Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for sending this to me for review

There is a lot to like about this book, I epically liked the different looks at motherhood

"Pretty Ugly Lies" is a thought-provoking psychological thriller that dives into the complex world of suburban life, friendship, and the secrets that can lurk behind closed doors. Pamela Crane's narrative expertly straddles the line between domestic drama and suspense, resulting in a gripping tale that leaves the reader with much to think about.

The narrative revolves around four suburban women - Jo, Shayla, Ashley, and Maddy - each dealing with her own set of life-altering issues ranging from infidelity, domestic violence, mental health struggles, and the challenging balance of work and motherhood. Their lives intertwine in unexpected ways, leading to a shocking murder that throws their seemingly tranquil community into chaos.

Crane's storytelling is immersive, her writing style accessible, and her understanding of the human psyche impressive. The character development in "Pretty Ugly Lies" is one of its standout features. Crane delves deep into the lives and minds of the four main characters, painting each woman with a unique palette of strengths, weaknesses, and beautifully flawed human traits. This authenticity of characterization enables readers to identify, to some extent, with each character, drawing them further into the story.

The book provides an intimate look into marriage, motherhood, and friendship, showing the darker side of these relationships that often goes unspoken. Crane doesn’t shy away from showcasing the raw, and sometimes ugly, realities of life, which adds depth and an element of harsh realism to her narrative.

However, the story does deal with heavy and potentially triggering themes, which some readers might find disturbing. Additionally, while the narrative is rich and the suspense keeps the pages turning, some readers might find the pacing a little uneven and the number of characters slightly confusing at the outset.

In conclusion, "Pretty Ugly Lies" is an engaging exploration of the complexities of suburban life and the intricacies of female friendships. Its strength lies in Crane's candid portrayal of her characters and their struggles, and in the suspense built around a shocking central mystery. While it can be an emotionally heavy read, it's a powerful story that many readers will find compelling and resonant.

PRETTY UGLY LIES is a drama novel. This is a powerful and thought-provoking novel, and one that you will not forget too easily. So what causes a woman to murder her entire family when she has everything she ever desired? This is a story line that kept me reading the entire thing in two sittings!

Great story, thrilling plot that I could not put down. Well worth a read, and would recommend to others.

I've had this book for years, I still haven't, unfortunately, got to it, so this is a placeholder review to reduce my shelf for my own sanity, but will replace this if I ever get to the book

I would recommend this story to all thriller lovers. This book took me by surprise. It kept me interested throughout the story and I needed to see what was going to happen. I truly enjoyed the pacing of the story and the well-written characters.

The dark underbelly of family life! This story is about the stuff no one is posting on Facebook or Instagram. Pamela Crane puts it all out there in the open. Her writing was captivating and this dark story is more relatable than any of us will likely admit.

I really enjoyed the storyline, but I found it confusing due to the number of characters and their family drama. I eventually had to take notes to keep track of who was who. Entertaining read.

This was a twisty page turner.

I enjoyed the different points of view, although the characters were not all that likable. Relatable, just not likable.

The secrets, murder, and intrigue kept me going but I don't think I'd recommend this one.

This book really makes you think. Feelings that make us all human and real. The stories in this book come from real life, families that struggle, women who lose themselves, kids that take over. I think that anybody reading this book will feel some connection to the characters.

The book starts with a murder, someone kills a man and his children, we do not know who. The story then continues from the perspective of four women, all mothers, all suffering for various reasons and all have secrets. I enjoyed the book as a whole, the insight into the each woman was excellent. At times I completely sympathised with each of them and at times I felt like screaming at them to get over themselves!! That makes for a good story in my opinion.
However at times I found the jumping between the characters confusing and it took me a few minutes to remember who I was reading about. Also the culprit, when we find out who it was, really caught me by surprise. I finished the book a few days ago and I am still unsure if I am satisfied with the end or not.
Overall I enjoyed the book even if it did leave me a bit frustrated
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Oh man, get a bunch of women together and discover who has the worst secret ever...sounds like a great book. This was like being in a reality tv show mixed with CSI or something.

Such a beautifully written, emotional book. I think many people will identify with aspects of the main characters lives. I know I did. Although hard to read at times, that was because the emotions expressed were so raw and honest. I found myself picking the book up at 3 in the morning, just because I needed to read a little bit more. Ms Crane has created credible characters and all too believable settings and scenarios. This isn't my first date with Pamela Crane and every single book she writes is an absolute privilege to read. I highly recommend this original and well executed tale.

This book envolves around four women in different marriages with different things going on. The first chapter draws you in and you want to know what happened.. it looks at their lives and how things can change in an instant. The characters were believable. Thank you netgalley for letting me review this book.

Thank you #NetGalley for an advanced copy of #PrettyUglyLies!

