Home Truths

by Tina Seskis

A strong marriage can cope with the unexpected. But can it survive the unimaginable?

American nanny Eleanor was never meant to meet Alex. But when she walks into his London police station to report a stalker, everything changes for them both. He’s convinced he can protect her from anything and anyone. She hopes her darkest days are behind her.

As they settle into their life together, two hundred miles away another young couple faces an uncertain future. Christie knows Paul is a decent man, but she can’t shake a clairvoyant’s ‘Never trust your husband . . .’ When a work trip tests their bond, will she overcome her fears for the sake of her family?

Ten years later, both couples are still together, for better or worse. But as doubts and resentments begin bubbling steadily to the surface, all four of them start to question the choices they’ve made.

At least the secrets they all brought into their marriages are still well hidden.

For now.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Ebooks, Audiobook, Chick Lit

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2019

About the author

Tina Seskis's first book, One Step Too Far, was released in 2013, and has since been published in 18 languages in over 60 countries.

Tina has written five novels. Her latest, HOPE CLOSE, was released on 24th March 2020 and is a novel about staying home, hope and redemption...

Tina grew up in Hampshire, before going off to study in the beautiful city of Bath and then moving to London, where she has lived on and off ever since, now with her husband and son.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A page/kindle screen turner....
So much so I read it in a few hours
There is a feeling of delicious menace and ‘what is behind all the characters stories in all these sub plots’ all the way through and an uneasy ( yet exciting ) taut feeling that you are getting nearer and nearer to the truth
Whats great in this book is that you don’t actually get anywhere near the truth until the last few pages when everything makes sense, the wonderful 1 sentence that pieces the 300 or so previous pages together and you think ‘ SO THATS IT’
I am not giving anything away about this psychological thriller except to say it is brilliantly done, clever, tense and yet you dont know why its so tense or what it is leading up to you just know it is and know all is going to be revealed
Easy and pleasurable to read, a wonderful diverse cast of characters and a story that will leave you unsettled yet thrilled and wish you had thought of such a good tale
And I loved that Bounds Green ( where I once lived many moons ago) was mentioned
Brilliant!
10/10
5 Stars

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the flare of other wonderful British authors, Tina Seskis puts pen to paper and creates a rather dark, extremely detailed tale of love, marriage and life as two couples form bonds that no man should put asunder.

HOME TRUTHS is a telling tale of how couples change, how the blush of new romance grows deeper in many ways even as the ties that bind them can become restrictive. Eleanor and Alex are strangers to Christie and Paul, but each of them will keep secrets, tell lies, and display all of the human failings and flaws, as well as insecurities faced by all. Woven within the fabric of this tale is the unknown, what will happen to each couple? Will they survive the struggles of marriage? Or will a master deceiver play them like puppets in the game of life?

Prepare yourself to ping-pong back and forth on your feelings regarding these characters as we witness mistakes made and compounded, as well as the resulting gaping wounds. Just when you think you know the outcome, Tina Seskis pulls a magnificent twist that will leave you reeling!

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Lake Union Publishing! This is my honest and voluntary review.

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (December 1, 2019)
Publication Date: December 1, 2019
Genre: Contemporary British Fiction
Print Length: 324 pages
Available from: Amazon
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sounds like a domestic thriller, doesn’t it? Instead, this disappointing novel manages to cover decades in which almost nothing happens. The story jumped forward years at a time, usually from someone making a sandwich or deciding where to go on holiday to the same person doing similar things several years later. Day after day, these two couples live their boring, unsatisfying marriages, their kids grow up and get older.

Whenever something interesting or dramatic might possibly happen, the narrative slows from the usual meander to an absolute crawl, and then tries to build suspense by leaving out the sort of details that provide character development. There are pages and pages devoted to finding a Mysterious Suitcase In The Attic, with heavy hints about the Very Upsetting contents, vague references for ages, ugh. It felt more like vaguebook updates than a thriller.

Edit: The reason this review was behind a cut for spoilers is because there is a spoiler next, please don't send me mean messages about this review having spoilers.

