I loved this book!! It was such a great book!! Great story!! Good thriller!! Received this book from harlequin Mira ( U.A. and canda from netgally)

I'm not sure what inspired it, but I've always loved novels set in boarding schools, long before Harry Potter arrived.  I think it might be because they're like a small society of their own, with their own leaders, rules, and secrets.  That's the number one reason why Good Girls Lie appealed to me.  That and I love a girl with a dark, twisted past.

Ash is an interesting and complex character.  Arriving from England after the death of her parents, she's lost and unsure of herself in this new country.  Add into it the fact that she's being dropped in the middle of an elite boarding school full of rich and entitled girls, and her wariness only increases.  When the nice girls turn out to be mean and the mean girl is not, what can you really believe?  Honestly, in this book?  You can't trust anyone or anything, not even Ash.

This book was insane, and I mean that in the best possible way.  From the get-go, it was fast paced and engaging, constantly keeping you on your toes.  I never knew what was truth and what was lies right up until the end.  The author does a great job of building sympathy for the narrator, even when you don't fully trust her.

I love JT Ellison's books--and couldn't wait to get my hands on Good Girls Lie! An elite boarding school, secret societies, mystery....this book had all the elements of a page turning thriller!! Though 400+ pages, I FLEW through this book and COULD NOT put it down!! I stayed up late to finish it because I HAD to know what happened. I'm typically not one for murder mysteries (psychological thrillers are more my thing) but I absolutely LOVED this book!


The book switched perspectives a bit, which at first though might be confusing but Ellison executed the chapters perfectly. I loved having both the dean's perspective and Ash's perspective. Between the title of the book and the mysterious main character, Ash, I knew something was off, but couldn't figure it out until it was revealed at the end. This sounds super weird, but even though this was a murder mystery, I was sad for the book to end! The characters were intriguing, and I loved the boarding school setting. JT Ellison knocked this one out of the park! If you're a JT Ellison fan, you will NOT be disappointed! And if you haven't read her books yet...pick this one up ASAP! I read this one at the tail end of 2019 and had to add it to my favorite reads of 2019 because it was THAT good!

So I'm a huge JT Ellison fan, and this book definitely didn't disappoint! Think Gossip Girl twisted together with The Skulls. There is deceit, murder, and twists that I never saw coming, especially the ending. The ending really made me love the book! I was hooked from the first page and stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this book. I was a little worried about liking it to begin with since I'm a 30-something year old mother, and I deal with enough girl drama since I have three of them! But this wasn't typical high schoolers fighting over a boy. This was so much more sinister. I definitely recommend this one! This one is a 4/5 stars for me!</p>

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Mira, and JT Ellison for an early copy of Good Girls Lie to review!</p>

The Goode School is a prestigious place for very rich and prominent young ladies. It is a boarding school set in the mountains of Virginia boasting of traditions and honor code. But, it also has secret societies, hidden rooms and scandal. When Ash Carr arrives in a cloak of secrets, several deaths soon follow.

Ash is a young lady just wanting to get an education. Or is she??? She instantly creates an animosity between several of the young ladies. She is tall, pretty and the faculty likes her. When Ash is tapped for one of the secret societies, complete discord takes place.

Talk about ending the year with a bang! This book is completely wicked and twisted and psycho and MORE! I was hooked from the first page. I swear…I had no idea how this book was going to end up. This story is full of great characters, turmoil and intensity.

Need a fast paced thriller….THIS IS IT!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

The Goode School is an exclusive all - girls school. Only 50 selected each year, the students selected are among the most gifted, intelligent, and generally come from wealthy, prominent families. These students are prepped to become Ivy Leaguers.

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.

There are truths and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened. Be warned ... not everyone is who they say they are .... and not everyone is a Goode Girl.

This is an extraordinary psychological thriller full of suspense. The story starts with a young woman hanging in front of the school ... and this isn't the first suicide death. Or are they suicides? The story is told in different voices, blurring the lines between what's true ... and what's not.

