Diane Chamberlain is a must read author for me so I was thrilled to see her newest book available on NetGalley. I enjoyed this story of a woman who was in jail for a crime she didn't commit but is released in order to complete the restoration of a mural from years ago. The story is told in flashbacks between the present and Morgan who is trying to restore the mural but also trying to understand all the strange things that had been painted into the mural and Anna Dale, the artist that painted the mural. It tells the story of Anna, her life before painting the mural and then what happens to her in the small North Carolina town while she is painting the mural. I enjoyed the story and there were some nice twists in the book too.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review to my blog. I had a hard time getting into the story even though I have loved this author's work in the past. Something about it felt off to me. Thank you for the consideration to read this one.

One of my favorite books of the season! I liked the way the author switched between time periods. It kept me interested in the book! Hope you all have a chance to read this book. Thanks to Net Galley for provided the digital ARC for this book..

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet because doing anything else would lessen how much I LOVED THIS BOOK!!

First I need to admit this is my first book by this amazing author... I know, where have I been??? The minute I read the synopsis for this book I KNEW I HAD to read it and OH MY STARS what a story this is!!!

It's a story full of history, drama, angst, horrific treatment of people and consequences of actions and a JAW DROPPING ending!!!

I can honestly admit I'm now on a mission to read so many more of Ms. Chamberlain's books because her storytelling is gripping in its intensity and I can't wait to read more of her books!!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. This was a quick, enjoyable, read on an important topic. Would recommend for book groups.

This book had me hooked from the very beginning. The author’s artful use of telling and interconnecting the stories of two women across an almost 80 year time span keeps the reader’s interest in both lives, waiting to see how they end up coinciding. The reader becomes entwined in the lives of a young woman artist, Anna, who has been hired to paint a historical mural for a rural post office in 1940, the young black man, Jesse, who becomes her assistant, the young woman with a troubled life, Morgan, who in 2018 is hired (with stipulations), to restore the mural., and the various “sideline” characters who bring controversy and love into the storyline. I read this book very quickly because of the way the story kept taking you from one woman’s story to the other’s, and I was very interested in what was going to happen next....to both of them......and how the past was going to catch up to the present. Highly recommend this book. I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review, which this has been. Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rachel reviewed this book for Really Into This

Thank you St. Martin's Press for our gifted review copy.

1939, Anna Dale is a young artist from New Jersey who won a mural competition but for a different state than she had hoped. She takes a trip down south to little Edenton, NC where her mural is to hang in the town's post office. The sticky sweet southern hospitality sucks her in to stay while she creates the mural. Slowly she realizes the southern hospitality is not a sweet as it seems.

2018, Morgan Christopher is a young artist sitting in prison looking at 2 more years. Then suddenly she’s let out on parole to complete a mural for the late Jesse Jameson Williams's new gallery in Edenton, NC. She has to complete the work by August 5th or she goes back to prison according to Jesse’s daughter Lisa. Morgan finds herself connecting more and more to the mural’s creator Anna Dale as she restores the painting. Anna Dale left a mysterious history for her and the curator Oliver to uncover.

I might be biased due to growing up in North Carolina but this story was riveting. It was a little slow to start but then it picked up speed and I could not put it down. Diane took her time to develop the characters and it makes the story that much deeper. The ending moments tie all your questions together beautifully and then leaves you wishing you could hear more about these characters' stories. I am truly a fan of Diane now and was REALLY into this book.

This started off kind of slow and I was worried I would be too bored to continue.
I didn't have to wonder long.
Chamberlain drew me in and sh*t got intense once she got going.
All the lead up was totally necessary to get to the meat & taters portion of the book.
The epilogue felt like a let down after such an emotional read, but only slightly.
This was my first Diane Chamberlain and I am totally down for stalking her back library!
Thanks goes out to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my DRC.

I found this book to be interesting but ultimately fell flat for me. It moved slow and didn’t fully capture my attention so it was hard to stay committed to it. I enjoyed the story but the execution was lacking and I felt let down at the end.

Out January 14th!

I fell in love with Diane Chamberlain's writing last year when I read The Dream Daughter. She has this way of telling a story that draws you in and doesn't let you go until the very end.

I honestly devoured this book. Told in two timelines (one of my favorite formats), Chamberlain created a story that combined the past and the present in such a beautiful way.

