I feel very lucky to have received the long-awaited new novel by Liane Moriarty to review from Netgalley. Apples Never Fall is the story of the Delaney family – all former tennis stars in their own right. In the past, the Delaneys owned and ran a successful tennis school – training numerous rising stars including superstar Harry Haddad. The Delaney children are now all grown up and are living their own lives while their seemingly happily married parents are enjoying retirement.
One day, the mother (Joy) sends a cryptic text to her children, leaving her phone behind and with no further contact after a few days they begin to worry. The children and community start to question Joy’s past and how happy Joy and Stan’s marriage is. Is her disappearance related to a mysterious houseguest who appeared recently or is it much closer to home?
The book cleverly changes between time periods and points of view and is easy to follow. Liane Moriarty is brilliant at character development, and I felt like we got to know them all really well. So much of the book is relatable to Australian family life. The book touches on themes such as domestic violence, relationships, sibling rivalry and competitive tennis.
I enjoyed this book as I have with all Moriarty books. She is a brilliant writer and I think we have come to expect a lot of her (so much pressure). I think the reference to Covid could have been left out – it didn’t particularly add any value – but maybe I am just tired of the word Covid! While this wasn’t my favourite of hers it’s worth the read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for the opportunity to read and review this book – released 14 September 2021.

Apples Never Fall is a chewy family drama with a soft mystery centre, by arguably the current Queen of Contemporary Australian fiction, Liane Moriarty. I’ve read most of her novels and loved almost all of them, and think this one was more enjoyable than last year’s Nine Perfect Strangers. While it’s about a family obsessed with tennis, you don’t need to like or even know anything about the game to get into this. You will however find yourself craving apple crumble!

The Delaneys are a middle class Sydney family, with four very different adult children, whose parents ran a successful tennis coaching business, but always rued “the one who got away” - superstar Grand Slam winner Harry Haddad. Now Joy, the matriarch, is missing, and Head of the Family Stan can’t give the police a satisfactory explanation of what happened.
How does Joy’s disappearance connect to a mysterious young house-guest months earlier?

One of the things I like about Moriarty’s books is that while she does keep coming back to her “Now” and “Then” format, they are never formulaic, and we are drip-fed just enough information to keep going without feeling pointlessly kept in the dark. She skilfully presents the story from the point of view of a whole range of minor characters, without it ever becoming confusing, so we usually don’t know what surly Stan, suave Troy, diffident Brooke, amiable Logan or skittish Amy are thinking. They’re none of them particularly likeable but this truly didn’t matter, and they all had their good points. Meanwhile we get to know poor grandchildless Joy, as she navigates the emptiness of post-retirement life after a long outwardly happy marriage to a man whose hopes never quite came to fruition, and so do actually care what has happened to her. The central mystery of exactly who Savannah is and what she’s up to was very well done, I didn’t guess how things would play out at all.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily.
Apples Never Fall is available on September 14th.

Hooray! A new book from Liane Moriarty and it has everything you hope for: interesting characters, lots of secrets, not just one but TWO intriguing mysteries and a dash of humour as well. I devoured this and now all I can do is wait for her to write another one please.

The book is centered on the Delaney family. Stan and Joy ran a tennis academy for many years. Now they are retired and Joy is hoping one of her four children (aged between 29 and 39) will hurry up and provide her with a grandchild. Joy is a warm and chatty character, who feels like she strayed out of an Anne Tyler novel and into a Harlan Coben one, because when the book opens, Joy is missing.

She sent a cryptic text to her children and now there is no sign of her. Bank accounts untouched, phone left behind. Her children know this behaviour is completely out of character but they are reluctant to report her missing because they realise the Police will suspect their father is responsible. And perhaps he is? Stan has unusual scratches on his face and admits they argued before Joy vanished.

However there's one other odd piece to the puzzle. Six months earlier, a strange woman turned up on their doorstep and was taken in by Stan and Joy. Who was she and could that be connected to Joy's disappearance?

It's these two mysteries that keep you turning the pages but along the way we get to know all of the Delaney family and start to share Joy's hopes that the children will sort out their issues. And it's that combination of compelling mystery and endearing characters that is Liane Moriarty's magic.

My only real criticism is the stretched out ending - you think things are wrapped up but it keeps going - although there is a kink in the tail which made me gasp.

I'm hooked from the very beginning with Delaney's family dynamic. Stan and Joy Delaney ran Delaney Tennis Academy before they decided to retire and sell the Academy. They got two daughters, Brooke & Amy, and two sons, Troy and Logan. We can call them a tennis family players, all children grew up playing competitive tennis, though at the end none of them make a living from playing tennis.

