Thank you to both Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this title, and apologies for the late review on here as it did not save. It did save on Goodreads.

This book is, at its heart, horrible people doing horrible things. The deceit, infidelity and greed combined with the sense of claustrophobia truly make this book. It was a perfect beach read with mystery and just terribly characters well-written.

I enjoyed this book lying by a pool in Cyprus last year. A good summer holiday read.

The story is mysterious and keeps you guessing. I liked that you got to hear Alice's perspective interspersed within the book as well. It added an extra dimension which made the book what it was.

I am in charge of our Senior School library and now during this time of lockdown, I am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Jem, a chef, has moved from the UK to New York with her husband, Nat. When the opportunity arises for a summer weekend house-share in The Hamptons - America’s playground of the rich and famous - socially ambitious Nat is keen to accept and Jem, struggling to find work and fill her time, agrees, despite fears that she won’t fit in.

It’s only when they’ve already committed to the house share that Jem learns that her house-sharing predecessor, Alice, died as a result of drowning in the pool the previous summer. Jem becomes caught up in trying to find out what really happened to Alice, encouraged by Alice’s bereaved husband David and by Michael, a local author and journalist.

We also see past events from Alice’s viewpoint and unfortunately I did not find her to be a very engaging character. Alice has had a difficult background and is hungry for money and status; she seeks to acquire this using her looks and sexuality. She came across as quite shallow and selfish, showing little concern for anyone but herself.

While there is a mystery - what happened to Alice - at its heart, and we follow Jem’s attempts to unravel it, I wouldn’t describe this as a thriller. The solution, when it came, felt a bit underwhelming. However, it was an enjoyable read and Jem herself was quite a likeable character.

This was quite different to any of the Tasmina Perry novels I’d read prior to this. Glamour, luxury and high profile characters with expensive and exciting lives are what I was used to.

The Pool House is about literally that, a summer house rented by a group of friends for the summer months, this pool house has a mystery and one half of the newest couple to the group comes to learn most about it.

Jem, one of the main characters, I found to be quite relatable and I found it quite easy to empathise with her throughout the novel. She is new to the house share and delves into its story with some reluctance but when it becomes part of her job she gets in deeper.

Alice is the other main character. The story flicks between both women telling the story of both

Throughout I wasn’t sure who the culprit was going to be - I flitted from character to character wondering who was going to be to blame in the end.

I tried to get into this one but it just didnt work for me. Looking at other reviews however there are lots of people who enjoyed it. So just a novel that didnt suit my personal tastes.

The Pool House by Tasmina Perry is a perfect book for reading by the pool on your summer holiday. It's more chick lit than thriller but enjoyable.

Summer in a house share in the Hamptons sounds bliss but Tasmina Perry casts a shadow on the perfection as the unexplained death of last years occupant Alice lingers on. Anything set in the Hamptons is a winner for me and throw in some mystery and intrigue and I am hooked. Loved this book from start to finish .

Not what I was expecting from the cover at all. Gripping and I really enjoyed this one. Have recommend.

Jem and her husband Nat are living the dream. They have moved from London to an apartment in New York. Nat has a good job with a magazine and has a great social life. They have just been offered a share in a holiday house in the Hamptons, so...what's not to like?

Well the fact that the couple who house shared before them dropped out because one of them,Alice drowned in the pool at the house. Why hasn't Nat explained this to the unsuspecting Jem?

I'm always in for a good read when I pick up a book by Tasmina Perry. Nothing is ever straightforward in her books. Her last few books were of slightly a different genres and now with this book we're back to the writing style of her first books. No matter what, I've enjoyed every book of hers I've read and I enjoyed The Poolhouse too.

As Jem decides to find out why Alice went near the pool when she couldn't swim and had been drinking she discovers that some people would rather she stopped asking questions,is Nat one of them?
Get yourself a glass of wine and a big bar of chocolate and curl up at the fire in a comfy chair and just....ENJOY!

Nat and Jem move to New York when he is offered his dream job - sounds perfect, but is it? They become friends with a group of very rich people who spend their weekends in the exclusive, upmarket Hamptons where there is a mystery concerning Alice, one of the previous weekenders. Jem makes it her mission to find out what happened. This was a very easy to read story which flowed along nicely as the reader discovers the murky doings of the jet set. Although it was easy to see how it would all pan out, it didn't detract at all from the book. Loved the New York/Hamptons descriptions and the cover too. Exactly the type of book to accompany a holiday!

Tasmina Perry has found her way on my radar with The Pool House. It's smart, realistic, twisted, and well-written. You'll be on the edge of your seat dying to know why no one will talk about the woman who died before. What secrets are everyone keeping? If you like your thrillers filled with intrigue and excellent characters, this is the perfect summer read for you!

