Many thanks to Net Galley, Harlequin- Mira and J T Ellison for the chance to review #Good Girls Lie

I have read a couple of books by J T Ellison and her book "Tear Me Apart' is a story that still resonates in my mind. At times, when there are so many thrillers out there, to write something that lingers is brilliant and Tear Me Apart was one such book for me. Good Girls Lie is clearly a winner, there's no doubt about it. An all-girls residential school with murder and mayhem, ghosts and secret tunnels , everything that keeps a reader hooked is there in the story.
The Goode School is special, Girls from wealthy and privileged families join this prestigious institution and keep the torch of sisterhood alive but the reality is sometimes dark and malevolent. There are secret societies and ragging and hazing and torture that leaves some traumatized and others on the brink of suicide. The competition is fierce but encouraged by the faculty to be healthy even though the rules are flaunted and broken by most.
The opening chapter itself leaves one speechless but it was the unexpected ending that threw me off. The big mystery reveal I had already guessed but it didn't spoil the thrill ride for me.

A superb thriller that leaves the reader speechless and wanting more!

Goode School, good grief, this is no Mallory Towers!

When Ash Carlisle is accepted into the Goode School in Virginia, a boarding school for young women of affluent families, she is looking to escape her past. Ash's parents have recently died in tragic circumstances. She has been accepted because of her parents' social standing, financial well-to-do'ness and natural talent as a pianist. Ash's enrolment was arranged prior to her parents' passing due to Ash's strained relationship with her father, and the enrolment process has continued post her parents' deaths.

The Goode School presents a dignified face to the world but there are also accepted norms within the school. Goode girls always succeed. The girls aren't allowed access to mobile phones or electronic media.. There are pecking orders and honor Codes. Tapping to be in the secret societies.

Soon, things start happening at the Goode School. One of the teachers has a fatal allergic reaction and one of Ash's suitemates dies following a suspected suicide. The Goode School is at the centre of a police investigation and it is this kind of scandal the Dean has been trying to protect the school.

Things are definitely not what they seem at the Goode School.

Good Girls Lie has some really strong [and seriously narcissistic] characters. Entitled, rich, and self-indulgent. Unstable, calculating, evil. It's a compelling read, yet I found it a little chaotic in the middle third perhaps indicative of everything happening within the plot ? I also felt the female detective was going to have more of an impact as well. Neither issue detracted from the book for me it was just the feeling I came away with.

No spoilers but loved the last few chapters.

Thank you to JTEllison, HARLEQUIN - MIRA (U.S. and Canada) and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review..

I will post this review and a little closer to publication on my instagram @aplace_inthesun.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy for my honest review.

What I loved: I wasn't expecting the ending. I had a lot of it figured out, but the ending got me!
What I liked: While slightly predictable, this was a great book full of good twists.
What I hated: Can't say I hated anything about it really.

Easy to recommend. Could be a very nice YA/Adult crossover for younger readers.

A solid 4 stars.

Another turn-pager from J.T. Ellison.... this took place at an exclusive boarding all-girls high school in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The girls are all from very important families when immersed with a new student from the UK whom doesnt want to share her past things start is get interesting. There are some twists & turns that you dont see coming! Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy for my honest review. Pub date 12/30/19 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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#netgalley #readathon #goodgirlslie #reviewathon #bookoholic #booknerd

This is the second book I have read by this author, Although I did not like this was as well as the other, I did enjoy this read. It was a bit different that I read, I would definately read more by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

My rating is really 2.5 stars, but I've rounded up.

This book had some bright spots. Good mystery, some twists I didn't see coming.
However, high school was not an appropriate setting for this plot. This really should have been set at a college. I was constantly forgetting that these girls were teenagers. And for a book with so many references to current pop culture, that seemed unrealistic given that the girls were not really allowed access to the outside world.

Too many narrators as well. Dean Westhaven really did not need her own chapters, but if she's going to have them, she deserved more than a throw-away ending. But it really should have been the two main characters as narrators. Kate's chapters were completely unnecessary.

This book is in serious need of editing to make it more concise and the thrills more impactful, or else it should be expanded into a duology or trilogy.

