Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title.

This one just didn’t feel like a thriller to me. I tried several times to get into the story but it never hooked me enough to see it through to the end.

This is not a thriller, it’s a family drama about two sisters who never heard of counseling. One of them deserves jail time. I skimmed to the end of book. The “twist” was highly unlikely. The Author’s Note is an illustration of how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I probably won’t try this author again. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Loved the twists and turns in this book. Kept you guessing the whole time! Very well written and great plot. This was one of those " hard to put down books" for me. Really hard to figure out who was lying about what! Loved the characters!
4 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and the author and publisher for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

The Better Liar was just okay for me. Even though I didn't see either of the twists coming, it still fell a little flat. It was interesting enough for me to want to finish and know what happens, but the story in general wasn't great.

WOW ! Talk about a complete plot twist. This book was NUTS. Literally at the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

By the time Leslie finds Robin she's dead. She was unconscious when she choked on her vomit. Robin went by Rachel later on in life. Robin had disappeared when she was sixteen years old . Leslie finds her mother's pearl earrings in Robins room. There were multiple points of view which I liked.

Great book. Worth the read. Lots of twists and turns, especially towards the end.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thrillers. If you like “Gone Girl” you will like this book.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

This is the perfect book book to slip into your luggage.Author #Tanen Jones has written a great beach book.The cover will attract your attention.And it’s about a inheritance always a fun story line.This will keep you guessing with all the lies.Have fun!!
Thank you,
#Netgalley,#Tanen Jones And #Random House

Whoa! I wasn’t sure about this one until I got about halfway through, then things took a surprising twist that made me stuck to my seat until the very end! Captivating and very different from anything I have read before!

Summary
Leslie needs her father's inheritance money. But she can only claim the money if her sister Robin is there with her. Leslie tracks her sister down to find her dead.
Desperate for a way to get her inheritance, Leslie asks a total stranger to impersonate her sister in exchange for half the money. Mary looks just like Robin and is reckless enough to go along with the plan. But neither of them realize how the stakes really are. And both of them have dark secrets they're unwilling to reveal.

Overview
➸ POV: 1st Person, Multi POV

➸ Mary: Waitress in Vegas, Resembles Robin

➸ Robin: Dead, Younger sister, Ran away and missing for years, Beautiful

➸ Leslie: Older sister, Married, Mother, Desperately needs inheritance

➸ Content Warnings: Death of a loved one, Depression, Suicide, Drug abuse, Cheating

My Thoughts
I feel like I've been reading one disappointing thriller after another lately... This will be another short review, because this book was unfortunately a flop for me... While Tanen Jones' writing was great, the story itself felt meandering and anticlimactic.

First with what I liked. I really liked Tanen Jones' writing style. This book alternated between multiple POVs and each of them had a very unique voice, which can be tricky to do when all your MCs are similar. I also listened to this on audio and thought all of the narrators did a fantastic job! If you're going to pick this up, I highly recommend the audiobook.

Sadly that's about the extent of what I enjoyed about this book...

The characters were so utterly unlikeable and lacked enough personality and depth to pull me in. Which meant I didn't care about any of the things they were going through. In order for a thriller to feel suspenseful and thrilling, I need to connect to the characters and care about what they're facing. But I never got that in here...

And the plot itself was so lacking that I couldn't fall back on that either. The entire plot of this book is given in the synopsis. The remainder of the book is simply following these women on their day to day lives around town. And I was bored outta my mind...

The final twist felt so... not okay. I felt like this displayed mental illness in a terrible light. I was so frustrated with how these woman talked about depression that I wanted to scream by the end. I appreciated the Authors Note where she talked about postpartum depression and the fear of motherhood, but personally it wasn't enough to make me feel comfortable with the outcome of this book.

Overall this one was just not for me. I definitely seem to be in the minority here, because this book has some amazing reviews from readers I trust. Sadly, I didn't like these characters and was extremely detached for the story the entire time I was reading.

A Crazy Game of Cat and Mouse!

