This is the first book I have read by this author, but will definitely be looking for more. The first thing that drew me to this book was the front cover! It’s stunning – so simple yet really effective! This book revolves around Anna Sanchez who is a maths professor, and married to Luis. When a maths student, who she is working with on a maths solution which has never been solved, commits suicide right in front of her Anna is devastated. Her student is dead, and everything she’s worked towards is in tatters. When she then accidently discovers her husband is having an affair, her world begins to fall down around her.

I won’t say too much about the storyline for fear of spoilers, but this is one twisted story, which has more shocks and surprises that I could ever have imagined! You initially side with Anna – a student is dead, her husband’s having an affair and her job is on the line – why wouldn’t you feel for her? But, as the story moves on, you begin to realise that not everything is as clear cut as you think it is, and perhaps you need to be looking at the whole story in a different way! I loved Anna’s character, but I have to admit, in a weird kind of way, I really enjoyed watching Anna’s life spiral out of control! The book did begin slowly, but the pace really does pick up very quickly into the storyline. It’s quite a complex story and you do need to concentrate to keep up with it at times, but it’s definitely worth that little bit of extra effort!!

The plot thickens as the story moves on, and you can’t in any way begin to guess where it’s going! It’s definitely a book of secrets, lies and mistrust, and whilst I knew someone was lying, I just couldn’t work out who it was! Completely different to anything I’ve read in a long time, this book will keep you turning those pages late into the night! Whilst not all likeable, the characters all played their perfect part and the author kept the twists and turns coming right through to the very last page. Thrilling and exciting, this book will keep your adrenaline pumping! Would recommend!

This is a book which hasn't been completely what I expected but I have enjoyed reading this one.
This is definitely unique to anything I've read previously and I have really enjoyed the plot and how it has developed.
I was originally attracted to the cover, her gorgeous hair colour caught my eye and the synopsis made me completely curious.
I haven't been able to put this one down. I have devoured the book in just one sitting because I have been so gripped by the story.
I cannot wait to read more by this author: it's definitely converted me as a fan.

wow!!!!! Where do I start amazing characters amazing twist, I want more from this author. I already added this book to our book club list.

Unfaithful will grab your attention from the first page and not let you go until the last!

Fantastic! I love a good twisty little thriller and this fits the bill perfectly. I was fully engaged and actually gave up going out for dinner to complete this one! I loved all the characters (even with their flaws!) and I think this came together perfectly in the end.
Highly recommended and I’ll be looking out for more books by Natalie!

I really wanted to like Unfaithful by Natalie Barelli. I had heard very good reviews from other people who had read it, but I just couldn't get into it. I disliked all the characters - from Anna to Luis to June. Not one character was likable and I didn't care enough about any of them to really get into the story. I thought that the plot was all over the place and far-fetched. Working at a University myself, I couldn't see any of the storyline actually happening. I found it totally unrealistic. Definitely not my favorite thriller! #Unfaithful #NetGalley

Unfaithful is undeniably a scandalous and juicy fall read! Once again, Natalie Barelli kept me on the edge of my seat as she has so many times before. This book is chock full of over-the-top gaslighting, slightly to very crazy characters, scandal and intrigue, and fights over infidelity AND intellectual property. Oh, and by the way, the narrator might be going totally mad. The perfect ingredients for a stew of crazy thriller fun.

The book is narrated by Anna, a mathematics professor on the brink of two discoveries: one, a groundbreaking mathematics theory, and two (and less fun), the fact that her husband is having an affair. Of course, as always with Natalie Barelli, these things are just the beginning of a more twisted web of intrigue until everything goes high octane bananas and you are on a wild thrill ride.

The book is a little slow at the beginning but things pick up quickly with the first death and from then on, the suspense never lets up. The second half of the book is wild and action packed with many creative twists I never guessed. Though I had an idea who did it, I never would have guessed why, and the reveal is rewarding and creeptastic. Reading this book is like watching a slow trainwreck as the protagonist keeps on making her situation worse, in the most entertaining way possible in a thriller.