When Jem moves to New York with her husband Dan she is at first excited about the move but when reality sets in she realises that she is bored and lonely - Dan is out all of the time networking at late night parties and events, while she is unable to get a job or meet people to make friends. When Dan is offered a share of a house in the Hamptons for the summer, although very expensive, it is with 3 other couples and Jem is feeling excited about the company....perhaps she can make some friends at last

On the first night there she realises that the other 3 couples have all rented it before so who has dropped out?
When she finds out that Alice died there the previous summer in the swimming pool she cant help but be intrigued although no-one will talk about what happened.

Jem then meets Michael Kearney a famous author and agrees to become his assistant but he is also intrigued about the swimming pool death and wants to investigate it for his next book......her housemates are definitely not going to like that....especially if they have got something to hide!

An enjoyable book with enough twists and turns to keep you interested - plenty of glamour and some interesting characters - although I couldn't stand Dan right from the beginning as he was so shallow and such a social climber!

I have been a big fan of Tasmina Perry's books ever since she burst on to the scene nearly ten years ago with the brilliant Daddy's Girls. It had all the ingredients one needs for a brilliant summer read and the books that followed could also be termed as 'bonkbusters'. Recently though the author has appeared to be taking her books in a different direction especially with her book published last year The House on Sunset Lake. I'll be honest and say I really didn't get on with that book and I know some fellow readers felt the same, I didn't enjoy it as much as her other books. It felt heavy and ploddy and just didn't go anywhere. I appreciate with the last few books she has published that she was venturing down a new avenue as all authors are want to do the more books they write but it all just felt a little off kilter given how comfortable readers had become with the type of book Tasmina writes.

But now Tasmina is back with The Pool House and I can confirm that the author is back at her very best. The Pool House is the perfect mix and I feel the author has certainly achieved the right balance between glitz and glamour whilst raising some more serious issues. This is not full of sex scenes and over the top plots instead it reads as a classy thriller of sorts with the author venturing into more darker territory. Yes, I was apprehensive about reading this book given my misgivings about last years publication but The Pool House is distinct proof that you should always give an author another try as I loved every minute of this very clever book.

The Pool House opens with a very brief prologue as a woman dashes across the beach from a party. She arrives back at her house but the reader can sense she is upset and not herself, the weight of the world is on her shoulders. She takes a drink and walks to the pool in the garden, suddenly she hears another voice and then everything goes blank. A year later we meet Jem Chapman, she is over in New York with her husband Nat who is an associate editor of a men's magazine. Their plan is to spend a year to eighteen months in the city that never sleeps before returning to England where their house is currently being rented out. Jem made this move for Nat so he could further his career but even within the first few chapters the reader could clearly see that she wasn't happy. She was restless, yes she was living in the most amazing city and had everything she could wish for on her doorstep but the reality to what we see on TV or read about in magazines is very different. Their apartment is tiny and there is only so many tourist sites Jem can visit solo while Nat works. Evenings are long while Nat goes to parties and social gatherings all in aid of his job. Jem had given up her only job as a caterer but her love of food has not abated. Jem feels isolated in a city of thousands and Nat can't see this or maybe he refuses to.

When an opportunity to partake in a house share in the Hamptons presents itself the couple take up the offer even if the money involved is beyond ridiculous. Nat sees it as a networking occasion, a career opportunity way too good to resist. Little does Jem know this seemingly innocuous move to spend weekends engaging with the glitterati set will see a summer unfold that she won't forget in a hurry. The author nails every aspect in her portrayal of the Hamptons. We've all seen snippets of this wealthy community on TV and it seems like something from The Real Housewives series. A place that seems too good to be true, where the rich and famous come to flaunt their wealth every summer and hob knob at the most exclusive parties and events. Jem feels she will be totally out of her depth here, like a fish out of water and the other couples sharing the house will view her with disdain. She thinks doing the cooking will be a way to ingratiate herself into the 'clique' that Nat is very much a part of.

Nat seemed the polar opposite to Jem and I felt he became a different person when he reached America. That he did love Jem to an extent but he was really leaving her behind as he moved in ever higher circles of society and the magazine world. Jem needs something to take her mind off things as once the weekend is over the other couples return to the city and their high powered jobs. She soon discovers there is a shadow hanging over the stunning house they are calling home for the summer and that no one really wants to talk about this presence. Things are best left unsaid. Paul and Rebecca, Joel and Erica, Todd and Angela are all good company but why are they so reluctant to talk about the incident at the pool house last summer. Seemingly as Jem soon discovers there had been another couple at the pool house and Alice drowned in the pool last summer. So Jem and Nat are the replacements and Jem is not sure just how comfortable she is with that.

