I didn't love or hate this book - it was just okay for me. Lucy is a highly unreliable narrator and not very likable. She has had an imaginary friend since childhood, Eliza Gray, who is now the main character in her very successful detective book series. There are two mysteries in this book - who killed her husband, Dan (who is an awful person) and what happened to her brother Teddy when they were children. I wanted to find what happened in both cases but only one is resolved in the end, which was disappointing. There were some surprising twists and it did keep me reading but the lack of resolution in the end bothered me. Thanks to Book Club Girls and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I am a big fan of Gilly Macmillan's books so I was excited to read her newest, To Tell the Truth.

I absolutely loved this book. The story is so different. The characters are complex and well defined.

The story alternates between Lucy, the protagonist , as a child and in current time as an author married to her husband Dan.

This thriller kept me on my toes. It was so exciting to read . The plot was perfectly paced with quite a few twists and an end that left my jaw on the floor.

Highly recommend !

Lucy is 9 years old, living in England, is bullied and prefers her imaginary friend named Eliza. Lucy is with the idea of the fairies, etc. associated with the Summer Solstice and it's that time of the year. As she is sneaking out of her home when her 3 year old brother becomes aware of this and wants to go along for the adventure. She arrives home at 1:37 in the morning and he isn't with her. She doesn't know where he is. He's never found.

As an adult, Lucy becomes a best selling author of books where the main character is a detective named Eliza. Eliza is still very much a part of Lucy's life. Lucy's husband, Dan, is a want to be author and ends up taking care of everything else since Lucy is so successful. Dan becomes very mysterious and Lucy believes he is having an affair and gaslighting her. Eliza is helping her make decisions. This novel is a thriller mystery, filled with secrets, deceit and a murder. The reader is drawn into trying to determine which is truth vs lies and real vs imagination. (less)

This is the second novel by Gilly Macmillan. I love her ability to keep my mind spinning. She does a great job of keeping the reader guessing about the main character and if you should trust the main character or if you are being duped. I enjoyed this book and never would have guessed the ending. I would’ve liked more resolution about Teddy, but I guess fiction is like real life in this situation.

To Tell You The Truth by Gilly Macmillian was an awesome, suspenseful read! I couldn't put this book down until I had finished it in less than 24 hours! Macmillian alternates every few chapters between the past and the present time filling you in on Lucy and Eliza's past. It makes for a suspenseful spin, letting you know a few details along the way.
Lucy is a famous author who just finished her latest novel. Her husband Dan surprises her with a new house back close to her childhood home. Little does he know, Lucy can't just go back home. He only knows a fraction of what really happened during her childhood with Eliza. When Dan turns up missing, all eyes are on Lucy. Did she do it?
I will be recommending this book to others and will continue to look for Gilly Macmillian's work. I love her writing style and her story-telling! Special thanks to NetGalley, Gilly Macmillian Harper Collins-William Morrow Publishing for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

#ToTellYoutheTruth #NetGalley

The premise had the magic of every promising dark psychological thriller and I was lured in from the beginning.
A protagonist who writes about crimes fiction experiences a crime first hand? WOW.
A protagonist who has shady, secretive past and an imaginary friend? WOW.
A protagonist who might be unreliable with a questionable husband? WOW.

All those hooks kept me intrigued throughout the dark, twisty tale as we cipher through the beat of the mystery....yet it did not execute well for me in the end. I felt like I invested a lot of time in the characters and story to be led down a path that didn't lead anywhere. The storyline deflated, the heart of the mystery still left with burning questions and a protagonist I am not sure that I learned a lot from.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for the gifted review copy!

While this is only the second novel I've read by this author, it definitely won't be my last. This one is thick with broody tension and atmosphere, which pulled me in from the first few pages. The premise for this novel sounded intriguing and it did not disappoint. The main character, Lucy Harper, is a bestselling novelist with a wildly popular series featuring Detective Sergeant Eliza Gray. It becomes clear early on that Lucy has a special relationship with her famous character and an incredible gift for storytelling. Despite this gift, Lucy's not exactly what you'd call a reliable narrator.

Lucy has just finished writing her latest novel, but it isn't quite what the publisher had in mind. In fact, after receiving the draft, representatives are dispatched for in-person meetings, hoping to cajole her into editing the novel to make it more in line with the vision they had for it than with her own. She opted to keep her plot closely held, not even sharing it with her husband, Dan, who is normally the first to read her drafts. Dan has purchased a large, fixer-upper country home without Lucy's knowledge, clearly banking on another lucrative Eliza Gray novel to support the extravagant purchase. Lucy's decision about her new book may not be in line with what he had in mind and Dan is just as stunned as her publisher when he reads her latest.

