(Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest feedback)

25 years ago, Liza lost one of her most beloved friends to an accidental drowning during post-graduation Beach Week. Now, present-day, Liza's daughter Zoe (attending the same school as her mother did) Aldo loses one of her best friends to drowning during Beach Week.

The tragedy from 25 years ago has haunted Liza and her friends for decades and this seemingly identical death brings it all back to the surface.

This book was one you have to keep listening to because you need to know what happened and every time you think you figured something out, you are wrong. Such a fantastic unraveling of multi-generational webs of lies. Twists and turns nonstop.

The audiobook narrator also does a great job, lively and engaging!

All the Dirty Secrets by Aggie Blum Thompson

This story is about the elites from DC and the privilege they receive. Liza Gold is the main character of the story. She works for the elite prep school called Washington Prep. History repeats itself when Zoe who is Liza teenage daughter celebrates the end of the school year with what they call Beach Week. Zoe is the narrator of the story. Anyways the story starts from there Zoe's best friend ends up dead. This is a repeat because when Liza went to the same school when she was a teenager her best friend ended up dead as well during Beach Week.

The story is told on two different time lines present day Beach week timeline with Zoe and her friend and in 1994 when Liza participated in Beach Week. The story has some twists and turns in the end and the people who you where around growing up are not who you think they are.

I really liked the story but Liza at time was a little bit annoying as a character but the twists and turns near the end of the story brought everything together. The story starts off as a slow burn but this is what helped make the story good because the author had time to develop the characters and the reader got a bit of understanding of all the main players in the story. I did not like the racial undertones in the story it really should have been left out it really did not add any value to the story.

Hillary Huber and Josephine Huang did an ok job narrating this story. Sometimes Liza voice was a bit annoying. If that being said I believe this is well worth the read and it was a 4 star read for me. I did enjoy the story even with some of the flaws that I mentioned.

Overall, I enjoyed the book it is well worth the read Aggie does a fantastic job developing characters and bringing it all together in the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for a free audio copy of this book for an honest review.

Twenty-five years ago Liza lost one of her best friends while partying at Beach Week for the end of high school. In the present day, Liza's daughter, Zoe, also loses a friend during Beach Week. Could these two instances be related?

A slow burn mystery told through multiple POVs and dual timelines. I think the dual timelines worked well here to move the mysteries forward. You will not get any answers until the end of the story. There were plenty of characters to keep track of who were, in turn, also suspects. The writing style reminded me of Liane Moriarty, which I liked. As with her debut novel, Thompson addresses some poignant issues including consent, classicism/affluenza, friendships that bind us and past trauma. I'll continue to check out what Thompson does next.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it, but given the multiple POVs/timelines I'd understand it if others would prefer to read words on the page.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

All the Dirty Secrets
by Aggie Blum Thompson

⭐⭐⭐⭐🌑

[blurb]One warm summer night twenty-five years ago, Liza Gold and her friends celebrated their high school graduation with a party on the beach. It should have been the best night of their lives, only one of them never came back out of the ocean. The tragedy haunted Liza Gold for years. Now, she's a recently divorced working mom struggling to connect with her standoffish teenager daughter Zoe when history repeats itself. Another young woman has drowned at Beach Week, and this time the victim is Zoe’s secret best friend.

[review] This book is full of twists and turns. Full of lies and deceit. Just when you think you have it figured out on who did what and when to whom, you're wrong. It's a good book that will keep you guessing. I think I just wanted a bigger reason 'why' and that's a me thing.

I also very much appreciated the content warning at the beginning of the book. As a SA survivor, this book was haunting but tolerable, and I'm glad there was a content warning so that I could make the decision myself. It was written with as much respect as an assault of this nature can be.

Thank you, Net Galley & Macmillan Audio, for the arc copy of this audiobook. Thank you, Aggie Blum Thompson for this beautifully sinister book, Thank you, Hillary Huber & Josephine Huang for the wonderful narration and brining this book to life

25 years ago, Liza and her friends celebrated their high school graduation with beach week. One friend never came back. Present day, Liza is a divorced mother whose teenage daughter, Zoe, finds herself in a similar situation at beach week. Her friend has been found dead. Liza is determined that these two deaths are related. I thought this psychological thriller was well done. So many secrets that everyone had and kept from each other. The different POV’s helped create a strong narrative. I didn’t really like any of the characters, but that didn’t stop my enjoyment of this story. The narrator of this audiobook was fantastic. The book had a consistent pace and kept my interest. There are some heavy topics in here but overall, I really enjoyed it.

What a tangled web was weaved!

