I love thrillers... I can't get enough of them!! But, they actually have to be GOOD.

Lately, I've seen quite a few thrillers that have become "fillers". In other words, a whole bunch of random extra info or too much extra unnecessary details that are added to the plot.

Unfortunately, I have struggled with J.T Ellison's books before with having the same issue as I did with this book. It's extremely way too long!!

There was a lot of interior dialogue going on and too much telling and not showing behind the mystery here.

I loved the atmosphere of this one... taking place at an elite boarding school. What more can you ask for? Girls that murder?! Sign me up!

I want to love J.T Ellison's books but they end up just becoming fillers and wayyy too long! There isn't enough spice in the plot and didn't quite deliver the way I wanted it too.

If you're a fan of her work then I think you'll love this one!

3 stars!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Harlequin/Mira for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: 12/30/19
Published to GR: 10/7/19

I am already a huge fan of just about everything Ellison has written but this was a departure from her normal. IT WAS AMAZING. If you are into boarding school and teenage drama wii suspense dashed in, this is the book for you. It’s honestly one of my top picks for the year. Dive right in!

Review#62 GOOD GIRLS LIE by JT Ellison and reviewing for Netgalley.
Great story with a very twisty ending. The first major twist confused me a bit but I finally understood what was happening by the end. As always, this author is fantastic! ⭐⭐⭐⭐Four stars

I always look forward to new titles from this author. I did enjoy this book and it had a small twist at end, but I thought it was a little predictable.

When we first meet Ash, she seems like a likeable girl just trying to survive after the sudden death of her parents. She has come over from England, partially because she is a gifted pianist and was given a scholarship -although her father was royalty and wealthy so she could have paid her way.
It was her parents’ wish she attend the school before their untimely deaths, and it seems she simply doesn’t know what else to do except travel to America to start over. She even goes by a different name in order to avoid the gossip mill when the other girls find out about her parents and her past.
She quickly starts to make friends and is solicited by the school’s allusive secret society. But as she struggles to “appear” normal on the outside, Ellison begins to provide snapshots into Ash’s real life and background. And there’s the small matter that there have other accidents and deaths and all roads lead back to Ash. Are that many coincidences possible?
Ellison spins a great tale full of the mystery and dark past of a girl’s private school and creates multi-dimensional characters who are hiding things from each other and the reader. I would have rated this one higher, but it did take a little while for me to really get into the story.
Special thanks to Netgalley and Mira for an advanced readers copy of this one. My review will be published on my blog, Women in Trouble Book Blog on December 3, 2019.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4.5 stars, rounded down, overall I really enjoyed it, but I did have a couple of issues with it.

The beginning of the book was hard to get into, but once I got to around the 40% point, I was hooked. The issue for me was that all of students did not feel like teens at first, which made me feel like the author was an adult (which J.T. Ellison, of course, is) and that’s not something I really enjoy being hyperaware of while reading. Once Kate’s perceptive was introduced to the book, I felt like that either went away or I just got used to it.
SPOILER: This also could possibly attributed to the fact that the MC actually is 19, not 16. Which I LIKED. You don't know her age until the end though, so if someone stops reading before they get to the end, they wouldn't know that there could actually be a reason for this.

I will also say that college admissions simply just don’t work like how they are described in the book, but that part I’m actually okay looking past. But really, a lot of aspects of this book just felt dated - which I would also have been able to accept if there hadn’t been random things from 2019 thrown into the book like the Billie Eilish song getting stuck in someone’s head. Without those bits it could have easily taken place during a different year, that would have fixed so much and made it a better book! It felt very gothic— which I loved— but the references took away from that.

After all of that, it probably sounds like I didn’t like this book, but I really did!
I enjoyed the plot, I liked the twists, the secrets, and I did like how the author crafted each of the characters. I did guess the big twist, but that didn’t impact the reading experience. It was just the right amount of soapiness, something I personally love in boarding school books! One thing that I think is important to mention is that this is an adult thriller set at a boarding school, there are POVs from the teen MC, the dean, and a police officer. If you go into this book thinking that it's a YA thriller, I feel like there is a good chance you will end up disappointed; it is and reads as adult, not young adult.

Another thing I do want to point out is that I found the pacing at the end of the book GREAT. I mentioned before it was hard to get into, I felt like the beginning dragged a little, but I was really SOOOO impressed with the ending. So many times I will read a thriller and have the ending squished into a chapter or two and it feels unsatisfying, that was not the case with this book. All of the pieces fell together, it was just the right amount of soapy/dramatic that I enjoy, and it didn’t feel rushed at all!

