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Her Last Secret
by
Some secrets you can never tell.
Everyone thinks the Thomases are the perfect family: grand London house, gorgeous kids.
They don’t know wife Dominique is a paranoid wreck.
They don’t know husband Ben is trapped in a web of deceit.
They don’t know daughter Ruby lives in fear of the next abusive text.
But someone knows all their secrets.
Can the lies that bind them tear them apar ...more
Everyone thinks the Thomases are the perfect family: grand London house, gorgeous kids.
They don’t know wife Dominique is a paranoid wreck.
They don’t know husband Ben is trapped in a web of deceit.
They don’t know daughter Ruby lives in fear of the next abusive text.
But someone knows all their secrets.
Can the lies that bind them tear them apar ...more
Kindle Edition, 382 pages
Published
October 13th 2017
by Bookouture
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Boo.
I haven't read any books by Barbara Copperthwaite before and I was eagerly looking forward to this one.
Unfortunately, Copperthwaite's writing is not for me. I don't want to offend her many fans, but I find this "Danielle Steele style" to be cheesy, monotonous and predictable. There is no tone or mood set to the story. Her word choices and sentence structure are over the top and predictable.
As I read on someone else's book review ... I'm getting old and grumpy and got no time for books I do ...more
I haven't read any books by Barbara Copperthwaite before and I was eagerly looking forward to this one.
Unfortunately, Copperthwaite's writing is not for me. I don't want to offend her many fans, but I find this "Danielle Steele style" to be cheesy, monotonous and predictable. There is no tone or mood set to the story. Her word choices and sentence structure are over the top and predictable.
As I read on someone else's book review ... I'm getting old and grumpy and got no time for books I do ...more

On the outside the Thomas family is what most would think of as perfect. Ben the father is a hard working and successful businessman while his wife Dominique stays at home to care for their two children, their teenager Ruby and their younger daughter fondly nicknamed Mouse. However all is not what it seems with this family and they have more than their share of secrets that they hide not only from outsiders but from one another.
On Christmas Day the police are called to the home of the Thomas fa ...more
On Christmas Day the police are called to the home of the Thomas fa ...more

A tale of the seemingly perfect family: successful and hardworking Ben, trophy wife and stay at home mother, Dominique, teenage daughter Ruby and sweet little Amber. They appear to have it all. But all is certainly not what it seems as we witness this family being blown to smitherenes.
The opening scene leaves the reader shell shocked as police discover the gruesome scene of the entire family 's bodies lying lifeless on the floor of the Thomas residence.
From the onset, the family's dreadful fate ...more
The opening scene leaves the reader shell shocked as police discover the gruesome scene of the entire family 's bodies lying lifeless on the floor of the Thomas residence.
From the onset, the family's dreadful fate ...more

Each family member harboured their own dark truths - has keeping their secrets pushed Ruby to the edge of sanity.
From the outside the Thomas family appear to have the perfect life. The father, Ben, is a hard working man and a successful businessman. His wife, Dom, (Dominique)is at stay at home mother to their two children, Ruber and Amber, who is lovingly known as Mouse by all who knew her. But not everything as is it seems. They all have secrets they keep.
I loved everything about this book from ...more
From the outside the Thomas family appear to have the perfect life. The father, Ben, is a hard working man and a successful businessman. His wife, Dom, (Dominique)is at stay at home mother to their two children, Ruber and Amber, who is lovingly known as Mouse by all who knew her. But not everything as is it seems. They all have secrets they keep.
I loved everything about this book from ...more

Right from the start of this one you already know something horrific has happened, but you don’t know the details, just that the Thomas family is shattered, and on Christmas Day of all days. This is told mostly through flashbacks starting about a week before Christmas, then there are a handful of chapters told from a police officers point of view when he arrives at the families home after tragedy strikes. Every single family member gets to tell their version of events and while most of them were
...more

Sometimes multiple POVs and time jumps work, and sometimes they don't. Her Last Secret falls somewhere in between. I was engaged, though not gripped by a story that, given its premise, should have been a real page turner. I just didn't connect to any of the characters, even though there were plenty to choose from. It was an interesting story, and I did like the way the author showed a "normal" family whose members make some bad decisions and the effects of those. Overall, an entertaining read, b
...more

Another good one from Barbara! Secrets and lies rule this family. The thing about secrets and lies, though, is that they can be consuming and overwhelming. Which is exactly what happens to this family.
Benjamin is a successful businessman but when is lies catch up with him, he can barely keep it together. Dominique is trying to keep her family together but through the stress of holding on she begins sleepwalking again. The last time that happened things didn’t turn out so well. Ruby finds solace ...more
Benjamin is a successful businessman but when is lies catch up with him, he can barely keep it together. Dominique is trying to keep her family together but through the stress of holding on she begins sleepwalking again. The last time that happened things didn’t turn out so well. Ruby finds solace ...more

