This was a very atmospheric, tense thriller. I didn’t enjoy the characters but I read the book to find out the conclusion because I was hooked. I didn’t love the conclusion but it kept me reading until the end. It’s very suspenseful and overall, just very sad. My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

This book brought up a lot of emotions. It is full of people who are racist, homophobic, abusers, misogynists, and all hiding behind the idea that their religion justifies everything they do. It was a tough read at first, but by the time I got to the point where I wanted to put the book down, I was also invested in some of the characters and wanted to find out what happened.

I think the book had about as good of an ending for all of the characters as I could have expected.

I was very impressed by this debut author overall, andI know this book will stick with me. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

This ARC was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. A teenage girl never comes home from a party in the woods. That is the gist of this book. This is set in a small mountain town where the community are all churchgoers and seems to be busybodies. There is drinking, drugs, child and spousal abuse, bible thumping, racism and homosexuality. The God fearing people of Whistling Ridge turn a blind eye on everything that goes on. This is told from a "Then" and "Now" perspective. There are a lot of characters, each doing their own thing, and yeah, the mystery of what happened to Abi gets solved, but it isn't the forefront of the story. I hate to be negative because I know how hard people worked to bring this book together, but it wasn't for me.

4.25 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com today.


Whistling Ridge, Colorado is one of those small mountain towns where the locals keep to themselves and hide their secrets. Emma and Abi live in this small town. Emma is kind of an outcast, because she is half-Latina and her mom is a single mom. Abi’s family is part of the community, even if her dad is the town drunk.

One night at a party out in the woods, Abi goes off with a local boy and is never seen again. Emma is devastated to lose her only friend and wants to solve the mystery of what happened to Abi. But there are so many standing in the way of the truth, and Emma will put herself in danger trying to wade through the lies and secrets.

I truly enjoyed this book. Written in a “now” and “then” manner, as the story unfolds, you learn the reasons behind some of the behaviors of the residents of Whistling Ridge. Emma slowly unpacks the story of Abi and her disappearance. Crazy and unpredictable, This is a book that will keep you guessing.

Where the Truth Lies by Anna Bailey

Seventeen year old Abi goes missing from the small town of Whistling Ridge after she convinces her best friend Emma to leave her at a party in the woods. Emma is now racked with guilt for leaving Abi and she is determined to find out what happened to her. The deeper Emma digs, the dirtier things get.

The story is told with frequent, short, NOW and THEN segments, seen from the POV of numerous characters. The changes from one time and person to another can be jarring and I would have like to have stayed with each viewpoint and time for a longer period of time. Also, the THEN segments can be anywhere from days ago to almost 2 decades ago, which can add to an already confusing story.

At first I was enjoying the story, despite the sudden changes. But we soon learn that this is a cesspool of a town, everyone has secrets and the town is floating in it's own filth of prejudices, hatred, lies, cruelty, and debauchery. Each of these people and their faults could be real but when so many flawed and broken people end up in one small town, the story becomes overwhelmed with corruption without anything to add an iota of balance to the people. I trudged through the middle of the story, learning more and more about these disgusting people and not understanding why more kids and adults don't run away from this place as fast as they can.

The last part of the story seems to pull itself together. It's as if what resolution that we get seems to pour down a cleansing rain on the people and place, giving just about everyone, who isn't crushed by their misdeeds, some hope of a brighter days in the future. This would have been more believable if we hadn't seen so much vileness throughout the main part of the story.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

This one was a struggle to get into with a slow start but once it got going I couldn't put it down. Brava.

Full of quite unhappy characters, Where the Truth Lies, is packed full of secrets. Secrets of the missing girl, her best friend, her siblings, and parents. The writing was decent. I never quite got into the story fully. It’s a good story, but I had trouble connecting with any of the characters. Lots of action take place in the story so it will have appeal to readers who like mystery and intrigue.

