What a wonderful, delightful, satisfying read this is!! I could continue, but you get the idea; I absolutely LOVED this book. It is thoroughly engaging, and I would've read through it much more quickly had not the holidays, guests, and illness intervened (for those date-checkers among you)!

In June, 2018, young Morgan Christopher is in a North Carolina prison for a crime that she didn't commit. One day she is told she has visitors. Two women she has never seen before, Lisa Williams, a real estate agent and her attorney, Andrea Fuller, want to talk with her. She has been chosen by Lisa's late father Jesse Jameson Williams, a famous contemporary artist to restore a mural. She will be paroled and paid for her services if she can complete it by 8/5/18 when a gallery of his works is scheduled to open. Morgan who didn't even complete her degree in art, has never done a work of this size, and has no background in restoring art at all. Surely, a mistake has been made. Assuring her, that she is the one hand-picked by her father, Morgan decides to do her best. She'll do anything to get out of prison.

In December, 1939, young Anna Dale of Plainfield, New Jersey is chosen from entrants in the Special 48-States Mural Competition sponsored by the United States Treasury Department, Section of Fine Arts. She had submitted a mural proposed for the Bordentown, NJ Post Office, but instead is to create a 12' x 6' mural to hang in the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. The mural is to be completed by 6/3/40. Having never been in any part of the south, Anna wonders how she'll be able to capture the essence of a town she has never seen. Wanting experience as an artist, she decides to give it a shot.

Thus starts Big Lies in a Small Town. The chapters alternate between the two women, disclosing layer by layer the richness of each of them and their incredible stories.

Dianne Chamberlain shows her writing expertise by creating fully human and believable characters and situations. The depth of her characters and scenes kept me spell-bound. Do yourself a favor and add this to your TBR pile!

My thanks to NetGalley, the author, and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions stated here are my own.

I was given this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book was an amazing read! I loved how Diana Chamberlain switched between Anna's and Morgan's POV. This book switched between Anna an artist who is commissioned to create a mural for a small town and the struggles she faced there and Morgan an ex convict who is hired to restore Anna's mural that was never put up and in doing so decides to solve the mystery surrounding her disappearance. This story was incredible and dealt with a lot of hard topics. It discussed a women's struggle for equality, false imprisonment, murder and more. The journey that these two women go through was so powerful and inspiring everyone needs to read this book. I'd like to thank Netgalley for this ARC.

I wasn’t even sure I was going to like this book after I read the synopsis. It’s not my normal genre or even a topic I enjoy that much. I figured reading it would be like watching paint dry... pun intended.

But OH MY GOD, this book is fantastic! I loved the characterization, the setting, the back story, the two timelines, and the relationships. This book literally has it all. Chamberlain managed to turn a story filled with hate, racism, violence, and mental illness into something beautiful.

Reading this book gave me an appreciation of so many things, including art. I felt as though I was the one who was painstakingly restoring this crazy mural and I know for sure that I could sketch it simply from my mind’s eye - the descriptions are just that perfect.

I stayed up until the wee hours (on the night before I had to go back to work from winter break, mind you) to finish this one. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t stay up late, and I rarely like the ending of a book.

I think the end of this book was absolutely perfect. Diane Chamberlain has a new fan in me!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

“You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future.”

In Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain, inmate Morgan Christopher is told she is being released from prison early on one condition: that she must restore an old post office mural in a small North Carolina town in time for an art gallery grand opening. Having no prior experience with art restoration and no known ties to the man who selected her, Morgan is not sure why she has been chosen, but it is an offer she can’t refuse. As she begins her work on the mysterious mural, Morgan starts to uncover not only the artwork itself, but also the secrets surrounding its original creator, Anna Dale.

This is the second Diane Chamberlain book I’ve read and it definitely did not disappoint! I loved the alternating timelines and the character development. And while this is a historical fiction book, there was also an air of mystery to it as each section of the mural, and in turn, each piece of Anna’s story was revealed. And the research and careful detail Chamberlain put into this book is amazing. Make sure you read her acknowledgements to learn more about how this story came about. Look for this one to hit shelves January 14th!!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I've heard so many great things about Diane Chamberlain's stories over the years and I'm still not sure why it took me this long to finally pick up one of her titles. I must have more than one title waiting on my kindle, but somehow other books always got in the way... That's why I thought having an ARC of her newest title, and therefore a deadline, would be the perfect little push I needed to finally remedy this. The fact that the blurb of Big Lies In A Small Town sounds absolutely fascinating definitely helped that decision... Now that I've had the chance to finally try her work, I will definitely come back for more soon!

