NetGalley Buddy Readers discussion

We will be reading No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall In January. Everyone is free to join. Please use spoiler tags as needed.



The author of What Lies in the Woods returns with a novel about three sisters, two murders, and too many secrets to count.

Emma hasn't told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn't spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she's pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.

That's when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents' house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can't sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.

Were murdered.

And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

This one publishes January 23rd. What works for a start date for you all? I won't be able to start until after the holidays, so January 2nd or 3rd until a week before pub, so the 16th, works for me.

I am off work the first week of January so I that would be a good start time for me

I am good with any date.

First week works well for me too.

Ok, want to go with the 3rd then?

The 3rd is perfect

Just got approved for the audiobook! Archive date is Jan 30, so I’ll wait for this buddy read.

I am excited to start this tomorrow. I gave What Lies in the Woods four stars so I hope I get on with this one too.

Me too, Marnie! I need to wrap up The Heiress tomorrow, so I might be starting a little later. I can't wait to get into it though.

I ended up listening to the audiobook last week.

I liked this one ok. 3/5

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Shruti morethanmylupus wrote: "I ended up listening to the audiobook last week.

I liked this one ok. 3/5

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

I’m on a roll with just ok reads this week so that’s not a great sign. On we go.

Chapter 1 Emma

(view spoiler)[ Nathan is very shady. To put all the debt in Emma’s name and now wants to move to the murder house. Shady.

Obviously the sisters aren’t close. For the older sister, Juliette , to abandon her sisters to foster care shows that. Owning their parents house together sets up the drama nicely. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 2 The House

(view spoiler)[ The townspeople remember. The grocery store scene felt foreshadowing. The house wasn’t what I expected either. It sounds very stately which makes me again suspect Nathan. I’m sure he did a Zillow check to see how much it’s worth. Emma’s reaction to seeing the house… could imagine scary music if this was a movie. (hide spoiler)]

I didn't get to start this one today because I needed to finish The Heiress and ran out of time, but I plan to start tomorrow. Looking forward to reading your spoilers.

I am also hoping to start tomorrow

Through chapter 10

Still seems to be a lot of the background story which is intriguing to me. (view spoiler)[ We know Emma was blamed for murdering her parents but probably didn’t do it. Gabriel and Emma’s history seems interesting too. He is mad at Emma for leaving him to hang with the suspicion of being involved in the murder but still has been watching her house for her? Seems odd. I’m ready for the other sisters to show up. (hide spoiler)]

Through chapter 30 and things are heating up

(view spoiler)[ Nathan was just killed. I did not see that coming since I’d pegged him as bad. I mean he was awful but not in the main bad guy awful. Emma seems to be kind of a dope. Her choices are questionable. (hide spoiler)]

I finished and gave it 3.5 stars rounded up

(view spoiler)[ I think the build up was better than the conclusion. Lots of questionable decisions by the main character who didn’t have an ounce of self preservation. (hide spoiler)]

Oh, that was quick, Marnie! I've only just started. Looking forward to reading your spoilers!

I am finishing up one tonight and will be starting this one tomorrow as well!
I have it on audio and in book form.
Looks like a quick read for some of you

I am at 41%. I have the audio and the NG app is horrible about chapters so I have no idea what chapter that is. I agree with you Marnie that (view spoiler)[Nathan seems shady. And when one of the sisters (Juliette I think?) mentioned selling the house he was all about it immediately.
So far it seems that everyone has been keeping secrets but Daphne and Juliette seem worried about what might be found in the house. I tend to think that Emma was not responsible for her parents' deaths. I look forward to finding out who was! (hide spoiler)]

Marnie wrote: "Chapter 1 Emma ..."

(view spoiler)[ I immediately didn't like Nathan too. He just seems sketchy. Everything he does seems just slightly off too. He seems to act differently in front of other people. (hide spoiler)]

Edit - I'm up to ch 13 now (24%) but this was in response to your ch 1 & 2 spoiler.

Vicki - Have you started?

I ended up finishing today. I rated it the same as Marnie 3.5 rounded up. (view spoiler)[I kind of figured that Daphne had more to do with it than the other sisters - partly because they didn't leave too many hints about her. I liked how she ended up framing - I forget his name - Hadley? - that was a good twist. Nathan was lame so I was glad Emma was rid of him. I can't believe he was plotting with his mistress to get Emma's part of the proceeds from selling the house. Also he was just a creep the way he made her do "trust" things where he got do snoop through her phone and computer while he was messing around. (hide spoiler)]

Yes, I started today and got to 30%. I started on audio with this one. I think the narrators are very good.
I also have it on kindle too, so I will read some more tonight in bed.
(view spoiler)[ I agree about Nathan. I was wondering if his meeting her in the coffee shop was really random or something else?
The house!! I also wondered why Gabriel is the one taking care of it while it is obvious something was going on in the past with Emma and they haven't seen each other in years.
I definitely don't think Emma did it, but am curious about how the sisters are going to play into the deaths. (hide spoiler)]
TOTALLY CREEPED OUT by (view spoiler)[ the younger sister coming into the house and making coffee and toast and leaving it on the nightstand! OMG (hide spoiler)]
I am enjoying this one so much so far.