The story starts with the siblings get together in a Cafe discussing the sudden unusual act from their mother, to be "off the grid" and uncontactable. Unless, thinking further, is her mum really ok as the bicycle was found unattended somewhere.🤷‍♀️
Prior to their mother being off the grid, their parents taken onboard a young lady, Savannah, to stay at their house. The children are wondering about how the parents can just let Savannah stays indefinitely at their house.

I love most of Liane Moriarty's book and this one is definitely my favourite. This book is so much more than family drama, it has a mystery tune with a twist and excellent plotting. It covers family relationships, siblings rivalry, and forgiveness. This is another #mustreadbook.

Joy Delayne disappears one day. For a while, her husband, Stan, and their four adult offsprings don't think much of it. But time passes and there's no news.

The Delaneys are a formidable couple. Until recently, they ran a very successful tennis academy, they're well-known members of the community.

Joy Delaney was the mother, business brain, accountant, cook, cleaner, nurse, events organiser. She doesn't cope well with her new retired life. The empty nest feels emptier than usual. Not being constantly busy and challenged by the latest dramas and emergencies gives one time to think, reminisce. And get irritated with one's husband.

When a young woman appears at their door, bloodied and shivering, Joy takes her in. What if she's one of the kids' friends that she doesn't remember now?
Joy and Stan bandage her and put her up for the night.
Slowly, Savannah eases herself into their lives. She's an amazing cook. Joy is so grateful, she hates cooking, she's had enough.

Moriarty deftly unpeels the layers of each family member. They're an interesting bunch.
Through a variety of PoVs, including short ones from neighbours, friends and other acquaintances, we put together what's happened.
While the build-up is slow it sure picks up the pace in the last quarter.

As always, Moriarty's characters are real, layered, and imperfect - just the way I like them.
The adage - you never truly know anyone - shines through.

Read the book before you see the miniseries. :-)

I am a longstanding Liane Moriarty fan, right back from when her first novel Three Wishes was published. I loved all her books over the years up to and including Big Little Lies. I thought Truly,Madly, Guilty was a bit weaker, but still ok, but I really did not enjoy Nine Perfect Strangers. I was a bit concerned about Apples Never Fall before I read it, but I need not have been. It is a fabulous novel, back to Moriarty at her best. I couldn’t put it down.
It follows a tennis coaching couple, the Delaneys and their four adult children. Stan and Joy have retired from their coaching business, and are having a bit of difficulty adjusting to retirement. They are not sure how to fill their days. All their children have moved out, but are yet to have children. So no grandchildren for Joy. One evening a young woman turns up on their doorstep saying that she has been beaten by her boyfriend, so they take her in. The novel examines sibling rivalry, the pressures that parents put on their children and the different way this effects different individuals. It also looks and long relationships and how things can shift and change, and that even in long relationships there are still things to be learned. I found it a thoroughly satisfying book with an equally satisfying outcome. A great read. Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia and Netgalley for an ARC of this excellent novel.

Felt very lucky to read an ARC of Liane's new book. She continues her reign as one of my favourite authors and a writer I learn from every time I read one of her books. I was immediately immersed in this family and their differences but also their closeness. The element of mystery kept me guessing right until the end of the book and (not giving any spoilers away) but I truly felt the frustrations of some of the characters after the big reveal. Can't wait to see what Liane writes next!

3.5★
“She would say, Here is one possible motive and here is another, because any marriage of that many years has multiple motives for murder. Every police officer and hairdresser knows that.”

There used to be an ad for hair colouring that said “only her hairdresser knows for sure”. Well, this is what Joy’s hairdresser said after Joy went missing.

Moriarty is great at putting together an ensemble of players with identifiable voices and characteristics. The Delaneys are a family of six, parents Joy and Stan with their two sons and two daughters, all independent adults. The parents met playing tennis and have only just retired from their successful tennis coaching business. The kids played at different levels, and if you’re a tennis fan, you’ll probably appreciate the background.

Another character, Savannah, is introduced early in the piece, and she is something else again. She arrives on a rainy night, out of the blue, knocks on the senior Delaneys’ front door, and with an empty nest, Joy welcomes her in. Joy has been worried about her memory and wonders if she's supposed to know this girl and has forgotten her.