What made Big Lies In A Small Town so successful for me? There were quite a few factors, but let's start with the basics of the plot. The story is told with the help of a dual timeline and two POVs, something that can go either way for me as it is very hard to get the balance between past and present just right. I think Diane Chamberlain hit the nail on the head with this story though. I felt both Morgan in the present and Anna in the past were equally important, equally well developed and equally crucial to the plot. The dual timeline structure turned this story into a complex, rich and very much satisfying historical fiction read... The POV switches only adding to the suspense and the mystery around Anna and the mural instead of distracting you.

There are a lot of different elements in play in both past and present POVs. We have Morgan with elements including DUI, prison, alcoholism, feelings of guilt, art restoration work, family and even romance. Then we have Anna with elements including racism and the South, gender discrimination, abuse, rape, family, mental health, crime and art of course. That seems to be a lot to have on just one plate, but Diane Chamberlain somehow makes it work and the result is an abundant and lavish story that also has more than one hidden deeper meaning.

It was fascinating to learn that Big Lies In A Small Town was actually based on real events and that the small town Edenton, North Carolina, does actually exist... And so did Anna Dale. It shows that a lot of research went into making this story feel authentic, and the details and descriptions really took the story to the next level. Racism and related problems in the 1940 South play a very important role in this story, and I thought it was described realistically. Likewise, we have Morgan in the present with a different set of problems, which are likewise realistically described. This story proves just how important is to get the research right before starting a story based on true events!

As for the characters... While Morgan and Anna weren't my favorite characters of their corresponding POVs, I can't deny that their development in general is very well done and they both intrigued me. Favorites would probably be Oliver and Jesse, but each character put his or her own stamp on the story and they all played a role in representing the many different elements of Big Lies In A Small Town. The pace of this story might be a tad slow, as there are a lot of descriptions and their is a lot of focus on the characters as a whole. But there is also plenty of suspense, and the mystery around Anna and the strange elements on the mural will keep you on your toes as you try to discover the truth.

Big Lies In A Small Town is a historical fiction read that isn't afraid to go big and throw a complex and wide-ranging plot with a deeper meaning at you; well researched and well developed, the result is an abundant story following two flawed but absolutely fascinating characters. Fans of the genre who don't mind a slower pace will most likely devour this one!

all I can say is I loved this book. It was little hard to get into at first then the story took right off. I loved this book. It was a great book

*Many thanks to Diane Chamberlain, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I got interested in this novel beacuse of the mention of mural art. The city where I live has become known to its murals on the walls of tenement houses and they always draw my attention whenever I get around the city. Also, I associate murals with the American culture, and I thought that a novel which has this art as the central point must be interesting. And I was not wrong.
I am not a fan of dual timeline, however, with this novel it went smoothly for me. The stories of two young women, Anna Dale and Morgan Christopher, set in 1940 and 2018 respectively, are connected by a mural which was hidden for decades, and the will of a famous artist forces his relatives tohave it restored and then show it to the public again. The mystery behind restoration is the core of the novel.
I admit I got invested in both stories, however, observing the life of a small town in North Carolina was more engaging for me as through Anna's eyes we are able to compare the differences between the North and the South in those days. Anna appears to be delicate and fragile but in fact she is strong and finds a way out with a little help from her friends.
My first novel by Ms Chamberlain that encourages me to add more of her novels to my trl.

This book is set in the small town of Edenton, North Carolina in two different time periods. The story flashes back and forth between Anna, a young painter tasked to paint a town mural in 1940, and Morgan, a young woman taksed with restoring the mural in 2018.

Honestly, this premise did not sound all that interesting to me before I started. I am not much of an art connoisseur and I also don't always love stories that switch back and forth between two time periods. Well, I worried for nothing, because I really enjoyed this one! It was compulsively readable and engaging. Switching between the two time periods worked really well to build suspense and keep me reading. I thought the story was well-paced and kept on moving all the way to the end.

There is a bit of a mystery here, though not a typical "whodunit" story. I have read several of Diane Chamberlain's books, and this is probably my favorite one yet. Four solid stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available on January 14!

