I was excited to be granted my wish to review this book by Netgalley. This book has been published on January 14th and I'm so grateful for the chance to read and review after I read the synopsis.

What a crazy and wild ride that I never expected in this story!! Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, there was a twist to keep me guessing again! I've read a LOT of thrillers/mysteries and usually can feel when a familiar twist is coming, but not in this book! This was a GREAT debut novel from [author:Tanen Jones|18389458] and can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Buried within all the twists and turns is a very hard-hitting topic (I don't want to give spoilers) that may or may not be for all readers, but I still think it's worth reading this book for the twists alone. It had my head spinning!! BE SURE to read the author's note at the end.

I'm sure there are things wrong with this book, but at the moment (24 hours after finishing it) I can't recall them. Reading it was a smooth ride, with no rude bumps along the way from botched continuity or grammatical lapses. What The Better Liar DID have were a devilishly unique premise and a consistently tricky execution.

Leslie travels from Albuquerque to Las Vegas to search for her sister Robin, missing for 10 years. It's an urgent quest, since the women's father has died and their inheritance must be claimed jointly or not at all -- and Leslie has an immediate need for her share of the money.

The reason for that compelling need is only one of the mysteries that are slowly, subtly revealed to the reader. First, there are complications. Leslie arrives at her sister's sordid apartment just hours after Robin's death from a drug overdose. Stunned, she flees and encounters a free-spirited young woman, Mary, with issues of her own.

Since Mary has a passing resemblance to Robin, Leslie asks her to stand in for her dead sister. What could go wrong?

Most thrillers have a sense of menace, but few have the warmth and heart that persist throughout this story of troubled mothers and their daughters.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.

Underwhelming at best. The plot twist was not believable and the 'shock factor' that we are so used to in thrillers isn't there. Maybe that's a little unfair since shock factors aren't everything, but this book lacked in other aspects as well. It is a page turner for sure, but I just wasn't satisfied after reading it.

This book was aptly titled as trying to figure out who was lying in many different circumstances. Leslie is searching for her younger sister as per the instructions in their father’s will. Finding her sister deceased, she meets a Mary, a woman with her own issues. She convinces Mary to pose as her sister to go to the lawyer to claim her inheritance, promising Mary $50,000. Sounds simple. Things are not as they seem. Many, many times throughout the book the reader will struggle to figure out who is lying and the reasoning behind it.

Also reviewed on B&N and Kobo under the name IrishEyes430

Leslie’s father’s dying wish was to have his daughters rekindle their relationship. He wanted it so much that he made it a condition under this will that no money be disbursed to either until they presented themselves to the attorney together.

When her hunt for Robin takes her to Las Vegas, Leslie discovers Robin dead from an apparent drug overdose. While trying to work out her next plan, Leslie comes across a girl who looks enough like Robin to fool the acquaintances who haven’t seen her in a decade. It looks like Mary is in need of a new beginning and so a plan is hatched.

While waiting for the estate to pay out, each woman starts to learn just ow many secrets the other is keeping.
The story is told from 3 points of view: Leslie, the good daughter that stayed home and cared for her emotionally unavailable father to the bitter end, Robin, the wild child that ran away from home a decade ago and Mary, the lookalike and sometimes con-artist.

I really liked the idea of this book and the story is full of twist and secrets. I had some issues with inevitability and didn’t feel any connection to Leslie, which may have been the author’s intention. She came off very beige and boring with no depth to her character, even when her secrets were revealed.
This would make a good rainy weekend read.

Thank you to NetGalley at the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review

"The Better Liar" tells the story from alternating perspectives of two "sisters," Leslie and Mary, except that Mary is not who she seems. Leslie and Robin were raised in a dysfunctional home, with a distant mother who would disappear for months at a time and an aging father. When Robin runs away at sixteen, Leslie is left to care for their dying father. A stipulation of their father's will is that both daughters must be present in order to receive their inheritance of $50,000 each. Desperate to find Robin in order to receive her money after her father's death, Leslie travels to Las Vegas only to find that she is too late, her sister is dead. She then meets up with Mary, who looks convincingly like her deceased sister and hatches an elaborate plan to get her money.

Jones hooks readers from the first chapter and immerses the reader even further as the plot develops. Filled with riveting suspense, twists and turns, the story-line has the reader guessing Leslie's motive and the truth behind her story with every chapter. Nothing is what it seems in this unforgettable debut novel from Tanen Jones.