The characters are finely drawn, some are unique, some are likeable, some are flawed, but they are all unforgettable. Highly suspenseful, the action starts on the very first page and doesn't let up until the very last word of the very last sentence.

Many thanks to the author / Harlequin-Mira / Netgalley for the digital copy of this fast paced thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

<blockquote><b>"Everyone lies. To themselves, to each other. It's a way to belong, to be included. To look important."</b></blockquote>
Yes everyone lies, even Goode girls. The Goode School is an elite boarding school for the daughters of the nation's scions. Its students are challenged to a rigorous curriculum and promised early entry into the country's most prestigious universities.

Originally a home for wayward girls, The Goode School was where the displaced would be reinvented, entering back into society as independent and influencial women. What is expected of a Goode girl? Academic excellence, decorum and above all absolute honesty. Despite these aims The Goode School's history has been marred with tragedy.

Told from both past and present perspectives, <b>Good Girls Lie</b> is full of intrigue. A remote town, secret societies, ghost stories, illicit love affairs, dysfunctional families come together to serve up the recipe for this page-turning mystery.

<i>Special thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Mira and J.T. Ellison for access to this book.</i>

A couple of deaths, plenty of drama, and questionable behavior combine to make a clever suspense novel. The characters in this book are primarily young adults, but it reads as an adult novel.

Ash is the new girl at The Goode School, an elite boarding school for girls. Her arrival is the catalyst that leads to the events at The Goode School. I especially enjoyed the atmospheric boarding school setting. Lies, secrets, and rumors combined with money and power.

A slow burning mystery with secret societies and mean girls. Good for readers who enjoy mysteries and thrillers in a boarding school setting.

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Goode school is a prestigious all girl prep school nestled in the mountains in Virginia filled with the daughter of rich. Appearance is everything here and as long as girls appear to be perfect the reality of the lies and bullying can be overlooked. With the addition of a new student who is all but what she seems the school is turned upside down. There is truth, lies, love and murder.

I really enjoyed this faced paced, page flipping thriller. We all enjoy the twists that come with any thrillers but these were spread throughout the book and placed right where you least expect it.

With her latest psychological thriller GOOD GIRLS LIE, J.T. Ellison again takes us through a whirlwind of emotions as we try to unravel what is true during this heart thumping spiel of lies and cover ups. The characters are enthralling and the torment and terror are divine, though hard to follow who is who at times.

Secrets and lies abound as a teenage Londoner travels to a prestigious Virginia all-girl prep school to round out her high school years with studious precision that will surely get her into the college of her dreams. She has secrets that we think we know the truth about, but as months unravel, we learn all isn't what it seems.

When a popular student who happens to be her roommate winds up dead, everyone begins to believe the stories floating around about why she would want to commit suicide ... but when more truth comes to light, it leads to more info than they ever bargained for. In the end, the day of reckoning arises ... but who will be the victor?

I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys a deeply combustible story line of danger and lies. I was hooked from the start and though there was some confusion at times to figure out who was actually on point in certain scenes, I really enjoyed it.

A roller coaster of a read that grabbed me from page one and didn't let go! I loved the boarding school setting and the twists kept me on the edge of my seat! I can't wait to read more books by this author!

I have always been a fan of boarding school mysteries and high school girls' plots purely for the drama it will most definitely involve. As expected, this consists of a lot of drama for sure. Goode school is a boarding school for the girls of rich elite of the country. From there it is an investigation to find if it was a suicide or a murder. However things go even crazier when another girl is found brutally murdered. It goes into a high gear from there for a newcomer Ash Carlisle, who comes there all way from London to Virginia. There is another backstory on why and how she ends up in this school as a rich orphan.

It starts off dramatically where the body of a girl falls off from the bell tower of the school. This plot consists of many secrets which kept coming up and the whole boarding school itself has a huge role in the plot with secrets clubs, hazing, scandals, blocked areas, murders, etc.