Soon after the couple moves into the new home, Dan vanishes without a trace. However, this is not the first time someone in Lucy's life has disappeared. Three decades prior, her younger brother, Teddy, disappeared without a trace. Lucy was the only witness and spun increasingly fantastical tales, frustrating both the detectives and her parents. This past tragedy has remained buried, but Dan's disappearance brings everything to the forefront. The reader begins to wonder how much Lucy knows about both missing family members.

One of the aspects I really enjoyed about this novel was the interspersing of chapters from a book that appeared to be based on Teddy's disappearance. Those chapters are written in second person, which I found incredibly effective, and offered a different perspective for flashbacks into Lucy's past. Along with the gothic house, these chapters helped ratchet up the tension and made me want to keep reading just a few more pages until I found myself at the end. The ending might not be for every reader, but I personally liked the fact it was not entirely neat and tidy.

This review was based on the NetGalley digital copy I received courtesy of William Morrow and the Book Club Girl Early Read program. Many thanks for the opportunity to read this suspenseful thriller early!

The protagonist is a best-selling crime writer with a secret past. When she was nine she took her younger brother into the woods where he disappeared and was never found. She never revealed what happened that night. Now as her latest book is published, featuring her imaginary friend Eliza as the detective, another mystery enfolds her. Her jealous husband Dan goes missing too. These disappearances are woven through the story until the truth is revealed.
This is a very twisty, compelling read that I finished in tow days. None of the characters were like able, but their predicaments held my attention

I really enjoyed this book. Lucy was a very interesting character and it was a great mystery to figure out. Add in a forest and big mansions and you've got yourself a great book!

This one was a terrific spin down the rabbit hole! We have best-selling crime author Lucy Harper at the heart of this one. She’s created a great fictional detective – Eliza Grey– and her fans can’t wait to read more about the crimes she’s solving. Lucy’s husband, Dan, is a frustrated writer and is starting to drive Lucy crazy.

Lucy has some secrets in her past that she’d like to keep there, but the truth is just dying to get out. This one features the fun element of a “book within a book” and I enjoyed those chapters that told many of Lucy’s secrets, centering around what happened to her little brother Teddy back when Lucy was a child. There’s an atmospheric wood nearby that holds some dark secrets.

Dan has now disappeared, and Lucy’s life seems to be spiraling out of control. Can she get to the bottom of everything before it’s too late? The reporters camped out are just waiting for her to slip up. What would Eliza do in this case? I did not predict this ending at all.

I’ve heard so much about this author, but this is the first one I’ve read of hers, it won’t be the last that’s for sure!

OMG. OMG. OMG. Seriously y’all I cannot even explain how amazing this book was. I read it in one day and wanted it to never end!!! I mean the main character is so complicated yet brings so much to the storyline which is just fantastic. Y’all go read this ASAP!!

I read To Tell the Truth in one day. I had to find out what happened before I could go on with my life. Lucy Harper is a bestselling mystery writer, married to Dan, a aspiring writer who has never published anything. Lucy has a troubled history, the disappearance of her toddler brother when she was a child. That event is prominent in her life. She did not tell the truth at the time about what she knew and the little boy, Teddy, was never found.

In the present day, Lucy's husband uses her money to buy a house in the same area where Teddy disappeared without her knowledge. She is beyond angry with him. Then, Dan disappears and Lucy is again under a cloud of suspicion. To further complicate matters, Lucy may be insane. She has full conversations with the main character in her book and has lapses in memory.

No spoilers - just read this book. It will not disappoint.

Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for this exciting read.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing for this eBook advanced copy.

I liked it! I found it to be a good, fast-paced psychological thriller. I wasn’t quite sure if Lucy was sane or insane. Admittedly, it was hard for me to read about Teddy, as I have a 5 year old little boy. I admire how the author addressed his storyline.

Below are quotes I liked and my thoughts as I was reading:

Loc 1192 of 4498: “I hated Dan so very much in that moment.” - me, too! I find him incredibly unlikeable and find Lucy a little crazed and whiny. I think it is a sign of good writing when I feel something, even negative, about characters.

Short chapters help you fly through the book. I keep finding myself saying, just one more.

The woods as a setting and character, sinister.

Geez, Lucy seems like she’s always vomiting.

Loc 3325: “...I understood that it wasn’t easy to see madness, to know whether someone was afflicted by it or not. It wasn’t written on people’s faces permanently. Instead, madness was something that sometimes swam to the surface and showed itself in our actions, or words, or expressions, then sank back down and away, until the next time. Its potential lived in all of us.”