Surprise! Christie’s new husband, who we saw for about three seconds, and who was weird and shady for 2.5 of those 3 seconds, is actually Ellie’s husband with a fake name! He takes them both hostage, because for some reason they both figure out his double identity at the same time and decide to confront him separately on the same day (what???), and both separately agree to come quietly inside to talk things over and also leave their phones over there. Ugh. The women are randomly rescued, an ending without agency or satisfaction in a book without agency or satisfaction.

[Bill Kupersmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know with a book by Tina Seskis that she will pull together a disparate group of seemingly unrelated characters into a believable plot. Eleanor was a particularly attractive character - so few English writers can create convincing and sympathetic Americans. Loved the way as the story of her living in England develops she loses her Americanisms. Shoes go from sneakers
to trainers and asshole to arsehole. Amusing when the villain is exposed and says ‘It’s not what you think’ though we miss the snappy reply, ‘So, what is it then?’ My only complaints are that it is indeed a slow burner and there are too many minor characters that are unnecessary to the plot.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four people. Two couples. How and why are they connected?

When young American nanny Eleanor walks into Finsbury Park police station to report a stalker, she meets Alex. Alex Moffatt, the policeman on duty, was immediately smitten and decided that he would be the one to look after Eleanor. Christie has been badly hurt before by a previous boyfriend but needs convincing that Paul is different and can be trusted.

Beginning in the early nineties and spanning a period of over 20 years, Home Truths is a suspenseful story that will keep you guessing until the end. Each chapter is voiced by one of the four characters, Eleanor, Alex, Christie and Paul and we follow these people through the ups and downs of their lives and relationships, all the time knowing that there has to be a connection between the strands, but wondering what on earth it is. Having the different voices tell their part of their story works well – you get to know the character and it gives them some substance and depth.

Secrets and lies are at the heart of this intriguing story. There were one or two areas that I wished had been explained a little earlier rather than being teasingly referred until the end (but that just may be me being very impatient) but on the whole this was an excellent read that kept my interest all the way through. At one stage there was that ‘penny dropping moment’ and I thought I knew part of what was happening, but I had absolutely no idea as to the reasons behind it. There were a couple of other strands which I thought I had sussed, needless to say I was completely wrong!

I’ve been reading and enjoying Tina’s books since her debut, One Step Too Far. They all focus more on characters and behaviour and always have at least one twist somewhere along the line to shock and surprise – and Home Truths certainly has its share of those! The character development, the intricate relationships and the way the story builds to a dramatic conclusion are always so very well done and a new book is always something to look forward to. I very much enjoyed Home Truths – definitely one to recommend.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drawn in from the very beginning, when knight in shining armour, Alex, first encountered Eleanor, who hadn’t had much luck since moving to London from America.

Nine times out of ten I can get a plot pretty much sewn up quite early on, and I enjoy playing detective while I’m reading. I also enjoy those plots that I just can’t quite figure out.
This was very much one of them!
Tina Seskis completely threw me off course with this one.
From very early on I was convinced I knew who the villain was, and I had ideas as to how that person would do their damage, and to who they’d do it to.

How wrong I was!

Despite wondering what certain characters were up to, having my suspicions, and knowing that things weren’t quite what they seemed, I did not manage to figure out the twists.
I was shocked at the deception that I’d totally missed.
I enjoyed the fact that I was unable to put my finger on exactly what was going on, and therefore I was as much in the dark about the upcoming big reveals as the characters were.
When it all became clear what was happening, I found myself wanting to go back to the start and read it again with the knowledge I now had!

The characters were interesting. I liked them all and disliked them all at various stages of the book. One minute I felt I knew them, and the next I was left wondering if they really were as innocent as I’d previously believed.
That doubt that the author cast over them was fantastic at keeping the reader from figuring out the secrets that lay ahead, as they all, at times, seemed to be up to no good.

A great, beautifully written, easy to read book, of which Tina Seskis seems to be able to produce so well.

Don’t go into this thinking you’ll be able to work out how the story will play out, because I guarantee that you won’t quite be able to see what’s coming!