I really enjoyed this book! I felt it was a pretty realistic picture of how we women are viewed in today’s world. The pressure women deal with in regards to the high expectations of being a perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect cook, perfect lover, etc. were perfectly depicted. This book starts with a woman murdering an entire family. From there each chapter discusses the daily lives and struggles of Jo, June, Ellie and Shayla. All with secrets, they all end up having to deal with those secrets regardless of the consequences. Once you find out who the family annihilator is, you will be rather surprised at the turn of events! This was a very quick read and what I really enjoyed were the cliffhangers at the end of multiple chapters. It made me want to read more, quicker, to see what was going to happen next!!

Pretty Ugly Lies by Pamela Crane left my mouth hanging agape all throughout the story. That opening chapter, I was chilled and horrified. I’m a thriller-addict. I push myself to listen to the most twisted stories with monsters so dark you can’t see them. This book gave me pause in those first minutes... will I be able to listen? Will I be able to carry on without nightmares. I continued, even though there were times I felt nauseous and very hesitant. I didn’t have any nightmares but I definitely had some interesting conversations.

It was odd that I found the content so disturbing and heartbreaking and one moment, only to relate in the next. I think if you are a mom and/or a wife, there are going to be thoughts or conversations that you can understand or perhaps you recall the same conversations held by you and another mom-friend. PUL is THAT relatable. Pamela Crane has listeners evaluating their lives... their parenting and their marriages. I’ll be honest that I did have a bit of a hard time recalling who was who and which women went to what family. I think 4 distinctive voices for the four women would have helped a lot. I do think adding in a man’s voice really helped in separating and making it a bit varied. I’m not sure he’s the man I would have chosen but I’m glad for him, either way.

The narrators were incredibly talented. I’m not sure which female narrator did what person, but again, that opening scene and the narration gave me chills. Ruth Redman, Jeff Harding, and Lyssa Browne exhibited so much emotion through every single word. For as intense as this story was, it was moving. It did open my mind and get me thinking. There is so much psychology in PUL.

This was an incredibly quick read. I had never read a book by Pamela Crane before but found that this book really drew me in. Immediately, we open on a woman who has murdered her husband and children and we are waiting for her to be found. I mean, how can you not be drawn into a story with a start like that??

Told from the perspective of four viewpoints, we're trying to guess which of these women end up being the murderer. We get to really know these characters, inside and out. If you've read some of my other posts, you know that I am a huge fan of character development and I think Crane does a great job with this. I'm used to varying viewpoints, but it took a bit to get into the groove of reading four different viewpoints. Each story is its own and each character has their own voice. This is the only way a multiple viewpoint story will succeed. 

There is a lot going on in this book: affairs, child abduction, mental health discussions. If you are like me, at the end of each chapter, you'll have a feeling of "Oh, it was totally her", only to change your mind after the next chapter. 

There are lots of twists and turns. Some more are more successful than others. I felt like this book had a wonderful start, a strong middle, but in the end, I was just left unsatisfied. It read more like a soap opera at the end, rather than the twisty thriller I thought it was going to be.

I definitely enjoyed it overall, though, and would happily read another book from Pamela Crane again. 

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is going to cut with different women in different ways because the content is so heavily focussed on the various “caregiver” roles that women play. Wife, mother, friend, sister, lover.

It focuses on those roles with a decidedly negative lens.

If this book has one thing going for it in spades, it’s that the pace is off the charts. It’s not necessarily always thrilling, but it is consistently compulsive, always moving forward with plot development. Because of this though, I did feel that the book was a little sparse on the development of more character-driven aspects – like relationships and personality.

I think this author sacrificed detail, and interpersonal development between characters, that would have given more depth and footing to the chaos of circumstances, for the sake of plot pacing. And in the process of doing that, also sacrificed the red herrings and nuanced hints that would have lent more history and understanding to the outcome, instead of it being a “twist” that was mostly just confusing because it was not tethered to the rest of the story.

My rating lies at 3.5 stars – just a little over the middle line – because each issue I had with the story was offset by other elements that were done really well. I’ve bumped it up a little bit because I felt that the women of the story were relatable, even if they were negative.

Bottom line: it’s a fun thriller with relatable women’s issue that any wife and mother might see themselves in. But it is heavy on the negative aspects of those side of life, so if you’re like me and don’t really see yourself having kids, this will probably cement that decision for you.

Full review to come.
I deeply apologize, but life is a handful lately and I'm using all my free time to read, not review. I hope everybody understands.

This was an engaging, twisty book. I would recommend it for fans of the genre.

The chapters are broken down between the four moms and the kidnapper. At first it is a bit difficult to keep them straight, but pretty quickly you learn who is who as their situations are all so different.

The moms were somewhat relatable to me, but not completely. They definitely had more going on than your typical mom. There were interesting dynamics and the thought processes... well, I guess you can't judge them too harshly with all they had going on.

The very ending was a little bit too neat for my taste, but still overall well done. I look forward to reading more of Crane's work.