Series ✦ Penny’s Take
Tell Me a Secret
Samantha Hayes · 2018
70/100
👍 Worth It
Hayes builds genuine psychological tension without leaning on gratuitous sex or gore, which is a real achievement in a genre that often does both. The prologue hooks you and the final act delivers real twists. The middle section drags, and Lorna is a deliberately difficult protagonist — but if you are in the mood for an obsessive, layered psychological thriller that keeps its content relatively restrained, this works.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Dark psychological themes; death; obsession — adult audiences only; not for children or young teens. We still scored it 70; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
📚 Buy the book ↗📱 Read on Kindle ↗🎧 Listen on Audible ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety72
substance68
craft72
originality65
accuracy72
hype68
age-fit70
human-eye70
Penny’s verdict70
Cross-pollinate