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    Something She's Not Telling Us: A Novel
    Something She's Not Telling Us: A Novel
    Something She's Not Telling Us: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Something She's Not Telling Us: A Novel

    Written by Darcey Bell

    Narrated by Vivienne Leheny, Carly Robins, Pete Simonelli and Nancy Peterson

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Named most anticipated book of the year by Cosmopolitan, Woman's Day, She Reads, and Sassy Sarah Reads.

    From the New York Times bestselling author of A Simple Favor comes an electrifying domestic thriller of how one woman’s life is turned upside down when her brother brings his new girlfriend to visit—and no one is telling the truth about who they really are.

    Charlotte has everything in life that she ever could have hoped for: a doting, artistic husband, a small-but-thriving flower shop, and her sweet, smart five-year-old daughter, Daisy. Her relationship with her mother might be strained, but the distance between them helps. And her younger brother Rocco may have horrible taste in women, but when he introduces his new girlfriend to Charlotte and her family, they are cautiously optimistic that she could be The One. Daisy seems to love Ruth, and she can’t be any worse than the klepto Rocco brought home the last time. At least, that’s what Charlotte keeps telling herself. But as Rocco and Ruth’s relationship becomes more serious, Ruth’s apparent obsession with Daisy grows more obvious. Then Daisy is kidnapped, and Charlotte is convinced there’s only one person who could have taken her.

    Ruth has never had much, but now she’s finally on the verge of having everything she’s ever dreamed of. A stable job at a start-up company, a rakish, handsome boyfriend with whom she falls more in love with every day—and a chance at the happy family she’s always wanted, adorable niece included. The only obstacle standing in her way is her boyfriend’s sister Charlotte, whose attitude swerves between politely cold and outright hostile. Rebuffing Ruth’s every attempt to build a friendship with her and Daisy, Charlotte watches over her daughter with a desperate protectiveness that sends chills down Ruth’s spine. Ruth knows that Charlotte has a deeply-buried secret, the only question is: what? A surprise outing with Daisy could be the key to finding out, and Ruth knows she must take the chance while she has it—for everyone’s sake.

    As the two women follow each other down a chilling rabbit hole, unearthing winding paths of deceit, lies, and trauma, a family and a future will be completely—and irrevocably—shattered.

    From its very first page, Something She’s Not Telling Us takes hold of readers’ imagination in a harrowing, unforgettable thriller that dives deep into the domestic psyche and asks the question: Is anyone ever really who they say they are…?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 7, 2020
    ISBN9780062953957
    Author

    Darcey Bell

    Darcey Bell is the New York Times bestselling author of Woman of the Year, All I Want, Something She’s Not Telling Us, and A Simple Favor, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed film starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick. Darcey was raised on a dairy farm in western Iowa and is currently a preschool teacher in Chicago. 

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    Reviews for Something She's Not Telling Us

    3.5/5

    73 ratings9 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Very disappointing! Did not hold a candle to the author’s first book.
      The book did move quickly but many parts of the storyline were fragmented and disjointed.
      The ending was abrupt and contrived. It was like the author lost steam at the end.
    • 3/5
      This goes...nowhere. It’s entertaining enough but has absolutely nothing to say about anything, and there’s no revelations or character development or anything. Barely made it to the end but I was sure something was going to happen. Cardboard characters, paint by numbers plot
    • 3/5
      I would have enjoyed this more if not for the ending!
      The story is about Charlotte, her husband, Eli, daughter Daisy, and brother Rocco. Rocco has a history of bad relationships, so when Rocco brings Ruth home, Charlotte and family are wary. As the novel goes on, you discover that Ruth is a liar. Plus she has kidnapped Daisy. However, she knows some truths about Charlotte that Charlotte doesn’t want told.
      The ending was too abrupt, and a bit unbelievable.
    • 2/5
      Something about this book just didn't appeal to me. Perhaps it was the characters. They weren't likeable at all and not even one of them was someone I would want to spend time with in real life, so it was difficult to spend time with them when reading. Usually a psychological thriller will keep my attention, but I just didn't care.
    • 2/5
      This book is long and plodding. The end is a big nothing burger. Charlotte is a distant b and Ruth is just crazy. Rocco the brother is a loser alcoholic. The only likeable character is Daisy.
    • 3/5
      Charlotte is a doting mom who adores her five-year-old daughter, Daisy. She's also extremely overprotective and anxious, watching and worrying over Daisy's every move. Charlotte and her brother, Rocco, had a tough childhood. Rocco reacts by dating a variety of troubled women. But it seems like he's finally found someone special in his latest girlfriend, Ruth. Ruth really seems to love Rocco--and Daisy. But Charlotte rankles at how much Ruth likes Daisy and vice versa. Then Daisy is kidnapped from school, and Charlotte is convinced that Ruth took her. Is she right, or is it just Charlotte's fears rearing up again?

