Never Have I Ever: A Novel

I LOVED this <b>4.5 Star</b> psychological thriller! It was a total cat and mouse game which kept me on the edge of my seat, reading way past my bedtime.<b>SUMMARY</b>Amy Way loves her life! It's a fairly simple one; she's a dive instructor in Pensacola, FL, very happily married, step mom to spirited15 year old Maddie and mom to eight month old Oliver. She lives in a middle class, family centric neighborhood and has many mom-friends. She has a very tight bond with her BFF, Char, who is one of her favorite people in the world.Life is pretty nearly perfect except for a secret Amy has kept buried in her past. It is both her hidden shame and biggest regret. Although it happened more than 25 years ago, she still thinks about it almost every day.One evening, a beautiful stranger, who has moved into the one and only neighborhood VRBO, shows up for Char's book club meeting. This stranger, Roux, manages to hijack the meeting, get everyone to drink too much and then, after most of the women leave, she convinces the remaining drinkers to play a version of <i>I Never</i>. Amy finds this very unsettling. Although she works hard to avoid answering any questions, she feels she has been singled out by this game. Maybe it's just guilt over her secret, but Amy feels Roux trying to corner her. Additionally, she finds out a few things about her neighbors that she really would rather not know. Pretty soon it becomes clear that Roux is not what she seems.Told from Amy's POV, the story flips back and forth between the past, recounting Amy's secret, and the present as she and Roux face off against each other in a battle for everything Amy holds dear.<b>WHAT I LOVED</b>I really loved Amy! She was the kind of main character you wanted to see win in the end. As an overweight, marginalized teenager with an unrequited crush on her handsome BFF, it was so darn easy to sympathize with her. I desperately wanted her to find moments of happiness and of course I wanted the BFF, Tig, to love her back as more than a friend. Their personalities just clicked, it could have been great! Then, as the adult Amy; the one who had lost the weight, found herself and found the real love of her life, I wanted her to be able to hold on to this life. I loved how she managed to match wits with slippery Roux and hold her own. I loved how fiercely she loved not only her own baby, Oliver, but also her step daughter, husband and BFF Char. I completely admire that type of loyalty and the ability to love fully. She has definitely made a HUGE irreversible mistake or two in her life, but she knew it, she lived with it and suffered deeply from it. She really did try to set things right. It was one horrible mistake in an otherwise quite decent life.I also loved Maddy. She was a spunky fifteen year old girl who called her step mom her "step monster" or just "monster" for short and it was truly a term of affection. I have an admiration for spirited girls both in literature and real life. They are just more fun.The next best part of the book was the suspense. I kept thinking it was close to being done but then another twist would come along and I would realize there was more to come. I actually had to force myself to stop reading one night / morning when I realized it was 5 a.m.! I kept waiting for a good stopping point and never found one. I could not stop!! The ending was not at all what I expected!!! It took me by surprise!<b>WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE</b>There was one part near the very end that was pretty disturbing. I could have been just fine not having that in my head. Yuck. I don't want to say anything else about that because it leads to a big twist and it would be a huge spoiler.<b>OVERALL</b>Minus the part I mentioned above, this was a great story. It would make a fantastic book club selection; so many themes, moral and ethical grey areas to discuss and the characters would be so fun to dissect.

I'm torn on how to rate this book. It started off with a bang. Amy is a dive instructor and a suburban mom living the good life when a new woman in her neighborhood shows up unexpectedly at book club night. From there, things spiral into a drunken game of "never have I ever" with long reaching consequences.Both Amy and Roux (the interloper) have nasty secrets buried in their past. When Roux turns to blackmailer, Amy is forced to go to extremes if she wants to keep her happy life. The cat and mouse and one-upmanship between these two is exceptional, with twists and turns bouncing off the walls. Midway through the book there is a major bombshell that had me struggling to pick my jaw off the floor.The narrative moves at a brisk pace and the plot is well-crafted. When all is revealed at the end, the subject matter left me a little....erm, less enamored of the story, but it was all so well-executed that it comes down to a matter of personal taste.I'm going to go with 4 stars because of my personal feelings on the big reveal, but my guess is that most will rate this a 5-star read. I would definitely read this author again.

This book started slow, but eventually heated up with plot. I physically became anxious reading it.You can't put it down.

An OK story about a Suburban Mom with a tragic history she is desperate to keep hidden. In walks a mysterious new-comer to their safe little enclave of Mommies, book clubs and petty rivalries. Inevitably, the Mysterious Stranger (of course) brings trouble and mayhem in her wake.And that’s the fundamental flaw embedded in “Never Have I Ever” - as a reader we’re expected to swallow a LOT of pretty improbable coincidences. The main one being that a random con artist who makes a living blackmailing people just HAPPENS to connect with our Heroine’s old flame who was the reason for her tragic past actions who also just HAPPENS to track down her old lawyer (and steal his car) and find out that our Heroine has a massive trust fund. Meanwhile our Heroine just HAPPENS to be BESTIES with someone who just HAPPENS to also be part of that tragic past history... it’s all a bit much. Not to mention a sub-plot about both spousal and sexual abuse.And that’s my other problem with “Never Have I Ever” - women in this book are all-good (meaning married, chaste , loving and pregnant or breast-feeding) or all-bad (meaning single, sexy man-eaters who end up being child molesters with vague lesbian undertones).So, in the twisted logic of this Stepford world - it’s not OK to call the police if you think a woman has kidnapped her son so she can take him overseas as part of a custody battle - but it IS OK to kill her if you discover she’s not really the kid’s mother and she’s having what appears to be consensual sex with him.Women who have affairs are bad (nearly kissing someone is NOT bad but ACTUALLY kissing someone is VERY BAD) Women who chastely long for their old high-school boyfriend and call him in the middle of the night and text him all day are NOT BAD. They are, in fact, VERY GOOD if they eventually block the old boyfriend’s number and stop late-night texting him, especially after they make a very nice speech about much they love their husband and new baby.Sigh. There’s also some pretty serious homophobia here that was had to read - characters literally recoiling when being touched by someone of the same sex (followed by frantic speeches about how much they like men) - and a lot of snide remarks about someone’s husband who is “just too pretty” . Bleah.It all ends up more Lifetime movie material than a serious thriller.

