I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Do I Really Know You?’ written by Sheryl Browne in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Maddie and Kiara have been best friends since university and have always shared everything. Maddie marries Nathan who they were both friends with university and Kiara marries David who gives her the security she needs. One morning when Maddie and Nathan are getting their children ready for school they have a visit from the police who tells them that Kiara is dead, saying that she jumped off the balcony of new fourth floor flat. Maddie doesn’t believe it as she thought she knew everything about Kiara but it seems her best friend was keeping secrets from them.

‘Do I Really Know You?’ is a psychological thriller that’s so gripping I haven’t been able to put it down. The story is well-written with an ingenious plot that becomes increasingly chilling as events explode on the scene shattering Maddie life as she knows it, and she starts to realise that the lives of herself and the children could be at risk. The story has an abundance of suspense, intrigue and twists and turns and the further I read the more tense the story becomes. By the time I was three-quarters of the way through I guessed what was going to happen but not quite how shocking the final pages chapters were going to be. This is another excellent thriller by a first-class writer.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for an early copy of Do I Really Know You?. Soooooooo much gaslighting that I was constantly guessing. That was the good part of the book but the spiders UGH!!!! This book was really a page turner, read it if spiders don’t bother you. The ending was not good, a poor climax to a Great read.

Wow this book draws you in from page one and leaves you gripped with all the twists and turns. The characters are great too. Would you trust your best friend with your life and how about your family how well do we really know someone. Once you start reading you definitely won’t want to stop. Sheryl has done it again another fabulous five star read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

While Maddie and Kiara had been very close friends for years, they had a falling ou and their relationship suffered. However, when Maddie is informed by the police that Kiara has died, apparently due to suicide, Maddie just had to know what would drive Kiara to take such action.

Kiara was married to David and she really wasn't happy. In fact, when Kiara died, she and David were separated. Even before she separated from David, Kiara wasn't happy. She insisted that they move because she kept on finding spiders in their cottage. Being a real arachnophobe, it got to be too much for her. Was her home really infested by spiders or was there gaslighting going on? If she was indeed being gaslighted by David, why would she kill herself after they had separated?

Meanwhile Maddie is married to Nathan and things between them become strained. Then there are Jake and Sophie. Jake was Kiara's previous boyfriend before she married David and Jake married Sophie. A lot of players in this intriguing book by Sheryl Browne. Not only are there are bevy of characters, but the term unreliable narrators comes to mind, especially when the cause of Kiara's death might not have been as it was ruled.

Now, if someone is afraid of spiders, then this might not be the book to read. They play a huge role in this book - in fact, Nathan's job as an entomologist comes into play in this thrilling read. How devious of Sheryl Browne! Everything and everyone comes full circle in this book. While it was Kiara who lost her life, readers may begin to wonder if there is more than one victim.

Then there is the fact that while Kiara had her fear of spiders, Maddie had her addiction to sleeping pills. Both women were interesting protagonists in this story. Maddie's actions, mainly due to insomnia and said sleeping pills, really jazzed up this intriguing story. Then, let's talk about David. What a character! Nathan keeps going to South America for his research work. David sticks around. Perhaps too close?

What a sensationally well-layered story! While the crux of the matter might be the apparent suicide of Kiara, there are so many additional layers that come into play through the pages of this book. How well this is done. Yes, the various characters, fears, addictions, actions and more all come together for a compelling read that will catch even the most seasoned reader by surprise.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Intriguing, Immersive…
An emotional rollercoaster in this character driven psychological suspense packed with an unreliable cast and much misdirection. When news of the circumstances surrounding Kiara’s death emerges the remainder of this friendship group is in turmoil. Particularly Maddie. Maddie doesn’t believe for one minute that Kiara jumped to her death. It just doesn’t make sense. What will Maddie discover in her attempt to find the truth? More, perhaps, than she had bargained for. Short, snappy chapters from multiple perspectives make for an immersive, intriguing and compelling read.

Quick and easy read in a very familiar style. Short style chapters, flashbacks to past events. Full of unreliable narrators and everyone having secrets. Not the most gripping book I have read this year but an easy beach read I would suggest.

This book is full of spiders! That’s what sucked me in.

Maddie and Kiara have been best friends since their University days as have their husbands - Nathan and David respectively. The two couples socialise a lot. Also in the picture are Jake, Kiara’s boyfriend before David and Sophie, Jake’s girlfriend after Kiara. These two also get married and feature later in the story when the wheels start to fall off.

