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.

I am a sucker for books set at a secretive boarding school. It is the one time it is believable to have such a lack of oversight of teenage children. Part of me really enjoyed not really knowing who was narrating each chapter but at times it just left me confused and frustrated, although I believe that is the intent of the author.

The characters all seem to have some sort of mysterious past and they are all very two faced even when the school pride itself on honesty. It seems like the only people who think that is true are the parents.

I was not a fan of a few things in the book which would be considered spoilers so I can't go into that too much. However, I will say that forbidden romance tropes are not my thing.

The book also felt a little predictable after the halfway point. This is the first book from this author that I gave 4 stars instead of the 5 stars I normally give. However, it is still a good book and I would still recommend it.

I enjoyed this book, but I think my teen readers will enjoy it a lot more. A private, elite boarding school, a creepy setting, wealth, secrets, and murder!

Good Girls Lie is the first novel I’ve reviewed by JT Ellison. I love thrillers and this had me hooked just from the title. The synopsis was spooky enough so I could not wait to get into this.
It reminded me of a female-oriented version of The Skulls movies which I loved. The Goode School is an elite boarding school in a small town in Virginia.

Ash Carlisle is on a journey to change her life. She leaves her city of Oxford in England and sets off for the USA. Having grown up near Oxford I was interested in this fact and keen to witness all the challenges Ash faced in her transatlantic move.
There’s such a contrast with the city she knew and the level of detail in the writing is amazingly gripping.

Secrets, lies intrigue realistic characters and a murder as well as secret societies and creepy settings make this an absorbing novel that is so twisty. Can Ash really forget her past and move on?

The school is strict, no technology or mobile phones are allowed. Ash avoids social media and dismisses it as a waste of time. She has no accounts but likes computers.

Recently bereaved by her father’s death, she just wants to live her new life.

The Goode School is a place of rules, discipline and 200 girls where only the best are accepted.
Whether you’re new to JT Ellison’s writing or not, be prepared to be hooked by Good Girls Lie!

Thanks to JT Ellison and Harper Collins Canada for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review and the opportunity to be on the blog tour for this title.

5 stars

A private girl's school for the daughters of the rich and famous where there are mean girls , drama , murders and a hanging ! A deliciously dark and mesmerizing thriller that was brilliantly crafted with realistic and believable characters ! Y'all , this is a must read ! Thanks to Netgalley and
Harleguin-Mira for the opportunity to read and review this book ! #Netgalley
# Harlequin-Mira #GoodGirlsLie

Title: Good Girls Lie
Author: J.T. Ellison
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5

The Goode School, known as a Silent Ivy, is a prestigious boarding school that accepts only the brightest young women—especially daughters of the rich and powerful. The Good School is known for its traditions, like the secret societies and the honor code—lying will get you expelled. But a new girl has come to The Goode School. And she has a secret.

No one at the school bats an eye when the hazing begins—it’s tradition, after all—it’s just girls being girls and the girls would never do things they aren’t supposed to. No matter how cruel or vicious the reality is, the teachers and the head of the school turn a blind eye—until a girl ends up dead and all the secrets of the school are on the verge of being revealed. Secrets have a way of coming to the light.

I finished reading Good Girls Lie…and I’m still not sure who the bad guy is. The author does an excellent job of getting the reader into the characters’ heads—while casting suspicion on basically everyone, which kept me completely off-balance. The creepy boarding school setting is so well-detected I could practically smell the old buildings. If you need a tidy resolution to make you a happy reader, this might be the best choice for you, but it was absolutely a compelling, engrossing read.

J.T. Ellison is a New York Times- and USA Today-bestselling author. Good Girls Lie is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/MIRA. via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

When the publisher offered me an eArc, I was happy to accept as I found the synopsis intriguing. After reading the first couple of pages, I had high hopes for the book. However,
I found that it wasn’t as engaging as I hoped it would be and I found myself putting it aside on several occasions.

I found the pacing slow for a thriller. Based on how the story started out, I was looking forward to a fast-paced thriller. Unfortunately, after the exciting start the story fizzled out, and it was not until I was at about forty percent into the story that the pace picked up and things became interesting.

The story which was set in a prestigious boarding school, was riddled with lies, murder 
and secrets. It had its share of twists, but it did not have the expected shock factor as I 
had my suspicions prior to the revelations. As, a result, the story failed to deliver nail biting feeling one would expect from a thriller. However, despite this, I felt compelled to continue reading as I was curious to know how the story would end. The ending thrilled me as it delivered the perfect reward/punishment. The level of angst was what one would expect from teenage girls who feel the need to fit in with their peers.

The characters, except for the narrator, failed to wow me. I felt no connection to them and frankly I didn’t care what happened to them. They all deserved whatever was served to them. The narrator proved unreliable and her actions and words added to the complexity 
of the story. I had my doubts about her and as the story progressed my uncertainties increased. She struck me as being someone smart but diabolical. I enjoyed getting to 
know her.

Conclusion / Recommendation
Overall, Good Girls Lie was an an interesting story, which highlighted the ins and outs of
 life in a all female boarding school for the rich. Although it did not deliver as expected, 
I still had a good time with the story. I believe that this book would appeal to fans of young adult mystery.