There’s a longstanding and well known Sunday Times “lifestyle” journalist who recommends things. Over the years, persuaded by the fact she’s less irritating than many journos (despite a tendency to write preachy articles about moral behaviour and doing precisely the opposite – the “don’t do as I do, do as I say” school) I’ve actually bought a few of her recommends. They’re rarely, and this is unusual, prohibitively expensive, but I’ve never been that thrilled with them, especially the beauty products. But, on books, she’s never failed me. Basically if she says she’s reading it and it’s enjoyable, I give it a whirl, and lo! it is, and I enjoy it. Which is how I came to this novel. I’d never heard of the author, and hadn’t noticed it in reviews. But it was a good, entertaining page-turner. It’s set in America, but not too achingly American for British tastes. Yes, it’s a bit Desperate Housewives at times, and some of the characters are a bit of a caricature, but you do want to keep reading. It has a gratifying number of twists and turns, some of which you can clearly see coming and others which you (or I) didn’t.It’s basically a psychological thriller. The protagonist Amy is feisty and likeable, the villainess Roux is not. Despite having done some very bad/silly things in the past, you are rooting for Amy and booing whenever Roux appears. It all hinges on Amy’s tough determination not to be blackmailed into giving up her inheritance, which she has actually retained for praiseworthy motives. Roux runs amok and causes havoc amongst the genteel, middle class Floridian housewives, gleefully uncovering their secrets and sowing discord, seemingly for the thrill of it. Her motives are actually grubbier and more mercenary, however. The scenes of Amy with her baby, and her good relationship with her teenage step-daughter are nicely portrayed. Dull hubby doesn’t really feature that much, but he is basically a good egg. For once, the weak link of so many novels, which involves the reader yelling “just tell them”- which would of course undo the whole plot - is not so appropriate here. Will Amy uncover enough of Roux’s secrets before her own are uncovered? Will her husband support her if she confesses her own dark past? We are left hanging on right to the end, which is a tad melodramatic, what with near drownings and shootings, but the reveal is unexpected. The tone is alternatively dark and quite humorous, with some deft changes of pace.I had absolutely no expectations of this book, other than the recommend mentioned at the top, and I lapped it up. It doesn’t pretend to have great intellectual depths, but it’s well constructed, gripping and well worth the time and effort if you like a largely female based thriller.

This started out well. Amy Whey is happy with her life as a suburban wife and mother until the arrival of a woman named Roux in the neighbourhood. Roux knows Amy’s dark secret, something very bad that she did in the past and is threatening to tell Amy’s husband all about it unless Amy pays her a great deal of money. All this happens in the early stages of the novel, after which it seriously stalls and becomes very dull indeed. I grew irritated with Amy for engaging with Roux since her past misdeed happened when she was just a kid and was unintentional - an accident. Amy should have just told her husband the truth and reported Roux to the police.The story stumbled on getting more and more pointless and although I tried very hard to stick with it, I gave it up around halfway in. I then found a synopsis online which revealed that the ending was pretty poor. I was glad I hadn’t wasted any more of my time getting there. As I found myself unable to finish the novel it doesn’t deserve more than one star from me.

I was really looking forward to reading this book and it was such a satisfying read. It follows Amy Whey who seems to have the perfect life, and she seems to be quite a perfect person. She lets her friend Charlotte host a book club in her house and one night a new neighbour, Roux, turns up and really shakes this group up by suggesting they play never have I ever and work back to revealing the worst thing they’ve ever done. Amy is immediately nervous and it’s apparent that she has skeletons in her closet. The novel then becomes a cat and mouse game as Amy and Roux try to outwit each other. I’m going to be honest here and say that while I was really drawn in by the opening to this book I did struggle with picking it back up whenever I’d put it down. Having said that there is a point about halfway through where it grabbed me and I read from there to the end in one sitting. It’s a clever thriller and something a bit different so I recommend it.

Just as well I picked out this book at random without reading the product description - the constant references to 'Desperate Housewives' give the impression it's a lot dumber than it actually is. It's actually a very sharp piece of writing and well worth downloading for the bargain price. When Amy Whey welcomes new neighbour Roux to her home, she has no idea what danger this newcomer poses to her settled affluent lifestyle, and when the two women come openly into conflict the reader is left to wonder how far Amy will go to protect her secrets. The writing kept me constantly on edge when it seemed I had figured it out something would happen to raise the stakes even higher and I literally had no idea what would happen from one chapter to another. Delighted to find another intelligent and talented author and will definitely download more of her books. Recommended.

Amy seems to have the perfect life until Roux comes along and threatens to blow it all up.It is an intriguing plot line but the book feels a bit slow. There are some little twists in the end and the main “secret” is revealed early on.The biggest issue with this book is that Amy’s secret wouldn’t actually cause her husband to leave her. I’m sure with a decent explanation her friends would understand too. Why she didn’t just confess and live her life guilt free is beyond me!The characters are shallow and irritating.It was a decent read but not something I would highly recommend.