Ever been part of a book club? Or wondered what your seemingly respectable neighbours are really up to behind closed doors? Then C. J. Cooper’s The Book Club is the perfect suspense novel for you . . . This book wasn’t written well at all but had a lot of potential to be great! It dragged on and was really flat, the execution and end was ok otherwise I’d of given a 1.5 (sorry!)

The Book Club by C. J. Cooper | Hachette UK The Book Club by C. J. Cooper | Hachette UK

Absolutely love addictive psychological thrillers like Louise Candlish's Those People, Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door and Fiona Cummins's The Neighbour? Then you will be hooked by this edge-of-your-seat novel about the dark secrets that the neighbours of one street are hiding. Thank you to Beth @ Constable/Little Brown Book Group for my gifted ebook via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own. I loved this book - tightly plotted, edge-of-seat gripping and likely to make you want to avoid book groups for the foreseeable future! -- Sophie Hannah I really wish I could have given this book a higher rating. The synopsis was interesting, and at points, I was gripped, but overall I just found myself being bored. Not quite what I would have expected from a psychological thriller (with more emphasis on the psychological - there was nothing particularly thrilling about this at all).

Toys

Lucy moved in the village in the Cotswolds some months earlier and is starting to feel she has made friends, with Tom, Maggie, and Rebecca. Then a newcomer moves into the house next door to Lucy. Though she seems pleasant enough there is something about the newcomer Alice that just seems a bit off. But Lucy’s other friends all think she’s fine. Then Alice comes up with the idea of a book club. But each book chosen seems to be relevant in a specific way to one of the members. As they read each book, secrets of people’s lives come to light. Lucy becomes more wary around Alice as time goes on. But what could Alice’s plan be and why? Lucy still considers herself a newbie among her small circle of village friends and begins to feel a bit pushed out as Alice charms her way into their group. It’s her suggestion that they should start a book club and the others – Maggie, Rebecca and Tom – agree to join in. I had some ups & downs with this, there were parts that were very slow paced & I struggled to get through, & the fact it was from lots Point Of Views without really clearly identifying it for you can be confusing at times (at least for me anyway). It also switched from first person to third often (Lucy's POV is in first, yet everyone else is in third). There is also far too much reliance on coincidence. Isn't it handy that every single part of Alice's plan falls exactly into place the way she wants it, and that her targets never once seem to take the opportunity to actually talk with one another about their suspicions? I could give the book more credit than it deserves by suggesting it's a commentary on shallow friendship and today's society of self-absorption, but I think it was more plot convenience, so that Alice's elaborate plan could go ahead flawlessly, when in reality there was about 1001 ways it would have gone wrong.

The Book Club by CJ Cooper | Hachette UK The Book Club by CJ Cooper | Hachette UK

Smart, sassy . . . Midsomer Murders meets Desperate Housewives. Immensely entertaining, the growing sense of menace - of 'where have I seen you before?' - grips and chills in equal measures. An excellent confident debut! Intricately plotted, this gripping thriller is written with great style and has a host of wonderful characters to be loved and hated in equal measure Zero character development (I didn’t even know what colour Lucy’s hair was until the end) it makes it really difficult to paint a picture of a character with zero description of their appearance from early on especially when there is five main characters. Lucy moves away from London after being made redundant and is getting to know a new group of friends. There were some times at the beginning of the story where I found it difficult to figure out who’s storyline we were reading but after a while I got to know the characters and the way the chapters were written around them.The fact that Alice was suspected early on dismissed all the ‘C’mon you must know’ and made the ‘proving it’ even better Whilst I didn’t dislike this book I just found that it jarred with me all the way along. The main character Lucy was ok but some of her decisions throughout the book make me think – do you want to invite trouble?! For example when faced with the murderer upstairs in her house and knowing she has come to hurt her; instead of leaving she choses to go upstairs and confront her? Really Lucy??! Also the pace of the story is quite slow, at times I was thinking “come on, move along”. There is quite a bit of padding with the stories of the other members of the book club which has little bearing on the final outcome. In fact Lucy’s affair with her married ex-boss is mentioned throughout the story but has little connection, really with the actual revenge. I guess these things are there as red herrings but really I just thought they were annoying. Ultimately I was interested enough in the book to carry on reading and was interested to find out what the murderers motive were – however like the book itself I found when it was finally revealed it was just a bit of a damp squib. Another thing - why Liz? Liz had sort of recognised her, but the way she said it was that she had a vendetta against Liz. It then turns out she doesn't. So why Liz? She then meets a new neighbour and instantly dislikes her. She can’t pin point why, but she takes an immediate dislike to Alice. Lucy has left her job after an affair with her boss (which she is still somewhat ashamed of), and is living in a village. She has become good friends with the other young people in the village: Maggie, Rebecca and Tom. Into their midst comes Alice, renting one of the cottages. She's the one who suggests the book club of the title. As for Lucy, she's put on edge by Alice, and comes to suspect that Alice is there to get revenge and destroy her life - but what could her motive possibly be?

The Book Club (Audio Download): C. J. Cooper, Mary Woodvine

We learn a lot about the friends Tom, Maggie and Rebecca, one by one their secrets are revealed, and you become invested in their stories, however there is never any follow through. Once the secret is revealed the author just moves on with little regard to the fallout.

Honestly, how none of them worked out Alice was turning them against each other is just beyond belief. I mean, someone new enters the friendship circle, gossip is being thrown about and suspicions are being made that were never there before - and yet they didn't think it could have been because of someone new. It literally took over half the book just for Lucy to begin figuring it out, and the only person after that is Tom and that's closer to the end. I raced through it - edgy, tense and wry with great foreshadowing. No one has ever asked me to join a book club - now I think it's for the best! -- Harriet Tyce Alice moves to a small town and presents the idea of starting a book club with a group of friends, presumably to get to know them better and fit in. But the truth of the matter is… she wants revenge. Im usually drawn to a good old fashioned “whodunnit”. This book tells you right away who dunnit, and why. Or does it?

The Book Club by C. J. Cooper | Hachette UK

I don’t think I have hated a character so much as I have in this book. It was written perfectly and I just couldn’t believe some of the stuff that was being done in the name of revenge. There is mistrust for all the characters and their secrets as soon as you start the book but you can't help but read it as you need to find out more! Some parts felt quite believable how an outsider can infiltrate a group of friends and cause friction and tension whilst looking quite innocent. Unfortunately it’s everything else that falls short with the main reason being that it’s all so unrealistic. Throughout the whole book none of the friends actually talk to each other about their suspicions or the rumours that Alice (someone completely new to the village) has suggested to the other supposed best friends – that would NEVER happen in real life. There are other small and not so small bits like this that just don’t make sense – including something ridiculous at the end (all I can say with no spoilers). I was also disappointed with the motive for revenge too. The premise seems clever – using books to mirror the club members’ secrets. Glad to know, despite a not-so-dark ending, you still enjoyed the book. Good review. 🙂We find this out at the end of the book and I was a bit surprised by the extremes Alice goes go to get revenge, when I found out what happened. We learn that Lucy had an affair with her boss in London and soon other people’s secrets are being hinted at. Initially I found the book a tad confusing but then ‘in this current life’ does it take much for any of us to have a wandering mind? once I concentrated and forgot the C word I loved it, the characters are a dream, Alice deliciously evil and with not 1% of a sniff of a redeeming feature, a wonderful ‘love to hate’ baddie, the book goes between present and past and the plot was really cleverly done and the atmosphere well built