Morgan and Anna’s story is compelling and draws you in right from the start. Morgan is serving time for a crime she didn’t commit. When she is offered a deal that would free her immediately, she takes it never expecting the devastating effects it would have on her life. She and Anna have art in common and when she gets into the restoration it has her thinking about what truly happened in the town filled with secrets. This story is an emotional twist that will truly have you thinking in terms of what was going on in that point in time and the mind frame of people from the town of Edenton, North Carolina and its effects on the community and how someone from the outside relates. You definitely identify with Morgan who hops you captivated throughout this story. I voluntarily agreed to receive an ARC of this book for an honest review.

I have found over the past year that I quite enjoy dual timelines and narratives. They have seemed to gain popularity in historical fiction recently and. Have to admit I am here for them.

As I saw that Big Lies in a Small Town has this I couldn't resist requesting it from Netgalley and St. Martin's Press. Alternatively between 1940 and 2018 North Carolina, we learn the stories of Anna Dale and Morgan Christopher and what really happened to the mural commissioned for the Edenton post office.

There were aspects of this book I enjoyed, particularly the unfolding of both leads stories. However, I struggled with Anna's as I felt it easy to predict where her path was heading and wasn't surprised at what ended up happening. I did appreciate the little twist at the end and how the two narratives came together.

Overall a solid three star read. Pick up if you enjoy your historical fiction with a dual timelines.

My Rating: 4 stars

This may be only the second of Diane Chamberlain’s works that I’ve read, but based on how much I enjoyed this book as well as her previous one (The Dream Daughter, which came out back in 2018), I already know that I will likely be adding her to my “favorite authors” list very soon.

With Big Lies in a Small Town, Chamberlain once again gives her readers a well-written, emotionally resonant story with realistic, well-developed characters and a wonderfully laid-out plot. Through a dual timeline narrative alternating between two time periods, both set in the small, sleepy town of Edenton, North Carolina, we get to meet two female artists from different generations – Anna Dale in 1940 and Morgan Christopher in 2018 – both of whom share the similarity of being “called” to Edenton to work on art projects, but their lives end up going down drastically different paths. I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot outside of what the summary already gives, as this is one of those stories where it’s best to go in not knowing too much and see where things take you. Usually with these dual timeline narratives, I tend to prefer one timeline over the other, but in this case, I felt that both of the timelines were extremely well done and also came together beautifully in the end. Crafting stories like this one — where the present and past timelines play off each other, with the present slowly revealing clues to the past, but in a restrained manner so as to still have elements of surprise for the reader — is definitely no easy feat and I feel that Chamberlain masters that here. Even though I already had an idea of where the story would go after the first few chapters (and I ended up guessing correctly), I still found the story thoroughly engaging to the point that I kept wanting to turn the pages to find out what happens next.

Aside from the intricately-crafted plot, the other thing I appreciated most about this story were the well-developed characters. I love stories with strong, yet flawed female protagonists at the center whom I am able to connect with and witness their growth — both Anna and Morgan encounter different hardships and, at times, end up having to bear consequences from poor decisions that were made, but yet they face these challenges head-on and grow from the experiences.

Like some of Chamberlain’s previous works, I found it difficult to place this in any one particular category, as there were definitely elements that spanned different genres. At the center is the “mystery” surrounding the mural that Morgan is tasked with restoring and the fate that befell its artist Anna Dale, yet there were also historical elements with the story’s setting in the real-life town of Edenton, especially during the 1940s timeline. There were also elements of women’s fiction in terms of the experiences that Anna and Morgan went through, but the depth of the story gives it a bit of literary bent as well.

Overall, this was a hugely satisfying and enjoyable read, one that I definitely recommend. I know Chamberlain has an extensive backlist of books that I’m hoping to get the chance to explore at some point, but I’m also looking forward to her next work and seeing what else she may have in store for us.

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

This book is a combination of art and mystery. Lots of interesting characters come together in this small town. Past and present are mingled. Quite a good story!

Enjoyed this read.. It was fairly fast paced and I felt portrayed the female characters within a strong and solid role. The story was a tad tough for me to wrap my head around, at first, however once I got into it and learned of the character background, history and the plot developed I enjoyed it.

It’s got some real life content that may be a bit strong for some, but I was impressed with the author’s writing style and would definitely recommend this book to fellow readers and I would look forward to reading other stories written by this author!

I appreciate the opportunity to read this book!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3045203681

This book is told from the point of view of Anna in 1940 North Carolina and Morgan in the same town in 2018. Anna is an artist painting a mural for the local post office and Morgan is an artist turned restorer, hired to restore the 1940s mural. I really loved both story lines. Their stories kept building to a point where you knew they just had to come together somehow. I thought the ending was a perfect resolution for both characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

If you're already a fan of Diane Chamberlain, what can I say that you don't already know? Her books will never disappoint you and will always go beyond what you think they possibly could.