Creepy, unnerving, and deliciously evil! “Ellison’s skillful characterization, compelling plot, and her shocking final twist make GOOD GIRLS LIE a nail-biting dark and atmospheric top psychological thriller of 2019!” 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟—@JudithDCollins #JdCMustReadBooks

The thriller queen, J.T. Ellison, cranks up the intensity in her latest highly creative psychological thriller. Infused with British and Gothic undertones and decade-old murders at this historic, prestigious all-girls boarding school, tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. (would make a great movie)! 🎬

The school is old, isolated, elegant, and stretches back hundreds of years, with a ton of legends.

“There are truths, and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened, which his where you and I will meet. My truth is your life, and my lie is your truth, and there is a vast expanse between them.”

Behind the massive black wrought iron gates and it’s stunning architecture and beauty, there has been bloodshed, murder, scandal, hauntings, and tragedy over the years.

The current thirty-something headmistress or dean as she prefers to call herself Dr. Ford Julianne Westhaven (great-granddaughter several times removed from the founder of The Goode School) determined she will not repeat her mother’s fiasco when in office.

She will make sure her girls follow the Honor code, and they will be ready for their Ivy League education. She is all about sisterhood! She chooses and handpicks every girl.

After all, she doesn't even want to be here. She is an inspiring author, an introvert, and just wants to write her novel. While doing so, a little rendezvous with the dashing mysterious younger guy driver (in secret, of course). Some scandalous history here.

She hides out in her cabin and knows when to get out of her Chanel suited-self, let know her chignon and ditch the pearls, at just the right time. Her destiny lies ahead.

For now, her job is to nurture their strengths and help them find ways to mediate their weaknesses. Make them strong, not delicate creatures easily crushed by the world. She must keep up appearances. However, she knows “Ivy Bound” can get too intense. And Senior Becca Curtis pushes its limits.

However, things take a turn for the worse, and her life and the girls get more complicated. Just when she thought she would get through the year without a scandal. Everyone is a suspect. There is a hanging, a murder, severe damage to the girl’s face. Whose body is it?

Ash Carlisle is from Oxford, England, and her parents have died tragically (or murdered), and she is ready for a new start. She is not on social media, and her past will remain hidden. She will get a fresh start.

The plan is flawless. Or is it? She only wants an Ivy League education. The Goode School in Marchburg, VA. will be perfect. A full scholarship. She will keep her head down and keep to herself.

That is until the will is read, and other things begin happening all around her. Things do not go as she planned. There are prying eyes and jealous girls who want to know more about this Oxford dame. What is behind this Ash girl, who leads a charmed life and manages to get into this school on a full scholarship.

But you can never escape your past?

However, soon, she gets connected to the girl that runs the school, but she will make it tough on her. Her roommate and suitemates do not make it easy on her, either. Everywhere she turns, she runs into obstacles. Not only the hazing, the constant demands, and the haunted past of the school, she has other secrets which could prove deadly, and she soon discovers her plan may not be as easy to pull off as she thought.

Lies have kept her safe and protected. Can she reinvent herself at the new school on the mountain, or will it come back to destroy her?

Ellison knows how to work a room (or should I say work her characters, plot, pacing, juggling multiple narratives and infusing past and present) like a star and at the same time, keep you glued to the pages.

WOW! Just when you think you have it figured out, bang, there comes another twist!

Keep up readers; there are places in the school you need to watch out for:

The Commons is where you go if you get tapped.

The red staircase is off-limits. Has too many bad memories, from a girl who committed suicide, flinging herself from the railing and cut her wrists, so the blood dripped down from the staircase. It had soaked in so deeply they had to paint the stairs red to cover it up. The word is one of the secret societies makes you spend a night locked in the stairwell.

There is also the arboretum, also haunted, with a terrible past. Never walk the path alone. It is outside the walls.

Oh, and the bell tower— stay out of the attic, where secret societies found infants bones between the ceiling and walls and ghosts ring the bells.

Also, stay away from the tunnels and old cottages (former Underground Railroad)

Most definitely stay away from the front gate – you may find yourself hanging by the red tie.

Trust me; you will not be able to breathe easy until you reach the END, then you may have a smirk smile on your face!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Fans of Michele Campbell's "She Was the Quiet One, Simone St. James' "The Broken Girls", and Charlie Donlea's upcoming "The Suicide House" will devour Ellison's Good Girls Lie!

#JDCMustReadBooks

An all-girls elite prep school that promises to open doors to Ivy League universities sounds like a dream come true for many young girls.

A lengthy history of fantastic results is proof it’s not all talk and false promises. Many influential women have attended this school and are now sending their daughters there. The only blemish on its stellar reputation is the murder of one of the students a long time ago….

After her parents die, young Ash Carlisle, a member of the elite in the United Kingdom has been offered the opportunity to attend the Goode school, situated in Marchburg a small town in the Virginia mountains.

She is still mourning the loss of her parents and having to deal with it all on her own. Her brother died when she was just a little girl so she has no one to help her with her grief.

When she arrives at the school nothing is what it seems and no one is who they claim to be.