This was twisted! I listened to the audiobook and while the narrators voices got on my nerves at times, I thought overall it was well done. The book alternates between in time then and now, which is not my favorite. It also has three different points of view. I was so invested in figuring out what happened that 10 hours seemed to magically fly by. I was not prepared for the twists at the end.

Liza Gold and her friends were living it up on the beach during their high school graduation party 25 years ago. Sadly one of them drowned. Liza carried the memory of that night with her. Now a single mother with a daughter of her own, she is forced to relive the tragedy when her daughter Zoe’s best friend drowns during Beach Week.

Liza is convinced these two deaths are connected and enlists the help of her two old best friends to get to the bottom of it. Will they discover what happened to these girls before time runs out?

Thank you to Netgalley and and Macmillan Audio for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

All The Dirty Secrets is available now!

Enjoyed this twisty book. Good use of dual timelines. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook

If you love a thriller with betrayal, murder, secrets and a beach setting then this is your next read. The book follows the DC privilege from a Washington Prep elite school jumping between two different time lines – the 90’s and now.
There is great character development among the story line. Those characters you love may just betray you. Just as I thought I had it figured out, a new twist came. I listened to the book and was hooked from the beginning.
I have never read anything by Aggie Blum Thompson, but I will add her to my list of must read authors.
Thank you NetGallery and Macmillan Audio for this ARC

I really enjoyed how twisty this book was. It kept me going waiting to see what was next. I did not enjoy the characters, I actually found them to be very annoying, but the rest of the book made it worth it.

🔊Song Pairing: Secrets - The Weekend

💭What I thought would happen:

Obviously some past secrets and I live for that. Ring ring the past is calling. Eat that up like cake mmm

📖What actually happens:

Lizza is back with her best friends (high school besties still) at the beach house creeping on their newly graduating children while they partake in drunken festivities. At least Lizza has a couple more years until her daughter graduates….

Lizza gets a call from the police. Her daughter has been picked up in a state. Her best friend Emery drowned, Zoe was only apart from her for an hour or so. This shouldn’t have happened. They had a mission, ready to expose some dirty little secrets.

The tragedy of Emery’s death is bringing up old feelings of another woman drowning during beach week 25 years earlier.

🗯Thoughts:

Okay so the twists in this were painfully obvious but I still very much liked them with a couple smells ones that did give me a mild shock. If you’re a thriller reader, you’ll likely be in the same boat

I don’t know if it was Zoe or the narration of Zoe but holy moly I’ve never wanted to rip off my ears more. The whiny complain-y teen woe is me was a downer

Was it my favourite? No. Was it a quick delight? Absolutely! I hope people check this one out. It’s possible I’m nearly burnt out from thrillers and murder mysteries

All The Dirty Secrets
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (Rounded to 5 ⭐️)
Genre: Thriller Mystery
Format: Audiobook
Date Published: 7/12/22
Author: Aggie Blum Thompson
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Narrators: Hillary Huber and Josephine Huang
Goodreads Rating: 4.30

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: One warm summer night 25 years ago, Liza Gold and her friends celebrated their high school graduation with a party on the beach, only, one of them never came back out of the ocean. The tragedy haunted Liza Gold for years. Now, Liza is a recently divorced working mom struggling to connect with her standoffish teenager daughter Zoe when history repeats itself. Another young woman has drowned at Beach Week, and this time the victim is Zoe’s secret best friend. Liza begins to suspect that the two deaths are somehow related, which causes her to face hard truths and take an unflinching look at the people she’s called her closest friends for the past two decades. She must discover what really happened to both women before it’s too late. How far would you go to protect your secrets?

My Thoughts: This book is WOW. I did the audible version and it was fantastic. We all know that a narrator can make or break an audiobook. The story is narrated by Liza, her daughter, Zoe, and various people from 1994. The 1994 is sprinkled just at the right times. I thought I predicted the “killer” but I was wrong a few times. The characters are very well developed with depth, mystery, emotional, and challenging relationships. The author’s writing style is complex, mysterious, multi-faceted, and just brilliant. The secrets and betrayal is high in this novel, written brilliantly and flawlessly. I throughly enjoyed this book. It publishes tomorrow, I would highly recommend purchasing!

I wish I had liked this book. Unfortunately I found the characters annoying and one dimensional. My first dnf of the year. Maybe the twists later in the book would have been worth it, but I physically couldn’t force myself to get to that point.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Annoying clueless main character, ok twists.

I listened to this partially as an audiobook, and while the narrator was excellent, I just couldn't get past how annoying and awful Liza was and I think that she came across as more annoying when spoken out loud than she did on the page.

