Psychological thriller set on an island off the coast of Italy. Claire Hunter has hit the jackpot and is about to marry her very rich and famous fiancé Jack Compton on an idyllic family-owned island with close family and friends. But so many things start to go wrong, some seemingly natural (weather), some not so natural (ghosts?). After a body is discovered, many more bodies are "discovered" and Claire wonders about Jack's first wife who accidentally died after their wedding. A suspenseful whodunnit.

I mean, what's not to like? A beautiful wedding within a wealthy but kind family on a secluded island. It sounds like perfection.

However, looks can be deceiving. Because nearly everyone at this wedding has a secret to hide, but whose secret is the biggest, and what will that secret cost them?

I love how Ellison is so good at weaving a story of intrigue, however this one fell ever so slightly flat for me. I started off being intrigued but I quickly found myself becoming bored. I liked the side characters more than I liked the main ones, and I really kept moving forward because I simply needed to know what the secrets were.

This book was so close to being a "knocked it out of the park" kind of book but somehow it just didn't work for me. While I did enjoy it enough to finish it through it's not one I would recommend as my next favorite thriller.

Still, they may be a good book for a plane ride, if we're ever allowed to go back on those again. Or maybe if we're all quarantined you can pick it up on a dark, stormy night.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. I started this book after lunch and had it finished by the next morning. It is one of those books that is hard to stop reading because you want to know what is going to happen next. Full of surprises and twists but not so many that you are confused. The beauty of the scenery is described so well. It's a story of love, deception, murder, obsession, secrets, forgiveness, and acceptance. You can't help but fall in love with the main character, Claire. She has a dark past but doesn't realize that she is headed in that direction again when she meets Jack Compton. Thankfully her past has prepared her for what lies ahead.
#netgalley #herdarklies

Hang onto your hat with this read as it is downright creepy, scary, dark and a page turner! Now, this is a great book with lots of twists and turns.

Claire Hunter is an artist and is engaged to marry very wealthy William Jackson Compton "Jack" at the family villa in Isle Isola, Italy with a small gathering of family and friends coming to the villa for the weekend. The villa sits atop a high cliff with magnificent breathtaking views. The villa also has lots of hidden tunnels and its own crypt. What could possibly go wrong??? Lots of things can go wrong and does.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the ARC of this riveting whodunit that I thoroughly enjoyed in exchange for an honest review.

This book kept me wondering what would happen next. Once I found out that the first wife was behind it, it kind of not made it as mysterious. After finding that out, it was wanting to know what she was going to do that kept it going for me. The setting was great for the story! Overall, it was pretty good, but not as thrilling as I usually read.

Ellison’s latest is a chilling stand-alone. Claire, an artist with a painful past, falls in love with (ten-years) older, wealthy Jack, whose first wife died. Her life is wonderful until they are attacked in her home the night before flying to the family’s privately owned island. It quickly becomes obvious someone doesn’t want the wedding to take place and there are secrets the family doesn’t want revealed. Ellison keeps tension - and body count - high in this edgy twist on the classic gothic novel.

I received a free review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Twisted, compelling, addictive and unputdownable! Wow. I loved this #creeptastic thriller with alternating narration and fascinating menagerie of characters! The fabulous and descriptive setting comes to life, (a private Island villa in Italy), and adds to the complex stories, murders and dark family secrets- the recipe for a killer thriller. I was way in for this one and J.T. Ellison is tops! Fab Five Stars from an auto buy author for me! You need to grab this one!

This book just drags and drags about landscapes and is WAY TOO LONG!! 416 of BS with no point is not my idea of a thriller. A few ok-ish twists but this became predictable about half way through. Good cover, that is about it. Did not like this at all and it was predictable.

Cannot recommend this one.

Thanks to Netgalley, JT Ellison and Harlequin Trade Publishing MIRA for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 3/9/21

I so wanted to like Her Dark Lies by Jt Ellison as the premise was very intriguing, and the location sounded like it would make for a scary and mysterious book. The book started well enough, but as the story progressed, there were just too many unbelievable things going on and too much description that pulled me away from the story's plot. I could not connect to any of the characters. I trudged through reading this book. It may appeal to others, but this book was not just for me.
I really liked the cover, though.

