Two people. Two secrets. Who is the worst?

Poppy is fired after 6 years as a nanny. She's kicked out of the house immediately.  Now homeless, Poppy goes to a bar and meets Drew. He's rich. he's handsome and he has a place for her to stay. One thing leads to another and they fall in love. A month later, they are engaged.  Both Poppy and Drew agree to only concentrate on their future, to not talk about the past. 

Both people are hiding secrets - and I blew through this book because I was DESPERATE to find out what the secrets were!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for this review.

Imagine you make a deal with your future spouse that you guys don’t discuss your past at all. No past relationships, no childhood stories, very little is revealed about your family history, basically you’re starting fresh. Nothing sounds shady about that, right? 😏 This is the pact Drew and Poppy make after their whirlwind romance and right before their marriage and if that seems slightly ridiculous it’s because it is. But sometimes I like ridiculous and over the top and I flew through this wicked story about the past coming back to haunt you.

Of course you know there will be several secrets, I mean come on, why would you want to limit past talk unless you’re hiding something, but while I clearly knew that skeletons would be coming out of the closet, I did enjoy the way things all played out. For the majority of the book it almost felt like a contemporary romance with a dash of darkness and then by the time I got to the end things took a sharp turn to the super dark and twisted. So basically, the end saved it for me and I’m the type of reader that has everything riding on a strong ending. This was oddly fast and entertaining for me, I would hesitate to recommend this as a true thriller as I think it’s more of a light popcorn style thriller at best. Kinda perfect for summer though and can imagine it would be fun to read poolside.

Quite a good read, kept me guessing until the end. Anyone who likes thrillers and suspense will appreciate this one.

This honestly is closer to a dramatic suspense novel than a thriller...there weren't too many twists and turns and we're left guessing until 90% of the way through. But-I still loved every second of this book! 
I think Rebecca Reid in particular really nailed Poppy's loneliness and desperation in being all alone in her new mansion home. Those scenes were so wonderfully drawn out and stark, it was so easy to feel uneasy right along with Poppy. 
And, holy cow, that ending! It wasn't as exciting as I had hoped it would be, but I was still shocked at one of the final things that happened. 
If you like slow, uneasy, suspenseful novels, I would highly recommend picking this one up! 

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my copy of the book via Netgalley!*

I really, really enjoyed this book!  I stayed up way too late to finish, because I just did not want to put it down.  It was very good at providing lots of twists & turns, high tension and suspense, chills, thrills, and shocks!  I even had to go back, reread the prologue, because I was so shocked by the end and thought maybe I had messed up my thoughts in beginning!  Original, fun, and twisted!  Can not wait for more by Rebecca Reid as she definitely knows how to deliver those sucker punch blows to your mind!  I highly, highly recommend to my fellow Thrill  lovers!  I promise though, take the day off, do not start right before bedtime, or you will not be a happy, rested person!  Also, be prepates for one of the mind blowing and numbing hangovers!  
Will buzz up on platforms and use low Amazon reviewer number on release date!  Preorder today!!!!

Twists and turns involving two dark protagonists, each with pasts they want to stay buried. The plot keeps you turning pages to discover their secrets.

This twisted tale of love and secrets is perfect for fans of romance who also crave a bit of villainy.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

CW: murder, suicide, cheating, alcohol use, death of a child, and mentions of past child abuse

3.5/5

When I got this one through Netgalley, I didn't quite know what to expect. It sounded super interesting, but, once I got into it, my first thoughts were "this is the definition of stupid straight people shit and I can't look away."

Poppy is a nanny who got fired and kicked out in the middle of the night in a foreign country. She ends up at a bar and a man, Drew, takes an interest in her. Kind, not creepy. But, a whirlwind romance starts. A month later, they're married. And Drew has a request for their marriage. They don't talk about things that happened before they met.

With that agreed upon, they sweep off to England to a house he bought her as a wedding present.

There are also chapters titled "before" that give background on someone, but it's not until the end that you find out why it's important.

As I said, this book was like watching a trainwreck because it's a thriller. You know that promise isn't going to be good and is just going to cause more pain in the long run. So, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, to find out what everyone's hiding. I found the reveal a bit meh. I felt like it could have built up more and there could have been more hints to what was being hidden for one character. And the actual ending/epilogue? Eh. It was fine, but I don't know.

Either way, it was a good book because I needed a brain break and this gave me what I needed!

An easy read that moves at a nice clip. This was full of dark secrets and has a very surprising end. What began as a simple love story quickly becomes anything but as everything may not be as it seems. This was a quick, compelling read that had me finishing it in a day. My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

Poppy is the nanny everyone wants: young, fun and eager to please.  She enjoys most perks of the job, and when the story opens she is on vacation with the family she works for in Ibiza.  Even pliable Poppy has a breaking point, however, and when her boss is six hours late in returning home, Poppy has the audacity to express that this is unfair to both her and the children she's taking care of.  When she's unceremoniously fired and thrown out in the middle of the night, she goes to a local bar to drown her sorrows.  It's there she meets the mysterious Drew in The Truth Hurts.  It was at this point that I wondered if I was going to be reading about a romance or a serial killer.  Time would tell . . .

