I was totally gripped until the end, the book tells the story of life 5 years after a death of a man and looks into what happened......keeps you guessing until the end and is great from start until finish!

This author really knows how to do a plot twist. Great story, couldn’t put it down

Many thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Kathryn Croft for the opportunity to read and review her latest book. I was a big fan of her previous book, The Girl You Lost, and this one did not disappoint. A wonderful psychological thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing!

The story is told by Mia and Josie over 2 different time periods, until the present meets the past. Mia is a young widow, raising her daughter, trying to move on from the tragic death by suicide of her husband, Zach. Josie is a young college student with a troubled path, whose life intersects with Zach's at school, where he is a professor. On the day that Zach is found dead, Josie is missing and feared dead. Five years later, Josie's old roommate comes into Mia's life and says that Zach didn't kill himself. Mia becomes obsessed with trying to find the truth.

I didn't want to put this one down - highly recommended!

My Review: 4/5

This book had me hooked from the very beginning. Mia is at the funeral with her 2-year old, burying her husband. Immediately we learn there is something behind his death when she states what people said about him aren’t true. And from there, the mystery unravels.

This book is told from different perspectives, in the past and present, which really worked. We meet Zach and Josie, who are alleged to have had an affair. When Zach’s body turns up in Josie’s apartment, it is assumed he killed himself out of guilt. One day, Mia is faced with a huge shock ‘you’re husband didn’t kill himself’, one of her patients tells her. From that moment on, it is a whirlwind of suspense!

Throughout tho whole book I’m left wondering what happened. I must admit, I never saw this one coming. I thought I had everything figured out, but I was wrong!

Check out this book if you want a suspenseful book that leaves you with your mouth gaping open in disbelief!!

Kathryn Croft has written another clever and brilliant thriller with a genuinely shocking twist at the end. Fabulous!! I could not put down.
Superb writing that I flew through in next to no time. A very clever psychological thriller, which really did keep me hooked and guessing till the end. Highly recommended this book and author.

My three stars are going to make me an outlier here but I just wasn't as into this one as I would have liked. Interesting story, shifting timelines and perspectives, lots of secrets. I just didn't connect with the characters the way I wanted to and had a difficult time relating to them. It's still worth a read for many, and I'm not surprised it's getting lots of four and five star reviews.

"Your husband didn't kill himself."

These words are uttered by a nervous young woman who has come to Mia for counseling. Mia has spent the past few years raising her daughter without her husband and trying to move on... to accept that there were many things she didn't know about Zach. Like he would want to kill himself. Like he would have an affair with a student. Like she didn't know him that well at all. Now Allison is telling her that many of the things she convinced herself were true are lies... but can this mysterious woman be trusted?

Mia should be focusing on her daughter and kind boyfriend Will, but she can't. She's become obsessed with figuring out exactly what happened that horrible night... what could have led to a bloody apartment with a missing student occupied only by the body of her husband? Could he have been in any way innocent?

Intriguing story with a surprising ending. I didn't quite buy it though, so I had to take some stars away for my problems with it and the characters.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and Bookouture, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

This book was fantastic I loved everything about it. The characters were likeable and the storyline was interesting enough to keep me engaged and wanting more. A hard book to put down. Really well written, a real page turner. Well deserved 5 stars.

This is one of those slow burners with lots of twists to keep you guessing. Who is telling the truth and who would you believe? For some reason, it might just be me, I struggled with this book.. I absolutely loved The Girl you Lost but I had trouble connecting to the characters in this book and the ending was a bit flat.

3 stars***

This was a very good story from beginning to end. It's a page-turner for sure! This is the first book I've read from this author, but it certainly won't be my last. Recommended for a good read on a rainy day!

Five years ago, Mia Hamilton’s husband, Zach, committed suicide. On the same night, Josie Carpenter disappeared and was thought to have been murdered by her university teacher—Zach Hamilton. The coincidence of Josie’s disappearance and Zach’s suicide happening on the same night had everyone convinced Zach murdered Josie and disposed of her body before committing suicide. Josie’s body was never found and there was no absolute proof Zach murdered her, but the discovery of his corpse in Josie’s flat was enough for most people to believe it.

