J.T. Ellison never lets me down! Good Girls Lie kept me guessing until the end. I've been recommending this title to our library partons before it was even available to the public.

This was a really well done and different thriller/mystery book. It focuses on teenage girls, but the writing style is distinctly adult. There's a lot of heavy themes, including abuse, toxic friendships, secret relationships, hazing/bullying, and death. The book features really compelling characters, but at times, the jumps between perspectives can be a little disorienting. Once it gets going, the story moves at a brisk pace and concludes in a satisfying way.

I enjoyed the premise of a boarding school, because it’s not one I read about often. This was written in a way that made things seem eerie and a little off-kilter (you just know something isn’t right).

I liked the different points of view - it worked well for this book. And it was pretty fast paced, too!

I saw the plot twists coming a mile away, and guessed the ending early on, but it was a fun read!

Thank you @harlequinbooks @netgalley and MIRA for a copy of Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison for an honest review.

Good Girls Lie is set in an elite all-girl’s school called the Goode School. Ash arrives from England when both her parents die and struggles to fit in. With Secret Societies, power struggles, and everyday girls gossip, Ash has a lot to learn all at once. But when a student is found dead, all the secrets start to come out.

I will be honest and say I started this one amongst the crazy Christmas prep and that may have affected my opinion of it a lot. I did think the first 40% of it was really slow and I had a lot of trouble getting into the story. I put it down for a week or so and came back to it recently and the second half was much more fast paced. A lot more action and storylines that interested me. The ending is definitely worth sticking around for.

“Goode perches like a gargoyle above the city’s small downtown…It is quiet, dignified, isolated. As are the girls who attend the school; serious, studious. Good. Goode girls are always good. They go on to great things.”

After the unexpected deaths of her scion father and mother, Ash Carr arrives at Goode – a private college preparatory school for teenage daughters of the elite. Goode breeds exceptional ladies who go on to top schools, and who become leaders in their industries. As a sophomore, Ash is quickly thrust into the strange dynamics of these powerful and privileged girls. Keeping up with the honor code of the school and high intensity academics is one thing, but navigating the ways of her classmates is an entirely different game. But things for Ash have never been easy, so why should her time at Goode be any different. After the sudden death of her roommate turns Goode upside down, Ash fights to keep her name cleared of any involvement. But things are beginning to unravel, and no secret is safe, not even hers.

I love a good murder mystery/thriller, but a murder mystery in a private school of privileged girls? Psh. Cancel my evening and clear my schedule, because I am THERE! One series that has been a personal favorite of mine for years is Private by Kate Brian. It’s a YA drama-fest of secrets, lies, murder, backstabbing, secret societies and boatloads of privilege. Needless to say, when I came across Good Girls Lie, I needed it in my hands immediately.

And it was all I could have asked for…

and then some.

This book is oozing with secrets made of manipulation that have been dipped in lies, doused in deception, coated with blindsides, and sprinkled with levels upon levels of twists. Think you know where this is going? Think again. Think it’s over? THINK AGAIN! J.T. Ellison keeps the reader drowning in psychological torment until the very last page. So much so, that you’ll even find yourself reading the acknowledgments just to get a deeper look inside the head of this author.

I was unimaginably hooked on this story and the character of Ash. I needed to know her deep dark secrets, and the secrets of all these strange girls at Goode. Because they aren’t just rich girls thrust into a top school because their daddy knows a guy. Oh no. These girls are brilliant, border-line geniuses in their fields. Whether it is art, business, computers or writing – these girls excel in every subject. They are cunning and devious, sure, but also surprisingly honest and mostly decent to one another. And yeah, they’re a little crazy, but that’s to be expected.

“It’s a bit like entering a prison, only here, the inmates are upstanding teens with daddy issues.”