This is twisty story about two sisters whose complicated background resurfaces when their father passes away and his inheritance is contingent upon both of them being present to collect the money together. The complication is that the younger sister was a runaway many years before and therefore her older sister had to track her down in order to obtain her part of the money.
The older sister, Leslie is a working woman and new mom who takes a road trip to Los Vegas to try to track down her long lost sister. She thinks she has found her when she goes to the address given to her and instead finds her sister OD'd in her room. She is distraught at the idea that she may lose her inheritance because of this so as she befriends a waitress who happens to resemble her sister, she realizes that this woman could play the part of her sister, Robin for a few days to allow them each to have access to the money. There are many twists in the story and an interesting social/mental health commentary that was an important part of the story but one that at the outset I didn't necessarily see coming. I appreciated this part of the story and the direction it took.
All in all, this is a solid read. I would call it more mystery than thriller maybe. Definitely not a traditional thriller.
#TheBetterLiar #Netgalley #TanenJones #RandomHousePublishingGroup #BallantineBooks

3.5 stars
Very twisty book, which is just the way I like my psychological thrillers. The one shortcoming that keeps it from being a 4 star book is that I never really warmed to any of the characters. The book is filled with unreliable narrators and you never know the direction it is going to take, which is deliciously satisfying in the end. It feels wrong to like a novel filled with lying people, but the dark, twisted lying is what makes it so good.

When Leslie's father dies a provision of his will requires both Leslie and her sister, Robin to be there for the reading of the will in order for her to receive her inheritance. Robin ran away years ago and now she may be dead so when Leslie meets Mary, a young woman who resembles Robin she hires her to impersonate her sister in exchange for Robin's half of the month. However, there is more to Mary than meets the eye and Leslie may not be telling the truth about why she is so anxious to get her hands on her inheritance. Exactly who is scamming who that is the question. Although this might at first seem to be a typical thriller, it is not. There are some deep important issues at the center of this story regarding mothers and children. However, there are a lot of twists and turns in the story and you will not be sure exactly where it will go until you get there.

Leslie has been taking care of her sick father in New Mexico while juggling being a new mom, a wife and a full-time career. When her father passes away she has to go through her childhood home and work with her father’s lawyer to claim her inheritance. She learns her father has left her a substantial sum of money, but half of it belongs to her sister Robin. Leslie can not claim her inheritance until Robin is present to sign forms with her, but Leslie hasn’t seen her sister in over a decade.

Leslie is able to track her sister down in Vegas, but upon arriving to her sister’s apartment she finds Robin has overdosed. Leslie flees the scene and ends up at a local restaurant where she meets Mary. Mary confides in Leslie that she needs an escape from her own life and Leslie realizes that Mary could easily pass as Robin to fool her father’s lawyer (after all no one has seen her in 10 years). She convinces Mary to come back to New Mexico with her, pretend to be Robin and walk away with her half, $50,000. What ensues is a ton of family drama and deception.

This book had a lot of crazy twists, but also some truly unbelievable ones where I was thinking this would never happen. Overall this was a fast paced domestic thriller and quite entertaining.

Thank you Netgalley and Ballantine Books for this advance reading copy.

Which of the two main characters is the better liar? I thought I knew. Throughout the entire book, I was sure I knew what the big lie was. And then the big twist happened and whoa. I had to go back and skim certain parts again to see how I'd missed what was so obvious and in front of me the entire time. Although it took me a bit to get into the book, by the sixth or seventh chapter, I was completely hooked!

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

"What if Gone Girl had three Amys?" That's the caption that immediately caught my attention. I love unreliable narrators and the idea of multiple liars was intriguing. Throw in troubled family relationships and I was all in.

Unfortunately, I didn't love this book as much as I wanted to. The ending was rather disappointing. It felt so anticlimactic and unsatisfying.

Mary was a captivating character. She was like a chameleon and it appealed to me. I felt like we always saw another side we hadn't seen yet. Leslie felt like a caricature of a person. I wanted a deeper dive into her personality and how she ticks. More about how her childhood affected her would've been a nice touch. But I think that would have altered the genre a bit too much in one direction. It's like this story was trying to straddle two styles and I think it fell a little short.

That said, it was still an interesting read!

"The only people who can keep you alive are the ones who loved you."