Once this book picked up, I did really enjoy it! It was a solid story, after overlooking a few inaccuracies - it’s fiction, everything doesn’t need to be accurate. As I mentioned, I did really enjoy it overall. I will be on the lookout for more books from this author in the future.

Post on Instagram about this book will be up today (10/6) at @Bayley.Pepper

Good Girls Lie
J.T. Ellison
December 30, 2019

The Goode School for girls is located in Marchburg, Virginia. It sets upon the hills with magnificent splendor. Marchburg is a small town with shops and beautiful homes. The school is the keystone of the population. During the summer it is a quiet burg where townsfolk keep to themselves. At the start of the school year students arrive with their parents,: wealthy politicians, lawyers, physicians, and other elite from the states. A few girls travel from Europe but most are US citizens. Cars are ushered into the facility through locked gates. There is a wall that surrounds the school. For the most part students remain on the grounds. Weekends they are able to walk to the nearby coffee shop, grocery, and restaurants. This particular year, a student was arriving from Great Britain. Her parents had arranged for her enrollment, paying initial fees and providing interviews via Skype. Not long before her arrival, word arrived that Ash Carlisle had lost her parents to a tragic accident. Her father had taken a wrong dose of prescribed medication. He was found at the dining table by Ash. Shortly thereafter, her mother became so despondent that she shot herself. Ash wanted nothing more than to leave immediately for school. Dean Westhaven arranged for Ash’s flight and sent a driver to receive her at the airport.
This story tells a sorrowful tale of Ash’s life after her entrance to school as well as describing the life she led before. To expound the plot further would provide spoilers. The reader needs to interpret this narrative; chapter by chapter, line by line. J.T. Ellison is known for her riveting prose. This novel is yet another of her chillers that keep us guessing beginning to end. For those of you who have read Ellison’s work it will be read without recommendation. If this would be your first to read, it is an excellent work. Throughout I questioned the logic to Ash’s life and her plan for success at school.
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison will be published by Mira Books on December 30, 2019. It was with great pleasure that I thank Mira Books for giving me the pre-published copy. I have read others by J.T. Ellison and have always looked forward to her new releases. It is one readers should not miss.

What would you do to get what you want? Ash Carlisle is new at school she has just joined Goodes School and she hopes that she can just disappear into the background. But nothing is that simple at this school and she is about to find out that someone will stop at nothing to get what they want even if that means murder. She hoped that no one would find out about her parent's death and that she could pretend to be someone else but someone has found out the truth and now they are dead and the police think that Ash knows something. But does she really or is she innocent as she claims? Who will be the last one standing and when the truth does come out the school will be destroyed. Who is Ash really and what does she want so badly? A good suspenseful read. Most of us wish for a better life but who would be brave or stupid enough to agree as this young girl did? I was lucky enough to receive a copy via Netgalley & the publishing house in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC ebook.
**
The Goode School is an all girls elite private school for daughters of rich and influential parents. This school helps their daughters get into Ivy League schools, and most of the time on early acceptance.
This is where parents dream to be able to send their girls. Although lets think about this clearly.... For those of use that are women and went to high school... can you imagine anything worse than 200 snotty rich girls? I mean the girls in this book weren't the nicest. Most were there to stay out of the spot light & not have their actions look poorly on their parents. I mean come on.. someone had to know bad things would come from this school.
We are first told of a murder a decade past where a man was stalking a student, and became so enraged when reject that he not only murdered her; BUT he ripped out her eye and placed them on the family mantel.
Now you've got Ash Carlisle traveling from Oxford, England to attend this prestigious school. She is coming after the untimely death of not just one but both her parents; and once she get there it's not long before someone else turns up dead.
Lying goes against Goode's honor code, and everything Ash says seems to be a lie. While the body count goes up there is more behind Ash and the Goode school than meets the eye.
**
While I did truly enjoy this book, I will say it took me a little bit to get into. I attribute this to being an unedited advance e-book, or just being an e-book copy itself. In the beginning I noticed that in the middle of a paragraph it would say " Good Girls Lie 66". Also there were many places that if the words contained the letter 'f' it would add unnecessary spaces in-between other letters. But this aside I truly enjoyed this book & BOY oh BOY did the plot twist have me salivating with literary goodness.

