This author is a first for me, but hopefully it will not be the last time I read a book of hers. The story was intriguing; at times I was really annoyed with Annie, then at others I was full of compassion for her, great writing to get that reaction. The two stories were intertwined well, and as you discovered more of what had happened to Lottie, the reasons for why Annie behaved as she did, and all her trust issues became clearer. The characters were a real mix, some good, some bad and one or two totally crazy! They all added real interest and depth. The story got a little bumpy in places, but on the whole it was well put together and was a very good storyline. Thank you NetGalley!

Annie is a quiet, socially awkward young woman in love with her boss Paul, and thinks Paul feels something for her in return. After having a bit too much to drink at a company function, she talks just a tad too loudly about he relationship she sees between them, and is escorted to the door by am embarrassed Paul.

She knows where Paul keeps his spare keys, though, so while Paul continues at the pub, she goes into his apartment to wander around, leaving her nametag in his bathroom and taking a tiny statuette f a baby she had given him from his mantel. There is a moment she believe she is caught, after hearing voices outside his apartment, and once the voices have faded, she leaves, returning Paul's spare keys to their hiding place.

Flushed with the success of her mission, she drunkenly makes her way back to the train station and then to her car, sits there for an hour or so, and then heads home.

From there, everything seems to go downhill for Annie. While Paul does not directly accuse her of being in his apartment the next day, she thinks he knows she was. In addition, a girl has gone missing from Annie's area, and from a CCTV that captured the last known movement of the girl, Annie knows it is her car Chloe passes in front of. But Annie did not see her: she was not paying attention to anything outside. Feeling badly, she joins in the searches for the girl, but the others in the group she's assigned to find her both weird and a little creepy due to her awkwardness.

After some hesitation, Annie finally calls the police to tell them she may have been the last person to see Chloe, even though she didn't actually see the girl. When the police visit, she tells them this. But there are questions about her timeline, and they want to know why she didn't actually see the girl who passed right in front of her. She has no good answer, of course, other than she was drink, but she can't tell them that.

When people find out Annie has been interviewed by the police, suddenly the shy, awkward girl is the center of attention in the office. She enjoys it for awhile, but finds that being unable to give up any real meat about the case returns her to her lonely world.

During the searches, Annie sees that Chloe's two best friends are behaving oddly. She doesn't mention this to the police, makes a few (awkward, of course) mentions of the friends to her search team, and it's clear they wish she was anywhere except with them.

After Chloe goes missing, and between scenes of the present, we get flashbacks to Annie's childhood. Known as Lottie then, one day two older girls want to include her in a secret club that involves pixies (fairies). creatures Lottie is fascinated by. The girls draw her in by setting trials she has to complete, which she does, and the last of those is a rather heinous one: sacrifice.

All of this informs Annie's rather odd development and her awkwardness in her adult life. Eventually, Paul confronts her about being in his apartment, but doesn't fire her. The searches are called off, and the press gets wind of Annie's past, then police return to question her some more, and eventually, her lie is going off the rails and she considers that she may need to flee.

But then a shocking conclusion brings the entire case crashing down: more secrets are revealed, and we find that sometimes, those closest to you can be the worst for you.

It's a great story, and Holmes captures the shy, awkward kid turning into a shy, awkward adult incredibly well. It's a fine story, has no major plot or character issues, and gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars from me, rounded up to five..

Thanks to Agora Books and NetGalley for the review copy.

I always approach with some trepidation reviews of books where the lead character is female in late 20s or early 30s who starts to go off the rails with both actions and words. Usually in the second half of the book she stages a recovery and all is well by the end.
However, with All Your Little Lies the lead character does the wrong thing and says the wrong words for 95% of the book. There were many occasions when I said to myself that I should give up but I did persevere and get to the end.
The main timeline relates to a missing schoolgirl, Chloe, and is interwoven with a flashback story (in italics) of younger schoolgirls that you know is somehow linked to one of the present day characters and will not end well.
So overall the book is disappointing for me but the last pages I did find a good read although, again, I would have liked a 'wow didn't see that coming end'.
I am certain that many readers will thoroughly enjoy this book

A complex, psychological thriller.
Be ready for many twists and turns as main character Annie gets draw into the case of a missing 12 year old girl. Is she involved? Does she know some important evidence? How does her past tie into the present?

You will have lots of questions as this book moves on and as you find the answers more questions will cross your mind.

A fast paced book where you will become tangled in the complicated life of Annie and the people she meets along the way.