Goode is the typical private bordering school that we have seen and read about. There are the popular head girls who rule over the school, secret societies and hazing, and a whole lot of sneaky things going on in the shadows. But the real star of this story is Ash Carr and her journey to Goode. Before her father suddenly dies of a drug overdose, and her mother commits suicide shortly after finding his body, Ash is told that she will be attending Goode in two months time. But after the death of her parents, and with her inheritance tied up until her twenty-fifth birthday, Ash is granted a scholarship into Goode by the dean of the school.

But naturally, Ash’s past is much more complex than one could ever guess.

“They say her name, an unbroken chain of accusation and misery.”

Ash.

Ash.

Ash.

Ash is such an interesting character to have tell this story. My initial reaction upon learning that she is harboring a dark secret made me watch her closely, but her character is so intricately created that you forget to look at her as anything but a teenager. She keeps to herself at school, doesn’t make any quick and strong relationships with any of the other girls, and simply focuses on her studies and staying under the radar. She is the embodiment of a girl who has seen tragedy and hurt throughout her life, and I felt such a sense of sadness for her. But naturally, there are instances throughout this story that makes you question her and the motives of every single girl around her.

“Lies will flow from my lips, but there may perhaps be some truth mixed up with them; it is for you to decide whether any part of it is worth keeping.” – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

I have been reading a TON of thrillers lately, so I had a pretty good idea of where this was going. But NOT AT ALL to the extent that it went! Every time I made a conclusion on how this book would end, something would happen that would force me to rethink everything. And even when I finally got all the answers, ANOTHER blindside was waiting for me! This is the kind of thriller I have been needing. One that makes my face hurt while giving me a weird sense of envy that I was never shipped off to a boarding school and tapped into a secret society.

Woe is me.

As a whole, I loved Good Girls Lie. Why yes, there were a bit of unnecessary PG-13 (R?) rated scenes that I didn’t see any point to. And yes, the constant drastic age differences in these romantic relationships did make me slightly uncomfortable. But, what is life, right? All in all, this is a really addicting story about secrets and the need for freedom. It’s sad, it’s dark and it is even a bit sweet…sort of. My only true qualm is that this is a stand-alone, when all I really want is about ten more of these books.

“Mmm. Death tastes so good.”

Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5

I am loving the format of this book, and how quick of a read this was. I am not surprised though as J.T. Ellison writes some incredibly paced stories. I am digging the prep school, pretty little liars vibe that this book was giving off.

What I like most about Ellisons books is that they are not predictable, and every time I think I've gotten it figured out, I am wrong. That takes incredible talent. I cannot wait for more, as I am a die-hard fan of her writing.

3.5 stars

This was an entertaining mystery/thriller. It's set in a prestigious all-girls boarding school in Virginia. It includes entitled girls, cliques, frenemies, secret societies, taboo relationships and a lot of the usual tropes. Despite all of that, the book is a quick read with plenty of twists and turns.

The book opens with a girl hanging from the front gates. The girls gather in stunned silence, wondering who it is. We then flash back to the first day of school and work our way forward. There are a lot of characters that don't really add much to the story and I had a hard time remembering who they were and what their importance was. The book was uneven in parts, but not enough to detract too much from my enjoyment.

The main story, however, was engaging and kept me wondering. I figured the mystery out before it was revealed, but it was still interesting to see how the author got there. This is the second book I've read from this author and I enjoy her writing. I will definitely read more of her books in the future.

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

Good Girls Lie has a lot of elements that had me really excited for the story - elite boarding school, suspicious death, secret societies, rumors of haunted areas. All these things were calling to me!

Unfortunately, the execution was a bit of a miss for me. There were some twists and turns but I wasn’t ever able to fully get caught in the story. I was interested enough to keep reading because I wanted to learn the ending but I don’t think this is one that will stick with me.

Thank you very much to Harlequin MIRA and Netgalley for the advance reading copies.

I am a fan of J.T. Ellison, reading her books as soon as they come out. Good Girls Don’t Lie is my favorite so far. I started the book and finished the book within 24 hours and was sad that it was over but I loved each and every word of the book! It is at the top of my favorites of 2019.