Sisters, an inheritance and an impersonator.

Money is the ultimate motivator here.. or is it?

With an inheritance at stake, Leslie travels to Albuquerque to find her sister Robin and bring her home. Unbeknownst to Leslie, her sister Robin is dead. Coincidentally, Leslie meets a woman named Mary who closely resembles her sister and she agrees to impersonate her sister and collect half of the inheritance. Say What?

Both women however are keeping secrets from each other. Secrets that will bring shock and awe upon their revelation.

Twisty and turny, The Better Liar was wild and crazy. In this instance I felt as though there were just too way too many twists and turns for the sake of having twists and turns and that didn't quite work for me. I did enjoy the writing however and I look forward to seeing what this author comes out with next.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine and NetGalley for my arc.

This is the story of two sisters. Leslie and Robin haven't seen each other in ten years. Their father dies. Leslie wants her inheritance but it is tied to her needing to find Robin. She finds Robin, but unfortunately Robin is dead. So she talks a random woman she meets, Mary, who looks so much like Robin into impersonating her sister and offers her half of the inheritance in order to do so. The premise of this book is great. However, it fell flat for me. The first 30 chapters consisted of the get to know you chit chat, finally there was some action and then the twists at the end had me going huh? What the what? And not in a good way. Told from the perspective of Leslie, Mary, and Robin, which was done well and with short chapters. This might be a good book for you if you like a slow burn thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

**I received this book from Random House – Ballantine via Netgalley for an honest review**

3.5 stars

Leslie and Robin are sisters who grew apart when they were younger. Leslie is the oldest and has basically settled into her life. She took on the responsibility of taking care of her dying father while also starting to grow her own family. Robin is a mystery. She left home as a teen and has not been seen since. After the death of their father, Leslie is forced to find her sister if she wants to receive her inheritance. After Leslie finds Robin dead, she improvises when she runs into Mary, someone who has an uncanny resemblance to Robin.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect after this story started. From the jump, I thought Leslie was a little unhinged from the way she carried herself. The amount of lies she told and the secrets she kept made it hard to get a real feel for her and what was to come. I thought Mary was quite reckless, parading around the way she was. I couldn’t figure out what her end game was. At one point she was acting like someone who was ready to make some easy cash and then the next she turned into Nancy Drew meeting up with Robin’s old friends and looking for things one wouldn’t think she would care about.

While a bit frustrating at times, I liked the suspense of it all. Both women were equally terrible in their decision making but they did provide a bit of light humor at times. Once things started to come together, I had the urge to stop where I was and go back to see if I missed something.

Overall, I think one word sums up The Better Liar for me…grimy.

4 stars.*

I downloaded this book months ago but somehow lost it in my cue of to-reads and forgot about it . It is the first book by Tanen Jones that I've read and I have to say I really enjoyed it.

I wasn't sure what to think initially. The story opens with Leslie Voight Flores en route to find her estranged sister Robin so that she can fulfill the stipulation in their father's will that they must appear together in order to receive their inheritance. Robin has been MIA since she was a young teenager and when Leslie finally arrives at her apartment in Las Vegas what she finds is a dead junkie in dingy apartment. Saddened but not surprised she concocts a plan to pay a waitress , Mary, who looks enough like Robin to come back to New Mexico with her in order to receive her inheritance.

As we learn more about Leslie, it becomes clear that she has unresolved issues from childhood-not in a small way due to the death of the girls' mother and her being left to care for their father as he slowly dies. As Mary begins to pretend to be Robin, it also becomes clear that she is a master manipulator and you are left wondering who is using whom.

