I didn't finish this book. The writing was over-wrought. This isn't really a review, but I thought I needed to say something.

Incredibly addictive, it is perfect for fans of Pretty Little Liars. It had a great atmosphere and the characters weren't one dimensional. The twists of which I did not expect all, were shocking. Great thriller.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin-Mira Books for the e-arc of Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison. All opinions are my own.

This is my first J.T. Ellison book and it won’t be my last. I could not put it down. I love boarding school stories because they have so many secrets. This one was no exception. There were so many twists. Every time I thought I had it figured out something happened to change my mind.

Who is Ash? Who is Becca? Who is Camille? Why are people so suspicious of one another? What are the secret societies? Is the school haunted? So many questions and so many answers. You will not be disappointed with this book.

Tear Me Apart by J. T. Ellison was one of my favorite suspense novels of last year, so naturally I was eager to review her 2019 offering, Good Girls Lie. While it did not quite match the brilliance of the first book, it is still a riveting read.

Ash Carlisle is a Goode girl. The recipient of a scholarship to the elusive, all female preparatory The Goode School in the small, picturesque town of  Marchburg, Virginia, she has now joined an elite group of young ladies who call this elegant Silent Ivy their home.  Catering to the daughters of the wealthy and powerful, The Goode School offers an intense, competitive education, that along with their stellar pedigrees, assures their graduates attend Ivy League colleges and become the movers and shakers of the industrial and political world. A diploma from this institution comes with a guarantee of success.

But Ash is not their typical student. Shy, with a tragic history, she has changed her name and left her home in Oxford, England to begin again. Her first encounters at the school do not go well. Becca Curtis, the reigning Queen Bee of the school, who is president of all the clubs and groups that matter and has a strong clique of girls who back her reign of terror, takes an instant dislike to Ash, calling her a “mad Brit” before classes have even begun. She implies Ash won’t be able to handle the tough curriculum and will commit suicide before the year is out.  Ash’s recital for Muriel Grassley, the music teacher, ends in disaster.  She’s not off to a stellar start.

But these hiccups will not be the only tragedies she faces. Everyone has secrets at The Goode School. Everyone lies to protect their privacy. Some are even willing to kill in order to do so.

This is a subtle, layered mystery which hinges around a secret that is alluded to but not spelled out until almost the end of the tale. My review will not contain particulars because I don’t want to spoil the winding, macabre, delicious ride Ms. Ellison takes us on to get there.

The author does an excellent job of depicting what most of us would expect from an elite all-girls school. There is a large degree of cattiness, an even larger degree of stress, and friendships and love bloom amidst this tense hormonal atmosphere. Anyone who has ever been to a secondary school will recognize that beneath the glamorous, gentrified facade of this one are the same cliques, challenges and concerns that all teens face. Sadly, recent years have taught us that this atmosphere can also lead to death and murder, which, of course, happens here. Within the first few months of the term, one of the girls jumps (or is she pushed?) from the bell tower. Of course she had secrets. Of course the discovery of those secrets has a domino effect; everything learned about the dead girl reveals something about a living person, something others would much rather keep hidden.

Most of the story is told from the points of view of Ash and Ford (the dean of the school), but we also see certain events from other perspectives. Using the currently popular trope of the unreliable narrator, the author makes it clear from the start that everyone is hiding something. Or lying. The voices are all vivid and compelling and finding out whatever elusive secret(s) is/are being hidden is addictive, and kept me turning the pages. My primary questions surrounded our primary narrator, Ash. Is she an innocent victim of everything that is happening? A pawn of a more powerful player? Or a manipulative witch who has perfected the art of appearing innocent and vulnerable?

That ambiguity kept me from liking Ash or any of the characters, really, because all of their actions seemed to have dual explanations. A good example of this is what happens at the piano recital. There is a claim that everything that occurs is a tragic accident, but oddly, that tragic ‘accident’ worked to the benefit of the person who caused it. I didn’t trust that it really was a mistake, which kept me from liking and trusting the person behind it. Moreover, most of the characters had some genuinely nasty characteristics which obliterated any sympathy I might have felt for their circumstances.  A teen in trouble turns out to be a snoop, a liar and a mean girl who had created a great deal of hassle for another student. One girl is clearly a psychopath whose narcissism leads her to kill to solve her problems.  Yet another, who has family issues that would typically lead me to feel some empathy for her, was so cruel and controlling with her classmates that I couldn’t feel much pity for her. The love affair between two of the girls came after one of them had been so cold and condescending to the other that I couldn’t really wish for an HEA for them. Or even an HFN.

Most psychological thrillers are a little bit over the top and this story is no exception. The big reveal towards the end, where our biggest villain is introduced, isn’t completely impossible, but I would put it at the high end of improbable. It worked, if just barely, because of the nature of the tale.  The author does a nice job of laying the groundwork for this particular twist so that it’s as believable as it can be when it arrives.