The story is of a girl who has lost both her parents and is now in the US at an all-girls elite boarding school. She is watching her step, keeping her story to herself, and just trying to get the education she really wants. But as with any school, there is a set of unwritten rules that she has to be careful of. I loved how real it was watching her maneuver the hierarchy of the student population, knowing which students are really her friends and which she should watch out for. And then, of course, there is the secret she must keep. Gossip spreads, odd events start happening, and I knew the twists and turns were just starting.

J.T. Ellison is phenomenal as a thriller author. She is a must-read and a guaranteed winner with each book. The stories are all unique and not easy to forget. Each time I pick up one of her books I wonder what wonderful, twisted story I will get pulled into this time and am never disappointed with where she takes me.

J.T. Ellison has created a suspenseful drama with great characters and a great setting. The old school buildings become as much a part of the story as the characters themselves. Ellison is a master at blending characters to keep you guessing until the very end. I like J.T. Ellison a lot. This is one of the better suspense books I’ve read.

Set in an elite girls-only boarding school in a quiet Virginia town, the major protagonist is a student at the school, but this is definitely not a YA novel… and that’s where I think it goes a little bit wrong. The teenagers come off as far too adult; they don’t talk like teenagers, even wealthy and well-educated ones. The twists and turns are interesting, but we know from the beginning that at least one of the major protags is an unreliable narrator, so I was constantly critical, examining everything for inconsistencies.

Nothing is as it seems at The Goode School, and new girl Ash has secrets she must hide. Her fellow students are supposedly chosen for their character, but every single one of them would fit right in with the meanest girls in any clique anywhere. It was very hard to care about the deaths of two of the girls because frankly, they’d been absolutely appalling to Ash, the character whose PoV we spend the most time with. Bullying, hazing, prying, spreading of gossip, you name it, Ash has to put up with it, and every time it looks as though she might be just about to get a break, something else terrible happens, plummeting her to the depths of despair yet again.

Readers should be aware of triggers for suicide, suicide ideation, parental violence, death of a child, and a couple of fairly graphic death scenes. While overall this was a good read, I feel like it was a bit too long and needed some stern editing to both cut down extraneous descriptions and make the teenagers read more like actual teenagers. I’m giving it four stars.

This book was so good! It had me hooked from the beginning and kept me guessing! There was a lot going on in the story but it all came together in the end. I found the ending to be really satisfying. I will definitely be reading other books by this author. If you're looking for a good suspense story with some crazy twists look no further and pick up a copy of this book!
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

J.T. Ellison's latest thriller reminded me of John Green's Looking for Alaska, but instead of a co-ed boarding school, it's set at an elite all-girls prep school in the hills of Virginia. It begins with a dead girl hanging from the front gates. Once the name of the victim is discovered, the story goes back to the beginning of the term and takes us back through the events leading up to the death. Right away, it's clear everything is not what it seems. This school is rife with mean girls, hazing, secret societies, and stories of suicide and murder. Add to that a mysterious new girl, Ash Carlisle, who just arrived from London with her own secrets. It's hard to tell who is being played and who is the player. This was a true thriller! I really enjoyed it.

A worthy addition to the boarding school canon, Good Girls Lie is a fast-paced and satisfying thriller. Ash is living under an assumed name when she arrives at the all-girls Good School after her parents die under mysterious circumstances. Ash is excited to get a fresh start, but her classmates soon suspect that Ash is hiding more than grief. Why are so many people around Ash dying?

1.5 rounding up to 2.
I'm a fan of this author and expected this to be better than it actually was for me. It is very unlike anything I’ve read by this author and i was quite surprised. I gave it two stars only out of respect for author Ellison’s past work, but I honestly didn’t like this one bit. I was awarded a complimentary copy by the publisher/Harlequin-Mira in exchange for my own opinion of this novel.

