Good Girls Lie

by J T Ellison

[Veronica 🦦]

B | This is a solid thriller/mystery book that had me on the edge of my seat half the time. It’s a dark and twisting tale. It has elements of Gossip Girl tossed into the mix, although this is certainly more grown up. From the very first page, this book refuses to let you go. It makes you go back and forth, making you question what is truth vs. lies.

The first impression I had with the book was that it has a very Gossip Girl like vibe. Except, you know, this book opens with a death. Now, this is one of those books (well, eARC in my case since I received this book as part of the blog tour, but you know, schematics) that I can honestly say I enjoyed it. But while it captured my attention from the start, it wasn’t until I made it to about the middle of the book where I truly started to devour the book, even then I felt like the moon — waxing and waning in interest. Before that, I was only really interested in certain parts of the book because they were so — different.

Strange? Well, let’s just say that it had to do with the tone of some of the chapters written in 1st POV. I won’t say anything more than that.

But tone is one of the biggest strengths in this book. While I didn’t care for Ford or any of the other characters presented to us in 3rd POV, every character had their own distinctive tone and voice. That’s part of the reason why certain chapters caught my attention more than others. My interest waxed and waned until I reached the middle part of the book, and then I was all in.

Still, while it took me a while to get into the groove of things and care — I did like Ash. Her POV chapters were mostly interesting and the more I read, the more I needed to know.

Another strength with this book is the writing. Ellison’s writing is to the point. It is straight forward and doesn’t weigh you down with nonsensical descriptions. While I tend to appreciate the worlds around the characters described in sci-fi/fantasy novels (or hell, even historical fiction) because they are different worlds/times after all, I don’t like to see it very much in contemporary fiction. This was a “wham, bam, thank you ma’am,” sort of book which I’m happy for — at least in this case.

However, where there are strengths, there are weaknesses. One of the biggest weakness was pacing. The book felt stretched out — like things were added in just to add more pages. There were times where I told myself to just keep going and reading. Yeah, the plot is interesting, but even an interesting plot can be maimed by bad pacing.

Another weakness are the other characters. Yes, Ash is an interesting character and her chapters in 1st POV made things even more cool because I ended up wondering if she was a reliable narrator. But, aside from Ash, Becca was the only other interesting one. Everyone else felt — boring? A bit dull, really. They were just there.

Overall, I still say that this is a solid thriller. I recommend that you give this book a try.

I received this book as I am taking part in a blog tour for this novel. Thank you to Harlequin Mira for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.