This was my first book by Claire Seeber, so I was really excited to read something from someone new. She’s a great writer, but I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I would have liked to and as the story progressed I found myself a little less interested in the mystery of who was behind the leaked video clips.

This book felt more like a (popcorn) domestic drama than a mystery or thriller and would be prefect for anyone who like stories about parents behaving badly and harboring a lot of dark secrets and lies.

Huge thank you to Bookoutoure, NetGalley, and the author for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was one heck of a book. MINDBLOWING, ADDICTIVE, FULL OF SUSPENSE.

The parents follows the lives of a group of families in a county in Kent. Almost all of them have recruited one or two of their sons in the neighborhoods' under 14 football team. A new lady arrives with her two children and is persuaded by the mothers to put her son in the team as well. She complies thinking there can be no harm in doing that. Only, something sinister starts to occur. An anonymous source begins to expose the dirty secrets of the parents. What looks like a happy neighborhood soon turns out to be totally different from what it looks to be.

I throughly enjoyed reading this. It was full of suspense, mysterious and kept me guessing. There are quite a lot of characters so it can be hard to keep up with them. But the two main characters - Alex and Pattie are very easy to understand. My favorite is Pattie. From the beginning, I felt she was the one trying to bring solutions to their never ending conflicts in the team. She is an awesome character and when he secret was exposed, I felt for her.
The talk of witches around the town only made it more intriguing. I love books full of suspense and this tops it all. Highly recommend.

Thanks a lot to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author for the arc copy of The Parents.

Not quite the domestic psychological thriller I’d expected, this felt more like “Melrose Place” meets “Desperate Housewives” meets “Charmed. There were too many characters to keep track of making it difficult to keep track of who was who and the story just didn’t grab me. Sadly, I was just glad to be finished with it.

I wanted to dig into this but found myself struggling. The author has talent and I will pick up future books. This one just wasn’t for me.

Alex has moved to Scotland after the death of her husband with her two children. Her son joins the local football team. Someone, through a blog, begins to reveal the secrets of the footballers’ parents and the town goes into a tizzy. Claire Seeber uses many POVs to tell this tale and some flashbacks. I generally like this technique but here I found myself confusing some of the characters. The secrets were juicy and she provided some unexpected twists but I didn’t love any of the characters. I think the bones were there but for me it failed to deliver. I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Such a shame. I waited and waited for something brilliant to happen but the moment kind of faded into oblivion. It says; Mystery/Suspense but I think of this book as more of a drama than a Mystery, really.

I almost did not finish but I didn't wanna appear ungrateful so I suffered through it. The characters were bland and not relatable. How I managed to finish this book is beyond me. My fist book from this author. Will surely try some of her other books, maybe I'll like them better than this.

Cheers to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC.

A great book
Brilliant story and characters
It will have you hooked
Can’t wait for her next book
Thanks NetGalley

The Parents by Claire Seeber is one of those books with a tagline that didn’t quite match up to what I found inside. This one is called an unputdownable, gripping domestic psychological thriller and I thought it more a drama with a touch of mystery. The story is one that is told by changing the point of view between the characters.

After losing her husband Alex decides to make the move from America back to England with her two children, Harry and Iris. The family moves to a quaint village into Primrose Cottage where Harry takes up playing soccer. Soon after this family dealing with their own tragic loss become involved in their new town someone begins leaking secrets of all those around them.

Claire Seeber was not a new author to me having read two previous books by her so I was fully expecting to go into this one and find myself completely engaged and loving the story. However, I actually ended up finding just the opposite of that when I couldn’t quite connect to the story or the characters. I normally love some drama and unearthing secrets and lies but somehow that wasn’t the case here and the mystery didn’t really seem compelling among the rest. Something just seemed off with this one to me but I’d still pick up another from the author in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Alex moves with her children from America to the small town of Tenderton after her husband dies in an accident. Her son, Harry, joins the local football team where we are introduced to many other locals. Seemingly out of nowhere, secrets about many of the adults connected with the football club shared publicly and no one knows who is doing it or what is going on.

This book is told from two perspectives, Alex and Patti, one of the other football moms. Alex is level headed and pretty logical to read from her perspective. Patti on the other hand I found very confusing.

I was really looking forward to reading The Parents, and unfortunately it didn't live up to what I had hoped. I had a lot of trouble keeping up with the many characters, I didn't feel invested in any of them and was just reading to get through it. I also didn't find it very thrilling, and didn't care about any of the reveals.

I've seen amazing things about other books by this author, so I'll be on the lookout for another one. This one just wasn't for me.

