This is a very unique story. I was intrigued by the premise of this story. I am always searching for that next book to blow me away. This may not have blown me away, but it was definitely worth the read.

This book is told between reality and fiction. The main character is a writer. We get to see her in both her real life scenario and her current fictional book. The story is slow moving. There were points where I was gong to give up, but I kept on going.

Eventually, the lines between reality and fiction blur as the two stories seem to overlap. After a while, I forgot which part I was reading. The similarities and differences in both parts of the story made it hard to remember which was which. It was a good thing and bad thing at the same time.

I mostly figured things out. Although some of the ending to each story surprised me, I was totally expecting it. I don't like expecting or knowing the ending before I get to it.

Overall, this story was good but not so good at the same time. Like I said before, it is very slow moving. The slowness of the story made it harder to read. The characters themselves weren't very likeable, which made it even harder to read.

Thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Cate Holahan for the opportunity to read and review this book. This was a quick read thriller that kept me interested to the end. It's written in a different style that takes a bit of getting used to.

The book alternates chapters and voices. Liza is a writer on deadline to finish her latest romantic suspense novel. Her last couple books never took off like her one popular book and she feels pressured to make this one great. Liza is married to David, a prominent attorney, who is depressed over the fact that his law partner is missing. Liza and David are undergoing experimental fertility treatments in the hopes of getting pregnant. The other voice - Beth - is the star of the novel that Liza is writing. She is married to Jake and they have a newborn daughter. Beth catches Jake having an affair. The lines between reality and fiction begin to blur until you're not sure which version is real.

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Who doesn't love a thriller about a book within a book? Or a thriller about authors? LIES SHE TOLD by Cate Holahan is about author, Liza, whose story about Beth is starting to mimic her own life. What is truth and what is fiction?

Liza is an author and is currently working on her newest book. The pressure is on because her last few haven't been well received by readers. She working on a thriller about a woman, Beth, who has just discovered that her husband is cheating on her. In her attempt to confront him, things go wrong and end in the mistress being killed. Meanwhile, Liza is on a rollercoaster of emotions and side effects as she and her husband are trying to have a baby. She's been prescribed a hormones regime and they're wreaking havoc.

As Beth's story and Liza's life begin to mimic each other, the reader can't help but wonder what is the truth and what is just apart of her novel? This moves at a fast pace and is packed with questions. Who can you believe? There not only Liza as an unreliable narrator, but then Beth becomes one as well - because what's really happening?

I loved being able to see what Liza was writing and acting as her reader (along with Cate Holahan's reader). I also enjoyed how Holahan brought everything together at the end. The intertwining stories and the whole time you're trying to distinguish the two from each other.

Definitely a lighter suspense and domestic thriller, but still a page turner! The characters were great and if you love unreliable narrators, then this is the book for you.

I give this one 4.5/5 stars! (rounded up for rating)

Wow! This was certainly a different kind of story. There are two main characters, Liza, who is writing a book and Beth, who is the character in Liza's book.

The suspense was certainly there and I pretty much sped right through. Although, I did have trouble at times recognizing whether it was Liza or Beth speaking. I think that putting the name at the start of the chapter would help a lot to end the confusion. I found myself going along and then bogged down a few times trying to figure it out.

Suspenseful and jaw dropping!

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.

Liza is a once successful novelist, struggling to write her new book. Meanwhile, in real life, her marriage is struggling because her husband is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend and law firm partner Nick.

Liza is writing a novel about Beth who discovers by accident her husband is having an affair. Beth stumbles upon them having dinner in a restaurant. She soon gets caught up in trying to find out what is really going on.

Liza is taking an experimental hormone designed to help her get pregnant and one of the side effects is forgetting things. She is stunned when Sgt.Perez says that he saw her at the range recently and that her aim had improved. She doesn't really think anything of it until Nick's body is found and the police come to her house.

When David is arrested as a suspect and she bails him out, things are beginning to spiral out of control. Why can't she remember things?

I know that is all rather vague but this is the type of mystery that spoilers will ruin everything. I do admit that I began to suspect the ending somewhere in the middle of the story, but I loved every minute of this book. The chapters vary from Liza's viewpoint to the that of the story she is writing, and the end will leave you feeling stunned and wondering what the heck just happened in a good way.

I don't know how I feel about the ending the author doesn't quite spell things out, but little is really left to the imagination and I honestly had a hard time feeling sorry for David. I didn't like him very and this might have been the only time I was rooting for the wrong person in this book.

Liza is a romantic suspense writer. Due to fertility issues and the fact that her husband's partner is missing, she has hit a bit of a slump in her success as a writer.