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ponderous, dull, and a complete suspense vacuum. While the characters were reasonably well-drawn, it was mostly 350 pages of totally unrelated people being dissatisfied with their lives and marriages, followed by 25 pages of allegedly shocking reveals that weren't necessarily set up with any care. Information is deliberately and clumsily obfuscated so as to avoid giving away the secrets, and there are a lot of really vague interludes that don't connect to the rest of the story. The reveal should have come sooner, or the women should at least have been suspicious sooner. There's no build, just a sudden drop after a lot of rambling.

[Kristin Cagle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so torn on how to rate this book. The story itself is very twisty-turny and kept me engaged, but the writing style was excessively wordy and left me feeling a little exhausted. None of the characters are very likable, or even sympathetic, which further complicated my feelings towards this read. I would have given the story 4 stars, but the characters and relentless repetition of the points/feelings/thoughts would get a 2 star rating. So I split the difference and landed on 3 stars.

[Goth Gone Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book needs antidepressants.

I DNF'ed at 56% when I found myself looking at the amount of time left to read multiple times and groaning. My level of affection for the characters dropped the more I read; I stopped before I started cheering for the demise of fictional characters to put them out of their collective misery.

The narrative is slow moving, painfully so at times, and feels cast in a stereotypically British gloomy, overcast drizzle at all times. Even indoors.

The characters lead their separate lives, two families going through the mundane celebrations and tragedies of everyday life. (More tragedies, to be clear). To the point that I read, depression, frustration, and angst seem to be the primary emotions shown, with a splash of anger and a light, almost imperceptible sprinkling of happiness. Other reviewers mention plot twists and surprises. I couldn't be bothered to read enough to get there.

The writing is often more drawn out than it needs to be. An example:

"Why nothing could ever stand still in time, just when it was all so wonderful . . . And that was what destroyed her now, realising that that was just the way life was, and would always be. That things never ever stay the same, not even when you have it all, there in your hand – it’s always destined to change. Get better. Get worse. But never remain. Never stay perfect. After all, timeless perfection was what paintings were for."

[Cynthia (Bingeing On Books)]

I marked this one as DNF, even though I did skim ahead to see what happened. I have no idea why this one is called a mystery. It was SO BORING! I was over one hundred pages into it and I didn't feel anything but boredom, which is why I decided to give up. There are four different characters and four different POV's and of course, there is the question about how those characters are connected. The book spans twenty freaking years, during which people get married, have kids, have fights, go on holiday, etc., etc. That's it. The connection between the characters didn't even happen until more than halfway through it and the "suspense" doesn't kick in until 80% of the way through the book. And the "twist" was a surprise, but it was a surprise in the sense that it wasn't fully developed and didn't make any sense and the resolution happened in a very confusing few paragraphs. It was not worth it. Glad I gave up and stopped reading.

[Jo_Scho_Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the rebound, Eleanor meets Alex when she walks into the police station where he works. Feeling worried from the attention from a stalker, Alex can give her the protection she needs.

Christie is unsure whether she should marry Paul after a clairvoyant hints at trouble afraid, but she goes ahead and does it anyway.

Fast forward through the years, through decades of marriage and cracks are forming. Will these couples weather their storms?

I’ve read a few of Tina Seskis’ books and I’ve been blown away by them. However, from the start this felt a little different. A lot more verbose and wordy, which made it a little too long in my opinion, and lacking excitement. There were parts that piqued my interest and I definitely didn’t see the end coming, but now I’ve finished it I can’t really think of anything memorable about it. Never mind, I’m sure her next book will be as brilliant as all the rest!

[Patricia Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kind of book you might want to read twice. The plot rolled along innocently, then got me more interested in the characters, then became so intricately complicated I was amazed at how many clues I'd missed. I enjoyed it more and more as I read on.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Tina Seskis’ writing so I was thrilled to get a copy of Home Truths and I’m really pleased to say that I loved it!

