Thank you #netgalley, #amazonpublishinguk and #clairemcgowan for the arc of this book.

Six couples, all from different backgrounds, meet at a baby group. One of the couples suggests they once all the babies have arrived, they have a party to celebrate at their lavish beach side mansion. The party goes ahead but not everything is as idyllic as it seems and when the body is seen falling from the upstairs balcony, all the secrets, trauma and conflicts between the couples start to emerge.
DS Alison Hegarty is sent to the house to investigate the apparent fall. While there, and after talking to the couples, she becomes convinced the fall was not an accident. Everyone has a secret to hide. And one of those is murder.

This book was supposed to be a standard thriller with multiple POVs, but came across as more of a family drama full of suspicious unlikable characters. The twists were easy to guess and the big reveal at the end was a bit random and didn't really seem to fit with the rest of the story.
I'm going to be blunt, I really disliked this book. I don't like giving bad reviews but this book was full of racism, sexism and ageism and it was just a toxic mess. This may have been what the author wanted, she wanted us to hate everyone and I for one did.
I was really excited to read another Claire McGowan book, but I'm so sorry to say this book was terrible. And that's why I'm only giving it 1.5 stars, rounded up to 2 stars.

The publisher sent me a pre-approved Netgalley copy and I was super excited to read it. It was my fault that I thought this was a book with the same title that all my friends were raving about. I quickly realized as I began the book that it was not the one I wanted.

I couldn’t identify with any of the characters. I just didn’t seem to care about the person who was pushed even before I knew who it was (how terrible is that?), but the premise was good. It was just very, very slow and extremely predictable for me.

An interesting thriller. Loved the first half with all of the suspense, but found the second half a bit disappointing.

Trigger warning: this book contains characters who are racist, who are sexist, who are ageist and who are homophobic (to name a few) and if you are offended by these issues – then proceed with caution!

This book is about a murder at a group gathering of six “new parent” couples. There is a big cast of characters and some of whom narrate their own chapters. The clever part - you don't know who the victim is until half-way through the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I picked this up b/c I stumbled into a mini reading slump and really wanted a guaranteed smooth read, which this certainly was... though man I keep making poor choices for myself. Started one book with a dead mom (sigh) and walked right into a book predicated on the stresses of geriatric pregnancy. Still, I knew McGowan is a good go-to for emotionally immediate and engrossing thrillers, and this delivers there. I thought about half way in this might become my favorite of hers, but the whole picture of the book didn't quite sing for me on that level, though I still had a good time.

THAT SAID... I did guess all the punches the plot was pulling very easy, and grew slightly impatient as the book pressed on in trying to hide those very obvious things. I would be shocked to find a reader who didn't feel the same way--things were just SO clearly telegraphed and obvious and yet still we have the various POVs pretending not to notice things/put things together? Basically if you're a thriller fan who just cannot with multi-POV books where people are lying intentionally not only to the police but essentially to the reader in their POVs? This one will bug you.

Still, it was an interesting approach to lots of angles of motherhood and Keeping Up With the Joneses, with well drawn characters as always, and an anchor/main character I particularly got emotionally wrapped up in. Poor Jax. And to that end I have to say: the book tries to play both sides, re: Jax and Aaron and it's one of the several things where the conclusions of the book have me sitting here going "no actually I hate that." Like... I don't care about Aarons fweeeewings... he was HORRIFIC to his heavily pregnant girlfriend who expressed real emotional concerns to him and he was gaslighty and abusive. Nope I don't forgive him and did not like Jax taking the blame for how he treated her. And also felt a bit gaslit myself that the narcissistic mum plot was wrapped up in a weirdly neat bow like NO HER MOM IS A NARCISSIST WHY ARE WE PLAYING HAPPY FAMILIES. (prior to that I liked that Jax was a character who had established boundaries and low contact?)

The biggest thing that left a super sour taste in my mouth isn't even a huge thing... but maybe it is? The thing with social thrillers-where you are using a thriller angle to portray lots of different angles of serious social issues/ideas, as McGowan does, is that every choice matters. I will put the specifics behind a spoiler tag, but in the abstract: the book's takeaway on adoption is atrocious imo. First, its representation of Aaron as a former foster kid is... I mean taken in whole I'm really not sure it's good. (see my Goodreads review for spoilers)

Ultimately... man I wanted to like it more than I did. But the reading experience was still mostly good, and McGowan is still a steady-on thriller author for me. This one just took some passes at motherhood that feel myopic/limited/questionable and have left me feeling a bit meh.

The Push takes us through the last 6 weeks before each couple is due. They all meet in a birthing class & couldn't be anymore different. Each chapter is told from either one of the couples or Allison the detective. I enjoyed putting together the pieces on this one. Some I guessed early on though I was engaged all the way to the end. The Push felt extremely relatable as pregnancy and newborn is exhausting. Each couple has secrets and it's down too who is going to crack first.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read The Push. All opinions are my own.

The Push focuses on an antenatal group, consisting of a diverse group of women and their partners, who are all in very different life situations. There is a young 22year old woman with an aggressive, potentially abusive partner. A young Asian couple who only met three months before they got married in an arranged marriage and who don’t know each other particularly well. A 38 year old woman with her 24 year old partner, a lesbian couple, a couple who are adopting their child from abroad, and a high-flying “smug married” couple. The only thing that they have in common, apart from their pregnancies, is that everyone is keeping a secret. The secrets and lies all come to a head at a post-pregnancy party, but what will be revealed, and who will survive the aftermath?