In The Parents we met Patti and Alex and the other parents involved in the Tenderton Tigers under 14’s football team. If you’ve ever been involved in children’s football then you will understand the tensions that can surround it as parents vie to run the team, have their child play etc
Told from Patti, an unhappily married mum of 2’s prospective and Alex’s, newly widowed and recently returned to the UK after living with her husband and 2 children in America. She is struggling to adjust to widowhood, her children are reeling from the loss of their father and she is struggling financially.
Tenderton is a village with a past. A hive of witchcraft and witch hunts. The Tenderton dunking stool still having a main point in the village and the pond where witches were drowned being beside the football club. The villagers are quite superstitious.
When a vlog is started which reveals secrets from 1 parents past the rest of the parents decide he has to go, but suddenly no one’s past is safe as someone begins to reveal secrets they want left alone.
Who is to blame and what do they want.
This book started well, but I felt it kind of dragged a little and I was disappointed with the outcome and the ending just seemed to fizzle like a damp squib. I have read this author before and look forward to more from her

I wanted to like this book, but I just didn't.. It was too slow and the characters were too flat to my liking. It sounded good, but it just wasn't for me. I really struggled to keep my attention and wasn't impressed at all, which is why I will only be giving it 2 stars.

The parents follows a small close nir community their one common thread is the local football team. Alex is newly widowed and has moved into her husbands aunts cottage , rumour is ifs hunted. Patti is highly superstitious and is in an extremely unhappy marriage. Suddenly the community is rocked with scandal when an anonymous blogger starts to leak secrets of those in the village. The question is who's secrets are next.


I'm not sure how to review this book. It was an interesting drama thriller but I wasn't hooked I must say. I found following just Alex and Patti limited the story. I wanted to follow other characters as well such as Medow she seemed interesting. However I understand the creative choice to limit the narrators though we have the newest member of the community Alex and Patti who has lived there for a while and is a hair dresser so gets the gossip. I found Patti's narration was much better and Alex's was a tad predictable.
In general though I think it was an interesting read I wish more secrets had been revealed I think it would've added more suspense to the story. But I must admit I enjoyed the ones that came out but enjoyed the reason behind them even better.

There's a back story regarding the village I found a tad confusing, they were very suspicious in general and were obsessed with witches. I got the link regarding penalising women but again did it add to the story? You can be the judge of that.

There is more about the story I didn't like compared to what I enjoyed. However the parts I enjoyed were great. The big reveals being interesting Alexs more so for me. About 70% j was hooked and couldn't put it down. The prose is written well with some great descriptions espically emotional ones.

Would I recommend this book? No I'm so sorry I wouldn't. But if you like the easier thriller and a family drama filled one then this is for you. If you read like I do you won't like it. I rate the book 2 stars


Thank you to Netgalley, The publisher and the author for the author for the digital advanced copy of the parents in exchange for my fair and honest opinions .

The Parents is a 3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4⭐️.
Alex is the main character in this family drama/thriller, she has moved back from America with her two children after loosing her husband in a hiking accident. She is struggling for money and is trying to keep herself to herself but that doesn’t last long when her son joins the local football team and she is included in a WhatsApp mother’s group. Things seem to be not to bad for Alex until someone in the group is out for trouble, finding out secrets and letting everyone in the group know them. Who is it and what do they want to do this for?
This was a tricky read at the start as there are so many characters it was hard to get who was who and who their child and husband were. This got better after about a third of the way in. I enjoyed this but I have enjoyed previous books by Claire Seeber more. I did enjoy that the ending was a surprise to me in many aspects and everything was tied up nearly with no questions left unanswered.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Newly widowed, Alex relocates to a small village with her son and daughter to hopefully claim a fresh start. Her son, Harry, is soon invited to the sports club and to play on their football team.

As Alex begins meeting the other parents, it becomes evident that despite outward appearances, everyone is harvesting dark secrets.

I saw the potential with this book, and I got Big Little Lies vibes, but honestly it was too many characters to keep straight (took me almost half the book!) and too many storylines to keep up with.

I appreciated the twists toward the end, but I frequently found myself tempted to “skim” chapters.

Overall, it was okay with a decent ending, particularly good if you are interested in character studies.

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Talk about a gripping read, this book has it all! The writing is explosive and the story line is immense! I couldn’t put this book down I read it in a day, I’m looking forward to her next book.

Great fast paced read, kept me gripped throughout. Throughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to read more from this untie. Thankyou for the ARc

I couldn't get into this book. It sounded like a great read but it just didn't hold my interest, wasn't for me.

This was no run of the mill mystery about privileged parents and their spoilt offspring! The protagonist moves to a anew area with her children following her husband’s demise, but their new environment is a lot less ideal than they hoped for! Loved this book!

I wouldn't really classify this as a thriller or even mystery/suspense. It's more of suburban domestic drama and took me ages to get through. I found both the story and characters to be very bland.

The large cast was confusing at first. I'm sure the author knew this would be an issue since there is a family tree map at the start of the book to show who's who. There were so many kids and they all blurred together.

I also don't get why Sheila is known as "Little Sheila" either. Imagine my surprise to learn that she's actually in her 30s and not a little girl! And what's with Patti calling everyone "babs"?

The only vaguely interesting thing was the town's history with regard to the persecution of witches. Sadly, there were only fleeting mentions and this aspect never really amounted to anything.

I found this book quite difficult to read and it struggled to keep my attention. The beginning started very slowly and it took a while to get going