Thank you Crown for my free ARC of Our Secrets Were Safe by Virginia Trench — available now!

» READ IF YOU «

📱 ever had your past slide into your DMs

🎓 love dual timelines, multi POVs, toxic friendships

🕵️ prefer slow-burn thrillers to fast-paced jump scares

» SYNOPSIS «

A decade after college, Caroline and Brooke seem to have perfect lives, though very different from one another. Until creepy, cryptic messages from someone claiming to be their dead roommate start popping up left and right. As old events creep back and another person from their past turns up dead, secrets they’ve buried threaten to ruin everything.

» REVIEW «

This story hits a lovely sweet spot of messy, morally grey women and “I’m being watched” paranoia. It’s a slow build at first, but once the threats start, it had me gripped with all the tension! Caroline and Brooke feel distinct, damaged, and real, and the unraveling of what really happened “that night” is truly satisfying. Sharp, unsettling, and a bit mean, which is exactly my vibe these days.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This twisty thriller serves up suspense and a satisfying dose of female ambition, secrets, and revenge. The premise is strong, and the eerie messages from “Sofia” add a compelling creep factor. But while the setup promises explosive revelations, the execution feels uneven, with some twists that strain believability and pacing that lags in places. A solid, entertaining read—but not quite the mind-blower it aims to be.

This was a solid debut! It definitely has Pretty Little Liar vibes but in a more adult form. We had a mixture of likable and unlikable characters with too much money and too many secrets. I liked the glimpses into the past that we got throughout the novel. If you are looking for a fast moving thriller then check this one out.

This was such a good and entertaining read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
They are realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

The past doesn’t stay buried — it just waits for better lighting....

Our Secrets Were Safe

Virginia Trench has done something sinister here — and I mean that in the best possible way. Our Secrets Were Safe is not your average psychological thriller. It’s a masterclass in tension and what-happens-next energy that had me gripping my e-reader like it owed me answers.

This book hums with dread from page one. It’s smart, slick, and never once lets you relax.

We meet Caroline — poised, strategic, teetering on the edge of tech startup glory — and Brooke — perfectly curated, perfectly composed, and perfectly panicking. Ten years have passed since their friend Sofia died. Or… did she? Because now “Sofia” is back — digitally, invisibly, dangerously.

Threats slide into DMs. Emails land with a thud of malice.
And then someone connected to that long-buried night ends up dead.

From that moment forward, it’s open season — on secrets, on loyalty, on survival.

No one is safe.
Not even the reader.

Five Stars

Our Secrets Were Safe by Virginia Trench is a dark, twisty thriller centered on a group of college friends whose terrible secret refuses to stay buried. The premise—a long-buried crime resurfacing years later—is compelling and full of potential, and the book delivers a messy spiral of paranoia, guilt, and tension. That said, the story often feels weighed down by wordiness and frequent time jumps, which make the pacing drag and the narrative feel choppy. The characters? Absolutely awful in every sense—money-hungry, manipulative, and obsessively entangled—which could have been deliciously dark but instead lands in an oddly flat middle ground. Still, the themes of loyalty, power, and moral compromise are strong, and the second half picks up steam, offering some sharp moments of suspense. If you like thrillers about toxic friendships, secrets coming back to bite, and characters who thrive in chaos, this one is worth checking out.

2⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for an advanced copy of Our Secrets We’re Safe.

A group of friends did something very bad back in college and now it is coming back to haunt them.

This had such potential but the constant jumping back and forth made the story feel very choppy. The past sections of the book felt very YA to me so it was hard to get invested in that part. The most difficult part was all the characters and how they were connected to one another.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Friends like these, you will want to remain an introvert.

Publisher Excerpt: Ten years after Sofia was killed in a tragic accident, her college ex Caroline and her former roommate Brooke almost have what they’ve always wanted. Caroline is on the precipice of scoring funding for her feminist tech startup. Brooke is newly engaged and starting her dream job at a prestigious prep school. But unless the two best friends can cheat fate a second time, one night’s secrets could unravel everything.


I had to wait 24 hours before I could review this title properly. It left me feeling all kinds of icky. Neither the deceased, Sofia, nor terrorized friends Caroline or Brooke elicited a lot of sympathy from this particular reader. I enjoyed how each gets their comeuppance. As the chapters flip from the different perspectives and the different timelines, I kept flipping the pages to find out what would happen, but it took a little long to get there.


Overall, I am going to give a 3-star because I did read it in one sitting.



Expected Publication Date 15/07/25
Goodreads Review Date 14/07/25
#OurSecretsWereSafe #NetGalley

This is smart, messy spiral with just enough guilt and paranoia to keep you hooked. Overall it is full of secrets, power, loyalty and tension.

This is fine if pretty cookie cutter of a thriller. I find once you read pretty widely in the genre no matter how "fresh" they claim to be they do end up a bit same-y. I felt like the first few chapters are a bit hard to get into, I never quite got my footing with them, which made it harder to continue the rest of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and Virginia Trench for allowing me to read this eARC!

