I'm not a fast reader, but it only took me about 48 hours to read this book. I've been in a bit of a thriller funk with plots feeling too similar to others I've read, but this one was great. I loved the motive behind the lives and how it was a bit of a modern/feminist Robinhood type of tale. While I didn't always understand the journalist's motives and decisions, I eagerly flipped each page to see where she'd take me next. I'm not sure if I'm totally out of my thriller funk but this was a lovely break from typical storylines. Will definitely be mentioning this title when anyone asks for a book rec.

4 1/2 Stars!

This book is the story of two women. They are both searching for justice. They both think their cause is just. Only one realizes that sometimes there is collateral damage when trying to accomplish a goal. The other one believes she is the collateral damage.

I was mesmerized by this book. It pulled me in and didn't let go. Kat and Meg both had been changed by events in their past . They were both equally entitled to see some kind of payback. The question is who was really at fault for the things that happened and would revenge really make them feel better or would it just add to the problem. It's fascinating to see things from differing viewpoints. It really made me think about how we often take things at face value in real life and I wondered how many times our perceptions are incorrect or not fully fleshed out.

I'm not going to tell too much about this book. I'd recommend for the reader to go in blind and enjoy the ride. I found it quite enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Julie Clark writes the best suspense books and The Lies I Tell is no different. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early release in exchange for an review.

Having loved The Last Flight I had high expectations for this latest book and I wasn’t disappointed. This was a fast paced and well written thriller. I read it in 24 hours. If you liked The Last Flight read this. Well done!

Ooh, this is a good one! I really liked it. Obviously being a con artist is a terrible thing, but is it if you’re seeking revenge. There are times when I was rooting for the con artist…I didn’t see that coming!

Overall, this is a gripping story that had me flying through the pages!

What a fantastic page turner Julie! I had a tough time putting it down when it cam time to get some sleep! I can’t wait to see what your next book is going to be. Thanks for the great book Julie!

Revenge can be sweet! I loved this book with its twists and the feeling of whiplash in not knowing who to trust. Told from a dual POV, you will get into the heads of two strong women, each with their own agenda. One is a con artist and the other an investigative reporter. It's hard not to give spoilers so I will just say run and get this book if you want to meet two women you won't soon forget.

Meg Williams went by many names, changing them when she needed to. You could call her a grifter and a con artist and she was very good at what she did. However, there was one thing about her that set her apart from others of her ilk.

Kat Roberts holds her responsible for what happened to her ten years ago. Now, they are in the same city and Kat will find a way to make her pay. She plans to expose her.

There are no stereotypes in this story. The two protagonists are vividly bought to life and readers get to know them well. Expertly plotted, the story moves at breakneck speed to a conclusion I never saw coming. Engrossing and packed with tension, this domestic thriller is well worth reading. Highly recommended!

The Lies I Tell Earns 5+/5 Scams…Intense, Engaging Female Empowerment!

Kat Roberts wanted to be a writer, yet her mother felt journalism the only real avenue. As a young reporter at the L.A. Times, she was assisting with research on the arrest of a school principal. It was then she came across the name Meg Williams. She thought the woman’s connection was pertinent and a better focus of the article, but a fateful phone, leading her to be on her own, resulted in being attacked. She set up an internet alert to inform her whenever Meg Williams popped up again in public, and after ten years, after that assault, she know where Meg will be: a fundraising event for Ron Ashton, a candidate for state senator. It’s time to expose the woman for her involvement years ago and deal with the attack the woman inadvertently caused. Will the truth of Meg’s appearance change Kat’s motivations?

Meg Williams had a rough childhood after her mother trusted the wrong man causing her mother’s despair and Meg living in her minivan. To survive she became skilled at the art of “taking advantage,” discovering her talent for a bit of innocent subterfuge and creating personas to get what she wants and needs. It led her to expose a sexual predator in honor of a high-school friend, but also putting the reporter she called in danger. For ten years she honed her skills as a grifter, a good one, with a variety of personas taking advantage of the gullible and greedy. During that time, she also planned and prepared an elaborate sting with a new target: the man who ruined her mother’s and her life, the man whose own greed has effected others, the man who needs a dose of his own medicine…candidate Ron Ashton. Will Meg succeed in her plan for revenge or has her time run out?

