Hidden secrets, family drama, a murder and a bit of romance. What doesn’t this book have? In this book you follow Anna a psychologist, on her quest to uncover some dark family secrets. A serendipitous meeting of Michael, the historian, her big brother Frank and his fiancé Sarah and cousin Diane, these characters feel like your own family. This book certainly kept me hooked and threw your for a loop just when you least expected it. I would certainly recommend this to any reader who loves some good family drama and the thrill of the page turn.

The story seems very cliche at the start, and events feel predictable. It's goood enough to keep me going though, and I don't regret reading it.

I wasn't entirely on board with the insta love that springs between Anna and Michael. But also, it wasn't entirely unrealistic, I suppose. I liked the analogy that had been talked about, about if someone’s the right person, they’ll click right away, and know right away. Like a chemical reaction. I’m not sure I agree, but it sure is poetic. And if we go by it, Anna and Michael were that, for each other.

I loved how supportive Michael was to Anna, no questions asked. The ride or die kind of person. I wish we’d had more of him, more into his psyche, his character had so much potential, left unexplored.

I related to Anna quite a bit, her tendency to overthink every little thing, worrying too much.

I loved how the relationships here were portrayed, between mothers and daughters, and siblings, and cousins. The complications that surrounded them. The desperate need to believe the best in people, to unsee the worst.

What made Victor Goddard so hateful was that he’s a real life villain. The one we can see everywhere, the one who’s very much possible. The way he thought, it’s dangerous and disgusting. He was real.

The book was slow at the start, with things seemingly dragging along until the last hundred pages when everything seemed to happen at once. I liked the urgency and rush of it, the thrilling part. And I understand the rest of the book was necessary to establish characters.

The ending sort of caught me off guard, especially after the rest of the book felt a little predictable. I’m still not sure what to think about it. I suppose it was fitting, in a way. Slightly open ended. And a little unreasonable, too. Implausible. It felt unrealistic.

I think there were parts that could have improved considerably, but I liked it nonetheless.

A small town…a prominent family…a secret. Only two people know the truth, and their silence will have murderous consequences.
Anna Goddard has spent a lifetime being the Good Daughter. Polished and primped into sleek, blond perfection, Anna learned from an early age that being a Goddard meant presenting a flawless façade to the world. But all that changes when Anna stumbles upon a private correspondence that leaves her reeling. With the help of Michael Donovan, a shy but charming local historian, Anna embarks on a journey to find the one thing her family has always denied: The Truth.
Propelled by her mission to protect those she loves, the young woman experiences a tantalizing taste of freedom. But in the process of unearthing the past, Anna and her family will expose a new threat so dangerous it could ruin them all.

This is a gripping debut novel from this new author.
This is a well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

I wanted to love this book, but it never captured my imagination in the way I was hoping for and didn't hold my interest, so I struggled to read to the end. Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

i don't know about mystery but this book sure didn't feel like thriller until the last 10%. and even then it was just barely one.

the dialogue was flat and, quite frankly, utterly boring. no 2 separate humans would talk the way out characters interacted in this book. and the supposedly complex conversations felt like textbook informative and persuasive essays we have to read in middle school. there was no emotion, no body language, nothing. the conversations were just a script of back and forth talk without any description of how the characters were unconsciously reacting, which is what usually gives conversations in books a semblance of realism.

the characters all lacked any depth. ironically enough, the only one that was slightly bearable was Victor. his harsh rhetoric was the only briefly fun thing in this novel. anna - the school counselor- apparently has very limited compassion. she's willing to support schoolchildren come to term with their trauma and help them come out of the abusive households they're in, but is unwilling to show the slightest compassion to her own mother, the mother that has been in an abusive relationship for decades. that made me greatly dislike her. she also has a huge superiority complex.

the book was wrapped up so swiftly in a confusing manner and the one dimensionality of the characters made it lack any emotional effect.

⭐️⭐️- {SILENT PRETTY THINGS - OJ Lovaz}

A prestigious family is hiding a secret that has the potential to turn deadly if exposed. When the daughter finds some tantalizing evidence she devises a plan to reveal what has been hidden beneath the silent, pretty facade of her family for so long.

💭 First of all I would like to thank @netgalley for allowing me the oppertunity to read the ARC of “Silent Pretty Things” in exchange for an honest review. I feel a little guilty that I found this book as bland as I did but here it goes!

The characters were very one dimensional, they all spoke exactly the same and were not believable in their cliche reactions and speech. Once you figure out the secret (which is pretty obvious right from the start) its so drawn out to get to the actual confrontation which arguably is the most “exciting” part of the book. Then the ending gets wrapped up so quickly and in such an unrealistic way that I was left feeling like a wasted investment of time.

This one fell flat for me. The premise & characters started out very promising, kept me guessing into which direction the story would go. Then as it started to unfold, it became very unrealistic and the plot did not unfold smoothly.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was an alright book. I had high expectations after reading what it was about but it just didn't do it for me. Anna and Mike's relationship seemed predicable and almost child like. The plot in general wasn't really "thrill" like.