Beth is the protagonist in Liza's novel, and it is in this book within a book that the lines of reality and fiction start getting fuzzy when Liza's life starts to unravel, and the story of Beth and Liza begin to have more and more in common.

I was grateful to be advised from previous reviews to keep track between Liza and Beth as it can sometimes seem confusing as to whom you are reading about. Once you get past this though, it's only a matter of time before you become fixated. You will need to be sharp-witted and pay attention to every detail as the boundaries between author and character disappear and reality begins to parallel fiction.

Although slower paced in the beginning, this one picks up speed nicely, with several twists to look forward to, and that conclusion...fantastic!

I am so glad to have read my first book by Cate Holahan. I would certainly recommend this one if you are looking for a captivating, dark and twisty psychological thriller.

I am grateful to the author, Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Liza Jones wrote a bestselling thriller. Many years ago. She's written other books since then, but they've gotten put on increasingly lower shelves, with increasingly lower sales. Feeling like she's heading from heartbreaking news from her editor, she tries one more time to recapture her magic. She decides to write her next novel in 30 days. And as if that's not enough pressure, she and her husband are trying to conceive, and she's in the middle of an experimental treatment to boost her fertility. 

Not only that, but her husband David is an attorney, and his partner Jake has gone missing. It's been about a month, and Jake hasn't been seen anywhere. David is struggling to carry Jake's caseload as well as his own while doing everything he can to help find his friend and business partner. 

As Liza works on her book, attends a writer's conference, and deals with the attending moodiness and migraines associated with her fertility treatments, cracks start to show. The lines start to blur between her novel and her life, as her main character starts to act out in ways that are more fact than fiction. Once those lines get crossed, how much of Liza's novel is true and how much is not? 

Cate Holahan's Lies She Told is a study of pressure. One writer is working under extreme pressure, skipping sleep, taking experimental hormone treatments. Her husband is barely around, working desperate hours and worrying for his friend and for his business. As time passes, and the pressure intensifies, Liza becomes a ticking bomb. 

The novel is told in alternating chapters. There is a chapter of Liza in her real life, and then a chapter of her novel, where a new mother suspects her husband of cheating on her and she ends up killing the mistress. The interchange makes for an interesting framework for that increasing pressure and for the consequences of Liza's actions on the page and in real life. Holahan's novel is a fascinating look at what we're all capable of and how we deal with the reality of our actions. Great grip lit for fall! 



Galleys for Lies She Told were provided by Crooked Lane Books through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.

Quirky? You bet. Intense? For sure. Headed for the best-seller list? Crossing my fingers, because IMHO, it should be.

The description at NetGalley piqued my interest, and learning that it's a September 2017 selection of the Book of the Month Club prompted me to follow through and request an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Happily, I got the nod, and, well, you already know my honest opinion.

Now for a few details. Liza Cole enjoyed fame and fortune as the author of a best-selling book. But alas, it was fleeting; her most recent attempt was by most accounts a flop, and she's under the gun to produce something with the potential for success (or at least an outline thereof) within a month. She's also in a clinical trial of a fertility drug cocktail, a last hope that she'll finally get pregnant. Meantime, her husband David just isn't in the mood - it seems his best friend and law partner Nick has gone missing and in addition to being worried, he's buried in work as he takes on Nick's cases on top of his own.

It's hard to focus on writing, but Liza finally comes up with a new heroine, a woman named Beth. Unlike Liza, Beth has given birth to a still-infant daughter; like Liza, Beth is dealing with a husband who's lost interest (and, Beth believes, is cheating on her as well). Chapters shift from Liza's story to that of the fictional Beth, and - no real surprise here - it's not long before the lines begin to cross.

Then, two of the characters - one real and one fictitious - meet untimely ends. Beth has an angry confrontation with her husband's lover, who ends up in the East River. Liza's husband's partner's body is found, and to Liza's dismay, her husband is arrested for the murder. But are both Beth and David really guilty? Beth's motive is obvious - payback to the competition and her wayward husband - but why would David want his best friend dead? Hmmmm. Maybe there's more to these women's stories (and the stories of the men they love) than we see at the beginning.

Nope, not gonna spill the beans. All I'll say is it sure was fun watching the plots thicken and unravel. Highly recommended!

4.25 STARS

"Lies She Told" by Cate Holahan is a unique and intriguing suspense thriller that is basically two stories in one. And while both stories are equally fascinating, in this particular case, truth is definitely stranger than fiction.

As suspense crime novelist, Liza Jones, struggles to meet the deadline for her latest novel, the troubles in her personal life overflow into the fantasy life she’s created for her characters. And as such, sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between the two—both for Liza AND for the reader. Still, I found the story to be compelling.

