Would I Lie to You by Aliya Ali-Afzal

Faiza has built a lovely life for herself, her husband Tom, daughter Sofia and 2 sons Ahmed and Alex, with a house in Wimbledon, private schools for the children and all of the trappings of middle class success. In her efforts to hide her roots, fit in with the school mums and for her family to be accepted she has secretly spent their £75,000 emergency fund, so when Tom is made redundant from his job she has to act fast to avoid being found out.

What an excellent book - so many plot twists and turns, all handled expertly by the author. Faiza's situation keeps going from bad to worse as she has to tell more and more lies to cover her deception. Some very important themes covered in the book too and again the author deftly weaves them into the story. A real page-turner, I could hardly breathe for the last part of the book! Very highly recommended.

Thank you to Net'Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I found this book difficult to enjoy. It's an easy read and a great concept for a story however the description of the main character just seemed to be at odds with the lies that she was telling and the insecurities that she seemed to have which seemed unnecessarily shallow. It seemed as though one of the main themes throughout the book was racism and white privilege and whilst these are relevant and important themes to address they just seemed to be done in a way that was almost undermining and made them feel trivial. A great concept which just seemed to fall short of its opportunity.

When you have the dream life but suddenly it is about to slip through your fingers. Keeping up appearances comes at a price. Racism, discrimination, lies and financial secrets all play a part in this entertaining read. Can trust be gained again?

Faiza has spent years learning how to fit in with the "yummy mummy" crowd at her children's expensive private school gates - getting the right clothes, the right hair cut and joining all the fundraising committees headed up by Uber-Mum, Julie.

All this has come at a cost though and so when Faiza's husband Tom unexpectedly becomes unemployed from his mega salaried banking job in the City, Faiza suddenly finds herself in a whole lot of trouble - and has to make some cash (£75k, to be precise!), fast.

This was an interesting book for me, not something I would have usually picked off the shelf but after a slightly lukewarm start, I did enjoy the story and came to warm towards Faiza. I really felt for her as the reality of the amount of money she had just frittered away dawned on her and I could sense that feeling of growing panic when it looked like she would be found out. Faiza and Tom have a very comfortable lifestyle living in a 4 bedroom detached house in Wimbledon Village, she hasn't had to work since starting a family and they enjoy multiple holidays and expensive meals out a year. At first I wasn't sure how the author could make me feel sympathy for someone who had been so blasé about spending so much money, however as the story moved on it was clear that the powerful feeling of shame that Faiza felt for using up the emergency fund on fripperies and putting her family life at risk that did it for me - she came across as a genuinely naive person who was horrified at what she did, and I liked that she grew and developed as a character as the book went on.

Ultimately, this is a book about the importance of holding onto who you are and not changing yourself to fit in with others who don't take any interest in you beyond the external. And don't spend the emergency fund!

I really enjoyed Would I Lie To You although I sometimes groaned with frustration with Fazia, the main character, who just kept getting further into deep water with her husband Tom, through lying constantly.

Fazia is of Pakistani origin and the scenes with her parents were warm and amusing, some of the best in the book. But since marrying Tom and moving with their children to posh Wimbledon in southwest London she has been playing keep up with the yummy mummies to the extent that she has blown their life savings. When Tom loses his job she does everything she can think of to prevent him finding out they have no money to fall back on while trying to maintain face with her friends and family.

I read this book in two sittings and if you want something lighthearted Would I Lie To You does the job while illustrating that lying gets you nowhere except deeper in trouble. Many thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A mixed read for me. I had trouble liking the main character and how easily she lied to her husband and family. The novel included topical issues (racism, classism, sexism, harassment, mental health issues) but I thought there were just too many of them and some of them seemed to appear out of nowhere. I did find the writing style to be very clear which made for an easy read. The ending was done well.

Thanks to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Fazia is a British Pakistani married to a white man with their mixed race children.
They have an indulgent life, with Tom earning enough money to keep them very comfortably well off with two children in private schools, living in a large house in an expensive area of London and Fazia not needing to work.
That it until Tom looses his job. It’s okay though, they have a substantial emergency fund. Or have they?
The characters really pop out at you, giving a feeling that you know them well. Well enough that you know you like some and some you would really like to give a slap.
Fazia is a good person, all she’s done is tried to do her best. Fazia has struggled to come to terms (and her can blame her) with the blatant racism she suffered as a child. This has left consequences in her adult life. She recognises that some of the mothers are arrogant self obsessed snobs but wanted to blend in with them. Not to be ‘othered’. The sickening realism is, racism is still around in subtle undertones of peoples language.
I really felt for Fazia, the twists and turns of trying to make things better and how she just got into this spiral of disaster.
It was a page turner though, you just wanted to read a bit of good luck coming Fazia’s way right up until the very end when everything looked so bleak.