Loc 3800: “I suppose we humans like to look at the dark side of things, don’t we? At the most twisted things. We like that feeling of shock and horror. It makes addicts of us.”

Thank you NetGalley, HarperCollins Publisher’s and Gilly Macmillan for the arc of “To Tell You the Truth”.

First, I want to recognize this is my first Gilly Macmillan book. I typically would not read what is considered a psychological thriller. The book is really well written. The story has so many twist and turns and many unlikeable characters. Not wanting to give anything away, but the ending is not predictable. I really enjoyed this book and found a new author to read.

I enjoyed read the book. I think Eliza wasn't clearly identified. She could have been a split personality, or a figment of imagination. The ending was unexpected and I was still not clear about what happened with Teddy. The writer kept me in suspense and provided lots of different paths for the characters. I was impatient with the last few chapters because I wanted to know the ending. The book is an easy read and once I started, I finished in less than 5 days.

This was a fantastic, suspenseful thriller!

I loved getting into a Lucy’s mind while also getting to know Eliza, who happens to be a character in Lucy’s series of books. The full-blown conversations between the two made Eliza seem more tangible, though she was merely an imaginary childhood friend who followed her into adulthood.

Lucy’s husband, Dan, had a sketchy demeanor from the very beginning. It appeared as though he cared more about Lucy’s writing and the money it could make them more than Lucy herself. And the fact that he bought a home without consulting her, with her money, and in the same neighborhood where her little brother has disappeared years ago...it definitely sent up some red flags. All of the neighbors seemed a bit superficial too and I could see why Lucy kept her guard up around them.

Overall it was a great read and definitely caught me by surprise by the end. I highly recommend it!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3450140142

Lucy Harper starts spinning stories as a young child when her brother disappears and continues into adulthood as a writer still spinning stories. She is successful as a writer but her husband is envious of this skill and disappears just like her brother did. Who is responsible and why are questions that force Lucy to finally tell the truth.

Lucy is a writer with a secret in her background, make that two secrets. At the opening of the book, it appears that she has a supportive husband, a failed writer who is now her manager. Well, we all know how that will end up. Over the course of the book one of Lucy’s secrets comes out and her husband Dan betrays her in several ways. There is some suspense and a few red herrings. I didn’t find Lucy very likable, so the book was not as enjoyable as I had anticipated. While some of the story was formulaic, there were some surprises, which kept me reading to the end.

I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a ride! The Way Out is an excellent, new, dystopic/scifi novel that is action filled from the beginning. This story is set in the future, where babies are born using artificial wombs in labs. It is actually the law, and it is to prevent certain birth defects from occurring. But some people don't like that law and want to do more.

This story follows three different stories/people that all converge at the end. We follow a doctor studying the effects of natural birth, a journalist, and a mother trying to protect her naturally born son. Soon the government gets involved in all their lives and things get crazy!

There is a lot of action in this story, and never a dull moment. The world building is excellent, and by the half way mark it is pretty easy to understand what is going on. The characters are interesting, although not as fleshed out as one might like. In general, the focus is more on plot than character development. My one complaint, is the strange obsession with sex, especially in the first half. It is talked about a lot in this book, but doesn't really add anything to the story. It's just always there and not in any good, romantic, smutty way.

All in all, a very fun read! I am eager to see what happens next in the sequel!

2.25 stars

When Lucy Harper was a child her brother Teddy disappeared and was never found. Lucy was the last person to see him, and no one believed the wild tales she told about that fateful night. Now Lucy is an adult, a best selling author, and wife to a controlling and jealous husband. When said husband goes missing and turns up dead, all eyes are on Lucy once again. “Finally, now, Lucy Harper’s going to tell the truth. Cross her heart. And hope to die.”

I had a really tough time with this book. It is well written, but personally I didn’t find it compelling. The characters are horrible. They are terrible humans, with no redeeming qualities, so I honestly didn’t care what happened to them. If I don’t care about the characters in a book, it’s hard to connect to the story.

Disliking the protagonist, Lucy, was the biggest loss for me. Lucy has an imaginary friend/alter-ego called Eliza. Nothing about this is ever touched on or explained however. Does Lucy have schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, what? She lets everyone she knows and meets walk all over her constantly and is a spineless coward. At one point she says, “...being handled produced the usual miserable feeling of powerlessness in me.” This is Lucy the entire book, and nothing about these qualities made me want to keep reading.

The end of the book was not predictable, which is obviously fantastic. I love a good twist. Unfortunately, the twist was so far fetched and fantastical it just did not work for me.

*I received this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.