The plotting and technological capabilities of the girls especially Ash, was a bit too much to believe. But I was fine with that as the drama kept it interesting. The ending seemed a bit hurried up version as the buildup to it was good but the ending could have been somewhat better I felt.

This is definitely worth checking out for the sinister plot and the girl’s boarding school drama.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy to review!

Excited that this Bad of Paper January book pick. I really loved this book set in boarding school. Can't wait to listen to the episode.

The Goode School is an elite, all-girl boarding school in Virginia. As the novel begins, a 16-year-old student is found hanging on the entrance gate. Secret societies, cliques, and a mysterious past are all part of the culture at Goode School.

However, the story slows down quite a bit from the impactful beginning and takes awhile to pick back up. It reads as an adult novel in a YA setting, which gives it a little identity crisis. As the mystery of the novel unwinds, it provides a surprising ending.

Good Girls Lie by  J.T. Ellison is a psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Harlequin/Mira, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
 

My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

The Goode School for girls is a prestigious prep school in Virginia, designed to ensure its students get into the Ivy League Schools like Harvard, Yale, etc.  They have a really good track record.  The school has been run by one of the Westhaven women since the early 1800s, currently by Dean Ford Julianne Westhaven.  She is determined to make everything run smoothly until she can escape to New York, and if that occasionally means looking the other way, so be it.

But there is a dark side to this wonderful old school.  The rules are not always followed.  The competition is fierce, the girls rather mean, and the cliques and secret societies can be painful and deadly.  Lies and truths become mixed.

When Ash arrives from England, she has her own secrets, and although she wants to fit in, she also wants to lay low.  That is not to be.  This boarding school is steeped in traditions and secrets, and lies... and they aren't all Ash's.



My Opinions:  

An old school on a hill was a great setting for this mystery, adding a lot of atmosphere.

Definitely some good twists in this one, although there was enough fore-shadowing, that they didn't seem really big.   However, even when you knew that someone was lying, the truth, when it came, sometimes snuck up on you.   

I found that the book moved slowly at the beginning, but the writing was so good that it still kept me interested.

The characters, in particular the cattiness and gossip among the privileged girls, seemed a little cliché, but suited the narrative rather well.

This may not have been her best, but I did end up enjoying it.  I have read four or five of Ellison's books, and my ratings are all over the place,  which is why I continue to read her books....you never know when you are going to hit gold!


For a more complete review of this book and others, please visit my blog: http://katlovesbooksblog.wordpress.com/

Truth, Lies, and Murder at and Elite Girls' School

The Goode School is for those privileged young ladies born to wealth and position to train for leadership positions in the world. That is what parents and even the dean of the school would like to believe, but there is a darker side of troubled teenagers, secret societies, and an honor code that doesn’t stop the girls from committing dangerous acts and lying about them.

The opening scene is suitably chilling. In the early morning of a Virginia day, the students wake to find a classmate hanging from the arch of the entrance gate. Her face is so mutilated that it takes time to identify her. Who would do such a thing and more important, why?

This is a suitably chilling psychological thriller. As we’re introduced to the girls, we realize that all is not as it seems. Ash, a new student from England, is talented and beautiful. Her parents are dead and she’s there on a scholarship sponsored by the dean. It all sounds very normal, but immediately she tells us how much she likes to lie. It’s the first hint of the serious troubles infecting the school.

If you enjoy psychological thrillers with lots of twists, this is a good one. The lives of the students, parents, and teachers are intertwined in sinister ways it’s hard to guess. The setting is realistic, not surprising because it’s based on the author’s years at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. Because of the author’s familiarity with the setting the hidden tunnels and haunted arboretum are quite realistic.

I received this book from Harlequin for this review.

Thank you net galley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I really like this book, though the first 1/3 was slow and wasn't sure that I'd like it even though the prologue really grabbed me and I wanted to know who it was and what happened. I really liked the insights that she gave into the characters. There are also a lot of lessons to be learned about hazing and bullying, although I was unaware that hazing happened in high school too. There were a few surprises in this novel, though I was able to predict some of the twist. The ending left me shocked and wondering who the good girl really was.I love J.T. Ellison books, this was not her best, but it was very good.

