I absolutely loved this story. The characters were relatable and the drama kept me coming back for more and more. The bond between the sisters and their determination to make it out of any situation was amazing. A story of hard choices and the strong women who overcome everything thrown their way.

Hands down I loved this book!! This was my first time reading any work by this author and I may have to make them an auto buy!! The premise and plot were so interesting and the amazing twists and turns were amazing! Highly recommend this one.

A young woman who joins the IRA endangers her sister, and the situation leafs to their relocation and changes in their identities. Years pass, and the past comes back to haunt them and their children.

Thrilling from beginning to end. Two sisters who worked for the IRA and then became informers and are now moving on with their lives with new names and new homes trying to not get involved in the politics of the day. One of them is kidnapped and forced to do get back into the game to protect her son and her sister's family. Great twist at the end of the book.

Anything by Flynn Berry is an automatic read for me, and this might be her best work yet. The way she writes about women’s interior lives is unmatched. A thrilling, beautifully written, and satisfying sequel.

I'm not sure I would have picked up Trust Her by Flynn Berry on my own, but I'm so glad that I was pre-approved for it and and picked it up. Trust Her follows Tessa and her sister trying to make a life after it was discovered they had been informing on the IRA. Tessa is a highly relatable character, I found the relationships described in the book to be rich and nuanced. I particularly enjoyed how Berry explored motherhood in the context of the conflict.

I learned so much from this book about the IRA and the current conflict in Northern Ireland. I confess that I am woefully uneducated on this topic, but felt that this book provided context and piqued my interest enough to send me off down my own research rabbit hole. Berry created an immersive experience. I found myself on the edge of my seat and often couldn't put the book down.

Thank you to Flynn Berry and Penguin Group Viking for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This long awaited sequel draws you un even deeper. It's a riveting page turner that will fill you with emotion as you get to know the characters. Flynn Berry has a gift and writes in a way that gives the each person complex depth characteristics.

When I finished “Northern Spy” back in 2021, I was left with a feeling of unease even though I felt it was a brilliantly written book that totally immersed me in the modern day horror that is still present in Ireland. I was happy that the sisters made it out. “Trust Her” brought back that psychological tension. Instead of being able to continue on with their lives, Tessa and Marion are violently drawn back into The Troubles. Three years later, the IRA is still out for revenge and now threatening their children. I wish the sisters had just totally left the island and found some nice Irish neighborhood in America where they don’t ask you what your religion is right away. This is a convoluted story of mothers and sisters love — walking the lines of blackmail and betrayal again. I think you really need to read “Northern Spy” before “Trust Her” and then make the decision “why do I want to experience this uneasiness in a sequel?” Again, this is beautifully written, but stories where children’s lives are in the balance are just too off-putting and depressing for me. 3.5 stars.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Only a detective’s eye color (“almost aquamarine”) are described.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO There are black yews mentioned (darker than common yews), prevalent in Ireland and a symbol of death.

Thank you to Penguin Viking and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Excellent book about two sisters who were apart of the IRA in their early 20’s who three years after turning informants for the other side are dealing with the repercussions of the choices they made years ago. The IRA comes back into their lives and wants Tessa to recruit her M15 contact to their cause. Tessa tries to figure out how to keep her young son safe from everything going all while she and her sister get sucked back into their old life

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I love Flynn Berry's books and was thrilled to get this copy. Once again, thrilling, intriguing and surprising story. I couldn't put this was down. Grab a copy now!! Highly recommend

absolutely riveting and excellent book!!! very fast paced and easy to read. i would def love to read more from this author now!!!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the book
This was an ok read about the troubles in Ireland and the IRA . I liked it overall but feel that I want remember it in a month

I've been a fan of Flynn Berry since I read her first book, "Under the Harrow," and I positively flew through her latest, "Trust Her," a sequel to 2021's "Northern Spy." This one opens with a heart-pounding abduction sequence, which both sets up the novel's plot and establishes the atmosphere of ever-present danger and tension that pervades the book and seems to ratchet up with every chapter. It is Flynn's characters and the relationships between them, however, that are the real heart of her novels and elevate them above most genre fiction being written today. Berry had me hooked from the start, and floored me with a late plot twist that I never saw coming. I have no idea if the events of this novel are realistic or even possible (and I was surprised to see that Berry is American, since she seems to have such a handle on Ireland, Northern Ireland and the difficult history between them), but I have to say that I didn't care. I bought it all. Note: You don't have to have read "Northern Spy" to read "Trust Her"--Berry does a great job of backfilling relevant plot details from the earlier book--but I think it would definitely be more enjoyable for readers to start with "Northern Spy" first, which is what I recommend. Because of this, I don't want to give away anything about this later book that would be a spoiler for the first--which means I can't say very much. It's not flawless--the ending feels a bit rushed and there are some small plot points that didn't wrap up to my satisfaction--but trust me, it's good.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Viking/Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review. Loved it!

Thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for sharing this ARC. I thought this was good but it’s the type of book that probably won’t stick with me. This is the second in a series about current day Ireland and the resurgence of The Troubles and the IRA, and how two sisters are caught up in that situation.

This had that suspenseful atmosphere and was glad I got to read this. It had that characters that I was hoping for and enjoyed the feel of this thriller novel. It was a strong plot and thought everything worked with the genre. Flynn Berry has a great writing style and can’t wait for more.

This is a well written story about two sisters, Tessa and Marion, who were once involved in the IRA and whose past is now about to catch up with them. This book is suspenseful, emotional and unputdownable.

A gritty sequel to Northern Spy, Trust her explores the stories of two sisters and mothers caught up in involvement with the IRA. The mood is tense an the choices are ambiguous. When it comes to family, how far will they go?

Trust Her is Flynn Berry's newest book, releasing in June 2024. I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel to Northern Spy, although it could be read as a standalone. Flynn Berry's books provide glimpses into life in Ireland and the complications that can arise from divided loyalties. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a tense, edge of your seat thriller.

I rate this book 5 stars. Thanks to Negalley and Viking books for providing a early copy for my review.

I loved living with these characters again, and e-exploring the nuance of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Like "Milkman," Berry's two books don't romanticize the IRA, and cast them as terrorists instead of freedom-fighting anti-colonialists. I enjoyed the several twists and for the most part, hadn't seen them coming. I also appreciate how much both this and "Northern Spy" are about motherhood; I watched an interview with Berry when "NS" came out and she said her own child was the same age as Finn at the time, which is probably true of "Trust Her." So much of her insights on parenting are spot-on, especially how interiorally all-consuming it is even amidst exterior terror.

Trust Her by Flynn Berry is the second installment in her Northern Spy series. This book is marketed as a thriller, but I would categorize it more as a tense story of family. The story picks up three years after the first book, Northern Spy ends. Sisters Tessa and Marian are living under new identifies in Dublin when Tessa is pulled back into the world of the IRA. This time, she is asked to turn her MI5 handler so that the IRA can have someone on the inside. Once again, Tessa’s life is turned upside down and she tried to juggle both sides of a bloody conflict.

The prose was smooth and the pacing in the story was done well. We weren’t sitting in one scene for too long, which in theory should have made the story move along quickly. However, it felt like I was reading nothing — like I was reading the equivalent of plain toast. These huge plot points that are laid out in the beginning of the book seem to take a back seat for the next 80% of the book. Tessa is supposed to turn Eamonn but nothing happens on that front until the very last part of the book. What was I reading then for two hundred pages??

I couldn’t connect with Tessa as a character, which really dampened the reading experience for me. In Trust Her she felt so one-dimensional, like her only personality trait was being a single mom. I totally get wanting to care for your child and prioritizing them, and yet none of her choices really did that because she kept finding herself in easily preventable situations. It was tough for me to really believe the story and therefore made it tough for me to have any real buy in.

For me, this book is a 3/5. I wish the story had been longer so we could have flushed out more of the characters (like, Eamonn??) and I wish that some of the circumstances that the story’s foundation was built on were a bit more believable. I probably wouldn't read this book again, but I might recommend it to someone who was really interested in Irish culture or needed an easy and quick beach read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

For a longer review with spoilers, please check out my blog www.bookishbythebay.blog

The perfect follow-up to Northern Spy! This story is the definition of atmospheric. It’s so beautifully written, full of such vivid and raw emotion. Not quite a thriller, or even a suspense novel, but rather a story of motherhood, of sisters, of loyalty, and a quest to reclaim a sense of self.

There were so many loose threads at the end of Northern Spy, including some unresolved issues between Tessa and Marian, so I was thrilled when Trust Her was announced. This story picks up three years afterwards, but still has all the signature tension and espionage I loved so much. I really enjoyed getting an inside look at the conflict around Northern Ireland. This series touches on all sides, but makes clear the spirit and determination of the Irish people.

One major theme in this story is forgiveness. You watch that come into play with every twist and turn of the pages. The ending was bittersweet, but so perfect. Exactly the closure I needed for these characters! If you’re looking for a contemporary novel set in Ireland, look no further than Flynn Berry’s work.

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.