This was great.
A falling out becomes a split and then just unravels.
How someone can mess with lives and the consequences.
SE Lynes has created a tale with many directions that just comes together so well.
She’s definitely an author who likes to keep you on your toes and wondering what’s next.

The day after their wedding anniversary, Jessica receives photos on her phone of her husband with another woman, meeting in hotels etc.

When Will refuses to tell her anything, Jessica throws him out. As they won’t talk to each other, things go from bad to worse.

With nowhere to stay, Will befriends Ian Robbins in the local pub. Ian offers him a roof over his head - just until he’s back on his feet. Is his offer too good to be true? What has Will got himself involved in?

Oh my goodness! This author is extremely good at slowly drawing me in until I’m in over my head!

The story is flawless and has you second guessing what will happen next.

The characters were interesting and I found I had to keep stopping and questioning if I would have acted like Jessica or Will.

It is a story of manipulation, secrets and lies. The tale was intense and quite creepy in parts. A superb psychological thriller with twists to keep you guessing.

My thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

S.E. Lynes, The Split, Bookouture, March 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

S.E. Lynes has cleverly combined a thriller with elements of character study and examination of the way relationships can develop or crumble under pressure. These elements are woven together so seamlessly that the plot, as complex as it may appear at times, follows a rational progress as a marriage breaks down. Questions arise from the beginning of the novel when compromising photographs of her husband, Will, and an attractive woman are sent to Jessica. They have been married for seven years, are in their forties, and have a school age son and daughter for whom Will is the major carer while Jessica is a high-flying businesswoman. The prologue suggests that Jessica will be particularly vulnerable to the import of the photographs - and her reaction fulfills this prediction. She immediately verbally and physically assaults the just awakening Will.

Will’s characterisation is that of a man easily swayed by people and events, while being a stalwart father, loving husband and sensitive life coach. Superficially, Jessica is stronger, but her reliance on her mother and best friend, Lena, as the crisis in her marriage deepens, demonstrates Jessica’s vulnerability. Will’s vulnerability also becomes more apparent as he begins to rely heavily on a recently met friend, an aggressive lawyer and his sense of injustice. He, too, is impacted by his mother. However, unlike the support Jessica receives from hers, Will’s mothers remembered admonishments further serve to undermine his self-confidence and fulfil his sense of grievance.

Emotional history, flawed characters, vulnerability, duplicity and misunderstandings as well as contrived events combine to make this novel a complex read. Yes, it can be read as a thriller with some smart twists. However, it can also be read as a study of a marriage and its susceptibility to past and current events which is caught up in a thriller plot that works well. S.E. Lynes has written a novel that lends itself to both understandings, and for both types of reader it is a good read.

Jessica and Will are married with two young kids. Will is a stay at home dad and Jessica works too much. Someone sends picks of Will with another women and Jessica throws him out.


Thanks netgalley and publisher for chance to read this book for free in return for my honest opinion.

I was excited to read this book originally because I’ve read 4 other books by this author and enjoyed them enough. This book I just couldn’t get into. I couldn’t find a character that I liked and I’ll be honest that I didn’t really care what happened.

I want to start off this review by thanking NetGalley for providing me with the ARC of this book.
The book is about a married couple named Jessica and Will, the father is the main caretaker of their two children, while you can basically say that Jessica, is the provider in the family, who works hard. One day Jessica ends up receiving a message with compromising pictures of supposedly her husband with another woman. They end up separating and facing a few issues of their own, both wanting to reconcile - but they aren’t good at communicating with each other and being honest. But the story is definitely more deeper than that..

I am not really sure how to feel about this book. It was good and interesting, the writing was good as well, but in a way it felt a bit repetitive- and honestly the plot twists? Some of them were easy to guess and it wasn’t that big of a shock… Other than that, I do definitely recommend people to get their hands on this book and give it a go!

The book gets published 08 March 2024, and is definitely worth a read! Want to note one thing too, I was not asked or under any obligation to share a review, all opinion is my own.

The Split is a solid domestic thriller, that would especially be great for thriller newbies. The end of this book was a WILD ride. This was my first S.E. Lynes book and I really enjoyed her writing style.