I'm giving it 3 stars because some of my dislike came from not liking YA in general. Those who do like YA may appreciate this book more.

Thanks to #NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read #GoodGirlsLie

This is the first book by J.T. Ellison and I enjoyed. I've read a few of the other reviews and I know a lot didn't like the book nor felt like it was realistic.
But I enjoyed the book. It gave me a story that I got into and couldn't put down. I can understand why some had problems with it. But for the story I think the characters fix in.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book they provided. Receiving a free copy did not influence my review in any way.

I made it to around 30% and could not read on. Others may really like this book but I could not connect with it. It was written as though it was set in present day but it really felt quite retro. I work with teens every day and the teens in this book did not act like or speak like teens of today. They felt much older or of a different era. Also, the Dean, who I believe would be in her 30s sounded like a much older woman. To me it was distracting and kept me from identifying with the characters. This novel would have worked better for me had it been written as a historical novel.

Trigger warnings: Suicide

"Really? At an all girls boarding school? How deliciously gothic."

Gothic doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this book. Let's call it as it is, a lesbian gothic thriller set to the tone of rich millennial teens are out of their minds. They are ruthless.

Meet Ash, an orphan from Oxford, England recently settled in the dust of America. She comes to Goode Boarding School alone and on edge. This is a good school, a great school, but when you are surrounded by the most elite of elite daughters all around the world, a great school can still be horrible. It's downright nasty in fact.
This book opens with death and as the story progresses we are introduced to more and more. Everyone around Ash is dying and it's grown more than a little suspicious.

This is a good book which kept me on the edge the entire time. The writing is beautiful, the characters intense caricatures of wealthy teen girls with money. I was so almost on my way to loving this title but the end is confusing and I still don't feel as though we get a real sense of closure. The climax while heart stopping is much of the same. It could be the different switches of perspective constantly but it was disappointing. Especially when the beginning was so strong.

Also note: these girls will annoy you and make you roll your eyes. As there are quite of bit of suicides in this novel there definitely needs to be a trigger warning involved as they are very graphic.

Sometimes the characters and plot are beyond unbelievable. Expecting 100s of girls to be cut off from Wifi and separated from their phones??? Lmaooo, not happening.

I loved the world building and some of the characters not all. I like the queer representation in the book and felt as though it was written well. There are some bumps along the way but it is a really enjoyable fast thriller read. We need more of these solely featuring girls honestly.

Thanks much to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This review will be posted on my blog: http://aelilyreads.home.blog from 08/22/2019 to indefinitely.
Blog post: https://aelilyreads.home.blog/2019/08/22/arc-review-good-girls-lie-by-j-t-ellison/

I am a huge fan of Ellison, so as soon as I knew she had a new book out I had to get my hands on it.

The fact that this book takes place at a boarding school and jumps from different points of view as well as the past in the present was total icing on the cake.

From an outsider's perspective, The Good School is perfection. It's a very well to do prep school and turns teenage girls into the best and brightest, sending them onto good colleges and perfect lives.

Except that there are so many dark things going on within the school. And when Ash arrives it all hits the fan.

I couldn't put this book down. The twists and turns are as scary as the tunnels under The Goode School and I just had to find out exactly what was going on. Although the end got a little out of control, I loved this dark thrilled and found it even darker than Ellison's usual novels. Definitely a great book to read on a dark, stormy night.

I just couldn’t get into this book. The plot just plodded on and on with no end in sight. Thanks to the publisher for my advance ebook. This is my unbiased review.

It has been said that, “the truth shall set you free;” however, for Ash telling the truth can be down right deadly. Just how far will she go to keep her secrets and her past buried?

“There are truths, and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened, which is where you and I will meet.”

Let’s face it, everyone lies. Even good girls, but especially Goode girls. Goode’s honor code be damned when it comes to Ash and her future. Such a wicked web of lies that is spun by Ellison throughout this read.