I enjoyed this very much! I found it refreshing as lately with a lot of this genre, I’ve found that the temptation to add in twist after twist after twist cannot he resisted, which leads to the story becoming more and more unbelievable. This was different, as although there are a number of secrets and lies, I didn’t find any of it unbelievable, and I also felt that it was well balanced, so it wasn’t twist after twist after shocking twist, the author let the characters drive the story. The characters were interesting too. No one was really black and white (although some where more “bad” than others) but on the whole I found it a good read and I would recommend it!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was a bit worried after reading other reviews, but I felt the pace of this novel was fine and the story was engaging and parts of the mystery were unexpected. I will definitely recommend this one to my customers!

Well written, if slightly predictable whodunnit. Enjoyed it but found it difficult to empathise with any of the characters.

Worth a try, but not a book that I particularly liked.

After seeing mixed reviews on this one, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it. However, I really enjoyed it!

It starts with a murder, although we don't know who the victim actually is for quite some time, which makes it intriguing. It was fun to read with all of the secretive and flawed characters it has! I got some Big Little Lies vibes, but found it be still be it's own story and written pretty well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for my ARC!

We start with a disparate group of people, linked only by pregnancy. The death of a initially unnamed person at a social gathering is unravelled whilst going through the complex and interesting relationships of this group of people. The characters are interesting, if a little stereotypical at times. The focus is on pregnancy, planned, unplanned and evasive. The story is strong enough to keep interest up throughout. I wouldn't say it is a wow but I think it is a good read and didn't disappoint.

I didn’t really enjoy this book as I have others. I found it very predictable and didn’t really like most of the characters. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and Thomas and Mercer

The premise was very good and i enjoyed this thriller. this is the first book i read by this author and it will not be the last.....leaves you questioning how well do you actually know your friends..?

Thank you, Amazon Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy The Push by Claire McGowan. I have heard good things about this author, so I was happy to receive a copy of this.

Six couples from completely different backgrounds join an ante-natal group to learn the joys of babies and parenthood. The story centers around each individual couples’ points of view. Not all the couples get along. When one day they are all invited to a barbecue, a party for the couples before the babies arrive. But, one of them falls over the balcony to their death.

I really enjoyed this book. I love Claire McGowan and have read all her books.

This is a fascinating story with many twists and turns that are unexpected and intriguing. There are a group of women all expecting their first child and they join a baby club with their partners to find out information and get to know other mothers due at the same time.
Three weeks after giving birth they all meet up at Monica’s house, so that they can all see the new babies. However in one couple’s case the adoption hasn’t happened and they are still waiting for the child and in another case the mother had lost her baby and still had to give birth. There are all many lies and secrets that many of the people are keeping from each other and later the police.
One woman will die but is it an accident or murder?
Highly recommended.

I really did enjoy this book and I liked the way that it kept you guessing all the way through the book even to the point of when you find out who the victim of the crime was. A group of pregnant women meet at a local nct baby group As you read you find that the women are from all walks of life and they all have their own issues which you will find out about in the story.The only thing they all have in common is the fact that they are all having babies and are due around the same time. The story continues through their weekly meetings and you get to know the different characters quite well. A lunch is organised for when the babies have arrived and that’s when the trouble which has been brewing starts to happen. One of the group “falls” from a balcony and it is a police matter. Alison in charge of the case is sure it was not an accident and seems to be the only one who thinks it’s not so she pursues the group and eventually solves the case.The book has a lot of good twists and turns and I found it to be a good read and will definitely recommend it to others.

The Push is a compelling thriller wrapped up in an unexpected mystery. I was hooked from the first page, and - for once - I couldn't guess the ending. That alone makes this book worth reading.


There were a lot of characters in this book, but McGowen did a great job of creating separate personalities for each of them. Each of the couples had its own problem to solve, and its own mystery to keep secret. That made the book very intriguing. I kept trying to guess who the culprit was, and what made them act so secretively.

On the other than, the multiple points of view made the book a somewhat challenging read. At first, there was a lot to keep track of. There are also multiple timelines. Although McGowan does a great job in differentiating, it did require some effort from the reader.

Overall, The Push is an excellent mystery that will leave you scratching your head until the end. Four out of five stars.

The Push by Claire McGowan begins with 6 couples happily their recent parenthood, when one of them falls from a balcony, an apparent accident, that later proves to be murder. The couples are awful, racist, sexist, and really annoying. Viewpoints switch, narrators are unreliable, stories change and while some stories do touch a sympathy nerve, most do not. The lead investigator is interesting, and well written, but even her secrets seem more, eh than life-changing or motivating. If you enjoy psychological thrillers this might be the book for you, or if you enjoyed her previous book for that matter. However the characters might be a hindrance to enjoying the narrative.

This book was an interesting one to try to figure out! It took me awhile to get through for some reason, maybe the switching back & forth between characters made things a little disjointed for me. I didn't really connect with or care a lot about the specific characters, which could also be another reason I didn't rush through the book. Still, it was interesting to learn how the characters were intertwined and who was responsible for the push that left one character dead.

This was solid and I think a 3.5 ⭐️ rating is more accurate. You know from the beginning of “The Push” that someone has died and you just wait to learn who and why. While it largely kept my interest, there are several different characters and I don’t think the novel really establishes their relationships with each other. Accordingly, it seems a bit disjointed at times. I did not see some of the twists, which I definitely appreciated, but I just didn’t love it. Solid read and thriller though.