Drew is around 15 years older than Poppy, and he establishes an immediate connection with her.   Their whirlwind romance ends up with them getting married after only knowing each other for four weeks.  Part of their courtship involves an agreement that they will not ask each other about the past  -- they will both only live in the present.  As Poppy has some skeletons in her closet, she readily agrees.  Before they return to England, Drew buys an enormous house for them to live in.  Poppy is thrilled by this turn of events, but once they arrive at the house, she begins to have misgivings.  The house, while large and expensive, has an oppressive feel to it.  The locals are also not very friendly.  Once Poppy tells people where they live, the reactions she gets range from frosty to downright hostile.  While Drew goes off to work every day, Poppy is left all alone in the big, isolated house.  She soon has her equally flighty best friend, Gina, come to stay.  Gina and Drew seem to take a dislike to each other on sight, but they have a cordial enough relationship.  When Drew invites several old friends and their wives over for a weekend house party, Poppy once again feels some unease.  Are there secrets being kept from her, or is she just being young and overly sensitive?

The "now" events in the story alternate with "before" chapters.  In the earlier chapters, Poppy is living in as a nanny with a family she adores.  She thinks of the mother in the family, Caroline, as more of a friend than an employer, and Caroline's three children adore her.  So why is she working for a different family in Ibiza???

The action in the story never flagged, although I did wonder how Poppy could be so unconcerned with the reactions of the people in town or with finding out about Drew's background.  They had agreed to never talk to each other about their pasts, but it would seem Poppy would at least do some research online.  Then again, she didn't really have a family to turn to for help and she wasn't at all looking forward to trying to find another nannying position, so I guess she was afraid to rock the boat.  The book did have an unexpected twist at the end, so I was very happy that the story didn't have a predictable, tidy ending.

I received an advanced copy of The Truth Hurts from NetGalley in exchange for this review

Rebecca Reid's The Truth Hurts is fun and suspenseful - a winning combination! When Poppy is abruptly fired from her job it seems like all of her prayers are answered when white knight Drew comes to her rescue. Things, however, are not always what they seem. This thriller keeps readers guessing with what secrets the pair are holding from each other. And, I didn't figure out the ending, which is rare. 

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

When Poppy is fired from her nannying job in the middle of the night in Ibiza and has nowhere to go, Drew seems to be her knight in shining armor. He offers her a place to stay, and even accompanies her (after paying for her to get her all dolled up with new clothes and a trip to the salon) to demand the money she is owed from her former employers. Drew offers to let her keep staying with him for the three days it will take for her final check to clear; and as the days turn into weeks, Drew and Poppy’s relationship grows more serious. When Drew’s Ibiza lease is up and it’s time to return to the real world, neither of them are ready for this fairytale to end... so when Drew proposes marriage, Poppy agrees. His only stipulation is that they agree to not ask each other about the past. Poppy readily agrees; there are some things in her past that she’d rather not revisit. But is Drew hiding something sinister? This book was delightfully intriguing and thrilling, as the reader slowly learns about the past that Poppy is desperate to hide, but the ending felt abrupt.

A gripping mystery that kept me intrigued.  A young woman with a complicated past that she wants to keep hidden meets and falls in love with a man who wants to keep the past hidden as well.  I couldn’t put the book down until I knew what really happened in their pasts. Overall a good book that kept me fascinated until the end.

At 48 years old and a lifelong reader, book plots rarely surprise me.  With thrillers, I normally figure out who in what room with which weapon well before the end.  Not this time!   A well constructed plot, tight character development and an easy writing style gives this 5 stars.

Could not put this book down.From first page to last I was drawn in.All the twist turns and chilling moments.Love a book that keeps me guessing till the end,#netgalley#harpercollins

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Wow.   

Poppy is a nanny who is abruptly wrongly fired from a position.   She immediately meets a man who sweeps her off her feet and begins a happily ever after life with him.  Things from the past come to light, and it becomes evident that both Poppy and her prince charming have secrets.

I wanted to love this book because it revisits the new-wife character from Rebecca and gives her a spine and an edgy back story which improves the original greatly in my opinion. There's an enjoyable buildup of tension, with just enough information to keep you guessing about the conclusion without revealing too much. However, when the big reveal comes, it is totally disappointing. I found the ending unconvincing and contrived, the characters' actions and choices out of keeping with the rest of the story. There's really nothing worse than enjoying a book right up until the end and then feeling  such a letdown. I won't be recommending this one without a caveat about the ending.

This has a slow, suspenseful build to the end! Poppy meets wealthy Drew who's 15 years older by chance one evening. She was just fired and is short of money and needs a place to stay.  Drew offers her help. After a few weeks together they quickly get married. Before the ceremony, Drew asks to make a pact that they don't discuss their pasts. It seems both of them are hiding something. Is Poppy's marriage too good to be true and what are their secrets? The slightly haunted house they live in along with the odd reactions people have when they mention where they live add a mysterious factor.

I literally could not put this book down. I had no idea what wasgoing on and could not imagine where it was going. I can’t wait to recommend it and to see people’s reactions. This will be another book to recommend to people who love unexpected endings!

In this story of an ex-nanny swept off her feet by a wealthy mysterious stranger, the two of them agree to an unusual proposition - not to talk about their pasts. Through flashbacks, we slowly gain an understanding of Poppy's past as she settles into her new married life.

The story was fine, and I was surprised by the ending, but it felt rushed at the end. I suppose that's often true with books with these unreliable narrators, because once you know the "twist", then everything else needs to wind up quickly before reader interest dwindles. 

I received a free ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.