The Woman I Was Before is the first book I read by Kerry Fisher and I enjoyed it a lot. Each page was engrossing and interesting. The story follows three women: Kate, Gisela, and Sally who move into a new gated community in Parkview. Kate is a single mother of Daisy and she carries a secret from her past. Sally desperately wants a child, but her self-absorbed husband Chris is against it. Gisela is married to Jack and they are the parents of two young adults, 18-year-old Hannah, and 21-year-old Ollie. Kate envies the other women who pretend to have perfect lives with all their Facebook posts pretending all is well in their world. Until the accident….after the accident, their friendship with each other evolves and secrets get shed.

Each chapter is written from the POV of one of the women which helps the reader get to know each of them well. I liked these women, especially Gisela who I felt more of kinship to. Overall this was an excellent read.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy.

The Woman I Was Before examines the disparity in the lives of three neighbors between what they post on social media and what actually is occurring. Publicly they are living perfect lives with adoring families. Privately, however, is a very different story. Read this excellent story to see what happens when the three women begin to see that the real lives of those they have been envious of begin to be revealed. You will have a hard time closing the book for any reason...it is that good! It is well written and easy for the American audience to understand, even though the punctuation and a lot of references are British. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book. Most highly recommend.

I’ve read a couple of other books by Kerry Fisher before and while both were really different from one another I really enjoyed them so I was looking forward to picking up another. The Woman I Was Before by Kerry Fisher is being called a gripping emotional page turner with a twist but personally I don’t know if I agree and think of this one as a domestic drama which I call one of my popcorn reads where you sit back and watch the drama unfold.

This one has several different points of view coming from the new residents of Parkview Road. Kate, Gisela and Sally are a few of the newcomers to the neighborhood who of course have all their own issues despite the image they portray one the outside. One has a past that has kept them running and hiding, one marriage is far from the perfect and then a family is falling apart.

I’m always a fan of those juicy drama filled domestic dramas when secrets that hide behind closed doors get revealed and Parkview Road in The Woman I Was Before by Kerry Fisher was definitely addicting to follow. While I don’t believe there was anything overall that made this incredibly unique and original I do think fans of the genre would find this one a compelling read and completely enjoy it.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I almost didn’t love this book. Kate’s story and mystery kept me intrigued and reading, but it was the twists with Sally and Gisela that hooked me.

In the beginning, I kept turning the page to find out what Kate was hiding. I had an idea, but I wasn’t certain. My assumption in how the reveal would occur was accurate, but despite its predictability, it was still satisfying.

Sally and Gisela were warmer characters, by design, and I could imagine meeting them for coffee or wine. They were relatable and real, despite their high society status and the false pretenses for perfection they touted online.

By the end of The Woman I was Before, I loved all three leading characters. Kate’s story broke my heart, and I felt her raw emotions as she shared the story with her new friends.

The Woman I was Before was charming, heartbreaking and satisfying.

4 stars
The Woman I Was Before
By Kerry Fisher
Holy buckets, this is a good book. I was drawn in from the very first page and barely put it down until I was finished. I identified with the main characters very strongly. I went through many emotions reading this book including understanding, bafflement, joy and sadness.
This is the first book I have read by Fisher and it most certainly will not be the last! The only reason I am not giving this book 5 stars is the ending was entirely too predictable given how interesting the rest of the book is as I was just wanting more for the conclusion.
I do still highly recommend this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. The views given are my own. #TheWomanIWasBefore #NetGalley #Bookouture

Kerry Fisher goes from strength to strength. The Woman I Was Before is her best book yet.

Three families are living on a new housing estate all hide secrets. Single mum Kate and her teenage daughter Daisy
value their privacy to an extreme; Sally and Chris are a high flying young married couple, unencumbered by children; Gisele and Jack and their children pose the 'perfect family' scenario which is the envy of their neighbours.

Kerry Fisher's characterisations make these families come alive. Her use of social media also illustrates how we hide our true selves from others: everything in the garden is always rosy even when life is falling apart.

For fans of Jodi Picoult and Liane Moriarty, this book is an intense page turner and adventure in suspense. Kate Jones moves across the country with her daughter, changed their names and started over. She moves to a street where she's not the only one hiding secrets. And one day when she's called to the site of a car crash, her world is turned upside down and the secrets she hoped she had left behind may come back to haunt her. 

I haven't read any of Kerry Fisher's previous books, but now that I've read one, I want to read them all! This is an awesome, page turning adventure, and a book that you won't be able to put down until the very last page. It's awesome, read it!

I read Kerry Fisher’s previous novel Silent Wife and loved it so you can bet your bottom dollar that I was freaking out when I got to read this novel and I wasn’t disappointed! Sooo good and relatable! It shows how you can become so wrapped up in social media and how we let it control us. You can’t believe everything you read on social networks.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Posed VS Reality

Facebook VS Real life

3 houses and 3 families in a gated community on Parkview Road, this is their story, this is their life, this is the story of their lives. 3 women all different, Giselle with 2 kids and husband, with parties and takeaways galore, portraying the happy family Facebook life, Sally and husband with no kids portraying the high flying Facebook life, and Kate with daughter Daisy with no social footprint due to a secretive past, portraying the real life.

An accident changes this equation and life for these women is exposed. Will they become real or continue to pose on Facebook with a lot of hashtags?

Kerry Fisher has driven home this fact in every chapter showing us what really happens and what is posed. The three women though different are connected too, they are well etched, and each has layers which are exciting to read. I felt as if I was peeping into their window and then comparing it with their Facebook page photos. I felt like a proper nosy-parker, and that part was fun. Who doesn't like a bit of gossip?!!