Five years later Mia is a counselor and in love with a man named Will, whom both she and her daughter, Freya, adore. Mia is starting to feel she can put the past behind her when she meets a new client named Alison who drops a bombshell during her first counseling session—saying Zach didn’t kill himself, only to deny having said it moments later.

Desperate for answers yet unsure if Alison can be trusted, Mia is determined to find out what Alison knows, and if she’s telling the truth. As she learns more about Alison, she questions her agenda and fears for her own safety—but she can’t stop until she finds out what Alison knows about the night Josie disappeared and Zach died.

Full of secrets, deceptions, and jaw-dropping plot twists, Silent Lies is guaranteed to keep you reading through the wee hours of the night. The story is told from the perspectives of Mia (in the present) and Josie (five years ago) in alternating chapters. While both perspectives are interesting, I found myself far more captivated by Josie’s tale. She went through something truly horrific in her past, and to see the way she coped with that—let alone, everything else she faced in her everyday life—was simply fascinating to me. Through her interactions with Zach, we see the sort of person he was, and even get glimpses of the way Mia was in the past in the rare moments he talks about her. The more I learned about Josie, the more theories I had about that fateful night, and her role in it.

Alison—who features in both perspectives—definitely kept me on my toes. Just when I thought I had her all figured out, something would happen to change my mind. She is definitely a complex character who constantly gives you a feeling of unease every time she shows up.

I can’t say why, of course, but the ending totally blew my mind! I was so shocked, I actually had to reread several paragraphs to make sure I hadn’t read it wrong. Just… WOW.

If you love psychological thrillers, you definitely need to add this one to your TBR pile!

This review is written with thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for my copy of Silent Lies.
Mia Hamilton is practising as a counsellor. Five years ago, her husband, Zach, a university lecturer, committed suicide on the same day that one of his students, Josie Carpenter, went missing. One day, Mia meets a new client, Alison, who tells her that Zach did not kill himself and begs for her help in exposing the truth. Although Mia cannot be sure that Alison is trustworthy, she needs to find out what really happened on that night five years ago.
Croft's previous novel, While You Were Sleeping earned a place in my Top 10 Reads of 2016 , so I was very excited when Silent Lies arrived on Netgalley. It has all the ingredients you need for a great psychological thriller: unreliable narrators, suspense and plenty of twists to keep the reader gripped until the very end. As with any book with the word "lies" in the title, it is impossible from the outset of the novel to know which characters to believe. However, the atmosphere Croft creates around each character means that I didn't have to rely on the title to put me on my guard. All the characters are brilliantly flawed, and I admire Croft's ability to write characters that, whilst they were mostly unlikeable, had the capacity to grip me and make me want to find out more about them. I must admit to a little soft spot for Josie, who in spite of all her issues, showed tenacity and vulnerability throughout the novel that really made me warm to her.
Silent Lies is narrated alternately by Josie five years ago and Mia in the present day. This structure allowed Croft to develop both narratives gradually, building up tension that made me desperate to discover how each situation would play out. There are several moments of danger along the way that caused me to hold my breath and shake my Kindle in frustration at some of the characters' disregard for their own safety, and there are lots of smaller twists before the main twist which forms the novel's ending, which all had me on the edge of my seat as I was reading.
I didn't see the ending coming, although in hindsight, I feel like perhaps I should have done. When I reached the ending, it felt a little rushed and I did have to suspend my belief in places, so it was not as hard hitting as I was expecting. It is, however, a fairly open ending, and this means that I have questions that will keep Silent Lies in my mind for a while to come.

Books like this make me read, real pageturner. I've never read anything by Kathryn Croft, not sure why, but I definitely enjoyed 'Silent Lies' and will add other titles to my list. Story kept me interested and it was full of surprises and 'oh no' moments. Without giving too much away, noone is who they appear to be and they all have they own secrets. The best part.... I can see there will be a sequel to the story and I can't wait to read it.

EXCERPT: 'Who...who are you?'

Exactly who I said I was. I just didn't mention that I know who you are, or that I'm here to tell you your husband didn't kill himself.'