This book takes a lot of serious and delicate issues and deals with them in a very unique way, this book is very different from any others I have recently read, making you want to keep reading to see what is going to happen.

I would be interested to read more from this author.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and most importantly the author, for the chance to read this book, in exchange for an honest review.

A great story spending a lot of time piecing together different bits to bring the story to its conclusion. Whilst you can guess "who dun it" there is so much more going on

I am sorry to say that I found this a slow read. The main character has a history that would obviously be difficult to deal with but she is drawn as a social incompetent who cannot express herself at all and leans on the past to explain her problems to herself. She seems to be unable to learn from any of her experiences.
I am afraid that I couldn't like her much and the story's parallel with her past seems to be unlikely.
I find this difficult to recommend.

Annie is a little strange, a bit of an oddball, different to anyone else. Annie likes to shrink away from the world, to remain 'invisible'. She has to remain guarded so that she doesn't reveal her secret....except, Annie is the only witness to a crime which may see her carefully constructed world unravel...
Excellent well written tale with vibrant characters that come alive on the page

Thank you to @agorabooksldn & @NetGalley for the advance copy of ALL YOUR LITTLE LIES. This is released on the 22nd October in Kindle format.

READ THIS IF… you liked The Girl on the Train, enjoy unreliable narrators, and enjoy books with multiple mysteries to solve,

THE STORY… Annie lives a secluded life, and doesn’t really seem to fit in anywhere. When Chloe, a local girl, goes missing, Annie is determined to help - even if that means jeopardising the life she’s worked to build. Even if that means she becomes a suspect. Alongside the present timeline, we are told the story of Lottie, a young girl who whose innocent desire to summon piskies (or pixies) to get enough money that her parents will stop fighting is preyed upon.

I… sped through this book. It’s definitely the appropriate time to use the cliche - I couldn’t put it down! Annie was such an enticing character, and I didn’t want to stop reading until I knew everything there was to know about her. It was one of those books where you want to shout at the character, “NO, DON’T DO THAT!’” but there was no stopping Annie fumbling social interactions and endangering herself. One of my favourite things about unreliable narrators is how authors make it clear that the reality is different to what they experience, and this was done very well. My criticism of this book seems to be the criticism I have for a lot of books (so maybe it’s me!) but the ending did feel rushed and a little unresolved. I would have liked to know more about where certain characters ended up, and how they moved forwards. However, other than this I loved this book and would recommend it as a page-turner to keep you occupied.

NOW… I would recommend everyone preorder this! I’ve also put Marianne Holmes’ debut novel, A Little Bird Told Me, on my wishlist.

The main character in All Your Little Lies, Annie, owes a great deal to Eleanor Oliphant. I suppose if Eleanor Oliphant (or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) hadn’t been such a big success, we wouldn’t have expected a character who shows the symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome to be the protagonist of a novel.
In fact, it’s a great idea to build up suspense by employing a protagonist who observes events from the point of view of a lonely outsider, notices tiny details - but doesn’t always interpret what they see correctly.
So Annie, our socially isolated protagonist, unwittingly holds the clues which would lead to the truth about a missing girl, but feels that she has to lie about what she was doing on the night the girl goes missing so gets tangled up in a web of lies which prevents her from seeing the truth. Then, when she tries to make herself look important by pretending to be a witness to the girl’s abduction, she makes things much worse for herself.
I raced through the first part of the novel. Marianne Holmes creates great empathy for Annie, whose acute loneliness and lack of social skills lead her to try too hard in social situations. She misinterprets small kindnesses from men as evidence of romantic interest, with embarrassing consequences. Holmes writes the character really well; the reader cringes when Annie tries to communicate with members of a search party for the missing girl, asking intrusive questions, tactlessly implying that the girl is dead and laughing to herself. Annie is desperate to find the missing girl and feel like a member of the community but ends up arousing suspicion and alienating everyone.
So far so good. The reader is looking forward to Annie suddenly becoming aware that she actually holds the clues to solving the mystery of the missing girl, communicating her knowledge to the police and making amends for a tragic incident in her past. I won’t spoil the ending but I will say that there’s a fine line between suspense and frustration.
There’s a lot of repetition in this novel. It desperately needs editing, particularly in the second half, with several inconclusive meetings with the police and attempts to escape. I found the flashbacks beautifully written but rather long and repetitive.
There are a few grammatical mistakes: it’s instead of its (It’s soft, grainy edges); Hancock’s rather than Hancocks’, and a few misplaced commas.
I could imagine that Annie would make a great detective but she would need to share her findings with the police! Realising that you could have solved the mystery only after someone else has doesn’t make for a satisfying ending. This could have been a brilliant suspense mystery with Annie as an unusual kind of detective. Perhaps the next one? I look forward to reading more from an excellent writer.
Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This thriller about a girl who may or may not have witnessed a kidnapping was not my cup of tea. The main character was unlikable and I had a hard time rooting for her or even caring about what happened to her. The premise was promising and it wrapped up satisfactorily, but took a couple of strange turns to get there. Overall, this one just wasn’t for me. 2.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Exciting and engaging, throughly enjoyable novel, from an author I have never read before. I definitely want to read more books by her though. It was creepy but you felt sorry for the main character, who was so lonely but not from want of trying to make new friends. The catch in the story amazed me and engrossed me further. Definitely 5 stars for a truly original tale.