There is an underlying tension and sense of secrets and desperately trying to keep things hidden throughout the book but the inquisitive nature of Jem rears its head as the more she comes to know the people and the setting the more she realises she wants to uncover the truth being concealed. Did the police put the drowning down to just a pure accident fair too quickly? So she sets about finding out what really happened that night and why? Thriller author Micheal Kearney who is looking for a topic for his next novel and when he meets Jem at a party, he employs her as his assistant. Together they set out to see exactly what did happen to Alice that fateful night that everyone else seems to be blocking from their minds.

Once the 'investigation' as such got going the author really ramped up the pace and the tension. There were so many layers waiting to be unfolded and the book then split itself into distinct parts. In the present Jem was building up a picture of Alice and her husband David and all their various associates and connections and in fact the inner workings of their marriage.The reader was becoming comfortable with this picture but all it takes is for a simple little discovery or just a few words within a sentence and then everything is turned on its head. That's what happened here and I was left gasping out loud when the first big reveal came. It was so cleverly written and given I had a particular picture of Alice built up in my head this came as a major shocker and made me revaluate everything I had thought. In fact the whole book makes you think one thing and then within a chapter or two your thoughts are all over the place and you really don't know what is the truth and what are falsehoods.

What makes this book even better is that we get to see and hear things from Alice's perspective too. I think if we hadn't have had that the book wouldn't have been half as good as it was. Alice soon became a character you love but you hate her in equal measure. Just like the façade presented in the Hamptons Alice too had her own curtain she was hiding behind. To the outside world she lived a life of perfection and anyone would love to have what she has but behind closed doors secrets, lies, intrigue and mystery abound. The book got darker as it went along but this made me love the story even more. I never knew who to trust nor could I believe any words that came out of any characters mouth.

The journey to uncover what actually did happen the night Alice was found floating in the pool was a riveting one and I lost myself in the story as I followed Jem as she searched and searched. She was not one to give up given the nagging feeling she kept experiencing. It was like she was coming out of the shadow of Nat and striking out for herself and she couldn't rest until she had found what she was looking for. There were hints also to some romance but I'm glad this was more on the periphery and not the sole focus of the book. Behind it all the author proves all the characters have their own insecurities and fears and are not as happy as their persona and the lifestyle they led would have you believe.

For me The Pool House is Tasmina Perry definitely back on top form, I relished every minute of this gripping and intriguing story and the fact that I never guessed the eventual outcome is testament to the clever and brilliant writing throughout. This was a well developed, well thought out, multi-layered book with rising tension and crafty twists that makes it hard to leave out of your hands once you begin reading. More like this in the future from Tasmina Perry would be very welcome.

I donlike tasmina perrys writing. Couldn't help but feel it was all a bit bland until the last 15% where it all happened. Didnt hate it but didnt love it. Which is a shame.

Oh my goodness I loved this book. It is a perfect holiday read a its a thick, addictive book and I loved every minute of it. Well written, easy to read and I did not want to put it down - great characters and realistic.

A thoroughly enjoyable read full of intrigue and glamour. Nicely plotted with great characters - I found myself unable to put this down.

I really enjoyed this book. Jem and her husband Nat are renting a house in the Hamptons along with friends. The previous summer a woman called Alice died at this house. Jem tries to find out what happened to Alice. There are many lies and possibilities surrounding Alice's death. We are kept guessing to near the end of the book as to what happened to Alice. The back stories of each character and their connection to Alice is well explained and believable. I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to reading more books by Tasmina Perry.

I am delighted to say that this felt like Tasmina Perry back to her best, after the past couple of books that felt like a slight change of direction. This is classic Perry, with the summer in New York vibe, and specifically a cast of characters that are incredibly well off.

The previous summer a girl died in a pool house in The Hamptons, the police recorded a verdict of accidental death. Fast forward to this summer and Jem and Nat are the new couple in the beach house share, and on their first weekend Jem hears about Alice’s death. She then meets the widowed husband, and starts to wonder just what happened. Jem also starts to work for a top thriller writer and ex investigative journalist, as his assistant, who also has an interest in the happenings of what exactly happened last summer.

This is a book that had everything, it has secrets, lies, unfaithful couples, a cast of characters that seemed to mainly care about themselves, and all manner of theories as to what really happened to Alice.
The book focuses on Nat and Jem, and their changing relationship as the summer progresses. However we also get sections of the book that are from the prior year, giving Alice’s perspective on the events that led up to her death.

In some respects I really felt sorry for Alice, and in other as you read more of the book you start wondering if she really brought it all on herself.

I really disliked most of the characters in the Hamptons house share, especially once more info about them comes to light, as the investigation continues.

The Pool House is a story of intrigue that had me wondering the whole time as to just what happened to Alice. There were plenty of subplots that were interesting, and I loved the familiar setting to The Hamptons and New York in summer.

Thank you to Headline and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.