THE BLURB: ‘Your husband didn’t kill himself.’
Five years rebuilding your life. Five words will destroy it again.

Mia Hamilton lived the perfect life with her husband, university teacher Zach, and their two-year-old daughter, Freya. But everything changed when Zach committed suicide on the same night one of his students, Josie Carpenter, vanished.

Five years later, and Josie is still missing but Mia has finally found some happiness with new boyfriend Will.

Until one day when stranger Alison walks into her life and tells Mia that her husband didn’t kill himself.

Desperate to find out what really happened to Zach, Mia is forced to put her trust in Alison. But she soon discovers that Alison has her own agenda behind exposing the details of Zach’s death. Can Mia really believe anything Alison says?

Mia must decide how far she is willing to go to uncover the truth – even if she risks losing everything she loves.

MY THOUGHTS: 'How do you know who to trust?' This is the question that is the crux of Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft. And after reading this, I don't know that I am ever again going to believe anything I am told that I haven't seen with my own eyes.

Silent Lies is told from the viewpoints of Mia and Josie over two different timelines that gradually merge. There are more twists and turns than is likely to be found in a plateful of spaghetti. All the way through, I was wondering why........why Mia was taking such risks, why she couldn't just settle down with Will and be happy, why she couldn't look to the future instead of the past, why she was listening to Alison who was manipulative and scheming?

All my questions were answered in an absolutely unforseen ending.

If you are looking for a gripping psychological thriller, I can recommend Silent Lies.

Thank you to Bookouture via NetGalley for providing a digital copy of Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com and on Twitter @SandraFayJones2

I have read and loved all Kathryn Croft's books. She is a true psychological thriller writer! A great read with two narrators - Mia in current times - a widow left after her husbands shocking death with dark circumstances and Josie - five years ago - another victim of this fateful night. A stranger appears one day and with five words everything Mia thought she knew was now in turmoil. The very unreliable Alison seems to play with truths and lies. Throw in an exceptionally dysfunctional family and the list of suspects increase. The story has your head spinning trying to figure who, how and why the deaths happened. Chilling, dark and gripping with a great ending which I did not go near guessing.

Five years ago, Mia’s husband Zach committed suicide in the flat of one of his students on the same night this same student, Josie, goes missing. Mia had a hard time putting her life back together again but now she’s found happiness again with a new partner. Until one day, Alison arrives on her doorstep and claims Zach didn’t kill himself at all. But Alison seems to have some issues. Can she be trusted? Will Mia ever find out what really happened to her husband?

Man, I do so love it when an author can keep me guessing until the very end and Kathryn Croft managed it effortlessly! This, to me, is always the mark of an excellent story! There were times where I felt I should have figured things out but I couldn’t, which just made me flip the pages faster until I found myself completely and utterly blindsided by a jaw-dropping ending that left me spinning! Talk about not seeing something coming! Cor!

Silent Lies is incredibly intense and full of intrigue. Its gripping and compelling plot had me hooked from the very first page. The story is told through alternating chapters, switching between Mia in the present and Josie in the past. My only niggle is that maybe, just maybe, some things were a tad “out there” and I couldn’t quite find myself in some of the motives of the characters but none of this hampered my enjoyment for one second and I raced through this brilliant psychological thriller.

This is only the second book I’ve read by Kathryn Croft but I’ll definitely be catching up now and I look forward to whatever is next.

There can’t be anything worse than not knowing answers to your questions. Why would your husband and father of your two-year old daughter commit suicide? Why was he found in one of his students place of residence dead? and the big question everyone wanted to know the answer to was, What the hell had he done with student Josie Carpenter’s body, because no-one could find her?
It had taken 5 long hard years for Mia to rebuild her life and give her daughter some stability. Now a counsellor she had a steady living helping other people find their way in life or she had until a new client arrived and turned her world upside down.
Kathryn Croft was not new to me as a writer so I thought that I had got myself well prepared for reading this book. What a little beauty this is, from the beginning it was set on a collision course as the story dived back and forth between two-time lines and two women. Josie Carpenter, 5 years ago leading up to Mia’s husband Zach’s death and Mia, present day as the involvement with Alison, the new mysterious client unfolds her secrets in sessions.
The alternate chapters make riveting reading and if you didn’t speed read before well you will find yourself doing it quite automatically. There is such an urgency about finding the truth, a feeling that if you don’t find it quick then the story end will change and you won’t ever know. I have brain frazzle, what a cracking plot.
Kathryn Croft manages to make both past as present stories just as fascinating as each other. It is one of those books that you just want to tell everyone about but you can’t because all your friends are book people who are going to read this.  She just amazes me every time I read her books. Brilliant!