Oct 13, 2017
Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice*
rated it
did not like it
Shelves:
d-n-f,
family-drama,
netgalley-arc,
1-star,
2017,
2016,
new-to-me-author,
psychological-thriller
EXCERPT: The time had come to expose all the secrets, no matter what.
If only she had the courage to do so. If only the family was strong enough to survive it. If only she didn't do something stupid herself.
THE BLURB: There are some secrets you can never tell.
The last thing to go through Dominique Thomas’s head was the image of her teenage daughter’s face and her heart lifted. Then the shot rang out.
They were the perfect family. Successful businessman Ben Thomas and his wife Dominique live an e ...more
If only she had the courage to do so. If only the family was strong enough to survive it. If only she didn't do something stupid herself.
THE BLURB: There are some secrets you can never tell.
The last thing to go through Dominique Thomas’s head was the image of her teenage daughter’s face and her heart lifted. Then the shot rang out.
They were the perfect family. Successful businessman Ben Thomas and his wife Dominique live an e ...more

HER LAST SECRET is a psychological thriller by author Barbara Copperthwaite. Barbara is the best-selling author of psychological thrillers INVISIBLE, FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, THE DARKEST LIES, and HER LAST SECRET. This is the 1st book I’ve read by Barbara Copperthwaite, but it won’t be my last. I have THE DARKEST LIES to read on my Kindle.
“A Lifetime can flash in a moment. A moment can last a lifetime.”
They were the perfect family. Successful businessman Ben Thomas and his wife Dominique live an ...more
“A Lifetime can flash in a moment. A moment can last a lifetime.”
They were the perfect family. Successful businessman Ben Thomas and his wife Dominique live an ...more

Holy crap! Okay, it’s official. I’m going to stand up and say it loud and proud : I am a Barbara Copperthwaite fan! After loving The Darkest Lies and Flowers for the Dead, I couldn’t wait to start reading this latest one and the author once again delivered a most outstanding, twist-y tale that had me utterly gripped.
The story starts on Christmas Day when police is called to a house by a resident reporting the sound of a gunshot. It’s clear quite early on something bad has happened but the who or ...more
The story starts on Christmas Day when police is called to a house by a resident reporting the sound of a gunshot. It’s clear quite early on something bad has happened but the who or ...more

Barbara Copperthwaite skilfully weaves a tangled and relentless web of a family’s secrets and lies and doesn’t stop until the reader is dizzy with possibilities about who is up to what.
The horrific scene at the beginning casts its terrible shadow over the entire book and the author compounds this by reminding us, periodically, of the awful carnage to come as she leads us through a most dreadful week before Christmas. This makes for a nervy, tense read as one becomes fond of certain characters (p ...more
The horrific scene at the beginning casts its terrible shadow over the entire book and the author compounds this by reminding us, periodically, of the awful carnage to come as she leads us through a most dreadful week before Christmas. This makes for a nervy, tense read as one becomes fond of certain characters (p ...more

I don't know where to start! An horrific scene to start the story off when police arrive early Christmas morning to find bodies eveywhere. The story goes back to reveal the lives of the family leading upto this. This was my first book by this author but it will not be the last! Lots of unlikeable characters that made for a fantastic read. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookatoure for a copy of this book to read and review.
...more

The story begins as dramatically as it ends, with the police having been called to a property in a quiet residential street in the early hours of Christmas Day following suspected gunshots. What they find as they make their way through the house is gradually revealed throughout the book but in between, we hear from the Thomas family members themselves, with a countdown over a period of about a week and leading up to Christmas Day, where we discover that the carefully presented façade of a perfec
...more

OMG I must applaud Barbara Copperthwaite what a fabulous and twisted psychological thriller Her Last Secret turned out to be. Christmas is a time for families, to make memories, surrounded by unwrapped presents and feeling uncomfortable from eating too much rich food, but then I picked up Her Last Secret and all those Cosy thoughts were obliterated before I even got to the first chapter. Her Last Secret opens when the police are called to the Thomas’s London home, only to discover a horrific sce
...more

The story flicks between the main characters in the days leading up to present day and to the present day itself where the police find a very disturbing scene.
I have to say I was dying to know what the police had turned up to as it is agonisingly revealed over the course of the story. I’m not one to turn to the back of the book and was so glad I was reading on a kindle as I don’t know if I could have resisted as was so eager to know.
The Thomas’s family I have to say are not overly likeable. Ther ...more
I have to say I was dying to know what the police had turned up to as it is agonisingly revealed over the course of the story. I’m not one to turn to the back of the book and was so glad I was reading on a kindle as I don’t know if I could have resisted as was so eager to know.
The Thomas’s family I have to say are not overly likeable. Ther ...more

