Lies She Told: A Novel

by Cate Holahan

A BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB SELECTION

From the USA Today–bestselling author of The Widower’s Wife comes an electrifying psychological thriller of love and deceit, where the truth can be darker than fiction

Liza Cole, a once-successful novelist whose career has seen better days, has one month to write the thriller that could land her back on the bestseller list. Meanwhile, she’s struggling to start a family, but her husband is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. As stresses weigh her down in her professional and personal lives, Liza escapes into writing the chilling exploits of her latest heroine, Beth.

Beth, a new mother, suspects her husband is cheating on her while she’s home caring for their newborn. Angry and betrayed, she aims to catch him in the act and make him pay for shattering the illusion of their perfect life. But before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s tossing the body of her husband’s mistress into the East River.

Then, the lines between Liza’s fiction and her reality eerily blur. Nick’s body is dragged from the East River, and Liza’s husband is arrested for his murder. Before her deadline is up, Liza will have to face up to the truths about the people around her, including her own. If she doesn’t, the end of her heroine’s story could be the end of her own.


“Recommended for anyone who enjoys Paula Hawkins or Gillian Flynn, primarily because it’s better.” —Library Journal

• ISBN10: 1683312953
• ISBN13: 9781683312956
• Publish Date: 12 September 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Crooked Lane Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781683312956

Reviews

[pagesbycyndy]

This was confusing at first and I really had to pay attention. I found this to be a good thriller with a bit of a twist. I found this to be an okay read and I admit that I could see where this book was going. Overall not my favorite book.

[mrs_mander_reads]

T-W-I-S-T-Y. I was disappointed when I figured out one major plot twist of the one million twists in this book, one is a drop in the bucket. An entertaining read.

[Quirky Cat]

3 1/2 Stars.

My attention was immediately caught by this beautiful book cover. Consisting of a darker portrait covered by bright (red and white) font – it stands out and grabs one’s attention right from the start. You can tell just by looking at the cover that it’s going to be a mystery or thriller.



Warnings first: Liza (the main character) is having some serious difficulty having a child. Towards the end of the book (spoiler warning!) it’s revealed that this is because of damage caused by sexual abuse when she was a child. Needless to say there’s a lot of heavy subjects in this book that could make certain readers very uncomfortable.
Lies She Told is a psychological thriller told using a book within a book sort of storytelling style. The premise is that the main character, Liza Cole is a mystery writer. Naturally she brings a bit of the life she knows into her works, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The chapters alternate between Liza’s story, and the story she’s writing (an affair/murder story). It’s very easy to tell which perspective you’re reading from (Liza or Beth) as the font is different for each one. Liza’s story is using a serif font, while Beth’s is sans serif and professional looking (more like what you’d expect when reading a book about to be published).
Lies She Told is a tale that intends to make us question what is real and what is fiction. Liza and Beth’s stories (and even their names) have so many similarities from the start, you quickly find yourself wondering which is coincidence (it does happen) and what it unintentional bleed through from Liza’s subconscious.
Liza is a writer, like I mentioned above. She’s also a wife to a lawyer, and she’s desperately trying to become pregnant (to the point of trying experimental medications). Her husband’s partner in the law firm has gone missing; causing him to be a distracted husband at best. He doesn’t seem very interested in being around Liza, and he certainly shows no interest in having a child with her.
Beth is also married to a lawyer, but she has been lucky enough to have a child without any problems. The problem for her is that her husband is cheating on her; a fact that she’s having trouble dealing with. She wants to confront him, but she doesn’t have the courage to do so. Instead she resorts to drastic measures to resolve the problem and to simultaneously force his hand into telling her the truth.
There are some obvious similarities looking at even the short synopsis I just gave you. There’s many more as well, but seeing as I don’t want to give away the ending of the book that’ll have to do for now. The further along the stories get, the more facts they seem to share. It raises so many questions. How did Liza write that detail into the book, before she was even informed of it? Is it some sort of crazy coincidence? Is something acting out what she’s writing? Or framing her?
I’ll admit I didn’t love the final twist to either story. I feel like there were so many other routes to have taken, as opposed to the one chosen. I don’t want to say it feels lazy, because the author clearly put a lot of work into this book, but it does feel like there was a lacking of forethought. For me it felt like the easy way out, and ultimately that made it lack any real impact.
Despite not loving the ending, I really did enjoy this book. I ended up reading the book (about 300 pages in length) in just a couple of hours. So if you’re looking for a nice book for an afternoon reading session, you really should consider this one.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[Eve1972]

The cover on this one is fairly good. A decent representation of the story. Good composition and title work as well.

I really rather enjoyed this one. I started it before bed with the intention of reading for a couples hours and calling it a night. What actually happened was I quickly became so engrossed in the story that I stayed up way past my bedtime and read it straight through.



I found it to be well written and well paced. The plot was interesting and well developed. There were twists and turns. The characters were compelling. There were a lot of breadcrumbs dropped along the way, and by 40% I had an excellent idea where this was heading. That said it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story as I still found myself intrigued on how this author was weaving the two stories together.

What stopped this from being a complete 5-Star read was I did find the back and forth between fact and fiction confusing at times. And I admit I am still a bit confused by the ending. But all in all, this was a fantastic read and gets two thumbs up from yours truly.

[chymerra]

Lies She Told is a gripping mystery/thriller that follows Liza and Beth as they deal with some horrible things that are going on in their lives. Liza is trying to start a family with her husband who is dealing the disappearance of his best friend. Beth just had a baby and is suspicious that her husband is cheating on her. But the catch is that Beth is a fictional character in a book that Liza is reading. Which reminded me of Inception except it was a book within a book instead of a dream within a dream within a dream.

I have read books like that before and they have always fallen short of the mark for me. But with Lies She Told, I was very impressed with how the author handled both stories. I mean, Beth’s story was completely different from Liza’s but they were the same (need to read the book). Which impressed me. The scene where everything was tied together kind of blew my mind because I honestly didn’t connect the two stories until then.

I did think that Liza was a bit flaky throughout the whole book. But I blamed it on the experimental hormones that she was taking. But the more I got into the book, the more I realized that there was more to her story than what the author was letting on. So when the author did her first plot twist, I wasn’t really surprised (I was expecting it) but I wasn’t expecting the other plot twists (yes, there are more than one).

Beth’s storyline was really good too. Again, I kinda saw what happened coming but I was pretty shocked at how her story ended.

The ending was not what I expected and I loved it. So many secrets were revealed that my head was spinning but in a good way.

How many stars will I give Lies She Told: 4

Why: A great mystery that keeps you guessing until the end of the book.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex, language, and violence

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**