Home Truths opens with a young American woman, Eleanor, reporting a stalker to the police. The officer, Alex, who deals with her is immediately drawn to her and wants to look after her. We also follow a couple, Christie and Paul, who are really happy together but a visit to a psychic puts doubts in Christie’s mind and this comes to haunt her.

I did find the first couple of chapters a little difficult to get into but once I got into the flow of the writing I honestly couldn’t put this down and I read it all in one sitting! I love it when books feature multiple characters and I feel equally invested in finding out about all of them. It meant I enjoyed each chapter but was also keen to get back to the other characters and this made the book so gripping and fast-paced for me.

I found Home Truths to be an incisive portrayal of marriage and how one moment of not being open with your spouse can have ramifications that are further reaching than you can imagine. This is a thriller but it felt like a character study too – we see the day to day of these two couples’ lives and you really get to understand them but then the novel moves forward a few years and you see where they are now.

I loved the exploration of what makes a person who they are, and the way that each of the four main characters had things about them that made you question them. We know from early on that something bad happens in the book but I couldn’t for the life of me work out who was involved. I was mulling over several possibilities and whilst I got close with some of it I was wrong for the most part! I love when a book keeps me guessing all the way to the reveal.

I’ve really enjoyed all of Tina Seskis’ novels to date but I can definitely say that Home Truths is her best yet! I could not put this book down and even now I’m still thinking about it. I highly recommend this one!

This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com

[Audrey Haylins · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this is a psychological thriller then I’m Alfred Hitchcock! What a dismal, tedious, non-entity of a story. There’s more suspense about what I’m going to cook for dinner tonight than in all 300-plus pages of this rambling excuse for a novel.

The main characters — two seemingly unconnected couples — are flat, uninteresting and not even remotely relatable. I didn’t care for any of them or for the minutiae of their boring lives.

Then there’s no tension in the plot — hell, there’s no plot, just a meandering, directionless drivel. I wanted suspense, excitement, thrills and got an anodyne bedtime story.

There are vague hints about secrets and a few minor flashes of unexplained panic, but nothing that really piques your curiosity. A good thriller sucks you in chapter by chapter, gripping then teasing with skillfully spun twists and turns. Or it is atmospheric and sinister, invoking a creeping sense of menace just waiting to explode off the page. Home Truths does neither. Home Truths is like being trapped on a slow train to nowhere on a foggy day: uninspiring, uneventful and oh so dull.

I don’t give a jot that it all comes together in the last ten percent of the book. It wasn’t worth it for the drudgery of wading through 285 pages of twaddle. I only finished it to give an honest review.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of 3 parts. First part is good, sets up an intriguing story. You know that the characters are linked in some way, despite having separate stories, but you don’t know how.
However, the 2nd long section is overlong and in my opinion, a little tedious and repetitive.
The final bit contains the reveals, but towards the end of the second section, you have worked out what it is going to be. Still a good ending though and this story has lots going for it and by no means a dud.

[Abbie Vipperman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like this book was not a page-turner at all. The beginning seemed promising, but then the entire center of the book seemed to be more and more of the same. The story didn’t seem to be going anywhere at all, and the characters were very flat. I didn’t feel interested in them and I got so tired of reading the stalled plot-line. Then suddenly there was a ton of information at the very end and it was done. I can’t recommend it.

[Nancy Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a while but then - wow!

I chose to read this book based on the reviews I read which referred to the twist at the end, and I would say they are definitely spot on. I read along and read along and although I can't say the first part of the book was titillating, it was interesting enough to keep me reading. But then when the twist occurred, I was caught up in it. I actually had started suspecting just a short while before but not the full extent. Quite an ending!

[Hayley Beaumont · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't even finish this book which is something I NEVER do because it was literally the most boring thing I've ever read

[Sashi Grayndler · Rating 4 out of 5]

When two worlds collide

The chapters in the book alternate between Christie and Eleanor with their husbands stories woven in. It seems like two different books meshed into one, yet common sense dictates there must be an overlap or connection so I kept looking for clues to merge the stories . When it comes, it's unexpected and you start to question everything you read. Totally not what I expected! A book about human nature and how an unresolved past can warp each one of us so easily. A good holiday read.