Jessica was my favorite character. She was not putting up with Will's BS and was determined to take care of herself and her children. Will on the other hand......How was this man a life coach. I feel like the author was punking us with that career choice. Will couldn't make the right decision to save his life.

On another note, this entire mess could have been avoided if Will and Jessica knew how to have just one real conversation with each other. I don't know how they survived marriage and two children for this long with their severe lack of communication skills.

Thank you Net Galley and Bookouture for this ARC!

Will and Jessica have been together for fifteen years, and have two kids, a boy and a girl. Will is a stay-at-home dad and life coach, while Jessica is always commuting and working long hours in London. They have a relatively happy life together, and have just celebrated their wedding anniversary.

Going to bed feeling closer to her husband than she has in a long time, Jessica is content. That all shatters when she wakes up the next morning to an anonymous text containing pictures of her husband with another woman. Hugging, whispering, going into hotels…it’s all right there. Jessica immediately wakes Will up to confront him, and he has nothing to say for himself. At least, there’s nothing he *can* say. Jessica kicks him out of the house, and he heads to a crappy motel.

Will ends up going to a pub by the motel one night, and it’s there that he meets Ian Robbins. After a few drinks, Will starts to spill his marital problems and Ian invites him to live in an attic apartment he owns. Nobody is renting it, and it will save Will money not having to pay for lodging. Will moves in, and once that happens, there is no going back…

I’ve seen a lot of great reviews for this book, but mine might be a slightly unpopular opinion. I just felt that this was so implausible - every last bit of it. I don’t mind that in a popcorn thriller, but this isn’t a popcorn thriller (in my opinion). Still, this was quite entertaining and while the twists didn’t blow my mind, I also didn’t see any of them coming. 3.5 stars!

(Thank you to Bookouture, S.E. Lynes and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on March 8, 2024.)

This was such a slow and predictable read and I’m not a fan of predictability when it comes to thrillers!

The writing was quite engaging, the characters a tad infuriating and this might be your cup of tea if you’re looking for a slow, entertaining read with predictable twists.

Book Title: The Split
Author: S.E. Lynes
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Thriller
Pub Date: May 6, 2024
My Rating: 3.4 rounded up but the 4 stars are not super shinny
Pages: 358

Will and Jessica Draper have been married for seven years but got together fifteen years ago; they have two children. In fact, they just celebrated their Anniversary.
However the next morning, Jessica is checking her messages and finds photos from a ‘friend’. The photos are of Will, with another woman: holding hands, going into fancy hotels, etc.
When she asks Will about the photos, he tells her it is not what you think.
Jessica believes he is lying and their life together is not the same.

It didn’t take me long to question why I thought this was going to be a good thriller.
It is about communication or I should say lack of communication.
Okay I was curious who sent the photos???

In ‘A Letter from S.E. Lynes – Susie Lynes tells us that she wanted to explore how a loving relationship could be blown apart by failure to communicate
It is so very true that everyone wants to be heard but doesn’t want to listen!

She tells us about the ‘Ladder of Influence’
The seven steps of the ladder of inference are:
1. . Reality and facts
2. Selecting facts,
3. Interpreting facts,
4. Assumptions,
5. Conclusions,
6. Beliefs, and
7. Actions.
Each of the seven steps represents the cognitive processes involved from making observations to taking actions.
The steps in the ladder helps in understanding how past experience can infer that the past experience relates to the current.

Okay deeper than what I thought about regarding this story but there is ~
 lack of honest communication
 lack of as listening
 but a whole lot of assumptions!

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for May 6. 2024.

Lynes js one of those writers who I request instantly. You know exactly what you are getting: twisty, turny and shocking - and The Split is no different.

Perhaps more of a slow burner to previous novels, The Split builds pressure throughout the first half of the story and explodes in the latter. There is, perhaps, an element of suspension of disbelief in the enjoyment of the story - but this no way detracts from its readability.

Highly, highly recommended.

Really enjoyed this one but gosh the miscommunication trope does frustrate me! At the same time, it seemed like this was a plausible end to a marriage that had been built on miscommunication and misunderstanding. I did feel at times that Will's plausible deniability was a little frustrating and not super believable someone could be that idiotic, bur overall I enjoyed the story.