Brilliant! Julie Clark has taken two strong women, each with their own struggles and pains, and put them on an exciting collision course. The book is divided into sections related to present events and flashbacks with alternating first-person narratives by each of the women. The introduction in the present sets the stage, the flashback of ten years earlier provides the incidents and motivations for the plans each woman makes, and more of the present reveals truth, justice, and a way forward for both Kat and Meg. None of this, however, comes easy or absent of missteps or peril; there is a cost, but the journey is engaging and one I couldn’t put down. Clark’s writing style is entertaining, descriptive, with a realistic banter to support the complex and compelling drama. This third book in Clark’s work is definitely a major contender for my Top Reads in 2022!

4.5 Ohhhh, Really Good Stars
* * * * 1/2 Spoiler Free
I learned when I was young that trying to figure things out interested me. It may have started with the classic Nancy Drew series...Yes, dating myself! But the pleasure I felt from figuring out the clues and outcomes before the end taught me that reading these kinds of books was something special.

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark falls into this type of reading pleasure for me. Here we have a woman who experienced pain from the actions of another. This woman decides not to let this experience go and plays over the years, a waiting game.

The woman who caused this prior pain years ago has made a life of being all sorts of people with the aim to get whatever it was she wanted. She locks into your deepest desires, and your needs, and then strikes leaving the victim not knowing what hit them.

Life has finally brought these two foes on a collision course and we get to see what comes to pass. Yum.

After loving Julie Clark’s debut, The Last Flight, I couldn’t wait to get my thriller-loving hands on a copy of The Lies I Tell, and all I can really say is WOW!

If you haven’t had a chance to get your hands on a copy yet, get one ASAP. It’s that good. I loved Meg and Kat, and no spoilers, but the last sentence is quite possibly the best ending I’ve read so far this year. This is revenge at its absolute best.

Two POV’s, two women who have become friends. One a con artist that preys on men who’ve made bad decisions and the other a journalist trying to expose the con artist.

This one was so good! I couldn’t put it down. It was an adventure following the two women because you knew what was going to happen, but not exactly how. Both female characters were smart and conniving, it was fast paced, and the ending was perfect. Definitely recommend!

A huge thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! I really enjoyed this book A beautiful con artist and a beautiful reporter trying to out wit the con artist for a story. It delved into the lives of both women. The con artist, Meg ( her real name), had been literally left out on the street when she was just 17 years old by a conniving man who stole her house right from under her ailing Mother. Ever since that day she has had revenge on her mind. She has many different names and many different places to lay down her head but she always has the patience to get the con to work. She is like a con artist Robin Hood! Kat, the reporter, has an over powering mother and a fiance' who is a gambling addict. She is struggling to pay off his gambling debt and get them both out of the hole so they can start a new life debt free together. Being the reporter she is, she follows up on a story that takes her to a guy named Nate. She just wanted information but got something more. She blames Meg for calling in the lead and is out to expose her for the con artist she is. Along the way though, she becomes friends with Meg and enjoys her company. But, she is always on the look out for being conned by the con artist herself. Through this whole book you are routing for the bad guy but it is a great read.
Thanks to #netgalley, #sourcebookslandmark and @julieclarkauthor for an ARC of this book.

"The lies I tell serve a purpose, tipping karma in the right direction." WOW, just wow. What a fabulous read. It's an amazing feat, how Clark makes us sympathetic towards Meg the grifter, but you really do root for her. It was hard to put this book down, and our characters are not exactly what they seem. Highly, highly recommend!

P. S. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC.

Really interesting thriller that follows two women’s cat and mouse game as journalist Kat Robert’s tries to catch con artist Meg Williams in her own game of lies. I really enjoyed the back and forth narration between the two women as well as the glimpse into the mind of con artist - what drives someone to do this? As the true motivations for Meg’s schemes are revealed throughout the book, my loyalties kept shifting between the two ladies. It was a fun, mind-bending book!