A reclusive, socially inept character Annie becomes involved in the search for a missing 12 year old girl. Told in conjunction with flashbacks to an earlier incident it is well written and very readable.
One can’t help but feel sorry for Annie who seems unable to read people at all. She tries but often misunderstands and is misunderstood by others.
I enjoyed the book although I found the ending a little abrupt. I would certainly read other books by this author.

When I first started reading "All Your Little Lies" by Marianne Holmes, I thought it had echoes of "Gone Girl" or "Girl on a Train". However there is a second plot which you see glimpses of and over time realise the significance to Annie's story. As I gained realisation, the story took on a more sinister tone. A well-crafted book and I'd be on the look out for other books by Marianne Holmes.

This was a new author for me and I found it to be a well written, interesting three star read for me with well developed characters.

I can recommend this book and will read more from this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Agora Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

All Your Little Lies is a great suspense thriller! Marianne Holmes knows how to set the stage and keep you guessing until the last page.

An engrossing story of Annie - a socially inept adult who has difficulty finding and maintaining friendships and is desperate to be liked, loved and respected. Flashbacks to her childhood years eventually explain the secrets of the grown up Annie who wants to do good and be helpful in a case of a missing 12 year old girl by the name of Chloe Hills. Unfortunately this backfires on her and she becomes a suspect in the case and secrets of her childhood are revealed. A gripping story full of twists and turns - couldn't put it down.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but it just didn't quite get there in the end. Annie is a really awkward woman who always says the wrong thing or laughs at inappropriate times. As the story continues the awkwardness really starts to great.
The idea is good but the execution for me was lacking. I enjoy a good mystery or thriller but this was more a drama with very little character development.
Not enough focus on the missing persons case and at the end it's all so quick and rushed and tottally unbelievable

I never repeat the blurb. Didn't enjoy this - sorry. Just not my cup of tea. Unlikable protagonist meant I just didn't care...not for me.

I struggled with this book originally as it was painful to see Annie's attempts at social interaction and suffer her constant angst and self doubt.
However as the story progressed I got used to her and her anxieties and began to be interested in the story of missing Chloe. Alongside this there were flashbacks to an earlier time and that story was gradually revealed throughout the book. There were no great surprises in either of the stories but the main focus of the book generally seemed to be Annie. However it was a reasonable read and all loose ends were tied by the end..

📖 All your little lies
👩🏼‍💻Marianne Holmes
📅 pub date 10/22/20

⭐️goodreads: 3.45/5
⭐️Amazon: no ratings yet
⭐️ See below for my rating!

🚞Synopsis: This novel follows Annie, as she becomes obsessed with the search for a missing girl in her town. Annie believes she was the last person to see the missing girl and becomes obsessed with the investigation and search. Annie is an awkward, semi agoraphobic who has one friend and is paranoid about every situation that she is involved in. Why is Annie so obsessed with the missing girl? Did she have something to do with it or does the story hit close to home for some reason?
🚞 The Good: The story drew me in quickly, I initially could not put the book down and it was reminiscent of the girl on the train. The character development on Annie was well done and many of her actions were cringeworthy.
🚞 The Bad: After the first 25% of the book, the story line seemed very repetitive. There was also a “past” story line intertwined that I felt wasn’t done as well as it could have been and at first was very confusing for the reader. There were also several grammar errors, which always bothers me.
🚞 The Ugly: The ending, for back of a better word, was disappointing and boring. I did read this book quickly, so it was an easy and quick read, but when compared to other psychological thrillers on the market, this one did not hit the mark for me.
⭐️: My rating: 2.5/5