This book has everything I love in a novel - mystery, romance, comedy, a beautiful setting, family drama, and some good old fashioned crime. It has good potential but there were a few issues that sadly I just couldn't get past. The prose is quite clunky (no contractions, dialogue that feels very formal and not at all realistic, etc) which makes for a slow reading experience. The story was fairly good, minus a few predictable twists and odd additions that felt a bit unnecessary. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately it fell a bit flat. Someone not as affected by prose could really love this book so I wouldn't say to totally rule it out, but not my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to review this book. It was an amazing read! From the first few pages, I was captivated by this book and this was exactly what I needed to break out of a reading rut.

This book fell very flat to me. It was very predictable, and the characters whiny. The relationship between Michael and Anna was cringe worthy.

I was very excited to read this because thriller’s are my favorite.. but this didn’t feel like a thriller to me. It was a slow burn and I had a hard time getting through it. It did get better towards the end- but sadly much to late for me.

Uh....this book sucks.

The "mystery" is pretty tame in comparison to other books in the thriller category and the 'tragedy' happens in the last 15% of the book and then the end of rather rushed. Instead the first 80% of the book is spent on a budding romance written like a high school virgin and a mystery that is so obvious to anyone who has every read a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew book.

Obsessedddddd!!!!! This book was a fantastic thriller, I flew through it. Great twists and Story. Thank you so much NetGalley for this ARC!

Unfortunately, this wasn't my favorite thriller. I really wanted to love it but the main issues were: pacing, character development and the twists not really being that shocking. The main character was pretty likeable at the beginning but I couldn't really care about them that much.

Anna takes us on this journey of discovery, with secrets, lies and family dynamics all woven together. I expected an unraveling mystery and wanted a thrilling book, unfortunately this novel didn’t deliver!
I couldn’t connect with the storyline or characters and felt disappointed, I love a good mystery!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book, thanks to BooksGoSocial, Netgalley and the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦, 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘔𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭. 𝘈 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘺, 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘏𝘦𝘤𝘬, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘴𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘢. 𝘉𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘴, 𝘣𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴, 𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴… 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳?

“Silent Pretty Things” is unfortunately among the worst books I’ve read this year. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled, having mostly four-star reads, with some five-stars and the occasional three-star. But this for me is no more than a two-star book.

Here’s why: The book is billed as a psychological suspense novel, and from the blurb I expected a domestic thriller. I was wrong. For 70% of the novel, the story is a family drama, a boring one at that.

Anna Goddard discovers her father has likely had an affair with her aunt. She’s horrified. Her wealthy father has always been emotionally and physically abusive, and cheating on this wife is the last straw for her and her brother. Now, the siblings, along with their cousin, want to expose the truth, even though it could rip the family apart.

I kept waiting for the tension to start, and found none. The author over-describes everything (not every noun needs more than one adjective!), making the writing tedious. The characters feel shallow. The climax is unrealistic and left me cold. By then, I simply didn’t care and was just going through the motions to try and finish the book. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Reading the synopsis of this one gave me high hopes....but that would have been too easy, not that this book is lacking in that department.

The way literally everything just fell into place had me so frustrated. There was truly no conflict that moved the plot forward. No twists that surprised me. It was more like listening to the dry eye guy tell me a story. The dialogue truly read like a child creating story. "You're so pretty be my girlfriend." "Okay!"

This reminded me a lot of Nancy Drew, in the way children scheme and try to uncover secrets the adults are keeping. Didn't feel like grown adults trying to uncover family secrets...so many aspects would have been addressed head on and not in the shadows to scheme for a public display.

Thank you to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for allowing me to read an e-arc.

2.5 *stars*

The title and the book cover was absolutely amazing when I picked this one up. But I need to admit there is lost potential...

My thoughts: I loved the vibe and I flew thru the pages very quickly. The romance was really good between the two characters. I loved Michael’s character so much. If I have to be honest I knew every plot twist coming. When I was at 80% it felt like every answer was given and there wasn't any point of reading it till the end. But I thought maybe there will be some exciting ending, there wasn't. The feeling knowing who did it and then reading how the detectives are figuring out the crime, it wasn't my vibe. As I said, lost potential.

Brief synopsis: Old secret is held in this family. Anna Goddard is tempted to reveal the secret with the help of Michael Donavan, cute local historian. Anna wants the truth. She wants to protect her loved ones but in the process of unwinding the past, Anna and her family will expose a new threat so dangerous it could destroy them all.

Thank you for the book!
#SilentPrettyThings #NetGalley

From the book overview I thought this had a lot of potential. Reading some of the best books in the mystery/thriller genre you start to expect truly unexpected twists and turns.

This book has a love story, family drama and a quest to uncover the truth. The downside for me was that I found the plot predictable from early on and my experience of the rest of the book suffered because of it.

As a light read with some family secrets this works, but don’t expect major suspense.