1940: Anna Dale is an artist who will a mural painting competition in a small town in North Carolina. During the painting of the mural, she finds that living in the South with its prejudices is a different ballgame than living in her hometown up North.

2018: Morgan Christoper is a young woman who finds herself mysteriously being released from jail early in exchange for restoring Anna Dale's mural. And she will end up engrossed in learning about Anna Dale's history.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't stop. It was a wonderful novel from start to finish with rich prose and descriptions that made me feel like I was in the story. It reminded me a little bit of Where the Crawdads Sing which was one of my favorite books in 2018. Overall, I would highly recommend this one to anybody who enjoys historical fiction with a touch of mystery.

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Diane Chamberlain, and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review.-

Wow. This was amazing! What a great story. I could guess a few of the twists to the book ahead of time, but mostly it was all a huge surprise. A very original story and so engaging. I wound up feeling close to the main characters by the end of the book - especially Morgan. That’s how real they felt while I was reading. I had never read one of the authors books before but now I know it won’t be the last. What a wonderful story and awe inspiring mystery. To top it off I am a huge museum fan and all the information about painting and restoration work was the icing on the cake. A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

This story is told in two timelines, present day and the 1940’s. An aspiring artist, Morgan Christopher, has received an interesting proposal from the Estate of a renowned artist, Jesse Jameson Williams. She will be released from prison early on the condition that she restore a neglected painting from the 40s which was painted by Anna Dale. Morgan does not know the late Mr. Williams and has no idea why she was chosen for this project. She agrees to the proposal and begins work on the large mural which was intended to be placed in the Post Office of Edenton, a small town in North Carolina.
The 1940’s part of the story concerns young Anna Dale who is selected to paint the mural after winning a contest. During the painting of the mural, Anna is faced with many small-town morals and prejudices which make her life difficult. She disappears after completing the mural and it had been hidden away for many years.
This is a story of redemption and triumph after the odds. I really enjoyed it.

First, I love Diane Chamberlain books so reading this was very exciting. I'd just read a fast paced book before this, so the start seemed somewhat slow. This book has multiple perspectives/timelines at once, though it was easily read this way. The chapters were shorter, which made for fast and easy reading. This book follows original artist Anna Dale in the 1940s in her journey in painting a mural, as well as newly released from prison Morgan Christopher in 2018, tasked with restoring the mural. Both characters are likeable and interesting to follow. This book was typical Chamberlain, immersive, easy to read, and very likable.

This was an enjoyable read, but I struggled to engage with the story the way I have with Chamberlain's other novels.

I will start by saying that the book is well-written, and the storyline well plotted out, with a solid, feel-good resolution. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with the characters. Anna seemed a bit too headstrong, single-minded, overly emotional, and selfish in some of her choices (though generous in others, so...). Honestly, she kind of annoyed me.

Morgan was a bit more relatable, as she was doing her best to overcome the circumstances that led her to this point in her life. She did a better job of making responsible choices, and while she was super focused on her work like Anna was, she wasn't dismissive of others and was willing to take advice and guidance from people who cared about her. Plus, she fell for the nice guy.

It took me over a month to read the story because I just couldn't get into it. I would read a chapter or two and then put it down to go do something else. I was in a bit of a book slump at the time, unable to find anything I was interested in reading or listening to, so part of the problem was likely just me and my mood.

'Dream Daughter is one of my favourite books of this year. So much so that after finishing Big Lies in a Small Town I had to read it again- it seemed somehow right that my last read of 2019 & the first of 2020 should be a Diane Chamberlain book! Small Lies & Dream Daughter aren't really all that alike, although they do both rely on a story set over different timelines.

At the end of the 1940's an art competition was held to design a mural for Post Offices across various states. Anna Dale, a young artist from the North is chosen to paint the one for Edenton- a town in North Carolina. Anna is still trying to put her life together after the death of her manic depressive mother, so the chance to get away & do something she loves seems ideal. However, when Anna travels there she finds things very different- especially the attitude towards 'coloured folk'. Soon the mural takes over every waking moment.

Art student Morgan Christopher feels her life is ruined. A dreadful accident after a party resulted in her being imprisoned after a car crash left a young woman crippled. She wonders how she will survive the next year when an attorney & another woman turn up at the prison with a deal for her. If she will restore a badly damaged mural in Edenton before the opening of a gallery she will be free. Although restoration is a totally closed book to her she jumps at the chance, but as she uncovers more of the mural she wonders what did happen to Anna & feels the need to solve that mystery as much as complete the picture.

