I loved that as Eve was trying to piece her life back together, I was doing the exact same thing. I was on a level playing field, using clues to figure out what truly happened the night Eve was struck by lightening, and her mom died. Did she murder her own mom? Or was there another killer on the loose?

While Behind Every Lie offers a unique and imaginative storyline, the over-the-top plot and convoluted subplots may stretch the reader's credulity. The main character is thinly drawn and is not a reliable protagonist.  Though filled with twists and turns, the investigation could have benefited from a more grounded approach. Disappointing.

I really liked The Night Olivia Fell and this was a great follow up. This one will keep you guessing but also has heart given the mother daughter relationship. Recommend!

Christina McDonald’s The Night Olivia Fell was that wonderful mix of suspense, emotion, and heart. In Behind Every Lie, a woman wakes up in the hospital to a horrifying truth and no memories of how it happened.

These memory gap books really play with our minds, don’t they? We know from the beginning that the narrator is unreliable. Even more terrifying, the narrator knows they aren’t reliable. In the case of Eva, she’s awoken in a nightmare scenario. She’s not only learned she lost her mother, but also that she’s the prime suspect. How do you prove you’re innocent if you can’t remember anything?

“I couldn’t trust anything. Not what I remembered, not what I thought I saw, not myself.”

The book opens with Eva, her mother Kat, her brother Andrew, and her mother’s best friend Lily gathered to celebrate Kat, who won an award for saving a child’s life. That celebration is the last thing Eva remembers before she awakes in the hospital to learn she has been struck by lightning.

Eva has a secret that she has been keeping, and she worries about her boyfriend Liam finding out the truth of what happened four years earlier. Eva has isolated herself and overly accommodates Liam. Eva has become submissive, compliant, and lacks a voice in her own relationship. She sees Liam as a nurturer, taking care of her and making her feel safe.

In the present, Eva awakes to the news that her mother was stabbed multiple times. Eva has no memory of what happened before she was struck by lightning, but she has plenty of memories that show the reader the troubled relationship with her mother. Text messages reveal why she was at her mother’s home the night she was murdered, and why she is the primary suspect. But how can she prove she’s innocent if she doesn’t know what happened?

A letter from her mother explains some of the truth about why Kat kept so many secrets from Eva. But if Eva wants to find out what happened and prove she didn’t murder her mother, she’ll need to learn the full truth. As the murder investigation is ongoing, Eva flies to London where her mother lived years ago to find answers. She won’t let herself get blamed for something she didn’t do. Not again…

“A memory is no more reliable than the weather, broken, warped by the teller’s view.”

The story is told through Eva’s POV in the present, and Kat’s POV twenty-five years earlier. McDonald brings the impeccable and emotional storytelling that readers fell in love with in The Night Olivia Fell. McDonald boldly confronts troubling and heavy themes with the respect they deserve. Some of these themes may be triggering for some readers, so look up content warnings if you are worried about it.

The revelations that come out at the climax of the story are shocking and powerful. The sheer number of them coming in quick succession is nearly overwhelming, not unlike memories suddenly coming back all at once. Twists and turns deliver a gripping story that you won’t want to stop reading.

McDonald writes with compassion for her characters and an elegance in her plotting and execution. Eva’s piecing together fragments of memory and family secrets mirrors her work as a potter and her use of kintsugi—the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery by filling the cracks with gold. This elegant and ancient technique not only creates beautiful work out of what was one broken, but it also celebrates the damage rather than hides it. A fitting metaphor for Eva’s growth arc across this novel.

Thank you to Gallery Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Christina McDonald is becoming a new favorite of mine when it comes to mystery/suspense. The characters are flawed but you can't help but what to know their story.

Eva Hansen wakes up in a hospital after being struck by lightening. She can't remember much from that night but soon discovers that her mother is dead and police believe she might have had something to do with.

As she begins to piece together what happened that night, everything she thought she knew about her mother quickly begins to unravel.