Ben Thomas on the outside has a successful life with a beautiful wife and two gorgeous daughters. If you look closely enough though you can see the cracks in their perfect life with everybody hiding their secrets. On Christmas Day the police are called when a gunshot is heard from their house and arrive to see a horrific scene of an entire family lying lifeless on the floor. The story goes back and forth from the present to a week back trying to figure out what exactly transpired before the inci
...more

Wow! This author NEVER disappoints! This was another of those books that, once I started, I just had to finish as the story stayed with me, the characters burrowing into my head and demanding to be heard. I was thinking about the story, the characters when I was not reading the book. It consumed me and I didn't want it to end at the same time as wanting to know what had happened next. Another brilliant story by an amazing author. I highly recommend this absolutely fabulous book to everyone!
...more

This is a novel about secrets, secrets which ruin the family of its happiness, and the aftermath of its effects are felt forever.
A family which had everything: successful father, a beautiful mother, and two daughters; a family which seemed perfect from outside had secrets rumbling and simmering in its very core. And when those secrets reached a boiling point, an outburst led to an overflow of emotions and everything is destroyed, and life as they knew it, changes forever. This is the gist of th ...more
A family which had everything: successful father, a beautiful mother, and two daughters; a family which seemed perfect from outside had secrets rumbling and simmering in its very core. And when those secrets reached a boiling point, an outburst led to an overflow of emotions and everything is destroyed, and life as they knew it, changes forever. This is the gist of th ...more

I'm quite a slow reader these days, but I absolutely tore through this book. It had everything you could want from a psychological thriller - intrigue, believable characters, slow-building suspense, deceit, thrills and a twist that took my breath away.
It's the story of a seemingly ordinary, upwardly mobile family. But Dominique is having nightmares, her husband is being secretive, her eldest daughter Ruby is having trouble at school and her youngest, Mouse, is worrying about everyone. As everyt ...more
It's the story of a seemingly ordinary, upwardly mobile family. But Dominique is having nightmares, her husband is being secretive, her eldest daughter Ruby is having trouble at school and her youngest, Mouse, is worrying about everyone. As everyt ...more

WOW – I am speechless.. well obviously not literally as this review would be pretty short but what I mean is that I am absolutely blown away by this book. This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Barbara Copperthwaite – all different and all fabulous in their own way (#TeamAdam), but this book really, really got under my skin.
The story starts on Christmas Day and the police have been called to a respectable family home in London where 2 gun shots have been reported and upon investigating the house they ...more
The story starts on Christmas Day and the police have been called to a respectable family home in London where 2 gun shots have been reported and upon investigating the house they ...more

Her Last Secret by Barbara Copperthwaite is an unputdownable thriller where you will hate most of the characters. Just who is innocent and who is telling lies? When neighbours hear gunshots from a nearby house in the early hours of Christmas morning, the Police don't know what to expect. A family of four live there and they might have been murdered. But just whose secret has set off a chain of events resulting in this Christmas day carnage? 3 stars
...more

I'm not an overly emotional reader. I don't cry at books. In fact, the last book to make me cry was....let's see.....oh yes! The Darkest Lies by Barbara Copperthwaite. What I didn't expect was for the same thing to happen again. I like my books full of blood, guts and as much gore as you can cram in. People die in the books I read, bad things happen to good people and it rarely (read: never) sets me off in floods of tears. But Copperthwaite's writing somehow manages to do something to me
...more

This is a difficult book for me to review because I really wanted to enjoy it more than I did. There are some amazing reviews for Her Last Secret, so I do think it is just me.
Therefore, I am not going to say too much apart from that the pace was far too slow to keep me interested throughout and that the final 25% did pick up somewhat and that is why I give it a 3*
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boukouture for providing a copy of this book and this is my honest review.
Therefore, I am not going to say too much apart from that the pace was far too slow to keep me interested throughout and that the final 25% did pick up somewhat and that is why I give it a 3*
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boukouture for providing a copy of this book and this is my honest review.