Sometimes when I'm reading a story from two different points of view there is one angle I want to read more than the other. This one is beautifully balanced. I loved every page. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Having read a number of Diane's Chamberlain's book, I was quite anxious to dive into this story and of course was quite happy when I was notified that I was able to acquire an advanced copy from NetGalley. It was an extremely interesting premise and one that heightened my interest in the fascinating world of art and its restoration.

Seventy years separate the two protagonists in this story and yet even though decades separate them, there is something that connects Anna Dale, the young winner of a competition to create a mural for a small town post office in the South in the 1940s, and Morgan Christopher, a young girl of present day, who while in prison for a crime she didn't commit, is commissioned to restore the mural that has been hidden for many years.

This is a story not only of lies and deceit, but also a story of the way in which art can and is restored to its former glory. In this mural that was kept and held by a famous artist Jesse Williams, there are many clues to what had transpired in the life of Anna Dale, now a person whose story and life seemed to end in a small town in the South. As the story continues with alternating chapters between Anna and Morgan, we learn more about these two artists, and the things that transpired in their lives that seem to culminate in the creation and restoring of this mural.

The story is cleverly told, giving the reader a few hints at a time to the things that seem to link these ladies together through time and distance. It's a tale of the way things were in the South decades ago, and how one's life can change and deviate in the blink of an eye. I recommend this book for the way in which Ms Chamberlain built up the suspense and kept one wondering how these protagonists were ultimately bound together.

Thank you to Diane Chamberlain, St Martin's Press, and NetGalley for a copy of this book due out January 14, 2020.

Diane Chamberlain’s multi-faceted plot had me engrossed to the end where all the threads were neatly tied up.

The story is written in the dual point-of-view of Anna Dale, charged with creating a post office mural in 1940 Edenton, North Carolina and Morgan Christopher, prison parolee assigned to restore Anna’s mural for a new art gallery in 2018. Morgan wonders at the unusual elements Anna painted into the mural and the cause of Anna’s disappearance. Emotionally invested, Morgan attempts to find out what happened to Anna.

Mental illness, murder, prejudice, and a bit of romance all play roles in this book.

I received this book as an arc from St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I didn't expect to love this book (restoration of an old grimy painting seemed a bit "meh" even with the promise of madness, violence, and conspiracy), but I was pleasantly surprised and REALLY loved it! I thought the layout of the book where the author alternated between the original artist, Anna Dale, around 1940 and the former inmate-turned-art restorer, Morgan Christopher, in 2018 was great. I kept getting just enough of each woman's story to keep me eagerly wanting more. As a byproduct, I was delighted to learn that art restoration is actually really fascinating!

This book highlighted the meaning of true friendship while showing the reader some of the atrocities that occurred during that time period.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing a copy for review.

Actual rating 4.5⭐

Don't you just love it when a book takes you by the hand, drags you into the story and doesn't let you rest until you have read the last word?

Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain, is a book that weaves its way through two periods of time. The author masterfully managed both time periods with her impeccable research. I could feel myself in the south during the 1940's and in the present day. I found myself reading faster and faster so I could find out what was going to happen next. There were many twists and turns in this story, all of which revolved around a mural that Anna was chosen to paint, but that was never hung at the post office. Anna getting chosen to paint this mural as a woman in 1940 was just the beginning and what happened from there kept me involved, interested and guessing until the end, and that is what made it an amazing read!

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

I can’t believe I didn’t know who Diane Chamblerlain was a little over a year ago. She’s become one of my absolute favorite authors and her books are starting to feel a little like coming home.
This one really was as good as the other ones, maybe even better. Morgan and Anna both had me drawn into their stories right away.

I found myself drawn more to Anna’s story, because of the mystery of it all. Like with all Chamberlain works, the mystery drove me nuts throughout the story, but it all comes together really well in the end.

As always, I really loved the relationships. Anna and Jesse’s platonic love for each other brightened my heart. Especially for the time they lived in when it was extremely taboo for a young white woman and a young black man to be friends.

I didn’t guess the twist at the end, which is another reason why I love Chamberlain. Mysteries often are really easy for me to figure out, but with her books I can never guess correctly. Close, but never exactly. I love it.
I’m shaving off half a star because I would have liked to see a little bit more of Morgan and Emily. I would have liked for the scene at the end of the book was a little bit longer. I definitely would have rated it 5 stars.