I had such fun with this book and my buddy read with Shayla, Javier and Susan made it even more enjoyable! Be sure to check out their reviews too. We all enjoyed it. This book solidified my decision to always grab up ever Natalie Barelli book without even knowing the plot. She’s never disappointed me yet.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture, Natalie Barelli and my fellow Goodreads friends Shayla, Javier & Susan for such a fun read! 4+ stars!

Wow just wow!! Nail-bitting and suspenseful in the best way possible!

What a ride! Thank you so much Natalie Barelli for writing this dark thriller.

I devoured this book in one sitting. From the first page, I knew it was going to be good. Then I started getting worried about how the author was going to end the tale. I was thinking there was no way I was going to be surprised by it.

BUT. I. WAS.

I could feel my adrenaline surging through my veins the closer I got to the end. I was having palpitations with every twist and new discovery. Where is a beta-blocker when you need one?

Sorry, I seem to be digressing.

Unfaithful....The name of the book fits perfectly.

There is a marriage. There is a betrayal but there is so much more happening around the life of Anna Sanchez.

Let’s meet her.

Anna Sanchez is a married woman. She has two kids she adores and a husband she is obsessed with. She's also a math professor and is helping Alex with his thesis. A thesis that can change her life and his. Then Alex dies and she also finds out her husband is cheating.

Does she give up or fight for her family?

Read it now to find out.

Cliffhanger: No

4.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Bookouture via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for an early copy of Unfaithful. Horrible book, I’m sorry to say. Anna was a ridiculous character. So outrageously written. I was so excited to read this book according to its synopsis but it really didn’t match up to the plot. Sorry again.

Anna is an assistant math professor and is working with Alex, one of her graduate students. Alex is brilliant and is in the cusp of a huge discovery. Unfortunately, prior to publishing his work, a series of events unfolds that are unfathomable. From that point, everything in Anna's life starts to fall apart

This is a fast read, full of twists and shocking events. You know it's all going to blow up somehow, and you think you have a clear idea of what is going on but you don't. At least I didn't.

The story started off as a completely implausible story that left me wondering how I felt about it and developed into a highly entertaining fun ride that I enjoyed immensely.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

HOLY SH*T! If Ms. Barelli's intention was to misdirect me in my suspicions and leave me completely speechless she managed it!

Anna Sanchez seems to have it all. A perfect husband, two kids and a good job as an associate math professor where she's supervising a grad student thesis. They are on the verge of solving a math conjecture that could change their lives, but after her student's death everything in her life starts to unravel. As the plot progresses, her mental health takes a turn for the worse, taking her on a spiral of lies that could destroy everything she has.

I was completely hooked from the beginning. Anna is not a likeable character. She's self-absorbed, irritanting and takes one questionable decision after another (what a fun lady, right?) and I gotta say that all those things made reading this even more enjoyable. She was a train wreck. Her life was the accident you find on the road, know you shouldn't look at but can't take your eyes off.

With so many open fronts in her work and personal life, the story doesn't stop for a minute with a series of twists and red-herrings that made me center my suspicions in the wrong person till the very last couple of chapters.

The ending never crossed my mind and, although pretty wild, some things required too much suspension of disbelief.

Overall, a super entertaining and twisty read that made the perfect buddy read with Sheyla, Christina and Susan. So much to discuss!

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a huge Natalie Barelli fan and have read all her books, so I was super excited for this. While I didn't see the twist at the end coming, this one missed the mark. It was hard to root for the main character, and it felt implausible that calamity after calamity kept happening to her. It felt too far fetched and I wish the author focused on developing some of these storylines further rather than focusing on so many. All in all it was a quick read that kept me interested on what was going to happen next, but it felt unfocused.

Something about the way Ms Barelli writes is so intriguing. I always pick up her books knowing that I am in for a rollercoaster ride. I was starting to feel since I have read everything she has written that I would see through what was going to happen but I have been proven wrong.