Like many of today’s psychological thrillers, Good Girls Lie explores the darkest parts of the human spirit. There are no innocent victims here. Just one long litany of damaged souls, which made it one of the darkest mysteries I’ve read in some time, and makes it a near perfect novel for someone looking for a grim, seductive, twisty story that will keep you reading into the wee hours of the morning.

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overall: The story centres around a private all girls high school, in Virginia, for the elite on fast track for the Ivy League schools.
I was totally hooked from the very first page, as we uncover the life of Ash Carlisle, a new student arrived from England. The school is full of secrets, deception, secret societies and of course … murder!
The tension build up was incredible! The writing was beautiful, atmospheric, the story so well told. I loved the characters, the inner dialogue really helped get to know everyone that much more too. There was definitely a “Mean Girls” vibe to the story too, which I kind of really enjoyed too.
Good Girls Lie was an utter creepy page turner, the twists and turns kept coming throughout, keeping me on the edge on my seat. My first read by Ellison, and definitely won’t be my last.

Loved, loved, loved this book! Boarding school girls and a murder, my favorite combination! The mystery of Ash keeps the story moving along quickly. Her roommates and friends are realistic teens born into wealth and often ignored by their parents. Additional mysteries involving the headmistress and her mother/predecessor are fresh and fascinating! Highly recommend!

Another great J.T. Ellison novel. Good Girls Lie draws you in and again demonstrates why Ellison is at the top of his game!

A girl arrives at a posh school and nothing is as it seems. This edge of your seat boarding school mystery will keep readers guessing to the end.

It was a good laid out story but it did lose me for awhile. It did pick up and a pretty good twist at the end.

J.T. Ellison has done it again! Good Girls Lie grabbed me from the first page. I loved that it took place in a private boarding school with secret societies, cliques and secrets. Crazy twists and turns kept me guessing until the last page. Such a fulfilling ending! Bravo!

Ash Carlisle has come to The Goode School, an elite boarding school. One day, she will inherit a large fortune, but for now, she is utterly alone in the world, both of her parents recently deceased. Ash is from England, though the differences between her and the other students make her seem more like an alien who has just landed on planet Earth. All she wants to do is keep her head down, avoid trouble, and get a good education. But the Goode girls have other ideas, as this institution values trust, honesty, and integrity, as long as those things don't interfere with the senior girls who run the secret societies.
Told from multiple perspectives, we soon learn that not everyone values the truth. Add in a suicide, hazing, extreme privilege and wealth, and murder, and you have to wonder if Ash is an innocent victim or the one responsible for all the chaos. As the pages flew by, the suspense built, until this twisted tale ends with a satisfying, jaw-dropping moment. My guesses about whodunnit and why were solid( I thought), but ultimately, all wrong. An engaging read for a rainy fall day( or any kind of day)! 4.5 stars.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat! Definitely an original thriller that I'm glad I picked up. Didn't see the ending coming but it really tied it all together great. I feel like it took awhile to pick up and seemed to drag at points but overall a great read. Thank you net galley!

It was a good book, I'm glad it ended, though! Such a weird feeling about it and I simply can't shake it. I will compare it to the feeling you get when you are riding a very unsafe roller coaster, that you know it might drop you at some point, but you want to ride it anyways.

The premise of this book got me really intrigued, competitive teenagers inside a prep school filled with strict rules, secret societies, a possible suicide and lies to be discovered? Sign me in, of course. And it does deliver in all of those departments, although with a slow start for me as we are being introduced to Ash's story. Ash is coming to the school from Europe and while we follow the beginning of her journey, we are also given some bits and pieces of things that happened in her not so distant past.

However, as soon as Ash reaches the school, chaos come in full force, which gave us lots of scenarios such as, Ash hiding a great amount of dark secrets (and we know that due to so many flashbacks throughout the story), while struggling to fit in. It didn't help that those girls were not kidding with the bullying and they were completely self-centered and twisted. And what about those "Tap Events" to become part of a secret league? That really irritated me. I cannot fathom the fact that there are schools out there where these things happen. They are a disgrace to teenagers and I hated to read about them. Let's not forget that apart from all of that, there's also a suicide happening in parallel.

This was a very insane plot, let me tell you. And the fact that there were so many things happening at the same time, following different timelines, got me really confused and disoriented. Towards the end, I couldn't quite tell whose point of view I was reading about. Perhaps the author could've turned down a notch?

The plot twist at the end though, was so nice and not expected by me at all. I also appreciated the fact that the author introduced lots of deep subjects in the story, even though none of them were explored in depth.

To sum it up, if you are in the mood to get your mind all blown away, and not always in a good way, you are willing to goo deep into this crazy and dark prep school world, and you don't mind a story which gives you lots of different scenarios that sometimes it's hard to follow, it's the perfect book for you.