“She was only familiar in the way everyone seemed familiar these days. They’d just let a stranger into the house. She checked for signs of criminal tendencies and found none, although she wasn’t exactly sure how those tendencies would manifest themselves. The nose stud was really quite pretty.”

Joy dives right in, cleans her up with a special bubble bath, finds some of Amy’s old clothes for her, and settles her in “Amy’s” room.

“Amy, their eldest, their ‘free spirit’ as Joy liked to call her, their ‘problem child’ as Stan liked to call her, was turning forty next year, and she hadn’t officially lived at home for two decades, but she still used her old bedroom as a kind of permanent storage unit, because she never seemed to settle at one address long enough to properly relocate her possessions.”

Amy also has blue hair and lives in a share house. Sister Brooke is a physiotherapist who goes to sports days secretly hoping for injured players she can recruit for treatment. Their brothers, Troy (financially successful trader in NYC) and Logan (fit, always employed locally), gather together with their sisters to try to figure out where their mother has gone.

And who is this Savannah person who seems to have been living with their parents, doing all the cooking? The parents obviously loved having her there for a long time, but she's gone, too.

We hear about Amy’s alternative lifestyle, Brooke’s migraines (and physio work), Troy’s expensive tastes and flashy cars and life in New York, and a bit about Logan’s rather quiet life in their hometown. He’s a decent man, often wearing rough work clothes.

“He was a big, solid guy and he knew he should dress more respectably because women sometimes crossed to the other side of the street if they saw him walking behind them at night. He always wanted to shout out his apologies.”

I do feel for these fellows who seem scary for no fault of their own. But as much as I enjoyed the individual characters and the last 25% or so of the story, the first three-quarters was so slow and (I hate to say it) boring that if it hadn’t been Liane Moriarty writing, I’d have abandoned it before the story picked up. I kept thinking (hoping, hoping!) something would happen that would explain why the beginning was so uninspiring.

Having said that, I can see this easily being the basis for another mini-series. The cast possibilities are endless, and I reckon a good script with more suspense and bite could easily be developed from this. The premise is good and the ending is good. It's just way too slow getting there.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the copy for review. I’ll still look forward to her next one..

I. Loved. This. Book.

I was so excited to have another Moriarty to read after working my way through all her previous books. Nine Perfect Strangers felt a little odd to me, but it still had that same magic gripping me to each page, and I've come to really enjoy this about Liane Moriarty's writing. At times it can get a little stressful, but for the most part I find the build up to the big reveal/twist so engaging and this book was no different.
I really enjoyed learning about the Delaney family and trying my best to figure out what had happened. There were a few times I thought it got slightly repetitive or could have been slightly shorter, but overall it was a classic Moriarty mystery book to sink my teeth into. If you're a fan of Moriarty, family dramas and engaging mysteries then I'd definitely recommend giving this one a go!

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I know my opinion of this book is the outlier, and I feel bad for saying negative things while there are so many wonderful reviews of this book.

This book was...fine. It's about a bored retired couple, in boring suburbia, who have four adult children who all seem bored with their lives and each other. All six have links to the professional tennis world and you are constantly reminded of how competitive the Delaney family is (So! Competitive!), but I didn't get that at all. The stories from the kids' childhoods seemed like normal sibling stuff.

Savannah showing up was weird, but rather than being interested in whatever the hell she was up to, I was too busy being annoying by Joy's naivety and general aloofness. How could someone who ran a household, raised four kids, and managed an elite tennis academy be so irritatingly dumb?

I did enjoy the reveal of Savannah's identity. Definitely the high point of the book.

But then Joy wasn't murdered and it was back to being boring. I was really hoping she was murdered so something would happen.

How could she have written such a detailed letter to Stan and then send an incoherent, autocorrected disaster of a text to her kids? She would have checked that, or sent a correction.

Anyway, this is a quick, easy book that doesn't require much brain power of the reader.

I've been reading Moriarty for years now. Her last two books although good weren't up to the same standard as her older novels. Apples never fall is. It has that return to form that we all loved in novels such as what alice forgot and the husbands secret. I know its going to be a thing but the involvement of COVID at the end of the book I could have done without as I read to escape real life but the inclusion of the devastating bushfires really did set the scene for this quirky mystery and family drama. 4.5/5

The latest offering from Liane Moriarty, and I think she’s got another massive hit on her hands. Based around the Delaney family, and the missing matriarch Joy, it is a true domestic thriller/ family drama with an engrossing story line that sucked me in right from the very start. I really like stories involving adult sibling relationships and these 4 don’t disappoint.