I part loved and hated this book at the same time. The story started off well but then the main characters started to annoy me very much. I mean, why couldn’t they just talk to each other? but then when I thought about it a bit, if they had there wouldn’t be a story to tell at all. One of the characters Will, I found to be a bit dim and naive too, why didn’t he see what was in front of his face? However, When you are feeling down and someone pays an interest I can also see how you can miss certain things and just want someone to befriend you as that’s what you need in that moment.

I enjoyed the book, maybe not so much as the others I have read by this author, I could see where the book was going quite early on so unfortunately there were no surprises along the way for me.

Than you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

If you are a fan of twists, turns, red herrings and feeling like you know what's happening in a book only to turn the page and learn that you have it all wrong than this is the thriller for you.

I am just that type of reader and once I started reading this I couldn't put it down until I had it all sorted out.

I absolutely loved it.

So so glad to be given the chance to read this book - my all time favourite writer. Once again the book was just amazing.

Twists and turns all the way - i read it in a manner of hours - could not put it down, Highly recommended.

READ THE BOOK!!

Don’t let the reviews sway you. I read this book with hopes of enjoying the mystery and shock of the plot. And to be honest, it did not disappoint.

The book starts out slow, and there are definitely parts where I felt like I was yelling at my kindle.. yelling and Will & Jess, trying to figure out WHY they wouldn’t just speak to each other.

But Goodness, I did not expect the plot twist, I did not expect for things to unfold the way it did. The true danger Will ended up in, just from being helpful. And the twist, I rooted for these characters in hopes that they could see what I could, mistrust who I didn’t, etc.

The book was well written. You could feel the manipulation both mental and emotional that the characters felt. The fear, the nervousness.

This book was damn good once you got past the slower parts.

From the prologue to the last page, this book had me intrigued. I love dual POV and feel like it gives the reader so much more information that is needed for a thriller, and being able to see both sides simultaneously. This book had me questioning every characters motives from the beginning. With the dual POV, I found myself thinking "shut up and just figure it out together" especially as the extra characters Ian and Lena were just stirring the pot. This is how I knew something was up with them. Very rarely is someone that nice to a stranger, and I understand a best friend trying to cheer up her friend, but it was almost too much which gave her away. The main thing that brought the rating down was that I did predict a couple of the twists and I also felt like the beginning was missing some of the suspense. However, the suspense at the end definitely made up for most of that. I was wondering where Margot was going to come into play and her ending was definitely not a twist I saw coming! Overall, I definitely recommend this book, especially if you enjoy feeling all of the characters' emotions while reading.

When you get into the story of the main couple , you are not sure who is more devastated by the situation. From the beginning, I was on the woman’s side but somehow was sure that man didn’t do anything wrong ? Did he ? What is his explanation? His wife doesn’t even want to hear and he would rather avoid to talk about the private things of his client. But behind his client is the terrible truth that changes the life and destinies … excellent thriller !

This book had so many twists and turns that I just couldn’t put it down and found myself reading it far into the night, so eager to find out what was going to happen next. This book really shows how important good, and honest, communication is in a relationship as none of these situations would have happened if the two main characters trusted each other and communicated better. This is my first book from this author but it certainly won’t be my last!

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for an advanced e-copy of The Split by S.E. Lynes in exchange of an honest review.

"The Split" by S.E. Lynes is a suspenseful thriller that delves into the lives of Will and Jessica Draper, a seemingly content married couple with two children. When Jessica receives unsettling photos via an anonymous message, their once harmonious lives take a dark and dramatic turn. The plot unfolds with twists and turns, as both Will and Jessica find themselves caught up in circumstances that spiral out of control. The predictable nature of the plot and the eventual resolution may not surprise seasoned thriller readers, but the masterful execution of suspense and the ability to keep readers engaged throughout the book is commendable. Overall, "The Split" is an entertaining and captivating read that will leave you on the edge of your seat, eagerly turning the pages to uncover the truth. I give this book a solid 4.3 Stars!

Another amazing book by this brilliant author.
I really enjoyed all the twists and turns. There were a good few WOW! moments.
If this was ever made into a film I’d actually be shouting at the screen!!