What the hell did I just read?

This was the question my mind was repeating when I was blankly looking at the last page.

I am still unsure I’ve put my head around that ending twist. Or around the way each character made me feel.

Silent Lies was a title love! I mean, it’s poetic, mysterious, and contradictory, you can’t miss the appeal. So I was curious. Like a cat, I looked at my prey, I played with it, and in the end, I was the one who got eaten!!!

Okay, enough ramblings, more details!

Are you looking for some amazing characterization? Because this book is filled with some of the best (or worst!) protagonists I’ve ever met!

People are never what they seem.

Mia, our widow, mother, therapist. I can’t say I warmed to her despite the image she reflected. Something was always off. I would think her cold, and then she’d do or say something selfless or regarding her daughter and I’d see her as the poor woman trying to go on with her life. But then, her therapist and grounded side would make me wonder why she would help a stranger.

It’s difficult when death means you end up in the arms of someone else.

I couldn’t make up my mind about her. I still can’t! The grief of a woman who lost the man of her life was real and painful, I believe those were my favorite moments spent in her company. Imagining the loss, the doubt, the pain, and the aftermath of a disaster falling on you as a burden you’ll forever carry was enough to keep her on my good side.

Alison. Wow, what a character. There is no way I can fully explain what happened between us. We went through phases with each chapter. I was worried, I was full of doubts and questions about someone knocking on your door to destroy your life one more time, voluntarily or not! One page, she was the fragile woman I thought needed protection, the next she was the weirdest character you could find. Nothing made sense and I loved it!

There are other important characters in Silent Lies, even if they are dead. I did not like any of them. I did not hate any of them. I felt like a spectator in a dark Greek tragedy. This read is cathartic and so powerful in the way it makes you look at everything single detail of life differently, and it makes you feel the need to understand, to feel the same emotion to try and play the “What would I do?” game.

I, as a reader, was a photograph picking the best angle. But there is no best angle here. It takes a comprehensive and expert exploration of the human mind to come up with so many threads, so many stories, so many worlds and to make them collide to create one of my favorite endings ever! I need to thank the author for keeping me on my toes about EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this book!

Doesn’t true freedom mean having no desires? Not wanting anything other than what we need to live?

The writing was different from everything I’ve read so far. It felt very simple at first sight, but each sentence was carefully chosen to let you in on some absolutely dark minds. I need to applaud again the tension coming from the people themselves rather than the action or words.

You’ve probably guessed by now; this is a character-driven thriller. They talked to me, they gave me the creeps, they jumped out of the pages to meet me, and I’m glad I opened the door. Sort of. I’m still freaked out!

We bear the scars of our past, permanent tattoos carved onto our skin, whoever we are.

Slow-paced creepy stories lovers, get a copy right now! Silent Lies is a perfectly written, compelling web made of truths and lies, an addictive puzzle bound to stay with you!

My wedding is next week. Things are insane. Yet, when I found out the Bookouture would be doing a blog blitz for the newest publication by Kathryn Croft, I threw all caution to the wind and signed myself up! Kathryn Croft is one of my favourite writers of psychological thrillers. I couldn’t resist!

As I previously mentioned, Silent Lies, is the newest release by Kathryn Croft. A fast paced plot filled with multi-layered, manipulative characters had me binge reading this novel late into the night! From the moment I started the book, I was hooked by the prologue.