I’ve never really thought about the colour of the author before and look back at the many books I have read, have they all been white? Surely not.
This book was interesting though, with Muslim culture becoming part of the plot in Britain. This lady could be our neighbour and she has all of the internal struggles that just shouldn’t be an issue in 2021.
It was a refreshing insightful read and I do think that this is an author to look out for.
I would to thank NetGalley for the preview read in return for my honest review.

#WouldILieToYou #NetGalley

Tore through this in one sitting. It's full of high tension, a web of lies that you know are going to come crashing down eventually. A really good look at how one thing going wrong can be a domino effect throughout your whole life. Stressful to read but it keeps you turning the pages.

With thanks to #Netgalley and #HeadOfZeus for an ARC of #wouldILieToYou by #AlyaAli-Afzal.

Faiza has an almost perfect life, that is until her husband, Tom loses his job. While Tom is happy to fall back on their savings to tide them over, Faiza has a secret… she has spent their savings of £75,000. Can she work out a way of getting the money back before Tom notices it’s gone?

This is a fast paced, well written story. Funny, real and warm, with all the loose ends tied up nicely by the end.

Aliya Ali-Afzal, is a real talent and i’ll look forward to reading her future work.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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A current and snappy novel that really grabs your attention with hard subjects, wincing denial and lies that you know are just going to come crashing down around everyone.
The characters and the plotline are so intriguing, bringing everything together in a dramatic concoction

An interesting and tense read with characters we can all either identify with, or know. I struggled to put this book down as I had to know what was going to happen next, and there were many twists and turns.

Faiza’s life seems perfect, a lovely husband, 3 great children at private school, nice home in Wimbledon….. but when her husband suddenly loses his well paid job and the family need to rely on their savings, which Faiza has spent to ‘keep up with the school gate Jones’s’, her life goes into free fall, as she has to find a way to replace the money….fast!

This book covers racism, sexism, adult bullying and suicide in a very gentle way, but it definitely makes you think about how awful peoples friends and work colleagues can be and how tragic toxic friendships are.

But it also shows how strong good friendships are and really brings home the fact that we should always be true to ourselves and not be someone we are not in an attempt to fit in.

A great read, thank you.

Any reader who enjoys intelligent, emotionally resonating psychological fiction could do worse than consider alumni of the Curtis Brown writing courses. Among these alumni whose novels I have devoured in recent years are Jane Harper, Clare Pooley, Kate Hamer, Laura Marshall and Jessie Burton. Joining their works on my Kindle now is Aliya Ali-Afzal’s debut novel entitled Would I Lie to You? Its charismatic protagonist Faiza has worked very hard to build a comfortable life away from the South London area where she grew up. Now, however, she is in a desperate situation: when her husband Tom is unexpectedly made redundant, he expects to fall back on the family’s emergency savings. Little does he know that Faiza has secretly spent each of the £75,000 he thought the family had in the bank. Spirited, resourceful Faiza, however, has hatched a desperate plan to keep her secret under wraps….

Faiza is such an endearing character that it is hard to believe at times that she is a fictional construct. A highly recommended, thought-provoking novel from a fresh voice in contemporary fiction. Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for granting me access to a free ARC in exchange for this honest and unbiased review.

Faiza Saunders is in trouble - when her husband loses his job, she's at a Botox clinic with the other Wimbledon wives, and when she gets the news she wonders how much money is left in their emergency account. Nothing, it turns out, thanks to her husband Tom's over-careful budgeting and Faiza's splurging on the side to keep herself and her three kids happy- her baby Alex, her eighteen-year-old daughter Sofia and her middle child Ahmed, who has an anxiety disorder he's only just getting over after a move to a more sympathetic, and expensive, school.

Faiza does everything she can to make up the shortfall, including trying to work in the local boutique, sell the house and even borrow money from her beloved parents, but nothing boosts the finances like returning to work. As Tom becomes more withdrawn and unsympathetic to her, Faiza dusts off her suits after fifteen years out of the game and returns to the world of high finance. At work, she meets Harry, husband of the local Queen Bee (think Amanda from Motherland) and also potentially a man with something to hide...

