Claire McGowan cab always be relied upon to come up with the best page turners and this was no exception. I loved the pacing of this story, found it so gripping from the moment I picked it up. If you're looking for a good thriller that'll keep you reading until the early hours you need to read this!

This is definitely one of the most gripping “domestic thrillers” I’ve read. I genuinely read this in a few hours completely focused on it!

A complete must read

A dinner party and a death. All of the guests are certain the fall was an accident. But even though everyone's witness statement is the same, DS Alison Hegarty feels something is off. As she starts digging deeper, she begins to uncover little inconsistencies between the stories and that everyone involved has something or other to hide.

This book made me think of a modern-day version of Clue or some similar old mystery-caper movie. We skip back and forth in time between the accident, the weeks leading up to it, and the investigation the following week, during which we learn the backstories of every character. It flowed well and I felt that the mystery, as well as reveal and some twists were very well-executed and just worked. The characters were well-written and their traits and personalities were developed in a way that I felt fit and added interest to the diverse cast.

Another solid five star book by this author, I loved it and could not put it down!

Thank-you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advanced reader copy.

Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mystery: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I never repeat the blurb. This took a while, as it was quite "bitty" but it was with sticking with, to find out who both the victim and the perpetrator were. Did guess the latter quite early, hence 3*. Enjoyable.

This was full of so many twists and turns. If you like Liane Moriarty, then this book is definitely for you. it was easy to read even with a lot of characters at play.

I loved this book. Tense and sinister in places but with real in depth characters. I gobbled it up in a very short time. I often start books and takes ages to read them. Loved this though.

Great book with some very interesting characters concentrating on a baby group and the stories of these people that flits back and forth to an ‘accident’ when someone falls from a house balcony and the back story of them before they had their babies. Great story, lots of smaller stories interwoven in the book. Really enjoyed it. Thank you for letting me review this book.

I am a Claire McGowan fan, so I was quick to request The Push when I saw it on NetGalley and was excited when I was approved for an advanced copy.  The general premise is that a group of women meet during a pre-natal group session.  At a party celebrating the birth of their children, someone falls (or was he/she pushed) to their death from the balcony of the home.  

McGowan does a good job of building the story by moving back and forth in time to tell the story from different perspectives, while keeping the identity of the dead person a secret and whether or not the death was accidental.

The party should have been perfect: six couples from the same baby group, six newborns, a luxurious house. But not everything has gone to plan, and while some are here to celebrate, others have sorrows to drown. When someone falls from the balcony of the house, the secrets and conflicts within the group begin to spill out

The premise was intriguing and for almost half the book I was excited and thrilled.

The plot is narrated through multiple POVs of the different couples involved as well as of DS Alison. As I read the book for me the main mystery was identifying who had fallen from the balcony. Once that was revealed half way through the book, I did not find much suspense remaining in the remaining part of the book.

There were quite a few secrets revealed about the various couples but I did not find them very exciting. Also the two main twists in the plot were quite obvious to guess.

Overall, an okay plot but with the writing being fast paced, it becomes an easy read.

Thank You to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book! I was surprised to see others did not!
Not the most likable characters, but I enjoyed the twists and turns. Even though I kind of figured things out before they were revealed, I still liked the reveal! There were alot of POVs, so that took some time to sort all out, but once I did, I felt invested in all their stories.
I went through this quickly, as it was hard to put down. A good mystery that was solid.
Thankful for the ARC!

"The Push" is an interesting story about a group of people who have nothing in common except that they are all about to be new parents, and none of them can quite tell the truth about what happened that day on the balcony. Told from the POV of many different characters, the story flows quickly, but is easily predictable. And none of the characters are very likeable. That being said, I still enjoyed the story as it was a quick, easy read and would recommend it to others.