The story unfolds and is completely filled with tension. Mia, reeling from the loss of her husband, is still trying to make sense of his suicide and supposed involvement with one of his students, Josie. Five years, Josie is still missing and a mysterious woman, Allison, who tells her that her husband did not kill himself, visits Mia. With this revelation, Mia is pushed down the path of uncovering the truth.

The story is told in two different perspectives: the first one is told through the eyes of Mia as she tries to figure out the truth and combat her many feelings about her husband and the gossip surrounding his death. The second perspective comes from Josie as she discusses her roommate and life on campus. I do not want to reveal too much more about the plot, but the style of the story makes you feel as if you are an insider into both perspectives. I loved watching the parallels.

Croft’s writing style is easy to become lost in and I found myself flipping the pages frantically by the time I neared the end of the story.

Overall, if you are a fan of psychological thrillers with a sort of “chick lit” vibe, then I feel like this will absolutely appeal to you. 5/5 stars from me!

Wow!
The prologue certainly grabbed my attention and that was it, I was hooked!
Mia is trying to move on since her husband, Zach, committed suicide five years previously. She's a likeable character and you can't help but feel for her. She is raising their daughter, Freya, and has since qualified as a counsellor. She is also in a new relationship with Will, but it still a doting daughter-in-law to her late husbands parents, who adore their Granddaughter.
When Alison turns up on her doorstep as a new client and seems to have known Zach, things start to unravel. She's an odd character and she starts to make Mia question the past. Did Zach have an affair with his student, Josie? Did he commit suicide?
The chapters alternate between Mia at the present time and Josie from five years ago. I couldn't wait to find out what this Alison thought she knew.
It's a tense read and at times frightening as Mia seeks the truth. And that ending!!! Woah, I never saw that coming! Absolutely gobsmacked!
Brilliantly written, as always. I'm a big fan of Kathryn Croft!

A month ago I discovered that Kathyrn Croft was coming out with a new book. The moment I found out I got very excited. I ended up reading her book The Girl You Lost earlier this year. I loved that book so much. I ended up giving it 5 stars. So I couldn't wait to see what Kathryn had up her sleeves this time around. Was I impressed by this book? Let's find out!

This book ended up impressing me right from the start. I was sucked in right away. It starts off with a prologue of 5 years before the main story. It takes place at Mia, the main character's husband's funeral. Here we find out her husband isn't who she thought she was. Then the book goes back to the present as Mia is trying to live her life until one of her patients tells her that her husband didn't kill himself. This sends her on a mission to find out what actually happened the night her husband died.

If you are looking for a book that keeps you guessing then this is the book for you. Kathryn does a great job of leaving each chapter with a cliffhanger ending. That kept me invested the whole entire time I was reading. I didn't want to put the book down because I had to know what was going to happen next.

Another thing that I enjoyed was the different point of views. You have Mia whose story is being told from the present. She's trying to discover what actually happened to her husband. The other point of view is from Josie. Josie is one of Mia's husband's students. Her story is told from the past while Mia's husband was still alive. I really enjoyed how their stories came together. At first you don't know too much about these characters but as the story goes on the truth begins to unravel. I do have to say I enjoyed having the story being told in the past and present. As I said earlier Kathryn loves to write cliffhanger endings. Mia's story would end and there would be a cliffhanger and then the next chapter would be Josie's story. So I would have to wait a little bit longer to know what was going on.

The last thing I enjoyed about this book was the characters. They've each have dealt with so much that I enjoyed these characters and felt horrible for what they were going through. I wanted to jump into the book and be a shoulder for them to lean on. They've both been in some horrible situations that I felt I needed to help them anyway I could. I do have to say Kathryn is great at writing creepy characters. Alison is Mia's patient that tells Mia that her husband did not kill himself. You read about her in Mia's POV and in Josie's POV. She really creeped me out. I did not like her one bit.

Overall I thought this was a great story. I really enjoyed the wild rides Kathryn takes us on with these characters. She is a phenomenal writer. She did a great job of keeping me on the edge of my seat. I made some theories about what I thought happened. I ended up being very off. I really enjoyed that it wasn't a predictable ending. I honestly can't wait to read more of Kathryn's books. I will be looking forward to her next book whenever that may be.