She’s dead. Why would she lie?
Days before her murder, Anthony’s friend, Lottie, lent him her laptop. Curiosity getting the best of him, he clicks on a file and finds videos recorded by her in the year leading up to her death. Within those recordings, she exposes dark secrets someone will kill to keep hidden, and Lottie’s toxic relationship with Anthony’s long-time friend, Davian.
When … long-time friend, Davian.
When Anthony’s childhood friend, Davian is placed under arrest for the murder, Anthony refuses to believe he could do such a thing but Lottie was infatuated by Davian. More damning evidence piles up, Anthony wonders if it’s possible a man he’s known for most of his life has kept a sinister side of himself hidden.
Now, Anthony faces an impossible choice; turn the laptop over to the police and risk being accused of hindering the investigation, or try to solve the case himself. Lottie gave him the computer for a reason. There was something there she wanted him to see. Can he put the pieces of the puzzle together in time to uncover the killer?
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A well written book about a character with a very twisted mind. How can you love someone and do so much evil to them at the same time? The plot has many twists and turns and keeps you hooked, you feel the angst of those left behind whilst they keep on looking for the truth.
Very entertaining and easy to read.
I downloaded a free copy of this book at Story Origin and this is my honest review.
The Secret She Kept by J.S Ellis is such an awesome story to read. I loved reading this story cause it has mystery and plot twist threw the entire story. I can not wait to read more from this author. I highly recommend this story to everyone who loves reading about mysteries, suspense and thrillers.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
She gave him her laptop just a short time before she died. He opened some of the files and now he faces an issue. Does he have the laptop in to the police who are looking into her death? Will he try to solve the case himself? What secrets will be found? See if he can solve what happened
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Secret She Kept by J.S. Ellis
Ok, for me this book was super slow and just didn’t hold my interest, the characters did not grab me and make me want to get to know tgem…thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this book and letting me leave my opinion.
I finished this book in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. It had me hooked from page one and the twist kept me going. I can say I didn’t guess the ending like I have with other thrillers . J.S. Ellis kept me guessing which I loved very much. The writing was easy to follow and it flowed very well. I really be picking up Ellis other books now and going out to tell my friends they need to read this book.
The Secret She Kept is a twisted thriller with a psychological liar as the main character. The reason she lied is beyond belief and is a stone cold killer.
Man oh man I loved how suspenseful this book was. I throughly enjoyed all the twists and turns that it gave me! This was a new author to me and they did not disappoint! Can’t wait to read more by this author!
I found this to be a very good mystery with interesting characters across the board. I was immediately drawn in to the story and could not put it down. I was amazed at the many twists this story took and was not prepared for the ending. I received an ARC from StoryOrigin and this is my honest opinion.
An excellent thriller! A page turner! Just had to know what was going to happen next. Who is telling the truth and who is telling lies, Lottie or Davian or both of them? Can be obsessed with someone, change who you are? How far will an obsessive person go to get what they want? Can love turn to hate? What do you do, when you discover a person is not who you think they are? Is it murder or accidental?
The story line kept me interested, start to finish. The characters were well developed. Contains twists and some suspense. This the first book I have read from this author and look forward to reading more from her. Recommend this book. Received a free copy and this is my honest voluntary review.
This is such a good story that it is a shame the execution left so much to be desired. First of all, it is written in first person present which is my least favorite point of view. It feels so awkward as I’m reading. Now, I realize that this is a personal opinion and would not allow it to affect my rating. However, grammar, typos, etc, do affect my rating and this story is full of them. Word order is incorrect, the syntax is awkward, location changes from one paragraph to the next without any transition whatsoever to name a few. For example:
Why he didn’t tell me? should be Why didn’t he tell me?
What possible reason have the police has to dig up her coffin?
DC Gallagher says something to the driver before it drives off.
I go into the kitchen, reach for the bottle of vodka and gulp on it, staring at the bag. (In these two sentences Anthony moves from the cemetery watching the police exhume Lottie’s body to the kitchen in his apartment.) There is no indication that he moved. The reader just has to figure it out by going back and reading it again!
Also, when Anthony first talks about Lottie’s videos he says there are 15. In another place, he says there are 17. There are actually 23.
Then, Anthony is looking for his UV light, and “I fumble with the switch when it does.” I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. In fact, for a while, I wondered if the book was written in another language and this was a bad translation.
Now, before you think I’m being overly critical about a few typos, I’m not. I was ready to let the errors slide even though the book reads like a first draft that wasn’t edited. Then I got to the note about the author. Ms. Ellis has a degree in creative writing and English literature. I’m sorry, with those degrees I expect a lot more than what I got. I would love to see this book go through some serious editing as I think it has the potential to be a great novel.
I received a review copy from Story Origin and this is my honest opinion.
This book had me shaking my head at times. What was Lottie thinking and doing, better yet why? There were times I wanted to kill her myself, then other times I felt sorry for her. She wasn’t the only one that had my head in a spin! This is an excellent story written by a master that will have you running the gamut of emotions and bewilderment. I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book from Booksprout and Net Galley.