Okay firstly let's give Claire an applause for that crazy plot. Like I would never have dreamnt it up like what a WOW. It's a book set in summer at a barberque (hello summer). It is about six couples at a barberque and one falls from the balcony and dies. Get ready to be mind blown like I was *sigh* ,the couples are all expecting. You are probably thinking where did they even meet, well they met at a class. Who did it? Was it an accident? You need to find out by reading this book. It was a little confusing with all the alternative chapters but it was a pretty good read. Huge thanks to the publisher for my copy

The Push centres around six couples in a prenatal group, each one of them with different social status, relationship and views. One of them decides to throw a post-birth party for everyone and someone ends up falling off the balcony. The police claim that it is an accident but Alison who is assigned to this case, doesn’t think so.

There are a lot of POV’s, from different couples and Alison, from past and present so it took some time to memorise each character.
The victim’s identity is revealed half way through the book, which was interesting and kept me hooked. And that was the only mystery for me. There were two other plot twists but managed to guess these quite early on.
I feel this book is more about portraying different types of motherhood and actually shows the real side of pregnancy through different ages, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, relationship statuses, even fertility differences (DS Alison is struggling with infertility)

Overall, a classic whodunnit story and even though it is predictable its still a thought provoking and enjoyable quick read.

Thank you to Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for sending me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review

This was such an amazing book. Loved finding out about all of the different families and problems they have. Each family had their own story, but were joined by a common baby group. I realised the 'plot' halfway through, but enjoyed reading why each person had said what they did and why about the 'accident'. A great read!

I expected more from Claire McGowan. This book was a hot mess. So many characters going back and forth in time and too many side stories. I rate this book a 2.1

Wowzers ! This book was awesome. Once I started I didn't want to stop reading as I just wanted to find out what was going on. Such an exciting and page turning read this was.

For some reason, I could not get into this booK. The writing was fine but the plot seemed stale and “done before.” This book may appeal more to a certain and specific audience.

The Push is a clever thriller that weaves several stories together and ties them all up beautifully at the end. Six couples meet at an anti natal class in the local community centre. Gina leads them through what to expect at the birth and how they will have to adapt to being new parents. The couples all meet for a party shortly after the babies are born, and one of them ends up dead.
The novel mainly tells the story through the eyes of Alison, the detective investigating the death and Jax, a member of the anti natal group. Everyone within the group has secrets they are keeping and the book delves into their pasts as well as their current situation.
I enjoyed this book but did feel it could do with a good edit. The pace was too slow in parts and I could feel my interest waining. I am glad I persevered with it as the ending did not disappoint.

This was an interesting book. I really enjoyed all the different characters and their back story’s. It was clever in keeping me guessing the ending all the way along. I enjoyed the ending, I thought it was written well. Would recommend and also would like to read more from this author.

This is told by multiple povs over different time frames. It tells the story of several couples as they attend a baby group before the birth of the babies and after, during the reunion one of them falls from a balcony to their death, is it an accident or murder? This story tells of the events of the day of and leading up to the fall.

Now where do I begin with this story, firstly I hated every single character they were all unlikeable and obnoxious, well apart from one couple who were the most normal of everyone. I felt like this story had way to much going on, it was to ambitious and trying to tell to many stories at once which was just way to much and took away from the over all plot. Ageism is a huge mention in this, I feel if I had a £1 for every time it was mentioned that she was an older woman to be pregnant I would be rich which to be honest was pretty offensive a lot of women are giving birth in late 30s,40s and even 50s in todays society so I felt this was really unnecessary even if it was to bring up something that happens later in the plot. Racism, their were a few points in this book were characters were using microgressions for example 'the foreigners next door' which was used by one of the characters to describe Asian people living next door. Then the over all plot line further in the storyline I felt like it was the perfect time to dive more into racism but it was merely mentioned and brushed under the rug. Stereotypes came into this book when it came to many of the characters and their was also Borderline homophobia when it came to the same sex female couple. For example one of the women was femmine and one was butch and the character said something along the lines of '' she's pretty for one of them'' and then when describing the more butch woman she said something along the lines of not understanding why women like this try to look like men. This annoyed me to no end and I could see how many people would read this and roll their eyes

The pros of this book was that the writing was fast paced and it flowed well so it was easy to read however unfortunately this was not the book for me but I would always give an author another chance and read another book by the author in the future.