OMG!! This book!! Right from the very first page, I had the most terrible fear of what was about to occur to the Thomas family. That fear seemed to manifest itself into a nervous tension where I was in a constant state of anxiety, sometimes having to put the book down just to get my heartrate back down and have a nice calming cup of chamomile tea!
This book is going to appeal to everyone who loves a gripping storyline of domestic noir. One of the things that attracted me to Her Last Secret was th ...more
This book is going to appeal to everyone who loves a gripping storyline of domestic noir. One of the things that attracted me to Her Last Secret was th ...more

A huge thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Holy thriller, what a gripping read! Ms Copperthwaite has done it again! This book has a little bit of everything - mystery, tears, suspense and a [big smile] satisfying ending.
The story focuses on a family trying to keep their heads above water as they drown in dysfunction. It is well written using multiple POV's that add a layer of depth. The reader is able to understand and empathize with each ...more
Holy thriller, what a gripping read! Ms Copperthwaite has done it again! This book has a little bit of everything - mystery, tears, suspense and a [big smile] satisfying ending.
The story focuses on a family trying to keep their heads above water as they drown in dysfunction. It is well written using multiple POV's that add a layer of depth. The reader is able to understand and empathize with each ...more

I adore Barbara Copperthwaite’s books..
and Her last Secret is every bit as thrilling as I knew it would be.
This was a novel that really got me asking questions.. What was wrong with Dominique’s marriage? What was Ruby’s message? Who had the ‘secret’ as mentioned in the title??
With dark twists and a tensity that had me completely gripped this was another one sit read for me.
The Thomas family, seem to have it all, perfect in fact. Although Ruby is a typical teen, with teenage rows and the usual de ...more
and Her last Secret is every bit as thrilling as I knew it would be.
This was a novel that really got me asking questions.. What was wrong with Dominique’s marriage? What was Ruby’s message? Who had the ‘secret’ as mentioned in the title??
With dark twists and a tensity that had me completely gripped this was another one sit read for me.
The Thomas family, seem to have it all, perfect in fact. Although Ruby is a typical teen, with teenage rows and the usual de ...more

I've never read anything by this author before. For some reason, I always had it in my head that she wrote stuff I wasn't interested in so I must have her confused with someone else, I think.
Anyway, this premise greatly appealed to me and I'm pleased I bought it as I greatly enjoyed it and will definitely be reading more by her, now.
It's very cleverly put together as a story for a huge convergence at the end on Christmas Day that you get hints at throughout as every other chapter brings you into ...more
Anyway, this premise greatly appealed to me and I'm pleased I bought it as I greatly enjoyed it and will definitely be reading more by her, now.
It's very cleverly put together as a story for a huge convergence at the end on Christmas Day that you get hints at throughout as every other chapter brings you into ...more

Well OMFG! I am not going to beat around the bush with this review – let me first say a massive *thank you* to the author and Netgalley for an ARC. Then I have to say – Bloody hell….What-A-Book!
Set in London, the reader becomes embroiled in secrets and lies; (dysfunctional) relationships; rebellion; betrayal; anger; bullying; obsession; jealousy; frustration and unhappiness.
From the moment I started this book, my interest was piqued. Immediately questions were racing through my mind as the suspe ...more
Set in London, the reader becomes embroiled in secrets and lies; (dysfunctional) relationships; rebellion; betrayal; anger; bullying; obsession; jealousy; frustration and unhappiness.
From the moment I started this book, my interest was piqued. Immediately questions were racing through my mind as the suspe ...more

I loved this book! The story starts on Christmas Day, with a shooting, and then goes back to the week before and follows the Thomas family's last days and the events leading up to this tragedy.
It's a roller coaster of a ride, with hidden secrets being revealed, a misunderstood teenager going through some horrible bullying with only one friend to rely on, a shy sister who loves to read, and two parents who are so caught up in their own problems that they don't realise what's going on around them ...more
It's a roller coaster of a ride, with hidden secrets being revealed, a misunderstood teenager going through some horrible bullying with only one friend to rely on, a shy sister who loves to read, and two parents who are so caught up in their own problems that they don't realise what's going on around them ...more
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What people say about Barbara's books:
"Will have you looking over your shoulder and under your bed... Original, gripping, with a deep psychological impact," Sunday Mirror
"Enthralling, tense and moving," Real People magazine
"Totally gripping, and scarily believable," Bella magazine
Barbara is the Amazon and USA Today bestselling author of psychological thrillers INVISIBLE, FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, TH ...more
"Will have you looking over your shoulder and under your bed... Original, gripping, with a deep psychological impact," Sunday Mirror
"Enthralling, tense and moving," Real People magazine
"Totally gripping, and scarily believable," Bella magazine
Barbara is the Amazon and USA Today bestselling author of psychological thrillers INVISIBLE, FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, TH ...more
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“A lifetime can flash by in a moment. A moment can last a lifetime.”
—
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“And checked her phone every now and again.”
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