If you are looking for a book that has secrets abound then this is the one for you. The main character, Anthony, is guiding us through his investigation into the murder of his best friend, Lottie, by using something he had "borrowed" from her right before she died. The supporting characters lives are all interwoven well with one another as well as with Anthony and his best friend, Lottie, providing the reader with a tale from several perspectives that blends in suspense and some gasping moments. I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher.

I enjoyed the premise of this book from Ellis - Anthony's friend Lottie has been murdered, leaving him in possession of her laptop, which she had lent to him days before her death. He finds a series of video journals on the computer and hopes that they might contain clues about her death. As Anthony watches the videos, a number of shocking secrets come to light, changing everything Anthony thought he knew about Lottie and their friends. Should Anthony turn the laptop over to the police? Or did Lottie leave it to him to solve the puzzle of her death?

While I thought the premise was interesting, I unfortunately did not enjoy reading the book as much as I'd hoped. The dialogue and characters' behaviors often felt unrealistic and over-dramatized without cause, and the writing was repetitive, which made it difficult to read smoothly. Thank you to Black Cat Ink Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Great story! I was engaged the entire time. A real page turner. Looking forward to reading more books from this author! Highly recommend!

This book. It sounded so good.

Unfortunately it fell incredibly flat to me. The characters were very two dimensional, and while I wanted to feel sad for Lottie and I wanted to want the best for Anthony I just couldn't. They didn't have redeeming qualities that made me want to feel for them.

The way this book is written just didn't pull me in. I stopped caring why Lottie died because I just didn't like her very much. Davian was absolutely not a nice person, and Anthony kept making these choices that did not make sense.

But it's something that the author wrote that made me downright hate this book.

In the book the author writes, in Anthony's voice, because the book is from his perspective, "Doing coke on the job was retarded." And I'm sorry but reading that line just ruined it for me. What author writes a sentence like that? You couldn't write, "Doing coke on the job was stupid/foolish/dumb/rash/ludicrous..." and I could go on and on. That single sentence made this book nearly unreadable for me. And I definitely won't read another of J.S. Ellis's books. 

Don't read this. It's not worth it.

this was a good book. Different storyline that I originally through.
Lottie dies in suspicious circumstances.
Her best friend Anthony, only days before her death, borrows Lottie's laptop.
After she dies, Anthony finds some strange video diaries on the laptop, but as he views them, he becomes afraid to reveal to the police that he has the laptop, and wants to continue to watch and learn why Lottie has lied and see if he can work out who possibly killed her.

A woman was found dead in her apartment. Her friend has her laptop. On this laptop are secret videos she made. He’s hoping these videos will lead to the killer. One man, an obsession, one dead girl.

Overall:
The video recordings didn’t read like someone taking journal notes of their day. They read like scenes. No one would document this way dictating every word and mannerism.
There were some inconsistencies: The author indicated the video clips were labeled in sequence from one to fifteen, yet the story included more that fifteen videos.
This turned from a murder investigation into a masochistic romance between co-workers. This was an office romance slash murder investigation.
The story was subpar. It’s mediocre at best. I was curious to find out who the killer was, but in order to do so I skimmed through the entire book. Most of what was in those videos wasn’t pertinent information.
While this is a story about Lottie’s secret it’s predominantly about Anthony and his relationship with her.
This is not set up as a police investigation it’s set up as the friend watching secrets on a laptop. Anthony doesn’t necessarily solve the case himself. He watches video confessions from Lottie. However, you do have to wonder if she is lying given her obsession with Davian.

The Secret She Kept drew me in quickly. Anthony's friend loaned him her laptop and now she's dead. Instead of turning it in to the police, Anthony begins to go through everything on the laptop in his own investigation into who caused his friends death. Told in alternating views, the story is part Lottie's video journal and Anthony's memories and current experiences. The end was a little disappointing as I found it predictable and unfolding just as I imagined a little over halfway through. Easy to read and fast paced, the story was an easy, quick, suspenseful read. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

This book definitely wasn't bad...I just felt like it was missing something. I did enjoy the 13 Reasons Why type aspect- having the victim tell their own story.

This is my first book by J. S. Ellis, but definitely won’t be my last. It’s a very quick thriller with many twists and turns. Lottie has committed suicide and her good friend Anthony is determined to find out why. As the story unravels, all is not what it appears. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants a quick read that is full of suspense and mystery. Thank you NetGalley and Black Cat Ink Press for my ARC.