It took me a bit to get into it but once I did it was enough to keep me going until the end. Definitely a different type of book than I usually read but I enjoyed it.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Secret She Kept by J.S Ellis.
Brilliant read. Great story. I do love this author books. Different. 5*.
The ballad of Lottie.
Anthony’s computer crashes and his best friend Lottie lends him her own. The next thing Anthony knows Lottie is dead.Devian is arrested for the murder. But is he guilty? Anthony discovers video recordings of Lottie telling her story of her last days. It is up to Anthony to decipher whether she and her friends are telling the truth or not. This is a great mystery. It reminded me a little of GONE GIRL with the fact you don’t know who is telling the truth at the beginning. Lol. Also like someone said TWELVE REASONS WHY. It keeps your interest to find out who did it. The characters are likable and some are not which I liked b/c it made the story real to me. Lol. The pace is fast in the beginning, however, it slows down when Anthony flashbacks to his time with Lottie. I just skimmed through it to get back to the action and find out who the killer is. Lol. Overall I love this author and this story and will keep reading her books in the future. I received a complimentary copy of this book by Booksirens in exchange for an honest review.
The Secret She Kept has a terrific premise and twist. The problem is the journey to get to that twist, and it does feel like a journey, seems to take forever. The story is a lot of Anthony remembering Lottie as he watches a series of video clips that chronicle Lottie’s last year, but very little actually happens until the last couple of chapters. This one does depend a lot on the unreliable narrator as a plot device, and if ever there were a story that could benefit from that, it would be this one. I suppose it does help, but it’s just not enough. In addition to both Anthony and Lottie being unreliable, they’re not very likable. There are a number of reasons for that, but to go into any of them would include spoilers, so I’ll just leave it at try as I might, I just didn’t like either of these characters. Now, that’s not a requirement for me, especially in this type of thriller, but what I do require are the actual thrills, those elements that create a rising tension to make me want to continue reading to the end. I did finish, but mostly it was waiting for ‘breathtaking twist’ that’s promised right there with the title. Granted, it was a pretty good twist, but it felt like I started a book, read a bunch of video journal entries that were really kind of boring, and then bam, we get this big twist. Incidentally, I had figured that twist out before I got there, but figuring it out wasn’t a big deal for me. Sure, it’s loads of fun when I’m stumped by a book, but I can still enjoy the read even when I have it figured out. I mean, I can still recognize a great twist even when I do see it coming. The thing here is that I just didn’t enjoy the rest of the story all that much.
The Secret She Kept drew me in quickly. Anthony’s friend loaned him her laptop and now she’s dead. Instead of turning it in to the police, Anthony begins to go through everything on the laptop in his own investigation into who caused his friends death. Told in alternating views, the story is part Lottie’s video journal and Anthony’s memories and current experiences. The end was a little disappointing as I found it predictable and unfolding just as I imagined a little over halfway through. Easy to read and fast paced, the story was an easy, quick, suspenseful read. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
Just days before Anthony’s friend, Lottie, was murdered, she lent him her laptop. Being the inquisitive sort, after police had questioned him, he decided to look in her computer. ..maybe there were clues to who had killed her.
What he finds surprises him. There are audio files she made in the year before her death. She exposes deep, dark secrets about her relationship with Davian.. Anthony’s best friend.
When Davian is charged with her murder, Anthony refuses to believe it. He just wouldn’t … couldn’t … kill someone. Could he?
It becomes a he said – she said. One of them must be lying .. but who.. why?
The suspense starts on the very first page and never lets up. It’s well written with a solid plot and unique characters. The ending came as quite a surprise. This is not the first book of this author’s that I’ve read and none have been a disappointment.
Many thanks to the author / Booksirens /Black Cat Ink Press / Negalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
It’s official. JS Ellis is one of my new favorites. I’ve read a few of her short stories so when I saw this novel length book I was very excited. I couldn’t wait to start it and I wasn’t disappointed.
Like her short stories, this book also has those moments where your mouth drops open and you don’t know what to think. What I love about this book as opposed to the short stories is that there’s definitely more than a few moments like that.. Every time I was like “oh no she didn’t”. But she definitely did.
It starts off with Lottie’s death being investigated and her friend Anthony has possession of her laptop. He decides not to give it to the police immediately but to wait and see what, if anything, is on it that may be related to her death. What he finds is completely unexpected and goes against everything he thought he knew and believed about his friend.
Anthony gets Lottie a job with him and his best friend Davian. For some reason, Lottie has never met Davian in all the years she’s known Anthony. Then the games begin via video clips Lottie left on her laptop
There are so many subplots to the main plot so it’s hard to really go into detail without giving away spoilers. Everything revolves around finding out who killed Lottie, and why. The characters are all different and they’re not all likable but it works here. it makes you question everybody’s possible motive. And the whole book makes you question what you really do and don’t know about your own friends.
A huge thank you to BookSirens for providing e-copy of this book for my voluntary review.
The Secret She Kept is the first book I have read by author J.S. Ellis, and it was a good one. While a bit slow at the beginning, it began to pick up about 30% into it. Full of unreliable narrators and a WTH twist. A fairly quick and enjoyable read.
Thank you to BookSirens for the free digital copy in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. All opinions are my own.