Of all the three, Kate was most genuine and I could connect more with her since I too do not post personal life on social media. Then came my niggles, this was no thriller, even the accident just added to the drama not a twist to the plot. The Facebook and the hashtag and the comments on pics, the viciousness of strangers was all too deja-vu for me. I am a stranger on Facebook due to racist, nasty comments. The secrets too are not very intriguing.

Overall the realities of families and social media and the drama kept my interest going and I had fun reading this book.

This novel is topical and absolutely hilarious at times. It has an ambitious format which I confess I found hard to follow initially. That’s not to say that it wasn’t well-executed or unsuccessful. The powerful messages that filter so actively through this novel are about taking care not to judge others too swiftly that the grass is not always greener on the other side and people are not always as happy and enviable as one might believe. A heterogeneous group of people move into an estate. They are full of joie de vivre and panache giving the impression that their lives are perfect and happy. They are obsessed with social media, selfies, food fads and cork poppers. I hope they don’t move near me. But wait, this jolly bunch have shocks on their journey when the cracks begin to show. I love the way the characters are shaped and fleshed out and particularly the interaction between each other.
A good job was done on social media exposing the banality of its use by some people with the Likes alongside the synthetic, supportive sympathy or delight from strangers. Behind every cheery face and chat, there are sympathy gatherers, pretentious people or unrevealed broken hearts, misgivings, defensiveness, deeply-embedded insecurity, regrets and problems. In the opening chapter, there is a suggestion that one of the families is hiding a secret but wait until the end for the revelation. May I pull a face at the Sea Bass, mussels and other delicacies that are unknown to me. Yuck. I’ll stay in the north. Loved the jibes about Brexit. May I also comment that I have enjoyed several books by this author. Thank you for an "interesting food for thought” read to NetGalley and Bookouture.

Thank you Bookouture and Net Galley for an early copy of this Fabulous book. Loved it!!!! Fell in love with the characters, so real and relatable. Shows how much we are addicted to social media and how what people show on it is sooooooooooooooo NOT always true. All in All a Great read. Thank you Kerry Fisher.

I enjoyed this book so much for the characters. Very well rounded real people, who were portrayed with depth and splashes of humour. I've not read any books by this author before, but I know she has lots out there so I'll be checking them out.
I did find that the plot points weren't particularly dramatic for any of the three main characters. The story was more about them than some big drama. They all had their own dramas, which would be huge in the real world, but not so huge for a novel. But like I said, I loved the characters and found the book well written, so I enjoyed reading it a lot.

Have you ever looked at your Facebook feed and thought: “Wow, my life is boring/I am a really sucky parent/my house is a mess/I will never be able to afford vacation like that/I really need to improve my cooking skills etc.”? Well, if you do, you are not alone… All those pictures of perfect families, beautiful houses, wonderful vacations in far away countries, and perfectly decorated homes for the holidays would make a lot of “ordinary” people feel inadequate and miserable. But this is what social media does to us: it makes us feel like failures most of the time.

Meet Kate, a single mother of one, who is trying to do everything in her power to keep her secrets secret and her family safe. She is not interested in social media and shies away from making her life public in any way possible, but with the insistence of her daughter, Daisy, she finally decides to open a FB account. And that is when her obsession with FB starts. She can’t help herself but follows the lives of her two neighbors/friends, Sally and Gisela. Sally and Gisela have flawless lives according to their FB profiles, but in reality their lives are less than perfect. In fact, their lives are falling apart more and more everyday. Will Kate be able to keep her secrets safe now that she became one of the FB addicts? Will Sally and Gisela be able to keep up the charade of having perfect and happy lives? Those are the answers that the reader will want answers to while reading this novel.

I really enjoyed “The Woman I Was Before”. The writing style and plot kept me interested and quite emotional. It was heart breaking at times, and I felt the desolation and loss of all the women in this story. The characters well developed and I’ve connected with all of them on a personal level. This was my first book by this author, but it will definitely not be the last.

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture, and the author, Kerry Fisher, for giving me an opportunity to read an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ecopy for my Kindle.
Three families living in a new subdivision with different lives that intersect. But none of the families are whom they appear to be and no one really knows what goes on behind their closed doors.
This is a good story about families, friendships, and a little bit of romance.

Wow, that was good! I don’t normally request “woman’s fiction” because it’s dicey - really good or really bad. This was not just good, but excellent.

Three completely different characters narrate their frustrations while putting on a brave face (and Facebook front). The Facebook thing was so clever, seen from the perspective of the poster and occasionally the viewer. It is a bit of the grass is always greener and you never know what happens behind other people’s closed doors.

The three women have almost nothing in common beside being neighbors. Things happen, to all of them, making them realize that perhaps they shouldn’t have judged so quickly, assumed so much... Along the way there are a fair amount of surprises and twists, Kate’s the least dramatic from my viewpoint (not what I expected).

I enjoyed this so much and highly recommend it. I will look froward to the next from this author! Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Bookouture for a copy in exchange for a review.

This is the story of 3 women who moved to the same area, all hiding something from the real world. They post on social media but the posts aren't telling the truth and gives the impression all is well in their lives while the truth is hidden. The characters are very likable and the book is very well written. I like that it's written from the point of views of each of the main three characters.

I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

This is the story of 3 families who moved into a new housing development at the same time and became friends. It tells of unexpected problems and secrets. A very good book

Great book, about friendships and life. Kept me intrigued the whole way through.

Thanks to net galley and the publisher for an early release of this book.

Contemporary story that keeps one's attention. Insightful and crafty use of social media references intertwined with the narratives of very modern day characters.

A great psychological thriller that grips you from the word go. I really enjoyed this book with its various twists and turns that keep on coming