#HerDarkLies #NetGalley

J.T.Ellison takes you on this twisted tale of brides to be and brides be gone. Great setting for a story of power, willfulness and passion. Loved the imagined history of the cliff side villa and the Compton family. Just the right mix of her people his people to make this story work.

Thunderous applauds for J.T.Ellison, Harlequin and NetGalley for allowing me to read a great story. We will all be talking about in the spring 2021.

A wedding on a private island in the Mediterranean is threatened by a storm and escalating disturbing events in this disappointing, overlong thriller.

The bride, Claire, is a shallow woman who was once a bohemian artist with a Dark Past but has transformed herself into a trophy wife for her rich groom, Jack, who lost his first wife in mysterious circumstances. Claire and Jack's relationship is presented in a superficial he-completes-me sort of way. There is a lot of focus on describing their luxurious lifestyle, but since the setting is limited this becomes repetitive.

Someone is determined to stop their wedding, and efforts to proceed with the nuptials in the face of a mounting body count become ludicrous. The groom's family are involved in international intelligence gathering, but their security system is woefully lax. The villain is an alternate narrator who makes no attempt to hide their identity from the reader, so the only mystery is how things reached this point. There is a small twist at the end, but not enough to make this even a worthwhile beach read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

Fabulous book. JT Ellison has never disappointed & certainly didn’t with Her Dark Lies. Beautifully descriptive, highly suspenseful & a breathtaking read. Five ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

J.T. Ellison is a master a creating edge-of-your-seat thrillers and Her Dark Lies is the perfect example of that! From the very beginning this creepy and chilling novel had me glued to my kindle! I tried to figure out the who, what, where, why, and how and I had several conspiracy theories that were completely wrong -I LOVE when an author can stump me! Now more than ever, I love getting lost in books that get my mine off of all the craziness going on in the world and Her Dark Lies is a 4.5 star novel that will have forgetting regular life and transport you to an eerie villa in Italy!

This book was throughly enjoyable and very suspenseful. It truly keep you guessing until the end of the book. Claire was on the surface the quiet artistic type but underneath held a bunch of dark secrets. Jack did seem to be truly in love with her but why was he rushing the wedding and what dark secrets was he keeping. This was a quick read that holds your interest until the very end.

Claire is going to have everything she has ever wanted, her art career is taking off and she is marrying Jack, the man of her dreams on his family's Italian island. But Jack is keeping the details of his first wife's death from her and Claire is keeping secrets of her own. And then strange things start to happen and someone wants them dead. Will their secrets be their undoing or will they get their happily ever after?

Oh this book is a good one. It’s a locked room mystery that takes place on an island during a wedding weekend. I literally read it on a snow day in a couple of hours. This is going to be one of the best mysteries of the year. I highly recommend it.

What could be more romantic than a wedding on the Isle Isola? Surrounded by cliffs and water with an over the top villa where you can get lost if you aren’t careful.

Claire Hunter is an artist. On the rise and to top it off, she is marrying Jack Compton of the uber-wealthy Compton family. The Comptons have secrets. A lot of secrets.

When Claire and Jack arrive at the villa, things begin to go wrong. A skeleton has been found and it has everyone on edge. Brothers are fighting, the help is sketchy at best. When her wedding dress is ruined and people start dying, she has to find out who is trying to get rid of her. And what happened to Jack’s first wife?

And then the power goes out, and things get even scarier.

J.T. Ellison is always on point with her books. No one does menacing characters and twisty plots like Ellison.

Will this one have a happy ending or will the wedding of the year become something more sinister?

Well Done!

NetGalley/ March 9th, 2021 by MIRA

T

I love this theme of destination wedding thrillers. Caught attention for page one. Was completely transported. Wanted to know but didn’t want it to end

The super rich are just like the rest of us. Or are they? Claire and Jack are in Italy for their wedding when all sorts of sinister things start to occur. Who is the culprit? And who pays the price for causing old hurts and keeping secrets? This page-turner won’t let you down!

Wow, wow, wow. Another amazing mystery by the best in the biz. Characters to die for ( and with) and a story to sit you back in your seat. Ellison is a master of mystery