Good Girls Lie, is made with all the ingredients necessary for a tempting, tangy yet tasty, tantalizing thriller. It’s made with love using a dash of mayhem, a cup of Ellison’s version of “Mean Girls”, and of course it wouldn’t be complete without several slices and dices of murder only to be topped off with a British bad girl as the cherry on top. 5 stars❤️

First, I debated whether to give this book three or four stars. It means a lot to go about three, and I feel like that twist in the ended warranted the fourth star.

My hesitations lie in the facts that 1. Some parts seemed unnecessary to the overall storyline and just added to more details to remember and 2. The beginning took a while to get into. The second half of this book is WAY more fast paced and definitely gripped my attention.

The Goode School is a prestigious American boarding school for all girls, one that can make your future bright.

But we quickly learn things are not all “good” at The Goode School as a student is found dead on campus.

A new girl is a student at Goode, and she has a past that she desperately wants to keep a secret. However, secrets can only be kept and hidden for so long.

Fast paced and enjoyable ending that made this one worth reading!

This story just went on, and needlessly on. I was just waiting for it to end. While the writing was OK it just went on forever-89 chapters forever. I had trouble getting into this one, and emerged with mixed feelings. The list of ridiculous inaccuracies and the level of soap to which the book ascends were an issue for me.

This was a great fast paced thriller that reminded me of One of Us is Lying. I would definitely recommend this book.

After reading "Tear Me Apart", I was excited to receive an advance review for J.T. Ellison's upcoming thriller, "Good Girls Lie"! The setting is an idyllic Virginia boarding school - and the setting was well-described and accurate to the true Virginia countryside and the several boarding schools that serve the capitol's elite.

There were several story lines involved in the book, and I'm not entirely sure that all of them were necessary - many off-shoots that didn't develop the main plot. Without spoiling anything, I'll say the mystery was not at all a surprise after a certain character was introduced. The twist has definitely been done before, and it was honestly a bit disappointing. Additionally, I didn't like or empathize with a single one of the characters.

I gave a 4, because I did definitely want to finish the book and find out how everything turned out - and I finished it quickly, because I couldn't put it down! I certainly think it's worth a read, but maybe not as good as my expectations lead me to believe.

The author's note says that many of the traditions and setting were taken from her college alma mater (Randolph-Macon Woman's College) the location of the Goode School appears to be Chatham Hall. Not that it matters, except that there are some things that make more sense for a college than an all-girls prep school. I'm not talking about the secret society parts, or the tunnels (I worked at one school with the former and attended a school with the latter) but the college acceptance part. There are schools with high acceptance into the Ivies. But The Goode School's rate? No. Plus the school appears to look down on the SLACs and the Southern Ivies, many of which are just as competitive and prestigious. And the idea that a non-athelete could get accepted into college pretty much on the Head of School's say-so? Maybe before World War II (I've seen the letters at MPOW and know that held true for other New England schools) but not now. Not for several decades.

It was also puzzling as to when this was set. Javascript is apparently a huge new thing, which suggests mid-90s but then there's a reference to Billie Ellish which suggests this year. You can't have both! There's a big plot twist that is strongly hinted at throughout the book that wasn't surprising, and all I'll say is that I've recently read other books with a similar twist that were done better.

eARC provided by publisher.

I love all things boarding schools so I really enjoyed the descriptions of the buildings, campus life, etc. I appreciated what the author was trying to do with the POVs and the twist but I found it a little difficult to follow. I had to go back and read the ending twice. A good story but I just struggled with some parts.

I am a big fan of JT Ellison books and was so excited for this story. Unfortunately for me it fell short. I had trouble connecting with characters as sometimes it was hard to understand who was talking or what was going on. The storyline intrigued me but I had trouble following once I started reading as it was not clear what was going on and too confusing. I look forward to more from her and cannot wait to see what she comes out with next. Just because this was not for me does not mean it is not for someone else. Hopefully everyone gives it a chance and forms their own opinion.

Whoa! This book threw me for a loop! My heart raced, I questioned everything that I thought I knew about the book. The twists and turns kept me turning the pages. The characters were multi-dimensional and made kept me throughly engrossed. A 5 star read from the first page until the stunning conclusion!