[Toby Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a book! The first 80% felt like a leisurely stroll in the park on a beautiful sunny day while Seskis told two seemingly unrelated stories simultaneously. And then wham, she whacked us upside the head with a phenomenal ending. LOVED this book and highly recommend it.

[Laura Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well !!! What a story!
From the first chapter, I was drawn in and hooked. Each chapter was short, easy to read .. and left me wanting to know what was coming next.
A really good read again from Tina Seskis. Kept me gripped until the end! Will definitely be recommending this.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I keep finding elements of Ruth Rendell in Ms. Seskis books and for this reader, that's a good thing. There is always this multilayered story where the connections are slowly revealed, characters are not always what they seem on the surface and it just makes for a compulsively readable story. In Home Truths, you will be surprised at the connection between the two couples, Eleanor and Alex in London and Christie and Paul hundreds of miles away. I read this over the course of a weekend of dreary, rainy weather and I just could not stop reading. I am glad I was home alone, as I am sure I would have had to tell my spouse to get lost!! I did also read One Step Too Far and I will definitely go back and read her other books.

[Christine Broadley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Really enjoyed this book as I have all of Tina’s books. Very good read! Really good twist as always with her books.

[Wes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever thriller, but lacked the menace.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazon First Reads book. 3.5 stars for being engaging. I figured out some of it, but not all.

[Janeen Swart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The twists and turns in this book and the jumping forward in time as the reader follows each of four characters makes this read somewhat confusing at times, but hold on, and keep reading. It's worth it in the end. Tina Seskis' story evolves into a exciting mystery solved, but the reader doesn't understand what the secret was until the very end. Basically the book is a character study of the four people involved and we follow their daily lives as each chapter deals with one character at a time. The story builds until those four character's lives intertwine and the stage is set for the reveal in the last few pages of the book. Excellent read.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s not very often these days that I read a thriller, but I’m so pleased I chose to read this one. There’s a great deal about this book – the character development, the ins and outs of people’s daily lives, the complex relationships, the distinctive voices of its characters – that makes it appeal equally to a reader of women’s fiction. And my goodness, I really did enjoy it.

After the intriguing voice of the prologue, the book begins in the early 90s – as American nanny Eleanor meets eager policeman Alex when she reports her concerns about a stalker. Meanwhile, in what seems a quite separate story line, Christie struggles to trust husband Paul. The book follows their lives over several decades, as their lives and relationships develop and change – the two stories never converging, but expertly twisted around each other, recounted through the well-sustained distinctive voices and viewpoints of the four separate characters.

There are clearly hidden secrets, and the characters themselves are really satisfyingly complex – and the author very cleverly plays with the reader’s sympathies and levels of engagement with the characters as their stories unfold. There are small revelations (and a few surprises) along the way, but the tension cranks up steadily and inexorably as you become increasingly convinced that there’s more to these stories than you’re seeing on the surface.

This is a book where you can’t help trying to second guess the outcome, and whether there was any connection between the stories – at times I was convinced I’d sussed it out, but I was entirely on the wrong track. In fact, I followed the false leads repeatedly – and really enjoyed the experience. It finally plays out right at the very end – and although I’m usually not a fan of the jaw-dropping twist, it was totally unexpected but entirely believable, and exceptionally well handled.

If I do have a criticism (and it’s only a little one), I did find the book just a little wordy at the start – the style took a few chapters until I felt comfortable. But then I realised that I was halfway through – and that I was totally embroiled in the lives of the characters, the pages were turning faster and faster, and that I had a really tight knot of anticipation but really couldn’t put my finger on the cause. This was such clever writing, as the tension steadily mounted and you grew increasingly convinced that something was going to happen that would rock the foundations of the characters you felt you’d come to know so well.