This book left me speechless! A rollercoaster ride filled with twist and turns. Just when you think you know what's going to happen, you don't!
Leslie Flores father has died and the will stipulates both sisters have to be there to get their inheritance. Her sister, Robin has been gone for years with nobody knowing where she is.
The story is told in 3 POV: Leslie, Robin, Mary.
Who is Mary? Will Leslie find her long lost sister?
I did not see this ending coming! Kudos to Tanen Jones! Absolutely fantastic novel! If you liked "The Girl on the Train," you will love this.

Thank you to Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

I was given an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

The Better Liar hit stores today. For fans of thrillers, this one is a fairly decent one. It was a bit slow to start off, but about 50% of the way through I couldn't put it down. I'm sure I looked strange reading it at my desk on my phone, but I had to know what was going on.

The story starts with Leslie looking for her sister Robin, in order to get some money she needs from their deceased father's estate. The problem is that Robin is dead, and there is only Mary, a look alike actress with an unknown past. Mary agrees to pretend to be Robin to help Leslie, but there's a huge twist to it all. It's hard to go into any more detail without spoiling, and I don't want to do that.

I will say that I saw one of the twists coming, I just wasn't sure WHY it was the way it was until the end. This book kept me guessing just enough to make me want to read but not enough so that I was confused and frustrated.

Trigger Warning: In this book there is a description of miscarriage, suicide, and a fairly accurate description of postpartum depression. That last one is a resounding theme throughout the book, and having read the author's note at the end where she says she is not a mother, I was impressed with her ability to write about PPD knowing she had not suffered from it herself.

Not to get on my soapbox, but PPD is more common than we tend to think. It is something that is not widely talked about, because it can make the sufferer feel like she is unnatural or like she is a failure at being a mother. The truth is that being a mom is HARD. Everyone has their struggles, and if we don't talk about it, we're all just going to suffer in silence. And that's not doing anyone any good. I admire Tanen Jones for taking a taboo subject and starting a much needed conversation on it.

This book did not have a reliable bone in its body. Told through the point of view of three very unreliable women, Mary, Leslie and Robin. Each woman can be easily described as beyond belief psychotic. This is one book that you’ll be suspiciously of right through the very end cause SERIOUSLY?? I did not know what to think at any point in time. Leslie, a woman so obviously suffering from post-partum depression goes in search of her sister Robin so they could both claim the inheritance that their father had left them. What begins as a simple search for a long lost sister ends in the most mind messing of books that after reading it in one sitting I still have no idea what I read.

This book may not be horror. But it has jump scares and incredibly sociopathic twists at every turn. This is one mest up book that I shockingly enjoyed right till the very end.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Tanen Jones for the opportunity to read and review her debut book - 4.5 stars and definitely an author to keep on your radar in the future! This book was so smartly written and it kept me guessing, even when I figured a few things out along the way.

Leslie has stayed at home and done what was expected of her. She is married to Dave and has a young child, Eli, plus a full-time job but still managed to take care of her father as he slowly died from cancer. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Robin, left their hometown early and never looked back. When their father's will is revealed. it stipulates that the money is to be split between the two girls, but that neither can collect unless they do it together. So Leslie sets off to find Robin, only to find her dead. But she meets Mary, a girl who looks similar enough to Robin that she could possibly pull off a switch so that they could both profit.

Told in viewpoints of Leslie, Mary and Robin, you gain insight into each story but you will still be surprised by the ending! Few triggers - suicide, postpartum depression - but a fabulous debut!

#thebetterliar #tanenjones #netgalley #arc #bookreview #bookstagram two sisters. This book. I don't even know what to say. I am just confused. I know what happened, I think. But. I just .... This book has left me #speechless when a father dies and wants two sisters to reunite and grow a relationship... One trying to seek her sister. The other ... Well. You'll have to read to find out. It's a book full of twists and turns. A book that leaves you saying .... Huh. I would definitely have a friend read because I want to know what someone else thought. How they felt. It's definitely a book to be discussed.

3.5 stars. A fun, quick read that brushes up against some heaviness at the end but ultimately shies away from getting too deep into it. Which is just as well. I wasn’t looking for a dark, psychological thriller. I wanted a fun “who can we trust” story and this delivers three unreliable narrators and some twists that I might have seen coming had I been looking for them.

I loved, loved, loved this roller coaster of a book. I was hooked from the very first page and absolutely couldn't put it down. Pick up this winner of a book and buckle in for the ride of your life. Happy reading!

This might be the first time in a long time that I was completely shocked not once, but twice at the ending of this book. It took a bit of time to get into it, but once I did, I flew through it. Looking forward to reading more books by this author in the future.