      This was a twisty read that kept me guessing the entire time. It makes you work a bit to keep up, going back and forth between different perspectives and time periods, but it is interesting, dark, and compelling, with several good surprises thrown in. I was constantly switching my allegiances between Charlotte and Ruth, wondering which one (if either) I should trust. The ending felt a little abrupt and quick, but I would certainly read Bell's other work. 3.5 stars.

      I received a copy of this book from Harper Paperbacks and LibraryThing in return for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      I had read Darcy Bell's first novel, A Simple Favor, and enjoyed it. I was delighted to win a copy of her latest novel on LibraryThing. This is my honest review.

      Charlotte lives a charmed life with wealth, a career in the floral industry, a good marriage, and a 5-year-old daughter, Daisy. She's close to her younger brother, Rocco, because they shared a difficult childhood at the hands of their mother. Rocco is single since he keeps dating women who have many faults. When he brings Ruth to meet Charlotte and her family, Charlotte feels maybe Ruth is a good match for Rocco.

      Charlotte is extremely protective of Daisy and soon begins to feel that Ruth is becoming possessive toward Daisy. She also notices other strange things about Ruth and decides that maybe Ruth is mentally ill. One day when Charlotte goes to get Daisy from school, she finds that Ruth has taken her. The suspense starts to build as the family tries to find Daisy.

      What I liked: the premise, the fast-pacing, and the twists and turns.

      What I didn't like: the constant shifting of time between the past and present, the sudden ending, the questions left unanswered, and the characters.

      Perhaps Ms. Bell is planning a sequel.
    • 2/5
      When Charlotte meets her brother Rocco’s newest girlfriend, she makes an effort to like the young woman, but she’s wary: her brother’s earlier relationships have been disastrous. Her husband, Eli, pronounces the young woman “a little much” but nice enough; their daughter, Daisy, however, takes to Ruth and seems to enjoy her company.

      And then Ruth signs the five-year-old out of her school and the two of them disappear.

      The readers’ desire to discover what happens to Daisy is the singular reason to keep the pages turning in this quick-read narrative that offers readers a cast of truly unlikable characters. Neurotic Charlotte has entitled behavior down pat; Ruth is downright creepy. Although the story is character-driven, Ruth remains, for the most part, an enigma, leaving readers with unsettled feelings about her. Eli doesn’t fare much better; readers must settle for a paltry few tidbits revealed as the story unfolds.

      The main story, that of Daisy’s kidnapping, takes place over a single day. The other chapters offer readers backstory leading up to the event and take place in the past. The author deftly switches between past and present, using both Charlotte and Ruth as the main narrators. But, as the story is told from different points of view, the same event often gets re-hashed, a device that tends to stall the forward progress of the story, keeping it stagnant.

      With no real build-up of suspense, and no particular tension, the story turns on long-used and tired literary devices, most notably Charlotte’s deeply-held “secret that will change everything” that is, in reality, nothing more than a tired trope which astute readers will have recognized and confirmed before reaching the end of the second chapter of the book. Add an abrupt ending with several intriguing plot threads left dangling and readers are likely to be disappointed in this predictable and suspense-less tale.

      I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Readers program
    • 3/5
      Charlotte’s brother’s latest girlfriend Ruth is greeted with some justified suspicion in Darcey Bell’s Something She’s Not Telling Us. His history of dating highly unstable women, occasional lapses in sobriety and a demonstrated lack of judgement cause his family to scrutinize his latest conquest. On the other hand, Charlotte is revealed to be an overprotective, paranoid and obsessive person who has some serious problems with objectivity and a tenuous grip on reality herself. Such a character makes for an interestingly biased perspective. This type of “protagonist” is an unreliable narrator akin to those Bell has employed in the past—one that causes the reader to immediately be on guard when evaluating her version of events. Other chapters feature the point of view of Ruth, another source that is transparently skewed. Fans of A Simple Favor and the film upon which it is based may be somewhat disappointed by Bell’s latest effort, for although the novel contains some innovative twists and is well written, it suffers from an overabundance of side plots that distract and stretch credulity. The psychology of the villain is incompletely developed, and her motives are insufficiently substantial to warrant the extremity of her actions. The reader is also left guessing as to why Ruth elects to victimize Rocco’s family, and Charlotte and her family are so unlikeable that not a lot of pity is generated for them. The big revelations are a bit predictable and banal, and the ending falls short of climactic. In sum, Something She’s Not Telling Us is diverting enough as a standard suspense story, but unfortunately is not one that is particularly remarkable or memorable.

      Thanks to the author, Harper Collins and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.