The story begins when they find one of the girls hanging from the school gate. It’s immediately clear to the headmistress Ford Julianne Westhaven who this girl is, but J.T. Ellison did a great job to keep the reader guessing as to who eventually ends up dead on the school gate.

The atmosphere created throughout the book is one that seems exactly what you would expect from a prestigious school with an all-female student body. Where cliques thrive, secrets hide in every corner and where friends become enemies and enemies become your friends.

When a popular student is found dead rumour has it that she committed suicide, but to be thorough the sheriff is called in to investigate. Especially because the murder in the past, under Dean Westhaven’s mother’s reign was a disaster for the school’s reputation.

And now, while the student’s death is being investigated, another girl is found hanging from the school gates.

Which brings us back to the beginning of the book, and the identity of the girl on the gates. Who is she, why is she on the gates and how does the new girl Ash fit into all of this.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I felt myself submerged in the on-goings of an elite all-girls school and often questioned how I would handle certain situations myself. I hadn’t seen the ending happening as it did. Which made for a nice twist.

Another twisty mystery thriller from J.T. Ellison! Good Girls Lie is set at an all girls' elite prep school in rural Virginia. Ash is a new student with a horrible past in England. But will she fit in with a bunch of privileged American brats? And what secrets will be unraveled about her, her classmates, and the school's faculty before the end of Ash's tale?

The author mentions that she went to a similar prep school. The story definitely has the ring of truth. The school's staff looks away from bullying and hazing because "that's the way it has always been done". My favorite part of the book was the frequent twists in the plot. I felt dizzy while reading it--just like I feel on real rollercoasters! The author skillfully weaves in the truth among the lies with red herrings aplenty for armchair detectives to use to solve the mystery. I had literally no idea what was going to happen next for the majority of the book. And I love that!

If you love twisty thrillers and want to see how the "other half" lives, you must check out Good Girls Lie. 5 stars and one of my favorites this year!

Thanks to MIRA Books, Harlequin Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Goode School has a reputation for being one of the best in the United States – it’s students have their pick of Ivy League colleges, and are made up of an array of daughters from America’s richest and more influential families.

Except Ash.

Ash is British, hailing from Oxford and keeping the reason for her joining The Goode School very close to her chest. Her parents are dead – recently – and she has no one else. But as she tries to settle at school, it’s clear someone is trying to find out the truth that lies behind her lies, and the results end up proving to be fatal.

Good Girls Lie is the first book I’ve read by T. J. Ellison, but having since discovered she has quite an extensive back catalogue, I’ll soon be trailing through everything she’s ever written. (Well, not so soon. There is the little obstacle of the book buying ban I’ve imposed on myself for 2020…)

I absolutely adored this book. I was hooked from page one, with the lyrical and beautiful writing style. The chapters flit between Ash herself, and third person narratives of various different characters. But some chapters focus on the outside, an external onlooker – not a character, just a voice, and it’s this tone that caught my attention from the very beginning.

When we meet Ash, it’s immediately obvious that she is hiding more than what we know she’s hiding. Yes, there’s her parents that she won’t talk about, but what else? Her interactions with the new students she meets are interesting, and she makes for a fascinating main character.

While there are some points in the novel that are clearly red herrings, and I didn’t see them being part of the big reveal at all, there was no way in hell I would have guessed any of the twists. This is such a clever, well crafted novel, and it’s clear Ellison is just as smart and complex.

I liked how the story delved into other character’s lives too. Some of the chapters that don’t focus on Ash follow Ford, the headmistress of the school, or one of the police officers on the case. It makes for a much more rounded novel and has you guessing at so many more strands of the story. I still don’t think you’ll see the end coming though!

Overall, a massively enjoyable read, a very well constructed plot, and a killer motive. 5 stars! Can’t wait to read more like this! 5 stars

I’m such a sucker for novels about boarding schools, throw in some drama and murders and it’s my perfect read! Good Girls Lie has everything. Exciting characters, an intriguing plot and gruesome murders.

I’m not going to give too much away since I think this book is best if you go in blind. Ash Carr is a character that you go from feeling sympathetic to and then feeling uneasy about. I wasn’t sure if I could trust her, but I really enjoyed reading about her!

4 calculators out of a potential 5. This was my first J.T Ellison novel, but it won’t be my last!

Thank you to Netgallery and HARLEQUIN – MIRA (U.S. and Canada) for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin/MIRA, and JT Ellison for the opportunity to read and review her latest thriller - this book had the perfect setting for an intriguing book!

Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the Goode School is an elite, all-girls boarding school made up of the privileged daughters of politicians and the wealthy. All of the girls must sign the Honor Code, pledging more than anything to not lie. Do Goode girls lie? You bet they do!

The school has a history of hidden tunnels, secret societies, and enough creepy ghost stories to scare even the toughest girl. When a young girl is found dead after falling from the bell tower - rumors swirl as to whether it was suicide or something even worse. Everyone here has their secrets, from the Dean to the new student in school, Ash Carr. Her background is definitely something she wants to keep secret and is upset when it is uncovered.

Just a good book to curl up with on a cold, rainy winter day. Lots of twists and turns in this one!