It opens with the discovery of a hanging body in an elite all-girls prep school, who ends up being our main protagonist. An unusually intelligent 16 yr old girl that doesn’t feel like she’ll fit in with all the daughters of politicians and VIPs. The halls of the Goode Prep School for Girls has a lot of dark history and the whole place had a gothic feel to it and an uncomfortable strangeness.

Personally, I didn’t like one single character in the cast. The story was convoluted and very dark, the school girls were vicious, the scenes of their antics so distasteful I often had to put the book down. The girls didn’t seem like teenagers. Their thoughts, their secrets, their wickedness had me horrified at times. Even the Dean and staff of the school were weird. I found it hard to believe that a school like this would actually exist here in the U.S.

I don’t discourage anyone from trying this. Read it and make up your own mind, but alas it was not for me.
My thanks to NetGalley, publishers and author. Available at your retailers on Dec 30, 2019.

Ash Carlisle arrives at an all girls school for her sophomore year. She is from Oxford and the difference coming to America is a shake up along with the tragedy of losing her parents. The girls all come from influential families so Ash wants to be invisible so they won't ask her any questions. Slowly people start to die around the school. Gossip runs rabid.
I really enjoyed this book, the twists and turns totally makes this book.

I remember how I was looking for a new type of psychological thriller and I came across this. I wasn't entirely sure of what to expect but I just thought about giving this book a shot as it seemed quite intriguing. But slowly, it took the place of being my highly anticipated read of the year after it's appearances in my Instagram feed.

Description: Perched atop a hill in the tiny town of Marchburg, Virginia, The Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status, long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond. But a stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous. In a world where appearances are everything, as long as students pretend to follow the rules, no one questions the cruelties of the secret societies or the dubious behavior of the privileged young women who expect to get away with murder. When a popular student is found dead, the truth cannot be ignored. Rumors suggest she was struggling with a secret that drove her to suicide. But look closely…because there are truths and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened.

Set in a fictional, gothically structured boarding school for girls in Virginia (honestly, it felt so Harry Potter-ish to me), the book just turned out to be my best read of the year! Not to sound creepy or anything, but whenever something worse happened, I was whispering to myself "Ohh, I love it!". If that doesn't tell you how good this book is, then I don't know what will! This book SUCCEEDED IN KEEPING ME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT QUITE LITERALLY!

All the things I love about this book:
• The writing style and narration: A big wow and a standing ovation! I have never read Ellison's book but I am so glad there are many that I will soon be reading! The way this is narrated, adds so much to the essence of the book.
• The social structure of the school, with all the societies, rules and traditions: The moment I started reading it, I knew that if I cannot get into Hogwarts, this is definitely something I can get into with realistic grades (even though, I am in my senior year.) Except it turned out to be a fictional one. I guess I have two schools that I will never get to go to but I love them both with all the love in my heart!
• The gothic architecture of Goode School: The ambience it provides compliments to the plot and it also makes every character or scene so captivating!
• The characters: Rarely does one find characters with whom one can connect with on the very first page. My maternal instinct has been on full alert throughout the read. Each of them is designed with flair and intricate details, blended to be realistically portrayed!
• The plot: Absolutely riveting, utterly spellbinding and completely addictive! The moment one starts to read this book, one can bid goodbye to all the chores and work/course work, sleep and bathroom breaks. The plot is so ravishing and if the author decides to write a book on the tragedies of Goode School, I would be over the moon because I NEED MORE DETAILS on the deaths and other tragedies that occurred!
• The whole package: The essence the book carries is something that I deeply love. It is not every day that I read books which makes me want to read more books of the kind!

If this book is made into a show, I would be so ecstatic! I really want to see the characters come to life. I cannot properly put into words on how much I loved reading this and how I savoured every bit of it! The fact this was my last read of the year satiates my soul: a perfect end to a decade! I think I have found the next book to place after Millenium Series by Steig Larson. I will not be able to thank the author or the publishers enough for this book!