Thanks NetGalley for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Lies I Tell is told from the dual perspectives of Meg Williams, a con artist who targets shady men, and Kat Roberts, a journalist whose career never really took off. Meg has returned to LA after 10 years, and Kat is ready to get close to Meg only to expose her and seek vengeance for Meg ruining her life a decade earlier.

I really enjoyed Julie Clark's novel, The Last Flight, and (largely) loved this book too. Surprisingly enough, I particularly liked Meg's character and found myself rooting for her, despite (or because of) all her flaws. I wanted her to succeed in her objectives and wanted to know more about her past cons. I liked Kat's character as well, but don't love stories based on misunderstandings/miscommunications, and found the blame she placed on Meg for the horrors she experienced misplaced. There's no doubt that Kat is a survivor and that what was done to her was horrific and wrong, but it was not necessarily Meg's fault. Her continual blame of Meg was frustrating at parts, but as someone who has not experienced what Kat has, I cannot judge her for how she coped with her trauma. The characters in this book are complex and layered, and I really liked reading about how Kat and Meg's relationship grew and changed over the course of the book.

The ending of this novel was fantastic, and I would recommend this to all my friends looking for a story about strong women who don't take any crap from anyone. We all need a story like that, especially now.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my free ARC!

I received an arc of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this domestic thriller. It follows two women who's lives have crossed paths in the past and in the present. Both of them are seeking justice for the wrongs done to them in the past. Kat's life was put on a path many years ago and her future was permanently altered by one brief interaction with Meg. Meg is a con artist. She carefully chooses her targets and plans out her cons. Meg never intended for Kat to be hurt during one of her "jobs", but she was an innocent who was harmed and Kat is out for revenge now that Meg has reappeared to pull her final job. Kat is a journalist and is determined to reveal Meg's true identity and uncover all of the innocent people she's conned, but as she gets to know Meg on a personal level she realizes there is more to Meg than meets the eye. Kat quickly begins questioning everything she thought she knew about Meg and her crimes and questions if her quest for justice might actually be noble.

I enjoyed the story and characters, but unlike many readers who adored the book and flew through it in a sitting or two I did not. I thought the book was well written, but I found it very straight forward for a thriller. There aren't very many surprises or big twists and reveals. As with Meg's cons, the book took time to develop so I found the pace a little on the slow side. This fit well with the plot and development of the storyline. My personal preference tends to lie with thrillers that are a little more action packed versus something like this that is a bit more slow burn.

This is the second book I’ve read of Julie Clark’s and she is definitely creeping up into my top favorite authors! Beware, if you start this book, you are not going to be able to put it down! Unfortunately I had to take a few breaks while reading (thank you, life!) but I kept thinking about the book and would get so anxious to get back to reading. The cat and mouse game between the two characters kept me on the edge of my seat, and I had to know what happened next! Solid 4/5 stars. I also recommend “The Last Flight” by the same author!

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC.

I absolutely loved Julie Clark’s The Last Flight and was wondering if she could write another amazing book again. Well she can! Meg had her childhood home swindled from her and her Mom when she was just a teenager. They were kicked out and homeless because of her Moms boyfriend’s schemes. Meg never forgot about this and vowed to one day get even. Kat, a reporter, was hurt by one of Megs revenge schemes and wanted to tell the world about Meg and her schemes. But along the way, they became friends, as close to friends as Meg would allow.
I was kept in my toes trying to guess the next turn or twist in the book and like Julie’s other books, I don’t figure it out until the end! Definitely worth the read.

Another solid thriller by Julie Clark. I loved the cat and mouse game between Kat and Meg... a fast and compulsive read, it was hard to put down. The author did a fantastic job of alternating point of views and timelines to bring together a fluid and consise adventure. Reviewing thrillers and mysterious can be tricky because you never want to give spoilers .. so with that being said if you loved The Last Flight, Julie Clark's follow up novel is a must read.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.