This book was purchased for listening while walking time by Traveling With T.

No One Needs to Know: When an anonymous neighborhood forum gets hacked, the darkest secrets of New York’s wealthiest residents come to light—including some worth killing for—in this gripping suspense novel from the author of Just One Look.

It was all confidential. Right up to the moment when it wasn’t.

UrbanMyth: It was lauded as an alternative to the performative, show-your-best-self platforms—an anonymous discussion board grouped by zip code. The residents of Manhattan’s exclusive Upper East Side disclosed it all, things they would never share with their friends or their spouses: secret bank accounts, steamy affairs, tidbits of juicy gossip. These are the same parents who would go to astonishing lengths to ensure their children gain admission to the most prestigious boarding schools and universities. So when a “hacktivist” group breaks into the forum and exposes the real identity behind each poster, the repercussions resound down Park Avenue with a force none could have anticipated.

And someone will end up dead.

Will it be Heather, the outsider who would do anything to get her daughter into the elite’s good graces and into even better schools? Norah, the high-powered suit failing to balance work and the emotional responsibilities of motherhood? Or Poppy, perfect on the outside but hiding more than her share of secrets?

Each of them has something to hide. Each of them will do anything to keep their secrets hidden. And each of them just might kill to protect their own.

 

 

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

Gosh, this book sounded so juicy, so full of secrets and backstabbing and…. it just was one big freaking bore. With an ending that came out of left field.

It was a hot mess of a book.

I’m just going to rant for a bit (skip ahead if you don’t want things to be spoiled for you)

Starting rant:

The comparisons to Big Little Lies? Uh…. an extremely watered down version of BLL. Don’t buy it based on those comparisions.

The characters: 

Heather. Needed some type of drug prescribed by a doctor… STAT.

Nora: The character I liked the most. She seemed to be the most with it.

Poppy: Ah, our beautiful character who never has anything bad happen to her… until she falls into something bad by her own damn hands.

These are extremely one-dimensional NYC women. Take every sterotypical thing you have heard about mommy wars and career women and getting your child in the BEST school and you have the crux of this book. YAWN.

The plot:

The main tease of the plot is all these NYC women’s secrets getting exposed by a hacker. But the first part- where one child’s picture is posted on Instagram and sets forth some of this mess had the earmarkings of being a good soapy story. Instead, the author drops the ball, loses the plot point at some point, we never find out exactly why the child’s picture was posted to IG (except to ascertain it was to ruin said child’s ability to get into exclusive prep school) and then the hackers’ real reason was never really revealed.

Better story: You find out the kid who posted the picture was the hacker.

The ending:

Ugh. That ending. You have all this angst and drama and plenty of people who want to murder the character who dies…. only to have it been done by someone who was a minor character? No. No. NOPE.

 

Bottom line: This was a trainwreck and I wished I hadn’t wasted an Audible credit.

 

*This book was purchased by Traveling With T for listening while walking time. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

 

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Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T