I really enjoyed this book and have high hopes for the author, who also writes perceptively about the culture clashes Faiza and her children experience and the confidence Faiza gains throughout the book when it comes to standing up to racism in her community and beyond. A twisty, unputdownable story that combines pleasure, stress and satire in equal measures.

Entertaining novel! It was amusing but frustrating to see how Faiza would try and get the money next. I also enjoyed how it exposed the racism in the suburban London sphere.

At the school gates, Faiza fits in. It took a few years, but now the snobbish mothers who mistook her for the nanny treat her as one of their own. She's learned to crack their subtle codes, speak their language of handbags and haircuts and discreet silver watches. When her husband Tom loses his job in finance, he stays calm. Something will come along, and in the meantime, they can live off their savings. But Faiza starts to unravel. Raising the perfect family comes at a cost – and the money Tom put aside has gone. When Tom's redundancy package ends, Faiza will have to tell him she's spent it all. Unless she doesn't...

The book is a fun page-turner but it also stealthily addresses some seriously important issues such as racism, politics, emotional labour, division of domestic duties, and addiction. This story was a stunning debut that was undeniably binge-readable and hauntingly real.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Whilst this was a good book, it was a hard read at the same time emotionally, It was quite educational for me as well as I didnt realise quite the level of racism and discrimination Pakastani people deal with on a daily basis or some of the issues they face.
This book covers 3 quite sensitive subjects: sexual assault, suicide and racism but it covers them well and in quite a sensitve way.
There's lessons to be learnt about trust in this book.

I loved the writing because the author wrote so well that you truly felt all the emotions of the characters. You felt angry and axious when they did for example.

Overall it was a good read and I'm glad I read it.

Would I Lie to You was at times funny and brilliant debut which I couldn't stop reading, even if at times I had to put it down because the second hand embarrassment and nerves was too much. I would pick it right back up as I just couldn't wait to see what would happen and how Faiza got herself out of certain sticky situations. I mean the whole thing could have been so easily avoided had she just told the truth but the skilful ways in which Aliya Ali-Afzal portrays how easy it can be to spiral makes Faiza's decisions make more sense.

Afzal covers a lot of topics in the novel ranging from debt, money problems, raising biracial children, being in a mixed race marriage, mental health, microagressions and more. I feel like some threads were stronger than others, such as the pressures Faiza feels being the only woman of colour amongst the crowd of mums at her children's schools as well as dealing with pointed racial micro-aggressions. It's not all negative though as Faiza does have strong friendships which are supportive and comes in to her own once they all start being more honest with each other.

I also liked how the representation of desi culture and relationships was portrayed, I feel like a lot of contemporary literature which approaches south asian culture can be so diminishing and paints it as regressive and old fashioned. It was actually really nice to read a contemporary book which doesn't fall into these tropes and instead, explores positive rep of culture and shows that Faiza's parents being supportive of her relationship despite some initial worries, having a loving relationship with her children without all the extra baggage and makes some key points about how attitudes within the older generations have actually changed too. I could really relate to these elements of the novel and thought this was an important discussion to have.

Overall, this is an addictive read, which I can see many readers speeding through and enjoying it for the slightly zany, but heartfelt story that it is.

Faiza has it all. A loving husband with a good job, three lovely children at private school and a beautiful house in Wimbledon village. But when her husband Tom loses his job things start to go awry. Unknown to him she has been spending their emergency fund and it's all gone leaving them with only enough money to last six weeks.. Instead of telling him though she decides to deal with it in her own way, making things worse with every move she makes.

The tension really racks up in this novel. You look on in dismay as Faiza makes yet another appalling decision and wonder how an intelligent woman can be so stupid. What comes across is the emptiness at the heart of these women's lives. Women who don't work, who fall in line with the whole 'yummy mummy' agenda and who spend their time worrying about ageing. I couldn't relate to any of this at ll. What I did like is how the author points out the difficulties that someone from another culture can have in fitting in and the insecurity that brings. She also convincingly portrays the sort of insidious racism that is so prevalent in our society and the main culprit Julia is an obnoxious but well drawn character.. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Really well written book but I just could not connect with Faiza and found her so unlikable and her situation so farcical that it took the engagement and enjoyment of the book out for me.

I found it incongruous that her husband would just forgive her for her deception and she would be able to get back to normal so quickly.

Overall, the concept is great but not for me.

This was a really interesting read!! I thoroughly enjoyed it and the message it conveyed. I’d never heard of this author before but look forward to reading more