J.T. Ellison has done it again! "Good Girls Lie" is a captivating mystery novel of twists and turns. I was on the edge of my seat all the way to the last page, and was actually disappointed when it ended. This book is not to be missed!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

Once you figure out there are two characters narrating in first person, the book makes more sense but by then you'll have stopped caring about how the story ends. I was hooked from the beginning when a teenage girl is discovered hanging from the gates of an all-female prep school, her face mutilated beyond identification. Unfortunately, the author doesn't deliver the anticipated shocking but how-did-I -not see-that-coming twist readers deserve. While it's not overly predictable, the shallow characters are grating. At times, I felt the author didn't know what was going on in the novel either. Good Girls Lie adds nothing new to the thriller/murder mystery genre.

Note: I was given a presale copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Mystery about a teenager who attends a private school. There is family drama, there are mean girls, and there are old mysteries entwined with the new ones.

While J. T. Ellison is one of my new favorite authors to read, this particular story took me much longer than expected to really get into it. Although there is a slow start and a bit too long setting the stage for the action to begin, when the action happens it is never ending. This book alone would keep anyone out of an upscale boarding high school for the elite. This is filled with rich children and have grown up with privilege. The Goode School is about tradition and family names of generations of girls who attend. Graduating from this school can set you up for a bright future in the Ivy League Universities. A school known for the best and the brightest have let in a girl from the UK and she is a stranger to the school and the traditions.
In a school with the appearance of following the rules, allows for secret societies, hazing and cruelty to go unchecked. It is only after a popular girl is found dead that all the truth of what is going on at the school starts to come out. Was it all the rumors that drove her to suicide? Did she have a secret she was keeping from her roommate, friend and her family? Will the web of lies be unraveled enough to get to the truth of what happened at the Goode School? What lengths with the rich and powerful go to in order to protect their secrets.

I absolutely love this book! I love reading J.T. Ellison books but this one is one of the best! To think teenage girls could be so evil. J.T. Just keep writing these wonderfully evil stories please!!! Thank you so much!

The Goode School caters to the daughters of society’s elite and paves the way for future success for their students. Goode girls adhere to a strict code of honor and never lie, or do they? When Ash arrives at the beginning of the school year from the UK, she is trying to rebuild her life but death seems to follow her. Is Ash responsible or is there something more sinister in the works?

J. T. Ellison has written another well crafted and thoughtful novel with rich, well crafted characters. This is a must read for fans of Ellison or thoughtful thrillers.

J.T. Ellison has created a psychological thriller that keeps you on your toes from beginning to end. Is Ash who we think she is or is she a diabolical cold-blooded killer? Add in all the other privileged students at the Goode School and it's hard to tell who the good girls really are!

This book is SO GOOD. Twisted, creepy and wickedly delightful. Murder, secret societies and mayhem within an all-girls school — what more could you want? A special thanks to NetGalley and Mira for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Bestselling author J. T. Ellison is the author of Good Girls Lie, a fascinating thriller set in Marchburg, Virginia at a very expensive and prestigious school for girls of the very wealthy and influential. The Goode prep school is the gateway to being accepted into an Ivy League college, and the same family has been over the college for years. Dean Westhaven accepts a beautiful English girl who has lost both of her parents – her father, Damian Carr, very rich, but abusive, and her mother, Sylvia, passive and unwilling to do anything about it. Ashlyn Carr goes to the Goode school under the name Ash Carlisle to alleviate any possibility of a scandal regarding her parents deaths. Ash is a good student, but people who are close to her at the school are dying, and people are becoming suspicious. Goings on at the school are typical of high-end schools with secret societies, hazing, and certain students ruling.

There is a reason that Ellison is a bestselling author. She knows how to tell a compelling and believable story, and making it impossible to put down. She is also a master of well-developing her characters. Readers will feel that the characters are real, and while most won’t be able to relate because these girls are the privileged daughters of the rich and famous, they will form favorites and care about what happens to them. The girls are typical in that they form cliques, and exclude less popular girls. The story has ups and downs, and there are very unexpected scenarios. The ending is very unexpected, and the reason why readers won’t be able to put the novel down. Highly Recommended.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Ash Carlisle is suddenly an orphan, on her way to a private school for privileged girls. She has secrets, but doesn't everyone. Ash is having a hard time fitting in, until she is "tapped" for a group that is usually for the upper class students. Since these are secret society s Ash has even more to hide. Will it all be to much for her? There are many twists and turns at the end. Loved it. Thanks netgalley.