The detailed intertwining complexity of this book is wonderful. My mind was constantly shifting to adjust to a new idea as to where the story was headed and time after time I was completely off base.

This is another great, suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing and holds you in it’s grasp until the final line!

A decent ending, a slow beginning, and a very unreliable narrator.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

This was one of those books that I curled up with under a blanket on my couch and read from start to finish in the course of an evening. And then, when I was done, I had to immediately turn to a new book because I was left unsatisfied.

Unfaithful is the first book that I have read by Natalie Barelli and to me it just kind of fell flat. We start out following Dr. Anna Sanchez as she goes about her day - getting her kids ready for school, going off to the college she teaches at (as a math professor), and trying to assist her 'brightest PhD candidate'. And then, as soon as we start to settle in to her routine, stuff hits the fan in the way that makes a suspense novel good. Problems with the PhD candidate, problems with her marriage, problems with her coworkers, all of its normal, kind of mundane, and easy to predict whats happening next.

And then it all starts to fall apart. Both Anna's world and the plot of the book. There's too much happening in the second half of the book, as if Barelli is trying to make up for the lack of events in the first half. The overcompensation, mixed with some awkwardly scripted conversations and a couple of dead bodies, makes the ending of the book a little hard to parse through.

It is fast paced, and easy to read (for the most part), but as a reader I found myself left wanting more. More suspense, less of Anna's manic thoughts, more June.

I did enjoy Barelli's narative style. First person, in this case, worked really well because we need Anna to be an unreliable narrator in order for the plot to make sense and it is really hard to be reliable when your entire world is falling apart around you. For all the ways the plot waivers, Anna's sense of self, or lack thereof, and the weird situations she finds herself in would not have worked had Barelli not sculpted a fascinatingly unreliable character for us to experience the story through. I do wish Anna was less whiny, but she was truly the shining star of the book as a good first-person narrator should be.

However, despite the stunningly fun narrator, Unfaithful fell short for me. The ending, while it did wrap everything up nicely, wasn't satisfying. Luis being the man he was didn't make a lot of sense, we saw weird snippets of the kids, and June deserved a lot better. And the attempted assault and sexual coercion in the book were NOT necessary. At all. And that was where I had to draw a hard line at not giving this book at least 3 full stars.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Netgalley and Bookouture. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Natalie Barelli has done it yet again. He books are full of suspense and plot twists that will keep you entertained and enthralled through each book and this one is no exception. Anna and Luis have a beautiful life with beautiful children. She is a teacher and recently one of her students has committed suicide. As she goes to her husbands studio she notices that there are two wine glasses and realizes that he is having an affair. Anna’s choices at that time make you wonder why would a strong character make those decisions? Maybe it is all a part of the way the story plays out. There is something that Anna is hiding. Something she doesn’t want anyone to find out. Barelli is an accomplished writer who knows all too well how to keep her characters engaging. This is one of my favorites by Barelli and I have read 5 of her 6 other novels. I am excited to recommend this book to all of my friends and family who enjoy a great psychological thriller.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author
/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Unfaithful by Natalie Barelli is another dark, tangled, and twisty tale that will hold you firmly in its grasp until the unexpected conclusion. I have previously enjoyed Ms Barelli's novels, and this latest is no exception.

Anna Sanchez is at the top of her field, a notable mathematician and academic. Married to Luis, an artist, and mother to two beautiful children, Anna appears to be more than happy with her lot. But when a grad student with whom Anna has been working closely suddenly commits suicide, Anna's carefully ordered life goes into a freefall. As her mental health begins to deteriorate, so too does her reliability as the narrator of this twisted tale, and it would seem that nothing is as it appears.

This is a gripping read that had me captivated until the final page. I cannot wait to see where Ms Barelli's brilliant mind will take us next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley, publisher and author for giving me a copy of this book to review. When I started the book, I thought I had an idea where it was going. As I kept reading, the story took me somewhere unexpected. At some points, I felt a Twilight Zone vibe. This story is full of surprising twists and revelations. I like this author's work and I look forward to reading more from her.