I had so many little mind blow moments throughout this book, and I absolutely loved the ending! No spoilers here though.

A really great read!

In this family drama, Liane Moriarty does what she does really well, and that is to write interesting character studies and family dynamics. The Delaney family of parents and four grown children from 29 to 39, on the surface seem to be a normal, loving family. But like many families there are secrets, resentments and personality flaws seething below the surface.

The Delaney parents, Stan and Joy are recently retired after running a well known tennis academy for fifty years. Their children Amy, Troy, Logan and Brooke all grew up playing competitive tennis but none had the dedication to go on to the world circuit, something Stan has never quite forgiven them for. Now with too much time on their hands, Joy is hoping for the arrival of grandchildren to help fill the void tennis has left. Although Troy is divorced and Amy never seems to keep a boyfriend long, Logan is in a long term relationship, and Brooke married although busy getting her new physiotherapy practice off the ground.

The novel is told in two lines, telling of two significant events in the family. In the current time line, Joy disappears on Valentines’ Day 2020, sending the children a text to say she is going off grid for a while. She’s never disappeared before but the family are sure she will return soon. However, when she doesn’t return within a few days they report her missing to the police.

Some months prior to Joy disappearing, a young woman, Savannah, turned up on Joy and Stan’s doorstep saying she had run away from her abusive boyfriend. Despite her being a stranger, they took her in, offering her a place to stay until she finds her feet. The children are suspicious of Savannah’s motives and concerned that she has become close with their mother and doesn’t look in a hurry to leave. She seems very sweet and nice but is she too good to be true?

I found the build-up of both the two story lines somewhat slow, but intriguing enough to keep me reading. There was a lot of character development and details about the siblings’ life and their time growing up in a tennis academy, as well as the police investigation of the family. I did enjoy the myriad of little facts sprinkled through the novel that turned out to be important when they later slotted into place, but overall I felt the novel lacked some of the quirkiness and spark that add that little bit of fun and magic to Moriarty’s best novels.

I was beyond excited to receive an ARC copy as I’m a big Liane Moriarty fan. Unfortunately, I felt this one didn’t quite match the calibre of her other books. There were aspects that I enjoyed – the interchanging timeline, the eccentric characters, the dysfunctional family drama, and of course unravelling the many secrets. However, it didn’t seem as refined as other Moriarty books I’ve read. It was long, the first half felt particularly slow with too much backstory on the characters which didn’t seem relevant. Things felt over explained – just a minor example but Brooke’s migraines were mentioned again and again which was a bit tiring, and Savannah’s story was a little too far-fetched. Finally, the inclusion of Covid seemed clunky and irrelevant. With Covid news dominating my social feeds, the radio, TV and papers I really don’t want to start seeing it in my books, that’s my escape from reality! I hate to be negative about anyone’s work but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this as much as I hoped.

5/5 - ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Australia
Contemporary/Mystery

A woman in her 60s goes missing and sends a text that is basically gibberish.
A year ago she let a random woman into her house. She has 4 kids who are in their 30s and a husband, all are unsure what has happened.

Each chapter alternates from the past to the present.
All of the present chapters taking the perspectives of onlookers: Uber Drivers overhearing phone calls, waitresses overhearing conversations.
All of the past chapters are from the missing woman Joy, the husband Stan, and the children Brooke, Troy, Logan and Amy.

I loved this book. I love Liane Moriarty's writing style, it takes snippets of real interactions and fleshes them out into drama inducing scenarios. Often when reading her books I find myself yelling "I know!" or "My dad does that!, My grandma does that!". Its such real life fiction that its hard not to be hooked.

This book is Comedy mixed with Mystery and Suspense. It's questioning and revealing and explores elements of communication and family, especially pressure from parents and expectations on relatives.

Noone writes family dynamics quite like Liane Moriarty! In APPLES NEVER FALL, she takes us right into the heart of the Delaney family, whose life has always revolved around tennis. When the mother, Joy, disappears and her husband Stan falls under suspicion of having harmed her, her four adult children look back on their childhood and their parents’ marriage to see what they could have missed.

I loved the way Moriarty slowly uncovers the family’s inner workings, their secrets, their regrets, their loyalties and rivalries. Whilst we mostly hear from the family members themselves, we also get snapshots of the siblings’ conversations and other moments observed by strangers and neighbours, which was an unusual and clever way of telling the story and deepening the mystery of Joy’s disappearance whilst also adding a unique angle. And who was the mysterious guest who had been staying with the Delaney’s? I was like the donkey following the carrot – always a step behind but so eager to get the answers!