Kiara and David are living in a lovely semi rural cottage that they plan to jazz up but Kiara, who is pathologically terrified of spiders, doesn’t like living there as there are too many spiders around and it’s doing her head in. She convinces a reluctant David to move into a modern fourth floor apartment but to her horror there are still spiders. She starts to wonder if David is bringing them in so he can be her ‘saviour’. It all starts to go bad one New Year’s Eve which the couples traditionally celebrate together. Nathan is comforting Kiara in the kitchen and Maddie and David seem to read more into it than there is. Or do they? Meanwhile, Sophie has appeared again working in the hair salon that Kiara owns. It seems all is forgiven and forgotten or is it a convenient ploy?

David becomes convinced that Kiara is seeing someone else. Then comes the shocking news that Kiara is dead. That she killed herself by jumping from the fourth floor balcony. Maddie is devastated. Jake turns up at the funeral and seems like he has settled down and turned into a lovely guy from the party animal that dumped Kiara all those years ago. Or has he?

Yet Maddie can’t get her head around Kiara committing suicide and she starts to dig into things. She has questions for Nathan about that night yet Maddie herself has periods of lost time due to the sleeping tablets she often takes to deal with her insomnia. The two start to argue a bit. Nathan is a forensic entomologist and travels extensively to South America for his job. Maddie begs him not to go on his latest trip but he says he must. Then he goes dark and no one has heard from him or knows where he is! Has he come to harm, or is he done a disappearing act?

It is clear that someone knows more than they are telling about Kiara’s death - but who? This book could have been a little shorter and, in places, was a little repetitive but overall I enjoyed it. Everyone had secrets and most of the narrators were somewhat unreliable so it was not easy to work out who was doing what. It’s one of those train wreck, guilty pleasure stories that you can’t look away from! Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

When you pick up a book written by Sheryl Browne, you always know you are in for an exceptional read. The hero invariably has to go through some pretty tough times before the story is over. And the poor heroine 's life is thrown into turmoil as she reassesses everything about her relationship.
Thirty somethings Maddie and Nathan are no exception. When Maddie's best friend dies suddenly, it appears she committed suicide, except Maddie is convinced it's something she would not have done. Her denial and attempt to look for answers, see her relationship with Nathan stretched to breaking point. Their circle of friends have been there since uni so she knows them well, doesn't she?. I won't go any farther, except to say, this is yet another roller coaster of a read with emotional tsunamis all the way.. The title 'Do I really Know You' brings the question into sharp focus. How much do we know about people? Even those we have been close to for years? Are they what they seem, or are there aspects of them we know nothing about? Another cracker from Sheryl...oh and by the way, spiders feature heavily in this story.

This thriller had me gripped from the start. Told from multiple POV, it's a story about obsessive relationships, gaslighting and trust. Thectension builds quickly and I don't think I breathed properly for the 2nd half of the book! Really well written story about marriages.

I have loved all of Sheryl Browne's previous books but I found this one to be a very complex confusing story. A good read but not as good as earlier ones
Thank you to Netgalley for an early ARC

Do you really know your best friend? We all like to thing we do (we probably do). But people can surprise you. Kiara, and Maddie are best friends and have been since university. They have been together through the ups, and downs. They are each other’s confidantes and there are to be no secrets between them. Or so that’s what Maddie thinks. That is until the police are at her door and telling her Kiara has died by suicide. Maddie now must uncover how deep her best friend’s secrets go. What was Kiara hiding?

What I enjoyed:
-first chapter has me intrigued. I only meant to glance and get a feel for the book. I didn’t mean to spend my weekend sucked into this book!
-there is multiple timelines and POVs. This really adds to the intrigue and keeps you on your tors
-great pacing, and constantly felt like I couldn’t put it down.
-you really couldn’t trust anyone in this book! I had a hard time figuring this one out. Which made this a really fun read


I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author. This was everything I enjoy in thrillers. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! 4 stars out of 5.

This was a good book, but maybe just a little longer than it needed to be. I felt like some parts were drawn out, and some of it was repetitive. Browne did a great job of keeping the reader guessing but also tried to ram a suspect down the reader’s throat. I felt that was a very juvenile move. There are three major twists in the book, I was able to guess the first two but not the third one. The plot line was very interesting and I did want to keep reading. Overall, a very decent read.

Gaslighting and Spiders….a creepy combination that works well to intrigue the reader in this ‘whodunit thriller with psychological elements’ read
The beginning needs a clear head so you can work out the main players and the various timelines but once I got to 10% and all had ‘fit’ the book took off and was an ever changing mix of ‘who has done this?’ and ‘why would they have done this?’, kept me guessing tbh and red herrings a plenty caused it to be a head scratcher as the plot thickened
As always with the author a good read and with a heartfelt acknowledgement given with explanation of experience of both of the main subjects covered, this author always without fail researches facts around what she is writing about and as always this came through in the writing, which leaves you asking the question ‘Do I Really Know You’?…….

