The Truth and Other Hidden Things reminded me of a Gossip Girl, turns into farm world, where bloggers remain the eyes and ears of a small town, deliciously called Pigkill.

Bells Walker, is one of the rare few who gets pregnant despite having an IUD, husband loses his professor position in Manhattan, moves to Pigkill with their already two young kids. Under the anonymous name County Dutchess, Bells blogs about all the hidden secrets of the small town life the family is forced to reckon with.

Bells discovers small town secrets and scandals, all which will make you laugh. The characters were fun, reminiscent of Gilmore Girls, and I liked Lea Geller's writing.

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Oh my goodness! I absolutely loved this book. Honestly it was so good and its extremely funny and very relatable. Loved it.

** spoiler alert ** Giving this three stars because it kept my attention throughout the book, and I wanted to know how it'd end and what'd happen throughout. Most of the story is already in the blurb, though, minus the actual details which you find out when you read.
It was captivating in the sense that you know this, and Bells, is a train wreck about to derail, yet you have to watch and see what happens. The character itself is a tad too woe-is-me throughout, though there's some parts where you can understand how she got to where she is... Still, it doesn't excuse what she does, and the wrapped-up ending left me a little unsatisfied (like I said, 92% of the book is already in the blurb).
Did like how this world and its characters really popped out, like opening one of those pop-out children's books and the whole setting happened before your eyes, so it was rather entertaining in that vein.

Unfortunately I no longer have access to this earc due to changing my kindle. But if I get to it in future, I'll come back and review.

The Truth and Other Hidden Things was such a fun and entertaining book. What a hilarious, hot mess of a read! This one had me laughing out loud. Highly recommend.

I immediately wanted to read this book as it is about a blogger! We love to hear it. This was such a fun and quick read! I was really entertained.

This cover is so pretty 😍. A cute funny light read book. Definitely worth a read. Imagine that feeling of unexpectedly getting pregnant in your forties. I was laughing out loud at Bells blog.

What, a book about a blogger! I will take it. This is not just any blogger, she dishes the dirt on anyone and everyone. Have you ever watched American Housewife Bells reminded me of her so much. This was a fun read and I have to say I never put the book down. 4 stars and I recommend this one. Moms you are going to really love this little getaway.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

I found this book to be a delight. As a 50+ year old woman, I could relate to Bells. I laughed out loud so many times - Bells is so funny and the author has written Bells’ part beautifully.

Bells is a lawyer that has never practiced the law because as soon as she graduated, she started having children. Now that her oldest is a junior in high school, Bells finds herself pregnant again. And her husband was denied tenure so they need to move for his job.

Taking Bells out of NYC causes Bells to notice the quirky things about her new county in upstate New York. Fairly quickly she decides to start a blog about her new county - but one thing turns to another and pretty soon Bells has crossed a line she cannot return from. How she handles the situation next will determine her future.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions stated above are mine without biases.

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

This book crept on me. It was interesting and I liked the plot. IN MY OPINION, I disliked the vast majority of the characters but enjoyed that the narrator was unreliable and then comes to terms towards the end. I didn’t feel a lot of sympathy for any of them though so at times, I had to push myself through this one. It was good though, hence 4 stars.

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and provide honest feedback on this ARC.

This was an entertaining and quick read. I enjoyed the characters and the story and it was just believable and humorous enough that I was immersed in it and felt connected. Would recommend this book to others.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the snark and the blog posts. Once I really got into the book, it kept me interested and entertained. What I didn't like was the main character's constant whining that she was so old, no one liked her, she wasn't a good parent, etc. Also, she chose her online presence over everything else, even though she knew it would probably end badly for everyone, especially her own family. All in all, though, I did enjoy the story and the writing, and would probably read another book by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Lea Geller, the publisher and Netgalley.

The Truth and Other Hidden Things was the cute, palate cleansing read that I needed in between fantasy and heavy smut reads.

I think the book is relatable for so many people, and I loved the idea of tackling an unplanned pregnancy while ON contraception, married and in your 40's - it was so refreshing and makes a big change from constantly seeing unplanned pregnancies to 18 year olds after one night that many authors seem to can't get enough of.

This read was really funny, lighthearted at times but also quite serious and poignant at others. It really drove home the message that sometimes what makes us happy won't make everyone else happy to, but that it is important to be true to yourself. Even if you lose yourself along the way, there is always a road back.
A solid 3 stars for me!

I didn’t loved it but I didn’t hate it other. It just felt flat in many parts for me to actually enjoy it unfortunately.
Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

This was a fun book. The county dutchess reminds me of Lady Whistledown from Bridgerton. They both write gossip but The Dutchess doesn’t realize how she’s damaging her family and her friends. The stories of moms behaving badly reminded me of the moms in my school district! I recommend this book, 4 stars.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. 4 stars.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2022 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2022/01/readers-advisory-announce-2022-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I absolutely loved this book. The characters are so likeable and the story was charming and witty.
It took me a while to get started with this book but once I had it was hard to put it down.

Columnist Bells Walker finds herself pregnant (again!) and packs up herself and her two teenage children to follow her husband from New York City to (in her mind) the middle of nowhere, which is the only place he’s able to get a job. She takes an instant dislike to their new house, the town, and the people living there and starts a blog at her old newspaper in NYC, where she anonymously insults everything and everyone in her new community. Of course, this blog grows legs and everyone wants to know who the author is who would dare write what she’s been writing, and the stress on her to continue to hide intensifies.

The underlying premise was fine – you need a higher-stakes impetus to create a reason to have a good story – but the adult main characters were just so unlikeable, and I found myself frustrated with all of them through most of the book. Why did Bells passively go along with everything that happened at the beginning of the story? Her husband tells her to quit her job? She quits her job. Her mother-in-law says that she has to do everything possible to further her husband’s career over anything else in her life? She acquiesces. Even having none of the toilets operational at her new home pushes her to actually do anything.

I also could not figure out why this fully grown, very well-educated woman was such an outsider in her own life and never took any responsibility for anything that happened. At the same time, why did she stay with her husband? She acted so honored and humbled that a younger man would grace her with his presence and even marry a woman so much older than him, but he was awful, and I never stopped feeling that everyone would have been better off without him in the picture.

It's not hard to believe that someone living a life like that would lash out at strangers around her, just to get it out of her system somewhere so she didn’t murder her husband in his sleep. And I definitely felt sorry for Bells, but at the same time, there was no reason she couldn’t do something substantive to solve her problems instead of being passive aggressive.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

Easy, quick & enjoyable read. Many life lessons we all can learn from about ourselves and others from how we raise our children, what we expect from ourselves and others and even how to treat one another.