The twists and turns are on point! If you really want to read a book that will leave you guessing until the very end, Behind Every Lie is the book for you!

Not terrible, but didn’t end up with any shocking plot twists, just some emotional abuse and maybe not the best handling of abortion/adoption/birth stories. It did really overuse metaphors for kinsugi about being broken, but still being beautiful and repairing yourself.

Thanks to Gallery and NetGalley for the chance to review.

New to this author, I loved the premise and I devoured it. Great writing, awesome story line, fulfilling ending. Would recommend this read.

Wow! This mystery/thriller was a bit unique I thought in the way it was told. There are two time frames: one told during Eva's time and the other told during her mother Kat's time. Eva is the MC who wakes up in a hospital bed without knowledge of what happened to her, but eventually she finds out that her mother was murdered and she comes to realize that she perhaps is the killer.

I really liked how the story was told from Eva's POV as she tried to discern her current day situation and what really happened all the way to back to her mother's younger days with Eva. Oh, the secrets we learn! I have to admit that even though I wasn't 100% sure of who killed KAT, I 100% distrusted one character from the get-go and it turned out that I was right about that. I loved the twists and turns in this book and how I knew something was wrong but still didn't have it all figured out.

4.5⭐️
I really enjoyed it! I read it in 2 days which says quite a bit for me these days. It definitely kept me guessing throughout which was a nice change for someone who reads a lot of thrillers.

This was such a surprisingly good mystery! I loved how it started with a bang and never let up. Things were being revealed consistently throughout, causing me to question everyone and even switch sides a few times. And the ending was pretty perfect. I’m definitely eager to read more by Christina McDonald now!

Excellent book and excellent author. Read and recommended to my book club. My book club also loved this one.

Behind Every Lie was an interesting story, with a fast pace that kept me emerged. I enjoy this author's writing style - it has a great flow that is engaging.

This book jumps right into the action, starting immediately after Kat's murder. After that the book alternates between the perspectives of Kat (in the past) and her daughter, Eva, who is a prime suspect for Kat's murder but is suffering from memory loss. There are many secrets throughtout the story that keep the reader in suspense. I admit that I was able to figure out some of the secrets before they were revealed, but I still found myself surprised plenty of times too. Both Eva and Kat show growth over the course of the story, especially Eva. There's so much more to this story, but I don't want to give anything away! I'll definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't fabulous like her last book. It was a good read but not really memorable to me.

This book sounded interesting. However, it was a struggle to get through. I found the plot to be slow-moving, and I didn’t like the characters. Still, I recommend this for those that like psychological thrillers.

I think this is one of those stories that I will think about for a while. It is a story about relationships, love, betrayal, and so much more!

There were so many twists that I didn’t see coming, and it kept me entertained until the final page. I definitely suggest this book!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

DNF at 20%. Unfortunately, I just could not get into this one. I'm very disappointed as I loved McDonald's last book.

So so so good. Christina Mcdonald writes amazing stories and this one was great. Very quick easy read. With a great twist. It was a wd ride.

2 stars

There is a lot I want to say about this book, but I don't know where to start. I had hope that I would enjoy this one more than The Night Olivia Fell. But I actually had a more difficult time with this one. The premise sounded good, and I love a good mystery. But, with so many books out there, this felt like it had been done before.

It took me several attempts to finish this book. Not because I wasn't interested, but because every secret and twist was easily guessed. I felt like I didn't need to read portions of the book because it was obvious where it was going. The characters were frustrating, Eva and Kat had too many family secrets. And don't even get me started on Liam.

Overall, I don't think Christina McDonald's books are for me. While I find her concepts interesting, I don't like her executions.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

Eva is struck by lightning and awakes to learn that her mother has been murdered. Did she do it, was it someone else? Eva doesn’t know because her memory of that night is gone. She has a habit of not remembering bad things. All through the book she is doing inexplicable things with no memory of doing them? This book had so many twists and turns and I loved everyone of them!! My first book by Christina and I sure will read more.