 'oops' baby.
Agatha, a troubled woman with a sad disturbing past, works stocking shelves at the local market. She covets everything Meg has from her beautiful straight hair, her stylish maternity jeans to her seemingly perfect life. She watches Meg closely, wanting to be near her...wanting desperately to have what she has.
Told from alternating points of view of both Agatha and Meg. Characters were brilliantly authentic. I connected with both of them! Yes, and at times even Agatha (yikes!)
So many layers to this book. Nothing is as simple as it seems. Secrets, lies and hidden pasts. Nobody's life is perfect. What you see isn't always what it may appear to be. I don't want to say too much more and give anything away. I went into this one virtually blind and I suggest you do the same.
Frightening with just the right amount of creep factor! Was on the edge of my seat throughout. Finished in 1 day! Absolutely loved it!! Brilliant! One of the best psychological thrillers I have read this year! Heading straight onto my favorites shelf. Can't recommend it enough!

Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner and Michael Robotham for an ARC to review.

Will be posted on Goodreads under Kaceey within 2 weeks of publication date per request.

This is my first read from Michael Robotham. I loved it!

How far would you go to create the perfect family?

How many times have you looked at someone and thought "now there is someone who has it all?" Well I have. Plenty of times.

We may assume someone who is beautiful, rich, married with children must be happy. They must have the perfect life. But you know what they say about assuming....

The book alternates between Agatha and Meghan's point of view.

We hear from Agatha first. She tells us that she's not the most important person in this story, that Meghan is.

When Agatha looks at Meghan she sees someone with the perfect life. She has a gorgeous home, two beautiful children, and a loving husband. While Agatha is at home, pregnant and alone, wondering if her baby daddy, Hayden will ever return her calls. Hayden is a sailor who is away for seven months. Agatha tells us the silly boy "thinks" they broke up before he left, but she says he's just overreacting to her going through his phone and reading his emails. Now he's avoiding her.

But she'll find a way to make him reply to her.

Agatha is pregnant and works at a grocery store in an affluent area in London. Her favorite part of the day is when Meghan comes into the store.

Agatha knows A LOT about Meghan's life. She knows her schedule, husband and children's names, as well as what time Meghan picks up her daughter from school. She knows Meghan's mothers' group meets every Friday morning and even what each woman orders to drink. She's gotten a lot of this information by watching Meghan. But she also gotten a lot of additional information from Meghan's detailed posts on her mommy blog. Agatha studies the blog. She thinks Meghan makes motherhood and marriage look easy.

But Meghan's life is far from perfect. Her marriage has been very bumpy lately. Jack has been acting strangely, and the couple has been fighting more than ever (more than once I wanted to reach into the book and throttle Jack, when he made comments about her weight or belittled her blog). Meghan hopes that once the baby is born things will go back to normal, that they will be happy again.

But Meghan has secrets...and she's not the only one.

So many secrets.

Agatha finds out that Meghan is pregnant with baby number three and that they are both due around the same time. This gives her the push needed to strike up a conversation with Meghan. But Meghan doesn't know that this little conversation has solidified a friendship (in Agatha's mind). If Meghan only knew that a seemingly unimportant conversation with a woman stocking shelves at a grocery store will turn her life upside down in ways she never imagined.

If only Meghan hadn't gone to that store. If she'd done anything different that day. Maybe that would have changed everything.

This book got inside my head. So many twist and turns that literally had my mouth dropping open in surprise. I was so fully engrossed in the story that I didn't see the time passing. I had an early appointment the next morning and wanted to get to sleep early. But I couldn't stop reading!

We really have no idea what goes on in someone's life. How things that happened throughout their lives can affect everything. I was trying to put myself into the minds of these characters. All of the horrible things some had been through. Some parts were very difficult to read.

How do we know what someone's marriage or relationship is truly like. Just look at how happy everyone is on Facebook and other social media. So often we are just seeing just the parts they want us to see.

This was a gripping and powerful story full of thrills, twists, and mind games. And although occasionally things may have seemed a little implausible, I just went with it and enjoyed the story.

THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS is a clever and entertaining psychological suspense novel that I quickly devoured in just a few sittings.

I can honestly say this won't be my last read from Michael Robotham

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner Publishing for providing an advanced copy of this book for me to read in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. This is one of those rare thrillers that actually lived up to its hype. Meg and Agatha are fascinating. I loved the use of their alternating voices as it allowed the tension to build. There are an incredible number of secrets and lies here (making it hard to review because of spoilers). Robotham spools them out slowly- I was not surprised by some but others were unexpected. It's a page turner for sure; perfect for travel or the beach (or the couch on a rainy day for that matter.). I really enjoyed this one and you will too if you like suspenseful tales where not everything is what it seems. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC!