I really appreciated the twists in the plot and I will definitely look for more by Tanen Jones.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This novel ended up being quite a surprise. The story seemed pretty ordinary in principle. After ten years of separation, 2 sisters are forced together to claim a joint inheritance after their father dies. Only problem is Robyn, the sister who disappeared ten years prior, dies from an apparent heroine overdose hours before Leslie finds her. Left without a viable option Leslie is drowning her sorrows when Mary, a troubled, friendly waitress crosses her path. Mary, so young and innocent looking, and most importantly a dead ringer for her dead sister. An idea dawns on Leslie then, if Mary follows Leslie back to New Mexico and impersonates her sister they can claim the inheritance, split it equally, and go their separate ways. If that is where the story stayed it might behave been a pretty ordinary story. However, this story started taking some crazy turns and at the end heaps on surprise after surprise after surprise. Equally disturbing and shocking, this story was a lot of fun to read, it sets a high bar as a debut novel. Definitely recommend. Review posted to Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Facebook

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC of The Better Liar. I was initially attracted to the cover as well as the premise of this writer’s first book.

When Leslie’s father passes away, his will stipulates that each of his daughters will inherit $50,000 but must be there together to receive the money. Leslie has not seen her estranged sister, Robin, since she ran away ten years ago. She must find her and bring her home because she really need this money. When the plan goes awry, Leslie meets a woman named Mary, who she asks to impersonate her sister in exchange for her cut of the $50,000. What could go wrong?

This book alternates between Leslie, Mary and Robin’s perspectives. It started out very slow and I had a hard time getting into it. However, by the halfway mark it really drew me into the story. There were many dark family secrets to be revealed and twists and turns. All of the narrators were unreliable, so it kept me interested because I wanted to find out what each character was hiding. I was surprised as to where the author went with the final reveal. While well intended, it fell flat in some ways. Parts of it were predictable as well as confusing. Jones uniquely depicts a dysfunctional family in a creative way and I enjoyed reading a psychological thriller that explores a real issue. I appreciated her note at the end which clarifies the context for this book.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. If you like psychological thrillers, I recommend reading The Better Liar.

3.5/5 stars

An intriguing premise about estranged sisters, Leslie and Robin. Their father has recently died and Leslie can't collect on the estate until she tracks down sister Robin. The first half of the book had me on the edge as Leslie searched Las Vegas to find Robin. The next half was a little too all over the place to follow and be believable. One of the narratives didn't really work for me, but overall this was a good psychological thriller with a stand out twist that I didn't see coming

I had a hard time getting into this book - the beginning was slow and confusing. All of the name changes were hard to follow. BUT once it got going IT GOT GOING and was very hard to put down.

When I read the description of the book and it flat out kills off what should have been a main character (Robin) I knew it was going to be interesting. Especially when that was followed up with an imposter version. One sister runs away at a young age and stays gone for a decade, the other stays home and cares for the father, but when he passes BOTH sisters get an inheritance and BOTH must be present to get it. That sounds like a pretty big f*ck you to both sisters: one has to come back to something she ran away from and the sister that did all the caring and stuck around doesn't get her share unless her selfish sister returns. The whole dynamic was bound to be interesting on its own.

We all have this idea of family, this concept of a good family or a bad family, and how all the members interact with one another. We know there are certain family dynamics that are more complex depending on personality, age, location, socio economic factors, etc. What makes this book so interesting is that you almost have three sisters in the relationship, even though one of them is not a sister and the other is dead. Despite being dead though, Robin still manages to stir things up, as does Mary, the Robin-like imposter both as Robin and as herself.

Fans of twisted and tangled tales will love this web of trust, truth, and lies. A good read for those who enjoyed books by Karin Slaughter, Lisa Gardner, or Lisa Scottoline.

Leslie needs to find her sister, who left home as a teenager, to collect an inheritance from her father. She believes the dead woman she finds at her sister's apartment in Las Vegas is her sister Robin. Unsure of what to do, she meets a young woman, Mary, an aspiring actress, and enlists her to pretend to be her sister for her share of the inheritance. They travel back to New Mexico and Mary assumes the role of Robin.
There are several twists in the story - what are Leslie and Mary each lying about? How much of what they reveal is the truth? I kept reading because I wanted the big reveal. By the time it came, it wasn't as horrible as I was expecting but still not a total surprise.