While not perfect in its execution, overall, the story pulled me in and held me captive right up until the very end.

This was a unique and intriguing read that starts out by following two distinct storylines with the point of view switching between Liza (the writer) and Beth (her made-up character).  The book starts out slowly as you become acquainted with the players, but the pace picks up quickly as both Liza and Beth find themselves in complicated situations.  Both characters were well developed. It was easy to identify with Liza’s yearning to be a mother and with Beth’s distress at the state of her marriage. The partial mirroring of the two plots – Liza’s story and the story she was writing – led to a blurring of the line between reality and fiction. The path to the story’s resolution was peppered with suspense and twists that kept me turning the pages.  It was an enjoyable read, however the ending didn’t feel “right” to me – not so much in terms of the killer’s identity but more in that the factors that led to the killer’s actions seemed a bit far-fetched to me.

"...the mind has two ways of dealing with trauma. One is to bury it deep within the subconscious. The second is to fixate on the injury, burning every detail into our mind in an effort to avoid similar circumstances in the future."

"Blurring fact and fantasy is my trade. I am a con artist. A prevaricator. I make up stories." Liza Cole is a writer of mysteries working hard on a novel that she hopes will put her back on top following the dry spell after her first novel achieved great success. She's having a hard time due to hormonal fluctuations from her fertility drug treatments and with her husband being distracted by the fact that his partner at the law firm has gone missing. She's got one month to impress her editor. As she writes of Beth, a new mother, whose husband is having an affair, the lines between fact and fiction become blurred. Are the experimental hormones that Liza is taking responsible for her increasingly erratic behavior -- or is it something else?

This novel is quite interesting in structure as the chapters alternate between Liza's life and the thoughts and actions of Beth, the character in the book. It can be a bit disconcerting until you get into the rhythm of it and become familiar with each of the characters' stories. I liked this device and it made the story more suspenseful and fast-paced as it built to a climax and the ultimate revelations. Can't say I liked either narrator or even trusted their truthfulness in relating their thoughts and actions, but it was a compelling read. Who REALLY did WHAT to WHOM?

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this e-book ARC to read and review. I recommend it and will definitely look for the past and future books by this author as she was new to me.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Liza writes romantic suspense murder novels and though her first novel sold very well, she hasn’t had a big one again. She is writing about an affair and a murder that comes from that affair. The chapters of this book go between Liza’s life and writing to Beth’s life, the main character in her story, whose husband is having an affair. The lines begin to blur between her novel and her own life when there is a murder and things are way too similar.

I loved the concept of the story line. Liza struggles with trying to work out the points of her story but you can tell there is something more going on in her brain. Beth had fertility struggles and has a baby. Liza has been struggling with her own fertility problems. Her husband is obsessed with his missing partner. Beth’s husband has an affair with a cop he is working with. They all go hand in hand. There were a few times that I was more interested in the fictional story line than Liza’s own story and it dragged a bit. But this was a quick, easy read with a very interesting outcome. I would definitely read more books by Ms. Holahan.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted"

This was a very good read! I do not want to give any spoilers because this book twists and turns until the satisfying ending. There are two parallel stories: Liza and Beth. Liza is a struggling mystery novelist, writing her latest book about Beth. The author skillfully wove and separated the two stories, one fact and the other fiction. It was a clever take on a familiar storyline and held my interest throughout. I will definitely look for more from this author!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. Very thrilling and suspenseful book. Lots of twists and turns that will keep you glued to this book!!

Thriller writer Liza Cole (though I initially kept wanting to call her Liza Cody) is under pressure. A lot of pressure. Her publisher is pushing her to deliver her next novel. She's struggling to get pregnant, undergoing experimental fertility treatment. And on top of everything her husband David's best friend and law partner, Nick, has mysteriously disappeared, leaving David distraught and distracted.

The unusual structure alternates between Liza's narrative and chapters of the novel she is writing, in which protagonist Beth, a new mother, discovers her husband is having an affair - with explosive consequences. (Liza was told that the protagonist of her last, critically-panned, novel "lacked agency". It's not a criticism that can be applied to Beth.) But where does fact end and fiction begin? As secrets old and new begin to emerge, the line between imagination and reality becomes increasingly blurred.

This novel-within-a-novel structure, stories bleeding into one another, reminded me a little of Morag Joss's excellent The Night Following - although the two books are very different in tone.

It did take me a while to get into, as I got used to the parallel storylines. But once I was grabbed, that was it - I had to keep reading.