Oh how I have missed reading Michael Robotham! It seems ages since his last, so I was so looking forward to reading this. At first I was disappointed that it didn't 'star' the brilliant Joe O'Louglin and the wonderful creation who is Ruiz, but this storyline more than made up for it.

As usual, Robotham's characters are full-bodied, vividly drawn people that you want to know all about; you can't help but be drawn into their lives. Even when I knew, or could guess what was going to happen I just couldn't wait to see the event unfold and see the reactions of the characters..

And the story was just so bloody exciting it really did keep me up nights. This is a wonderful, absorbing, entertaining read and I was genuinely sad to finish. Hurry up with the next one, Mr Robotham.

Are you looking for that next hot, psychological thriller? If so, Michale Robotham's latest is a great choice. With shifting perspectives, the story is told by Meg, a well-to-do wife and mother, expecting her third child and by Agatha, an outlier who has been knocked around pretty hard in her earlier life. As the tale unwinds, we see that perhaps Meg is not so perfect, and that Agatha has a deep well of past tragedies, mental illness, and trauma that has shaped who she has become. While there were a couple plot holes that left some questions, it was some excellent character development, with no easy answers of who is right, wrong, or culpable. In the first twenty or so pages, I felt like this might be a rip-off of Girl on the Train, but nope, it definitely has its own voice and its own vibe. I read voraciously and finished it in twenty-four hours. Solid page-turner and thriller:)

" You can't always get what you want........" The Rolling Stones would absolutely agree.

Pregnancy brings with it tons of uncertainty, highs and lows, and the burden of knowing that you're not always in control. Not even the little details that you've planned and certainly not the big details that you've anguished over.

Just ask Meghan and Agatha. Both women are expecting........expecting exactly what? Days are filled with the tapping sound of the unknown and the soul-searching deep desire for perfection Elusive perfection........

But one day their paths cross as Meghan rushes into the grocery store where Agatha works. Oh, they have so much in common. Parallel universes in the making. Two women with expanding waist sizes and bulging shadows on sidewalks. And there seems to be excessive cravings going on here. Yes, you'll be sure to notice.

Meghan and her husband Jack have two children, Lucy and Lachlan. There's plenty of secrets hiding in the cabinets of this household. Neither Meghan nor Jack have been quite honest with one another. Their lives seem to give off a veneer like the furniture in every room. But that's all about to change.

Agatha carries the burden of unfulfilled relationships. She's trying to make a new life with her boyfriend, Hayden, who is a sailor in the Royal Navy. Somehow she keeps waiting for her ship to come in. And there's some monumental waves brewing on the horizon.

This was my first book by Michael Robotham. Robotham really knows how to churn up the anxiety and turn up the volume on the eerie factor full blast. Those of us who imbibe in mystery/thrillers and psychological thrillers may sniff out "the secret' from the onset. But what drives this story in a turbo blast is the constant risk taking by one of the characters. You know that the bottom is going to drop out eventually, but you don't exactly know when. The ending may falter a bit, but the ride is fast and furious. A perfect summer read. Gonna check out more Robotham reads for sure.

I received a copy of The Secrets She Keeps through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Simon & Schuster (Scribner Books) and to Michael Robotham for the opportunity.

It's been a long time since I've had such a deep, visceral response to a book.

This story triggered something within me which gave me some massive anxiety - it took me six long days to finish it because I had to keep putting it down. But really, we're all reading because we want to feel something, right? And boy oh boy, did I ever feel all the emotions with this one.

The story is told in alternating chapters from the two main characters, Agatha and Meg. At first, I believed that this was a detriment to the story because there were no hidden secrets due to both character's pov's being portrayed, however the way it unfolded made this format really work.

Such a twisted tale, you won't know whether to feel sorry for the characters or fear them. (Personally, I felt a little of both, heavy on the fear.)

I very much recommend this to fans of thrillers!

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, even though some of it was predictable it still had me turning the pages. This is only the second book by him that I have read, the first being The Night Ferry (which I read only recently) and I thoroughly enjoyed that too.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley
This book was really good!! I immediately liked it because it was written in first person alternating points of view of the main characters Megan and Agatha by chapter. Initially everything seemed great for both of them for the most part, but the further into the book I read, the more twisted Agatha got and also more of Megan's life was exposed, the less than perfect part. I guessed as I read what was going to happen but there were a few twists that I did not expect which made the story more interesting. Megan turned out to be a surprisingly strong character in spite of her previous mistakes and handled the situation after he baby was taken with grace and dignity. She also treated Agatha (who clearly went off the deep end) with care and respect at the end which was really nice. I felt really bad for Agatha because she had been through such trauma as a teenager and it clearly affected her mental state more and more as she got older. The story was suspenseful and keep me interested to the very last page. Great book!!!