As with Moriarty’s other books, APPLES NEVER FALL is a slow burning, character driven mystery that focuses more on interpersonal dynamics and relationships than the actual mystery itself. The thing I love most about Moriarty’s books is the way she lets us see deep inside her characters’ heads and explore the deepest darkest corners of their psyche. This gives each character a depth often missed in other novels - noone is black and white here but complex personalities with a history that has shaped them. I particularly loved the way all four siblings remember the same events slightly differently, and the way those occasions affected each and every one of them and directed their future lives to some degree. Families are complex, and Moriarty has nailed it! As the story progressed, I felt that I knew each of the characters intimately, with the exception of Stan, who remained an enigma to the very end – with good reason. This was a long, thick book and yet I mourned the loss of each character as I closed that last page.

If I had any gripes, I thought that the last chapters could have been cut out to leave it at the solution to the central mystery without that final “twist” and the inclusion of covid, both of which added little to the story for me and somehow didn’t quite fit the rest of the tale (just made the book longer). However, the rest of the book was still a solid 5 star read, one I enjoyed immensely and which touched my heart.

In summary, APPLES NEVER FALL was the type of unputdownable character driven story I have come to expect from Liane Moriarty, and I enjoyed every stolen moment I could spare between work and chores to escape into it. Focusing on family dynamics, it contained everything I love in her books: strong enigmatic characters, a quintessentially Australian setting, a compelling mystery and that subtle tongue-in-cheek Aussie humour that always gets lost when someone decides to turn her books into a TV series. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it kept me glued to its almost 500 pages right until the end.

Apples Never Fall - Liane Moriarty

From the opening pages of this book, I knew that I would enjoy getting to know the Delaney family. Liane Moriarty has a talent for creating relatable characters, and this book is jam packed with real people, each with their individual idiosyncrasies.

Stan and Joy Delaney and their four grown children are well known in their affluent suburb, having run the local tennis school up until their recent retirement. Joy and Stan are floundering in their newfound roles and are feeling a little lost. Then a stranger arrives on their doorstep late one night, which changes everything.

I was engrossed in this story from the beginning. It is an intriguing combination of family drama and psychological thriller and I was quickly drawn into the relationships and family dynamics. Moriarty simultaneously weaves family drama with mystery, full of skilful red herrings that truly had me guessing right up until the last throes. The ending was emotional, surprising and truly satisfying. I will definitely be recommending Apples Never Fall far and wide.

I love the family dynamics and character interactions in this book, and Moriaty's books, generally. I found it intriguing, and really enjoyed the characters and storyline. I recommend this one! This one is hard to put down - though not necessarily my favourite of Liane's, I kept turning the pages, eager to read more, and loving it all.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Title: Apples Never Fall
Author: Liane Moriarty
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Publication Date: 14 September 2021
Review Date: 8 August 2021 on Goodreads

My thanks to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan Australia and Liane Moriarty for an advance copy

Family dynamics!

This is my sixth novel from Liane Moriarty - I do enjoy her writing.

There are lots of twists and turns as we meet the Delaney children Amy, Brook, Troy and Logan; their friends and partners; parents Stan and Joy; grandparents; the dominance of tennis in all their lives; and Savannah who knocks on the door of the parents unexpectedly one night.

The Delaneys are more than happy to give her the small kindness she sorely needs. If only that was all she wanted.

After some time, Joy and Savannah go missing and police (and others) suspect Joy's husband Stan has killed his wife.

The character building is excellent and an addictive plot, although a little far-fetched at times, keeps you turning the pages.

I enjoyed this one more than Nine Perfect Strangers, but not as much as Big Little Lies and The Husband's Secret. Regardless, I look forward to her next as she is so readable.

The Delaney's - a picture perfect family. There's Stan and Joy, and their 4 adult children, Amy, Logan, Troy and Brooke. Tall, athletic and successful, to outsiders it looks like this family has it all. But when family matriarch Joy goes missing, their secrets begin to unravel.

I LOVED this book. I have been waiting literal years for Liane Moriarty's next release and I'm so pleased to report that this one was worth the wait. The storyline was fantastic, gripping and captivating in all the right places. As usual, Moriarty's writing style drew me right in. I loved the dual timeline and the way much of the story was told as per outsiders overhearing and observing the main characters. Lover's of Liane Moriarty, run don't walk to a bookstore near you this September!