9/10
5 Stars

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is a story of four college friends who end up coupled together. Maddie marries Nathan and Kiara marries David. They know a lot about each other, or so they think! They even know the phobias that each one suffers from. Maddie receives the devastating news that Kiara is dead, and it appears she died by her own choice. Maddie has her doubts about whether Kiara would kill herself. Suddenly all of the characters have doubts about who each one is and what is really going on in their individual lives as well as their lives as a couple. The story is told from all four points of view and will backtrack from their college days to several months before Kiara's death. Can you say mind games? This was quite the ride! This book gives new meaning to psychological thriller. You have distrust, dishonesty, secrets and someone planting ideas in the other's head as to what is real and what is not real. The author took me down some real rabbit holes making me, as the reader, doubt what I thought I knew. This book was a little unsettling and creepy because phobias are real to the person who suffers, but you even if you suffer from some of the phobias listed in this book, you will still not be able to put it down. The plot was cleverly written and totally snagged me in from the beginning pages. I was not going to be happy until I finished this book in its entirety! The title of the book was aptly chosen. Do you really know those around you like you think you do? I enjoy anything written by Sheryl Browne, and this one did not disappoint.

Thank you for the gifted copy. The title and cover initially grabbed my attention. This is the first book from this author that I've read. I didn't care for it for several reasons. Switching perspectives is something I normally enjoy but how she did so, even in chapters was confusing. The way things were described was choppy. I did finish it only because I wanted to know what happened in the end.

Wow this is a stonker of a book. Gripping right from the start until the last page. Will now look for other books by this author.

This thriller was really something. Just from the prologue alone I knew that this was one book I would devour in a short amount of time. As a thriller writer Sheryl Browne has a way of writing stores that a lot of people can relate to but putting such a delicate twist to them that it makes for a much more interesting ride. She takes a subject and makes it one that would be worthy of the big screen, and this story is no exception. The story is all about a young woman, Kiara, who is recovering from a brutal rape that happened to her earlier in the year and her friend Maddie trying to help her do that. Trying to move on from the event is challenging but Kiara, making it work at least it seems, despite her ex boyfriends hurdles. Maddie knows that things are going to be hard for Kira, however when a police officer shows up at her house one day to inform her that Kira is dead, Maddie is utterly shocked. I loved all of the characters in this story they all were so realistic and I loved how kind and caring Maddie was towards her friend, putting up with her obscure fears after her attack. It isn't until the police start digging into Kira's death that Maddie starts to realise that maybe she didn't know her friend as well as she thought she did. And she tries to uncover what was really going on with her friend. I really liked this book because it was one thriller that just kept going. Every time I thought that I had finished the high and there was no where else to go the author just took me higher and added more suspense and mystery. I really liked trying to solve the problem before the characters did and the hints throughout the story were amazing. Great read and I'm very glad I got the chance to check it out. I cannot wait to see what else this author has in store. This book was nothing like I have ever read before, and I know now that no other book will be able to compare.

Title: Do I Really Know You?
Author: Sheryl Browne
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: July 19, 2022
My Rating: 3.4 Stars

This is my first author, Sheryl Browne novel. I am a big fan of psychological thrillers which is her genre.
So ~ How have I missed her?
While reading her bio, my interested was peaked when she mentioned that according to her readers ~ she would make an excellent psychopath.

Maddie and Kiara have been best friends for years, now both are married and they have continued their friendship including their husbands David and Nathan.
As Maddie and her husband Nathan are getting the children ready for the day, the police arrive to inform them that Kiara had committed suicide.
Maddie cannot believe Kiara would do such a thing!
Maddie wonders if Kiara was hiding something if so ~ what? Perhaps she really doesn’t know Kiara.
Story kept me interested, however wasn't the twisty- turny suspense I was expecting.

My first Sheryl Browne and I will read another.

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for July 19, 2022

This is yet another 5 star read from this author, fantastic story which kept me hooked throughout. Very tense with great characters . I know it’s only a novel but thank you that the dog doesn’t die for a change . Well done Sheryl , I can’t wait for the next book .

A slow-burning and suspense-filled domestic thriller. The two couples have been friends since university and the novel is laid out from different viewpoints which makes for an entertaining read and adds to the dread and confusion, who is lying, who is gaslighting who... With a huge amount of deceit and mistrust, the twists will keep you guessing right until the end. An intriguing read that will keep you on edge!