I really enjoyed this one – and would most definitely recommend to others.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out and ended well but was a slog in the middle. We follow 2 couples, Christie and Paul and Alex and Eleanor, over the span of 25 years. We meet them in their 20's, Alex working in the police office where Eleanor, a nanny, goes to report that her neighbor is stalking her, and Christie and Paul, who are engaged to be married. The two couples never interact so for a long time we are just watching them live their lives, Alex and Eleanor marry and have 2 kids, as do Christie and Paul. We see their struggles with parenthood at different stages, see their trouble with work and, all the while, see their inner thoughts and mistrust of their partners. The middle is difficult to read because it is like we have 4 different, but all equally, unreliable narrators, which is one of my most hated tropes of thrillers. Then there is some drama. Christie's mother dies and then her husband, Paul, dies from an accidental fall from the attic when putting up Christmas decorations. Alex gets a promotion to the counter terrorism unit and is at work a lot doing things that he cannot tell Eleanor about. Eleanor sees her old boyfriend, Rufus, and meets him for coffee. Christie, a year after Paul's death, meets and starts dating Piers, who has to travel a lot for work. The two eventually marry, even if Christie's kids are less than happy with the union. Christie starts to worry that her son, Jake, might be involved in the terrorist attacks in London and Eleanor considers leaving Alex since he is never around. Everything finally comes to a head when Christie starts noticing that Piers is spending a lot of her inheritance from Paul, so she hires a private detective. It is now that we learn that Alex and Piers are one and the same and he has been leading a double life for years. Paul was Alex's estranged brother so he felt that he was within his rights to spend Paul's money/Christie's inheritance. When Eleanor finds out, Alex tries to kill one or both of them, it is sort of unclear because he was out of his mind. I kind of suspected that one of the characters might be living a double life and it turns out that I was right. It just took too long to get there.

[Rachel (Rae) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was one interesting and twisty book! Pretty much all the way through I was trying to play detective to figure it all out. I had lots of theories but was never quite sure if I would be proven right. There is a moreish quality to the story especially as the little twists and surprises easily pulled me in deeper and deeper. In Home Truths you will see the story told from the perspectives of Paul, Christie, Alex and Eleanor. In these characters I found very different personalities which definitely helped to make them stand out. The plot covers twenty years, beginning in the nineties and following the lives of these four characters. With this passage of time it really gave me the chance to get to know them along with giving a much deeper feeling to the story as the reader is well and truly immersed in their lives.

Tina Seskis has written a character driven story that takes a look at relationships and family, showing both the good and the bad. Then you have a number of secrets and lies woven through which helps to create a tension that builds with every page. Home Truths is like a giant puzzle, one that I couldn’t wait to solve with little revelations along the way all helping to build the suspense. The pace isn’t necessarily always fast but the plot unfolds at a steady pace until all the puzzle pieces are finally in place. I could see that the characters were heading for trouble and believe me I had plenty of ideas but I never expected it all to conclude in such a surprising, dramatic and explosive way!

[Ria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book so slow! I almost wanted to give up but I had guessed most of the twist & wanted to get there, it was a very long wait!

It feels like a majority of the book plods along & given that it covers about 30 years there was too much of nothing going on & I got bored.

I never really warmed to any of the characters in the book & just became increasingly frustrated reading the mundane things they did everyday.

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I felt like there were too many background characters who didn’t need to be there or once mentioned needn’t have been brought up again. Rufus in particular. Eleanor & Rufus break up & don’t see each other for nearly 25/30 years (I’d lost track to be honest). After a “chance” meeting they go to get a cup of tea together but Eleanor is wracked with guilt about it & casually mentions it to her ever absent husband, who doesn’t like it.

Skip forward to the final chapters & she is contemplating if Rufus will “wait for her”. How many cups of tea did they meet up for? He wasn’t mentioned between the meet up & the end other than to find out he didn’t just bump into her but had actively sought her out which Eleanor was a bit disturbed by!

Christie’s sister & Dad are added to bulk out the chapters. As is Eleanor’s previous employers, Oliver & I know it’s because we all have friends & relatives in our lives but it didn’t add anything to the story.

I can understand why others have rated it highly if they enjoyed the suspension of a very slow burn but it wasn’t for me.