An amazing domestic thriller that kept me on my toes the whole way! Is the protagonist guilt of the misdeeds she is being accused of? This question literally haunted me this whole wild ride. Highly recommended!

Anna is a college professor, happily married to an artist, mother of two beautiful children. Her life seems perfect. But when tragedy strikes one of her students, her perfect lives might completely unravel!

When I first started reading, I had an incredulous reaction, like "really? who reacts this way to this situation?" and I honestly wasn't sure I'd keep reading. But after the first few chapters the story just got better and better and took me in directions I didn't even see coming. What a ride! I LOVED it! I loved the plot, I loved the characters and I LOVED the ending! Highly recommend!

Anna Sánchez is an assistant professor at a small college. She is happily married with two delightful children. When her grad student Alex dies, Anna’s mental health deteriorates quickly. We see darker side of Anna. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to be an early reader.

UNFAITHFUL
BY NATALIE BARELLI

4.5 stars

This one was one propulsive mystery and thriller but also domestic drama that starts out from the very first page and took me on a rollicking ride that never let up. The ending is one that I never saw coming which is always the mark of a talented author like Natalie Barelli. She is living in Australia but I never picked up on any of that dialect and this is her sixth novel. There is no doubt that she is an accomplished writer as the story was just so suspenseful throughout the entire novel. It is all told in the first person and a lot of the main character's choices left me shaking my head asking Anna why did you just do that? She seemed to shoot herself in the foot plenty by her actions. She finds out her husband is having an affair quite by accident as she arrives at his art studio needing to talk about her PhD student Alex that has just died. Instead of confronting her husband Luis she goes home and cooks their children a nice meal and acts like nothing has happened. They share two young children together named Matti and Carla and pondering the way she proceeded to keep silent and become the best version of herself to try to get her husband to realize she was his best option was cunning and brilliant. I would have done the opposite and would have bungled my marriage by pushing my husband away with throwing him out so that I would be pushing him right into the other woman's arms which is something that I would not want to do especially if I wanted to keep my husband and fight for my marriage. Nobody likes to find out that their husband has been cheating on you and I think she handled better than I would have.

This is the type of thriller where there is constant action and kept me on the edge of my seat. One thing happened after another with no let up which kept me glued to my Kindle turning pages when I had things to do. I have to say the plotting was brilliant as well as Anna's character development.

Anna is woken up at 6:00 AM by her PhD student Alex pleading with her to see him. He is one of her brightest students but also has mood swings. Anna works as a mathematician professor at a college but is not fully tenured. She finds out that morning at a staff meeting that the Professor position has gone to another colleague so I guess Anna is really only an assistant professor. Her and Alex have been working to solve a complicated conjecture called the Pentti Stone which if they find the correct proof will yield a $500,000.00 dollar prize. It would make their college one of the most prestigious institutions in America. Alex tells Anna that he wants to remove her name from a co-authored paper they were writing together and he thinks he wants to receive the full credit even though she has helped him solve it. Something awful happens and Anna begins to travel down the rabbit hole for not being honest and pretending she knew nothing about it.

Anna's life looks perfect with her two beautiful children that she adores and dotes on. Until she learns of her husband's affair. She is somewhat an unreliable narrator throughout the many obstacles she gets entangled with. I did love her supportive friend and colleague June. I admire what a great friend she was to Anna. This novel is a must read for all of the mystery and thriller fans as it isn't everything that it appears to be in the way Anna narrates the story which makes for a fantastic finale. I was never bored for a second while reading this and I would highly recommend this to all fans of this genre. A great academic setting, domestic problems, murder, it is a book that comes out next month and I would order it now so you can enjoy it as much as I did. There is so much more to the story than the title suggests and I take my hat off to whoever wrote the Good Read's synopsis for not giving away any spoilers.

Publication Date: November 27, 2020

Thank you to Net Galley, Natalie Barelli and Bookouture for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#Unfaithful #NatalieBarelli #Bookouture #NetGalley