So I came into this book with super high hopes; a girl disappears from a small town where everyone is suspect and has their secrets. Great premise! However from the get go we are introduced to so many characters from abi to Emma to their parents, their siblings, the sheriff, the pastor the weird kid that lives in a trailer park. Popular kids and on and on -all while switching back and forth from past to present tense; it was quite a bit to get through. We also don’t spend enough time with them to understand or connect with them so I found myself not really invested in their journey or where the story would take them.
There was also a very wide range of topics that we kept coming across: religion, sexual abuse, drugs, child abuse, spousal abuse, ptsd, homophobia (and on and on) that again felt like I was getting hit on the head over and over before catching my bearings and reminded me of the old adage that sometimes; less is more, this went on to my DNF pile unfortunately for the aforementioned reasons. I do think that it was an original idea and kudos to the writer for tackling these themes.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books for providing the arc of Where the Truth Lies by Anna Bailey in exchange for my honest review.

Trigger warnings for abuse, racism, homophobia, fascism, religious nuts, PTSD, and small-minded people, which honestly made me roll my eyes.

Abigail Blake goes missing from the small town of Whistling Ridge. Her best friend, Emma, compelled by the guilt of leaving Abigail alone at a party in the woods, starts looking into what happened and uncovers some devastating secrets. Not only the town’s longstanding secrets but she discovers maybe she didn’t know Abigail as well as she thought.

This was a very slow-burning mystery that I felt focused more on the character’s lives than the actual mystery itself. I had a really hard time staying focused and the large cast of characters made it difficult to keep things straight. The POV changes from Then to Now, but sometimes it felt like the time period would shift mid-chapter, and then some chapters weren’t even marked so you weren’t sure if the time had changed or not.

For me, the stereotypes from the get-go just rubbed me the wrong way. Every jock was dumb and sexist, every religious person was homophobic, it would have been fun to see a new take on the small-town USA. What if the town drunk wasn’t violent and homophobic? That could have been fun to explore? OR what if the Priest was trying to teach that homophobia is wrong? Between the confusing plot and characters, the stereotypes, and the few and far between twists that didn’t really surprise me, I just felt that this one fell flat for me. I was hoping for something more.

Really intense and sad in some aspects.

I didn’t expect the emotional reaction it evoked from me.

But the story is very well-written.

It’s intense and gripping.

When Abi disappears from a teenage party, the police in her insular Colorado mountain town assume she ran away. As Emma investigates her best friend's disappearance, she begins to learn that she didn't know Abi as well as she thought. Although the premise has all the hallmarks of a great summer thriller, Where the Truth Lies was all cliches and stereotypes of small-town American life, possibly because the author is British. The bigotry, homophobia, misogyny, and domestic abuse were all overplayed, lacking in even an ounce of nuance, while the culprit was the most obvious character.

"Where the Truth Lies" by Anna Bailey is an astonishing debut novel and is destined to be one of the best thrillers of the summer! Rare is the thriller that I don't see the twists coming and that I don't figure out who the perpetrator is way in advance, but this book kept me guessing the whole time. Everyone in the small town of Whistling Ridge has their secrets, and I suspected almost everyone at some point during the story. Though the cast of characters in this book is quite large, they are all well-developed and I never was confused as to who was who. This is the kind of book that begs to be read in one sitting. I couldn't put it down!

💭 ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:
This book was so good. Short chapters keeps me going! Whistling Ridge has so many secrets and you get so many hints of all of them throughout the book that keeps you guessing to the very end. My imagination made up so many disturbing things and some were true. I was hooked and couldn't stop. Flew through the pages and really enjoyed the character development. Where I hated a few to start with I loved them by the end. The ending was so bittersweet and satisfying. I highly recommend this!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🤓 ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
Short Chapters 📚
Whodunnit
Messy town secrets

ꜱʏɴᴏᴘꜱɪꜱ:
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯-𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳-𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘈𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘮𝘮𝘢, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, 𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘣𝘪 𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘌𝘮𝘮𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘭’𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘙𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦, 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴.

This book reminded me a lot of We Begin at the End and Unspeakable Things. Unfortunately, I didn't like either of those books and thus, didn't really like this one. It was very slow and depressing. The story dives into some deep topics - racism, homophobia, domestic abuse and LOTS of religious ideology. We are constantly teased that 'everyone has secrets' from the beginning and things will be told in their own time... I am often annoyed when book slowly tease you and slowly reveal things little by little. There were a lot of beautiful descriptions of the settings and people, which seemed to distract the reader from the heavy themes.

Thank you to Atria Books and Net Galley for the eARC of Where the Truth Lies in exchange for an honest review!
Where the Truth Lies is a debut novel by Anna Bailey and what a debut it is! I honestly couldn't put this book down!!!!