Rating: 5/5
Recommended: Drop whatever you are reading and read this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Books for providing me with an e-arc.

The Goode School in a tiny town in Virginia seems an anachronism. Only for the rich and influential, every girl there is a somebody. When Ash Carlisle turns up from England, she has hidden her background and beginnings well enough but not well enough it seems. Her headmistress knows of her chequered past, of her parent's sudden death but it was not generally known until someone got to know and spread the word around.

With her arrival, people around her also suddenly started dying and it seemed a little too cliche for it to be truly coincidental. You did not get to the convoluted part till almost at the end, but you did know you were in for a long, hard ride.

The story was a fascinating one and I am intrigued as to how many permutations of mystery, thriller and murder writers get up to. Apart from that the descriptiveness of the surroundings in Virginia itself, the various characters involved from the Head Mistress to the teachers, to the students themselves was so varied that it added a great weight to the story.

A must read for people who like this genre.

J. T. Ellison does it again! An exclusive boarding school, secret societies, mysterious tunnels, creepy staircases, codes of conduct, hazing, murder, dark secrets, twists, and tainted histories. The book starts off with a body hanging from the school gates and then it goes back to the events leading up to this tragedy. Ash is the new girl, grateful for the opportunity but worried she won’t fit in. Ash has left the UK and her past behind and is ready for a fresh start. BUT Ash has plenty of secrets of her own. As the girls start getting murdered and the lines start to get blurred I began to wonder how reliable of a narrator was ash? I enjoyed this book so much, I was 100% invested in the story. Loved all the drama, the angst, and the juicy secrets. Also loved the setting of this boarding school with all its creepy secrets and hidden nooks and crannies. Not to mention it was out in the middle of nowhere in a secluded mountain town, it added such an eerie vibe to the story. This was a thriller that made my pulse race, my spine tingle, and blew my mind.

This book in emojis 🎒 👩🏼‍🎓 💻 ✉️ 📓 🤯

*** Big thanks to Harlequin Mira for my copy of this book ***

I have always been wanting to give this author a try and this book sounded really interesting but it just wasn’t as good as I had hoped.

It’s about a teen named Ash who had recently lost her parents and has come to the Goode School from England. You get few different point of views but the main ones are Ash and the Dean of the school. It started out interesting with a girl hanging on the gates of the school, then it takes you back to how it all started.

As Ash is learning to try and fit in and finding that the head girl is taking a liking to her for some reason after she thought she hated her, we get flashbacks to before she came to the school. How things were with her parents, etc. We get the Deans POV about running the school and what she thinks of the new girl Ash among some other things. Between it all we start to weave together an idea of why Ash is there and what happened with her parents, etc.

I think a bit of my problem was I didn’t find any of the characters very likeable. I thought Ash was kind of dumb sometimes with what she was doing which in the end made a bit more sense. The Dean seemed a bit dense but then she really didn’t want to be there for the most part and you could tell.

I must say that I was very confused in the beginning because it doesn’t tell you who is speaking and there are no names at first and so I was so lost. Especially since there was a dead girl and I thought they were calling her by the main characters name so I was like how is she dead what happened but then I realized it was one of those this happened, now let’s tell you what happened scenarios. Then I thought it was kind of a boring ride to get to something of interest. It took till about 44% for me to even start to enjoy what I was reading and then it was still not very wowing. I was interested in finding out what exactly happened as I had a pretty good idea of what all was going down and wanted to see if I was right, which for the most part I was. The ending did pick up a bit but then I am not real sure if I liked how it ended or not. It’s still up for debate.

Even though I wasn’t a fan of the beginning it did pick up enough to be somewhat enjoyable towards the end. I think a lot more people enjoyed this one more than I did so I would just go into it knowing it’s a bit of a slow burn and then you might enjoy it more.