Edit: I fixed my spoiler alert. I hope I did it quick enough!

Vicki Willis wrote: "Yes, I started today and got to 30%. I started on audio with this one. I think the narrators are very good.
I also have it on kindle too, so I will read some more tonight in bed.
I agree about N..."

I agree. So creepy!!!

I finished this one too. Trying to decide how to rate it.
Usually when I finish something so fast I give it a higher rater because I obviously liked it.

(view spoiler)[I didn't see Nathan getting killed either, but I was glad he did. That would have been a nightmare for Emma and her baby had he lived and left her.

I figured it must have been one of the sisters who did it, but I wasn't sure which one until late in the book. I was waffling between them or Hadley the whole book. I think it kind of bothered me that there were too many possibilities and the way it was written, it could have reasonably been any of them.

I did like that it was Daphne though. I thought maybe her because of how she tattled on Emma going to apply to USC (or was it UCLA) and the father tore up all her art.

I liked that the sisters ended up together again and were giving the house some good energy.

So trying to decide between 3 stars and 4 stars.
(hide spoiler)]

I had both the ebook and the audio. I listened to most of it on audio. It didn't have clearly marked chapter numbers so it was hard to go between the 2. I liked the narrator for this so it was fine.

I've been in a bit of a slump. I made it 39%, but haven't really read anything all week. I wasn't feeling well and had plenty of time to read, but just didn't do anything this week. Finally started feeling better yesterday, so I hope to finish this one quickly now.

I'm about half way through. It's taking me longer than usual because (view spoiler)[ I hate her husband SO much! He just bothers me and I can't believe she has put up with his sketchy, manipulative behavior for so long. Everything she does is wrong and everything he does is reasonable. He is actually emotionally abusive and makes the book uncomfortable for me to read.

Otherwise, the book is interesting and I'm curious to find out what happened. So, I keep going back to find out more.

Side note - I wonder if he actually got their money back from the depot (or never even really paid it) and didn't tell her since it was all in his name. That would mean he has all their savings (hidden) and she has all the debt. Seems like something he'd do. (hide spoiler)]

Vicki Willis wrote: "Yes, I started today and got to 30%. I started on audio with this one. I think the narrators are very good.
I also have it on kindle too, so I will read some more tonight in bed..."

I agree (view spoiler)[ the sister making her breakfast was creepy. She never realized it wasn't her horrible, controlling husband either. (hide spoiler)]

I'm at 64% and (view spoiler)[ I wasn't surprised that Nathan was killed. Marshall made him a complete jerk so that when he died we wouldn't feel bad for him or really hate his killer for it. I was expecting this eventually. I'm actually glad he died so that now I don't need to read about him anymore. lol

I do feel bad that it was so similar to Emma's parents and now the suspicion is directed at her again. I was glad that she was able to admit that she wasn't really in love with him and that she wasn't really able to be herself around him.

I have been suspecting Daphne right along, but now I'm wondering more and more what Juliette's part in it was. She certainly seems like she has something she wants to keep hidden that is more than whatever Emma found out that night. I like the way the sisters are being revealed in little tidbits.

Gabriel seems to be being set up as a love interest, but we'll see, could still be a big twist there. I'm curious how this is going to turn out.
(hide spoiler)]

Kristie wrote: "I'm about half way through. It's taking me longer than usual because

Oh I didn't even think about (view spoiler)[that he may have been lying about the $10,000! I could totally see him doing that. (hide spoiler)]

I finished! I enjoyed the book a lot more once (view spoiler)[ Nathan died. Marshall made him extra terrible so that we wouldn't care that he was killed and would be sympathetic towards Daphne. This made the story harder to read for me. I kept wanting to put it down because he just annoyed me so much. I don't think he needed to be so extreme. Making him all bad made it difficult to believe at times that Emma would have married him at all. (hide spoiler)]

Katrisa, It turns out (view spoiler)[ he didn't lie about the $10k, but was still trying to trick her out of the rest of her inheritance. Such a jerk! (hide spoiler)]

I think this book would have been a solid 4 stars for me if it wasn't for a certain annoying character that made we want to put the book down to avoid him. I think it is still a 3.5, but I will round up because the second half was so much better.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...