There were a couple of things (I won't say what) which in hindsight seem blindingly obvious but took me a shamefully long time to notice. So I guess maybe they weren't that obvious after all. Hiding in plain sight, perhaps.

I did wonder how childless Liza managed to know quite so much, and write quite so convincingly, about the minutiae of life with a new baby. Research is one thing, but it read very much like experience.

A very intriguing and very, very cleverly constructed story; the sort you immediately want to go back and read parts of again in the light of later revelations. I love it when that happens.

I will say I was struggling a bit with this book as I was getting confused between which was the real story she was writing. but once i got my head round it I was hooked and couldn’t put it down.
I loved the writing it is so well written. This is my first book by this author and it will not be my last.
It is like you are getting 2 books in one story it so well done. A great suspense novel, that will keep you guessing. So many twists and turns.

Try this one for a twisty tale that will keep you guessing. It's a story within a story- told in alternating chapters. Liza is writing a novel about Beth but Beth's story sort of mirrors Liza's life. Write what you know? Well, in this case, is that a good idea or is it reality? It's hard to review novel like this without spoiler but Holohan will keep you guessing as to what's really going on with Liza and her husband and what happened to her husband's friend Nick. There are little clues along the way but also twists and turns. Very clever plotting. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I liked this book a lot. I was a little confused about the different point of views at first but quickly caught on. It would have been helpful for the author to label each chapter with the person who was speaking, but it may have been done intentionally to further blur the lines of reality and fiction. Very good!

WOW!!! This book really got inside my head and took me for quite the ride!! Mystery, romance, suspense, more twists and turns than expected, this book has it all!

Cate Holahan brilliantly pulls off a book within a book and fills each with flawed, utterly believable characters who grow in depth with each turn of the page. It is the story of a, so-far, one hit wonder romance/suspense novelist, Liza, who is under the gun to produce her next book at a time when her personal life seems to be falling apart. She and her, never home and when home not 'present', lawyer husband David are trying to have a child together, and Liza is part of an experimental medical trial that has her hormones off the charts. David is consumed with his missing law partner and best-friend, Nick, and has grown so distant that Liza wonders if he is having an affair. To take her mind off her personal problems, Liza throws herself into her writing, hoping to make her 30-day deadline. When Nick's body is finally found, David is arrested for his murder.

Meanwhile, Beth, the lead character of Liza's new book and in many ways Liza's alter-ego, is a new, anxious, exhausted mother seeking more attention from her lawyer husband, Jake. Convinced he is having an affair, she begins to follow him, and before she knows it, she has literally killed off the competition!

Each story is told in alternating chapters, and the suspense quietly builds in each story until it explodes in a glorious ending! There are so many blurred lines (part of the author's plan) that one must pay close attention to each story as each gives clues about the other.

I found this creative, well-written, and well-executed. This was my first reading of Cate Holahan's works, but it certainly won't be my last!

Many many thanks to Netgalley and publisher Crooked Lane Books for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book!

Reality vs. Fantasy
Where is the line drawn? Liza can't seem to figure that out.
Liza, an author, and her husband, a lawyer, lead an average married life. Except her husband's best friend and "partner" has gone missing, and hasn't been found. Her husband refuses to accept the fact that his best friend may be dead and won't rest until there's a body for proof.

Beth, new mother and stay-at-home-mom, finds out her marriage isn't as stable as she thought. She's being put on the back burner just six weeks after giving birth to their "miracle baby", and for a coworker no less. But he hides it so well! Or so he thinks. Beth attempts to confront him about it, but of course gets stood up. Her vision shifts to a new focus: revenge.

Liza blurs the lines between her childless life/rocky marriage and Beth's, her main protagonist in her new book, and ultimately throws caution to the wind. This story is about love and a lack thereof, and reminds us of why close family and friends are the first suspect in a murder.

I did enjoy this book, but only about halfway through. Liza, the main character, is intriguing, and her friend Chris is a hoot. They're what BFFs are made of. However, the reason that I thought this book was less than great, even though I enjoyed the story overall, was the way the chapters were set up. It took me a bit to grasp that each time the chapter changed, it was either a chapter number or Liza. The story jumps back and forth between the "real" characters in Liza's life, and then back to Beth's (the fictional main character in the book Liza is writing about) fictional life.

This was an interesting way to go about the story, sort of a different kind of feel to it. But, I think that it ultimately hindered the experience of the story in the beginning. I knew the story was about Liza and her fictional characters that she's writing about, and how the lines blur between fiction and reality before I started reading. I just didn't expect it to be in that way.

Overall, the story is a strong and solid 4/5 stars, and I would purchase this for a friend that's also interested in thriller/suspense genres.

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.