For starters, what a great debut! This really checked a lot of boxes in regard to what I like in a thriller. There was at least one likeable protagonist (Brooke apologist for life), there was lots of moral ambiguity and questionable decision-making, and there were twists that genuinely caught me off guard. This novel follows college roommates Brooke and Caroline as they are made to face the untimely death of their other roommates, Sofia in the past and Jenna in the present, along with other scandals that keep putting a dent in their plans to move on with their lives. I really do not think there was any moment where I knew for sure what was happening or what had happened, I would get inklings but continuously was thrown off by a detail or two, which I love! The chapters were quick and succinct and Trench was not an apologist for the shitty male characters in this novel, let them rot.

I think what was missing for me was a bit more fleshing out and backstory for some of the characters who played major roles in the plot but were just a bit too secondary in regard to character building. For me this was Jenna and Drea, but I think Sofia could have even had a bit more of her backstory revealed to make her a tad more sympathetic (although was she meant to be?!).

Overall, I really enjoyed this read and would pick up more from Virginia Trench in the future!

This was really an interesting and mysterious read. Through dual times lines and multiple points of view, a mystery is created in a way that draws you in and keeps you guessing.

A good take on the friends witnessed or were part of someone's death earlier and now are being threatened and sometimes someone in the grop dying. It started slowly but then got more interesting as the pace picked up. I think my students will enjoy it and there are some interesting themes that would work for class discussions. I have those that read it do a group report and the class talk about it.

SUMMARY: people are the worst.

Our Secrets Were Safe by Virginia Trench is a story about mistakes made and secrets kept. It's been ten years since the car accident that killed Sofia. Her two former roommates are on the path to getting everything they ever wanted. Caroline is on the verge of funding her feminist tech startup and Brooke is engaged and starting a new job at a private prep school.

That is....until Sofia comes back. From threatening comments on Caroline's company Instagram to strange emails with photos to Brooke, someone is out for revenge. Everything is now on the line unless the women confess what really happened that night.

---
Every single person in the book is a terrible person. Money-hungry brats and mentally ill, obsessed young women. Sex assault, drug use, and inappropriate student-teacher relationships are all just a drop in the bucket.

I think Trench had a great idea behind the plot—being threatened by the truth. That said, it was wordy, and the time-hops from the past to the present dragged the story out a bit long. Sophia's chapters all show that she was... an asshole, but she was also hyper-fixated on Caroline and her brother. But everyone in this book is an asshole.

I could have enjoyed this if everyone had been either nicer/more likable or worse/even more unlikeable. They were just generically evil people who got what they deserved.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

I found this to be a world wind of a story. Through present and past timelines and different POV's, we are introduced to a cast of characters. During college, something terrible happened to Sofia. Now, many years later, Caroline and Brooke's past has come back to haunt them. I liked the fast pace and twists and turns throughout. It was easy to follow and hard to put down. I didn't even realize that OUR SECRETS ARE SAFE is a debut! Bravo to the author, I really enjoyed this one!

Many thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

This review will be shared to My Instagram account @coffee.break.book.reviews shortly.

I enjoyed this debut novel. It was fast paced and tied up the story line well. When I first started the book, I had a couple of thoughts about how the book was going to finish/playout. I did not see the final reveal coming! I enjoyed the story lines - but did not find a connection to any of the characters (and maybe this was on purpose). I recommend this book to thriller lovers who always guess the ending.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced e-arc of this book.

Sofia can't be the one sending messages because Sofia's dead and has been for years. That doesn't mean that these messages don't upset and threaten Brooke and Caroline who were her friends. This moves back and forth between their college years and the present to tell a somewhat familiar story of an old secret roaring out of the past with a vengeance. Trench does a good job with her characters and she's made the plot feel fresh with a good twist. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A fine thriller.

For summer brain, this book with all the Pretty Little Liars vibes was a LOT to keep track of: a past/present timeline that switched between 2009-10 and roughly ten years later, and many characters.

The book follows four Yale roommates (two rich, two scholarship) whose college days ended with a terrible tragedy that everyone refers to but no one really talks about, a mysterious car accident that left one girl dead. (There's also some kind of a hushed up transfer student situation. It's kind of complicated and just as in PLL everyone has a secret. Or two.)

In the present, everyone is coupled up, married or engaged, pursuing their careers, when one of the the three remaining roommates turns up dead under mysterious circumstances. Is someone out for revenge? And why ten years later?

After orienting myself to all this, I felt slightly exhausted, but had to find out WHO was the mysterious A? Or A's if we are following the PLL format?

In the end, in true PLL fashion, there was a high body count and a very complicated explanation for everything. For me this was a little too much drama, but if you are missing PLL, definitely give this book a try! I've got the theme song stuck in my head!

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!

Thrillers centered around best friends can be really hit or miss for me, I am so surprised how much I like this one though! It really kept me guessing and I enjoyed how much surprised me by the end.

It’s been ten years since friends and former roommates Caroline and Brooke have graduated from college. Caroline is in the running for an influx of capital badly needed for her company and Brooke, a school teacher is newly engaged to a wealthy lawyer.
But something in their past has returned to make their dreams and lives possibly destroyed.
Through the “THEN” of this book we learn what happened years ago and how it is affecting them “NOW.”
I am not a fan of ‘then and now’ books, but this debut filled with secrets, duplicity and evil did have some redeeming qualities. Thank you Netgalley and Crown Publishing Group for the eARC. This review is my own personal opinion.