Basic premise is that this book is told in "now" and "then" format. Now, Liza's sophomore daughter Zoe has snuck out to participate in "Beach Week" with her fancy private school, which is basically like spring break on steroids with rich kids and no adults. Liza is separated from her husband and doesn't know Zoe is at the beach until she receives a phone call from the police and finds out that Zoe has found her best friend dead. This reminds Liza so much of what happened back when she was in high school at beach week, when her best friend Nikki drowned and was never found.

This is a very slow burner of a story, I had basically worked out a great deal of what happened before it was revealed. Liza, for having a teen daughter and working at the school herself, was absolutely clueless about her daughter's life and honestly about teen life in general. She had no clue how to talk to or relate to her daughter and it got eye-rolling after a while. I felt like many of the chapters from Zoe's POV were more mature than those of Liza's. And everyone around her kept secrets from her for years and she was absolutely oblivious, almost to the point it became comical.

That said, if you like an over-the-top explanation for events, this could be an entertaining choice.

Starting from the beginning, the narrator was amazing. The story was brought to life rather than just read. The characters in this story were all love to hate characters. No one was reliable and they were a little all over the place, but I think it added a lot of character to the book. It was interesting to see what kind of messes they had gotten into and would get themselves into next. There was never a time that I really knew what was going to happen next. This little town and all these people had built on lies and deception for so many years that it made for a wild ride. I never found myself getting bored or tired of listening because there was always something new happening. I really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend it.

Twenty five years ago during Beach Week, a group of friends celebrated their graduation with a party on the beach, but everyone didn’t make it home. Losing Nikki has haunted Liza ever since. When similar circumstances happen again and her daughter’s best friend drowns during beach week, a place Zoe wasn’t even suppose to be, Liza is soon caught up in past memories. Nikki was never found, but all things point to suicide with Emory. The only problem with that conclusion is Zoe doesn’t believe it and she’s not backing down. As Liza jumps in to help Zoe investigate, secrets start to enfold from Liza’s past and she starts to question if it’s just coincidence or if there’s a possibility the two cases are connected. This is a fast paced read told in two time frames and expertly narrated by Hillary Huber and Josephine Huang. In a community where silence can be bought, how far would you go to protect your friends and family?

Title: All the Dirty Secrets
Author: Aggie Blum Thompson
Audiobook Narrators: Hillary Huber and Josephine Huang
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: July 12, 2022
My Rating: 3 Stars


As one might imagine there are a few secrets in DC, so it is perfect that this just might be the perfect setting for secrets and mysteries.
Newly divorced mom, Liza Gold, has a teen daughter Zoe.
Her daughter’s Beach Week experience that just occurred at “Washington Prep” the upscale DC private school Zoe attend and Lisa attended brings back a personal terrible memory.
Two deaths, two decades apart, and the common thread is ‘Washington Prep.
Story is alternates between the POV of Mom and Daughter.
Have to admit both are annoying especially Liza. The two have a strained relationship which, of course, is no surprise. Have to admit the narrators Hillary Huber and Josephine Huang do a great job in performing these two annoying characters ~ to me they get the tone of these two perfectly.

I hung in there and it ended better than expected!

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this early Audio eGalley.
Publishing Dare scheduled for Tuesday, July 12, 2022

This was a fast-paced read and while I figured out part of the secret early on, I didn't figure out the rest until later. While the final answer wasn't hugely surprising by the time of the reveal, I definitely wanted to finish the book. This is a great pick for thriller fans.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for this ARC!

I really liked how the story flipped between now and then. I like that the book was set in a private high school because the money factor will always add a little more to the story. I couldn't stop listening and finding out all the secrets everyone had to hide.

ARC Book, thanks to Net Galley and Macmillan in exchange for my review.

All the Dirty Secrets is full of just that… secrets that are kept within a circle of close friends, but not everyone was privy to all of the information regarding mysterious circumstances that happened 2 decades ago. The closeness that was felt within the friendship circle was later revealed to be nothing but a farce. Murder mysteries and coverups made for a twisty and suspenseful read. Told in alternating timelines, the book was highly entertaining and I was unable to put it down. Even though I didn’t care for any of the characters, the story piqued my curiosity so much that I had to find out how it all tied together. Overall, great book!

Whoa! "All The Dirty Secrets" rocked me to my core. Such a fantastic and thought provoking read. The timeliness of this novel, amongst the the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the racial inequities and the power that comes with money and position could not have been more perfect.

Narrated from the perspective of mom, Liza, and daughter, Zoe, these dealing perspectives added a layer of secrets and mystery to the overall intrigue of this read. Housed within a wealthy D.C. private school "All The Dirty Secrets" provides an unfortunate narrative elites vs. middle class as tragedy rocks the community, eerily similar to what took place decades ago during Liza's own graduation beach week.