After reading the synopsis for this book I was excited to get my hands on an advanced copy as I love a good thriller and this one sounded right up my alley- unfortunately however it just didn’t hit the mark for me. I have to commend the author for the easy reading flow of this book which allowed me to finish in one session but I just felt that alternating between Anthony’s narrative and then the videos made it a little disjointed at times. I’m also a huge character lover and found myself not liking any of them in this book (due perhaps to a lack of background story) which I think also added to my overall disappointment. Still a big thank you to Netgalley and Black Cat Ink Press for this digital copy to review!

This is a story about a dead woman and her best friend, who desperately wants to understand what happened. In trying to piece together what led up to the death of his friend Lottie, Anthony goes through her laptop and begins to realize he didn't know his best friend as well as he thought he did. The Secret She Kept was a fast, fun, enjoyable read!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for providing me with an early copy of the book for review.

I received this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review. I wasn’t that impressed with this book. I was expecting thereto be some elaborate secret, but instead I just felt like it was a let down. This storyline could have taken a really interesting turn, but it didn’t. I did enjoy the last few pages where everything is revealed, but I wish there was more.

Thank you to the publishers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The writing felt extremely flat to me and too short. It felt like everything was just written for the sake of being written, without emotion or depth to keep the reader interested. Was a painful read but to summarize appropriately it was like reading: "I went to the park today. I saw clouds. The sun came out. Then it went away and it rained. Why was I outside? Then I went to sit down." Absolutely exhausting to invest more than a few chapters.

This was a very fast read but it was only ok and really fell short. It jumped straight in with not much background for storyline or characters. I’m a huge fan of a dual storyline so that was a plus.I found the writing didn’t flow well as all of a sudden the character is in a location and then moved to another without stating the movement if that makes sense. There was no great build up or the urge to keep turning the pages and the outcome was a huge let down. It was a bit of a let down for me as the description really caught me but that’s just my opinion as many others have loved it.

Thanks so much to Netgalley & Xpresso Book Tours for the chance to read this ARC and review before publication on the 23rd of June...

I found this one to be a different type of suspense story with a different kInd of twist. It was an excellent story with wonderful characterizations. It was a quick read and I truly enjoyed it.

The premise reminds me of Thirteen Reasons Why - which I didn’t love - but a little more thriller-y. I felt like the book just jumped in - we got very little background, and then very little character development overall. I can see people really loving it, but it wasn’t a great read for me.

Thankyou to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. Yet another captivating thriller from J.S Ellis. Days before your best friend dies she loans you her laptop. After her death you find yourself curious as to what is in her laptop. You find she has made these video files and with each one you watch you feel yourself getting closer to who may have murdered her and why. Will the last file reveal her killer's identity? The police think your childhood friend is the killer but you just don't think he is capable of murder. A great plot that makes you wonder just how well do we ever really know anyone even our closest of friends?! #tea_sipping_bookworm #bookstagram #goodreads #amazon#kindle #bookqueen #litsy #jsellis #netgalley

This one reminded me a lot of "Thirteen Reasons Why" but with a murder. Overall, it was an okay book. It is short so you can read it quickly; I finished it within a day of starting. And I did still enjoy the actual story. The concept of someone documenting their days/months before their death is one of my absolute favorites. Thrillers will always be my favorite genre because of plot lines like this one. I would still recommend this book to others. The style of this book is not one that I personally enjoy that much, but I'm sure other people who would love it!

I finished this book in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. It had me hooked from page one and the twist kept me going. I can say I didn't guess the ending like I have with other thrillers . J.S. Ellis kept me guessing which I loved very much. The writing was easy to follow and it flowed very well. I really be picking up Ellis other books now and going out to tell my friends they need to read this book.

This was a really fast read, but fell a little short for me. I feel like it started and then it ended, with no real build-up of the story or the characters. The premise is that Anthony's best friend Lottie is murdered, and had happened to lend him her laptop a couple days before. Rather than mentioning to the police that he has the laptop, he takes matters into his own hands and takes a peek, finding a series of video clips that Lottie recorded over the past few months.

I liked the overall style of the book, where it went back and forth between Lottie's video clips and Anthony's responses to what he was seeing, but the writing itself felt a little stilted. When her big secret comes out, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, and the outcome left me scratching my head a bit. I also just didn't feel that the characters,or really the overall plot-line, were that well-developed- Davian came off like a huge jerk and I couldn't fathom when/where/how he and Anthony became close friends, or why Lottie was so obsessed with him.

All in all, this just wasn't that memorable of a read for me, though it was a quick one. I would not recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.