This book is a dark exhilarating thriller of a ride. This book was almost impossible for me to put down because there was always something that was happening that I couldn’t take myself away from the story. The high speed pacing of this book along with the breadcrumbs of truths that we get kept me enthralled all the way through. The gothic setting of the story along with the social structure of the school added so much depth to the story that I was captivated from the beginning.

The structure of the book was also unique in that each chapter has a headliner that signified what was going to happen. I love that the author, Ellison, chose to do this because it amped up the suspense so much. This is probably the biggest reason that I read this book in practically one sitting.

The characters in this book are all so dark and complex that I never knew who was doing what or who was in on what or who was hurting or helping someone. I love books like this where you are never sure exactly what is happening. Even when you do think you know something it turns out that you didn’t know everything and I really appreciate when an author is able to do that.

The ending of this book was just as spectacular and didn’t let me down. I will admit that I was a little worried that things were getting tied up a little too neat but there was still some stuff thrown in there that kept me just as hooked as I had been all the way through. Good Girls Lie is hands down the best thriller I have read this year and I cannot recommend this book enough to you. If you want to either end or start your reading year off right then I highly suggest this book. It is a masterpiece of a thriller and is definitely one of my top books of the year.

Good Girls Lie is wonderfully atmospheric with a Gothic feel, and some of my favorite parts of the book were the descriptions of the school and its surrounding area. That's not to say that I didn't like the suspense of the story. And yes, I say suspense, not thriller, because this one moved a little too slowly for me to consider it a thriller. It does start out with a thriller vibe that is sure to pull a reader in. However, it slows down considerably after that and doesn't really pick back up until about the 50% mark. There is a decent twist, but if you're paying attention, it isn't hard to figure out way ahead of time. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I always try to guess the big reveal, and while I love it when the reveal shocks me, I'm not disappointed when I'm right either. Although, I will say that this one could've been a little less revealing in its tidbits and hints from the start. In the end, this one didn't wow me, but it was worth the read, and once the story took off, I was invested enough to keep turning the pages. I really think Good Girls Lie would make an excellent movie or mini-series with its rich atmosphere. One thing is sure, this author certainly knows her stuff when it comes to setting.

UNPUTDOWNABLE!!!

The Goode School is a school for girls in Marchburg, VA. Most of the students are daughters, of wealthy people in the Washington, DC area. The school is built on the Honor Code and Goode girls don't lie. The school has been around for generations. After the death of her parents, Ash Carlisle is sent to Goode. She really has no other place to go. But Dean Westhaven thinks there is something a little off about the Ash who is at her school compared to the Ash she interviewed as part of the application process. She can't really put her finger on why. When strange things start to happen, the dean has to wonder if bringing Ash to Goode was a good idea.

Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book was so hard to put down. It had me at the edge of my seat from the beginning to the end. I know I could never go to an all girls school, especially for high school when hormones are running rampant. The Goode School is a good opportunity for the girls to get into an Ivy League college. But there are secrets hidden all over the place that no one wants exposed.

From the beginning, the story draws you in and doesn't let you go. I immediately felt a connection to these characters and was invested in what was going to happen to them. I couldn't stop reading until the very end. This was the kind of book where I wish I could have put all of my responsibilities to the side just so I could concentrate on this book alone. But with the holidays and four kids, it's kind of hard. Without those distractions, I'm sure I could haven finished this book in 1-2 days.

Ash Carlisle just wants to get away from all of the drama in Oxford. Coming to the United States is just the escape she needs to make the circumstances of her life just a little better. But when things around her start happening that she has no control over, she knows that there are other factors at play. Will she be able to make it through the school year without the drama that has seemed to follow her? Or will Ash fall victim to the secrets of the Goode School?