Ash Carlisle is headed off to boarding school in the states, she has been excepted to the Goods School in Virginia and is looking forward to making a new start. Getting a full scholarship was the best thing that could of happened to her at this stage in her life, both of her parents are dead from murder/suicide and things are getting uncomfortable at home. She is happy to leave England behind and travel to a place where no one knows her or her situation. Ash soon learns that this new life isn't as great as she thought it would be, not all the girls are nice and some of them seem to look for trouble. Ash has so many secrets, she fears that some of them may come to light and then her new life upside down. Everywhere you look there are secrets to be unearthed and new lies to pull apart. Will Ashe's secrets and lies come to light of will she be able to keep them buried and in the past where she thinks they belong. You soon learn that not everything is as it seems and appearances can be deceiving. This was an exceptionally good read that will truly keep you guessing until the end. I loved all the twists and turns and look forward to what.This author will bring to light of dark next!!!

GOOD GIRLS LIE has the familiarity of a number of boarding school mysteries and thrillers and the themes they have, from the mysterious new girl to the secret societies to the backstabbing and infighting. I wouldn't say that this book reinvented the wheel when it comes to the subgenre, but under the right circumstances that can be just fine. For me, when reading this, I was happy to have the comfort of a thriller that I could just enjoy, partially because of the tropes that had and how well it did them. Our main character Ash is your typical 'potentially unreliable narrator' as well as your typical 'new girl with secrets' character, and while it was familiar it was still enjoyable because Ellison wrote it well. I liked Ash enough that I was both invested in seeing what happened to her, and worried about what we would learn about it. I especially enjoyed her relationship with Becca, the popular senior that may or may not be fixating on Ash for all the wrong reasons. The only thing that didn't work for me as well in this book was that we also got some perspectives from Dean Ford, the headmistress at the school, and while this CAN work if done right (I like having the ability to see outside the scope of the first person protagonist to find more clues in a mystery usually), in this case it didn't quite land for me.

GOOD GIRLS LIE was a perfectly passable boarding school thriller. While it doesn't really push many boundaries, it was enjoyable to me as I read it.

They say your life can change in an instant. That instant occurs for 16 year old Ash Carlisle when, after the untimely deaths of her parents, she opts to escape her current circumstances and moves from England to Marchburg, Virginia to attend an all girls boarding school whose history includes secret societies and the questionable deaths of students.

Little does Ash know that her attempt to begin her life again, in anonymity, will be fraught with mean girl tricks and perilous situations as she attempts to assimilate into this fortress of young women who come from backgrounds of wealth, advantage and entitlement. Along the way she becomes the somewhat willing target and often complicit ally of one girl in particular, Becca Curtis.

Brutally real and fast as a speeding Lamborghini, GOOD GIRLS LIE skillfully draws readers in as it thoughtfully plumbs the tangled depths of the human psyche. The reliability of the multiple narrators is questionable and the supporting cast in this ingenious saga presents the reader with an assortment of characters that they will alternately love and hate.

J. T. Ellison’s characters put this reader in mind of Forest Gump’s box of chocolates………..you are compelled to keep reading because “you never know what you’re gonna get”.

Good Girls Lie is my second book by J. T. Ellison and I am once again fully satisfied with this sinister mystery/thriller read. This was a quick read for me and I was glued to its pages from the start. I enjoyed the alternating points of views and the clever way the author created the tension throughout the book. This book had all the right ingredients for a boarding school mystery: secret societies, hazing, murder, teenage girl’s cattiness, and eerie descriptions of an old school’s grounds and buildings. The plot was never dull and there were plenty of twists to make me questions everyone’s motive. I am looking forward to reading more books from this author soon.

Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin-Mira publisher and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I'm a fan of JT Ellison, and this latest book did not disappoint! It was interesting to get an inside look at what goes on at elite private schools, and the plot of this thriller kept me guessing!

“How do you kill a narcissist?”
Centuries old secret societies, lies, scandal and murder, The Goode School is a very prominent girl’s private school in Virginia headed by the last remaining member of the family that has ran it for two centuries, Dean Ford Westhaven.
It’s storyline expands over two continents following its newest student 16 year old Ash Carr, a sophomore who arrives from London at the dark unsettling prep school named Silent Ivy on a secret scholarship (known only between herself and Dean Westhaven.) The schools hallways are littered with strange and unusual occurrences, secret passageways, hauntings, and a creepy gothic mystery with someone secretly plotting in the shadows. I couldn’t put it down! Dark and intriguing with full on intensity, Good Girls Lie is a must read for thriller fans!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin-MIRA for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book kept me guessing. It was an intense read. Definitely not for the faint of heart. Well written and developed.