Welcome to Whistling Ridge, Colorado A small town filled with unlikeable characters. This story centers around the disappearance of teenager, Abigail Blake. The whole town is in an uproar over her disappearance. But, did something happen to her or did she run away? The whole town knows what goes on in the Blake house; and believe me it's not pretty.. Her household consists of her father (Samuel) mother (Dolly), and her two brothers (Noah and Jude). Abigail's best friend, Emily, is broken over her disappearance and turns to alcohol for relief.. Emma finds comfort in a boy named "Rat" and another Hunter as she tries to figure out what happened to Abagail.
The story is told in past and present, and the author provides glimpses of all these characters lives in both timelines. What you have, is a town full of flawed people. There is bigotry, homophobia, abuse, and hatred driven by the local church. Ultimately, this story is about the town itself.

The story has a pretty impactful ending; but I don't want to spoil it for you! I highly recommend this one!

Anne Bailey's debut novel is set in a small town of Whistling Ridge. The towns center is the First Baptist Church with fire and brimstone Pastor Lewis, The preacher advocates love with the weapons of violence toward outsiders and individuals that don't fit into his picture of Christianity.
The center of the story is teen-ager Emma. Emma and her best friend Abigail attend a party in the woods. Abigail convinces Emma to leave her at the party. Emma goes home and never sees her friend again.
Author Anne Bailey has crafted a dark, violent and unsettling story. Her characters are realistic and unlikeable.
Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and give an honest review.

I just wanted to grab those Blake kids and give them the biggest hug. The dark, traumatic and heavy town gets bits of friendship, love and hope to keep you going. Just when you think you can’t take anymore of the darkness a small flicker of light shines through and gives the reader hope. My heart was shattered for the Blake family especially and I had a hard time fighting back emotions while reading this slow burn story of a suffocating small town. Emotional roller coaster for sure so make sure you’re buckled in.

I thoroughly enjoyed Where the Truth Lies! The multiple POVs and flashbacks helped really flesh out the plot, and give insight into each character while also adding more confusion as to exactly what happened with Abi. I thought the setting and the background characters were perfect to set the tone of discomfort and unease, which added to the overall vibe of the read. The characters being morally grey added a real life feeling to the book, and made them feel so much more human and three dimensional. While there were some heavy themes throughout, I feel like they were handled well and with respect. The ending was satisfying but also left me feeling slightly empty, as all really good books tend to do. The fact that abigail’s body was never found lends to the feeling of not having closure that Dolly discusses in the end. It makes you think of the what if’s, what if she survived the fall, what if she managed to make it out of the river, what if she used her disappearance as a way to finally make a run for it and start over?
Overall I deeply enjoyed the time I spent with this book!

📖 BOOK REVIEW 📖

"Where the Truth Lies" by Anna Bailey, publisher: Atria Books.
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 💫

✍️ "In a town full of secrets, it's hard to tell where the truth lies."

Imagine yourself in the midst of a small town America with a close-knit community who despise anything and anyone "different". It's a "big boys" club, headed by a fanatical preacher, a businessman who "owns" the town, and backed by the local police. A 17-year old Abi disappears and her best friend Emma is trying to get to the bottom of what happened. The deeper she digs, the more she realizes that everyone in this town has a secret. Emma is no longer sure that even Abi is who Emma thought she was.

I am a huge fan of mystery/triller genre! I was so excited to get my hands on this ARC copy of this book and dig into it! It started out a bit slow for me, but picked up toward the second half, and then I couldn't put it down! I stayed up last night to finish it. And let me tell you, I was guessing almost to the very end as to what will happen. The book raises many heavy issues such as religious fanatism, racism, substance abuse, domestic violence, homophobia, and corruption. It was a lot to digest, but so worth it! This is a very thought-provoking novel, and I very much appreciate it in a book.

This is a stunning debut novel by Anna Bailey. Her writing and storytelling style are unlike any other. I can't wait to read more by this author in the future. A 4.5/5 ⭐ from me!

This story starts with the disappearance of a young girl at a party. It quickly evolves into a much more sinister plot that simply one murder. There are various story lines and an alternating then and now narration.

There were many times I had to step away from this book because what was happening to the characters was too intense. There was one thing after the other and it was emotionally captivating and exhausting at the same time.

Thank you netgallery for the ARC.