As usual, I didn't think the subject matter would be able to pull me in, but I knew that despite that, I would love the characters, nonetheless. I know nothing about art or restoration but Chamberlain somehow found a way to make it fascinating and made me fall in love with the painting, just as much as Morgan did.

I felt like I was getting to know Anna Dale and her painting in real life and in fact, I have a completely clear picture of her mural in my mind, as if it were real and I've seen it. But, my favorite parts were the life of Anna and Jesse, growing up in the Southern town, where rumors fly about a white woman and a young black man and how they manage to pull it all together.

If you're on the fence about this book or have never read Diane Chamberlain, you need to. You'll have a new favorite author that can capture your heart with her words and make her book come to life. Lile always, she's done it again and I can't wait to see what she has coming next!

Morgan has been in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. Suddenly, she is offered an opportunity to leave early, if she agrees to complete a mural. Sounds easy enough, and she is desperate, so she agrees.
The origin mural artist was working on it in 1940. Anna faces lots of backlash as a woman working in small town North Carolina. While depicting the town the way she perceives it, both she and the mural disappear.
Morgan derives into the restoration, and in the process finds herself speaking for Anna, and finally uncovering what really happened.

"You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future." .
“Big Lies in a Small Town" .
.
You guys! If you haven’t read this yet you REALLY should! It was such a great book.
The first part of the book was pretty slow but stick with it, you won’t regret it. The story goes back and forth between two different time eras but it was easy to follow.
The author did a great job with the characters and the added suspense was perfect! .

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I have read only a couple of Diane Chamberlain’s previous works, and this one I may have enjoyed more than the others. The novel fluctuates from 1940 to 2018 and between the lives of Anna Dale, who has won a contest to paint a mural for a small town in North Carolina, and Morgan Christopher, who has been released from prison on the condition that she completes the restoration of this mural almost 80 years later.

Although I found the beginning third of this novel pretty slow-moving, the pace definitely then picked up, and it became a real page-turner. Chamberlain is an experienced author who can make a story truly grab you, and she excels at braiding together separate narratives to make them one. There were plenty of twists and turns along the way, and Chamberlain was able to wrap up everything nicely in the end, which I found satisfying but a bit too unbelievable.

All in all, this was an easy, light and enjoyable read with a captivating storyline. It seems that Chamberlain devised her ending so that a sequel could be forthcoming one day (especially one which portrays what happens to Morgan and Oliver).

Loved this book by Diane Chamberlain, going between 2 different time eras it swept me away and I thoroughly enjoyed the ending tying the mystery of the painting, highly recommend this book!

"You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future." -"Big Lies in a Small Town"

Diane Chamberlain writes a beautiful yet heart-wrenching novel about a unfinished mural featuring a motorcycle, a bloody ax, and a skull in a window that connects two young women, one from 1940 and the other from present day.

In 1940, Anna Dale has just found out she is one of the winners for an art contest to paint a mural for Edenton, N.C.. Still reeling from the recent death of her mother, she throws herself into designing the best mural to represent the small town of Edenton. She is shocked when she finds such strong prejudices some of the town's people have. Especially when those prejudices become even stronger when she agrees to have a young black teen help her with the mural.

In 2018, Morgan Christopher is serving time for a crime she didn't personally commit in North Carolina Correctional Facility for Women in Raleigh, North Carolina. She jumps at the opportunity to be released from prison early onto parole with the one stipulation being she must completely restore and finish Anna Dave's Edenton mural by August 5th, less than two months away. As Morgan begins to work on the mural, she becomes curious about what happened to the original artist, Anna Dale, and why the mural never was finished.

This book did start off slow, and I was worried that this would be a "DNF" book for me, especially since I have loved all of Diane Chamberlain's other novels, but by the middle of this book I was hooked. This story is a mix of everyrhing. The topics range from love and racism to mental health and secrets.

I love how Chamberlain makes both the main and secondary characters come to life and how human like they seem. I felt like I had know both Anna Dale and Christopher Morgan my whole life.

If you're looking for a book that is both historical novel yet suspenseful at the same time, then "Big Lies in a Small town" is the perfect novel for you. Get ready to be on the edge of your seating, biting your nails as you try to figure out why the mural was never completely finished and why there are some strange objects painted into it.

I received a digital galley from St.Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.