Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Julie Clark's newest thriller, The Lies I Tell. It takes an amazing storyteller to create complicated characters like Kat and Meg, two women who have been burned in the past and decide to take justice - or revenge - into their own hands.

Kat is a reporter who ended up in a dangerous, life-changing situation after following a lead years before. She has never forgiven the informant who gave her the tip that brought her career to a crashing halt. Now she is a journalist writing top ten lists and searching for a way to expose Meg Williams for the con artist and fraudster that she knows her to be. Kat befriends Meg against the advice of her boyfriend Scott, a recovering gambling addict and detective who thinks that Kat is in way over her head.

Meg is a real estate agent/con artist who has traveled far and wide with the money that she has "earned" from scamming unsuspecting men. You would think that Meg would be unlikeable to say the least, but Clark makes it impossible to root against Meg, especially as we learn the motivations behind her inspired - and illegal- activity.

Get ready to stay up all night with some of the strongest female characters you'll ever meet. Five stars for this empowering, engaging new novel by master storyteller Julie Clark.

Oh, this is sooo good. The story revolves around two women, becoming “friends” each with an ulterior motive. One a con artist, the other, the reporter planning to expose the big con. The characters are so subtly drawn and nuanced that the reader is empathetic to both.

I found myself totally engrossed in their stories. Meg and Kat are both fascinating characters. A subplot revolves around Kat’s fiancée, a compulsive gambler. I loved the character of the mark, with the reasoning selecting him becomes clear. Gradually, the reader’s sympathy is skewed in unexpected ways.

For those of us who loved her first novel, this one is even better! Don’t miss it and put it on your book club summer reading list. I think this is Avery satisfying book which is about not only the obvious, but also about women’s issues and empowerment.

Thank you Netgalley, loved this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the early copy of The Lies I Tell.

I absolutely loved The Last Flight by this author, so when I saw this ARC is available for request I was so excited.

I did not love The Lies I Tell as much as the previous book. I think there were too many stories within the main story, being told. There was too much confusing details when it came to how Meg was conning the men with the buying and selling of properties. The author lost me a few times. I’m sure not everyone who reads this book will have knowledge how the real estate business works.

I wasn’t a fan of Kat’s character. She seemed so lost and never quite figured out what she wanted to do with the information she had. She was going in circles the entire time and never took any kind of action until the very end.

Scott’s character was useless. I was hoping the author would have expanded more on his profession and how he can help Kat with her research on Meg, but all he did was lie and betray Kat. I don’t even understand why he was following Meg, because that particular story line didn’t go anywhere.

There was not one single decent male in this book. The one and only from early in the book, Meg cut all ties with.

This book didn’t hit the mark for me.

QUICK TAKE: I might have enjoyed this book more than Clark's previous book, THE LAST FLIGHT (which is an excellent thriller, btw). I really enjoyed the cat-and-mouse dynamic between the two female characters at the center, and thought this was a fun, twisty, soapy suspense story about women taking down very bad, no good men. If i had any issues, I wish there were some higher stakes as at no point was I concerned Meg wasn't going to pull off her plan, but it's a small quibble. Highly recommend!