3.5 what a Threat Stars
* * * 1/2 Spoiler Free
I have had a strong history with Taryn Fisher. I loved her Love Me with Lies series. I couldn't get enough. This new book had a different feel and it was intriguing. The main character had a very complicated backstory and we are pulled in.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. I absolutely love every Tarryn Fisher book I’ve ever read. She does a great job of integrating twists you don’t see coming, and ending chapters on cliffhangers. That being said, this one fell flat for me. I really liked the dual timelines, and how they eventually crossed over. However, I never felt like there was enough of a plot for me to keep wanting to read. There were things the characters talked about so casually as if it was mentioned before, or should have been implied, which surprised me. I had such high hopes and just didn’t end up loving it like I wanted to.

A psychological thriller with a past vs present dialogue. I got a different vibe out of this novel then Taryns other work.
Thanks NetGalley!

Thank you @graydonhousebooks and @netgalley for my eArc.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas! Well, until your past comes back to haunt you. I was heavily invested in the dual timelines; present day and past (compound days). Has anyone seen the TV show Waco (you know, with Tim Riggins from FNL)? If so, you will enjoy the compound timeline more. Her current day timeline was hard to adjust to. I just couldn’t understand how a character so strong and brave could even entertain these fake group of girls; yet alone go to Vegas on a girls trip with them. BUT I understand Rainy’s need for creating “normal” connections and relationships in order to heal from her trauma. Towards the end of the book these two timelines come to an intersection; this is where it fell a little flat for me. I think if Fisher would’ve left one person out and skipped right to the big reveal – it would’ve been EPIC! Without giving anything away, I did find some poetic justice and thrived on it.

Overall, an alright book but highly recommend for a great summer read. It is fast-paced and entertaining!

I’ll start off by saying that if you pick up a Tarryn Fisher novel, you won’t be disappointed. You will be creeped out, uncomfortable, and somewhat scared.

Her latest thriller checked all those boxes for me! I was hooked from the start, wondering what Rainy was hiding, and realizing she was a badass by the end!

The cult vibes are creepy enough to get you out of any reading slump. I’m still thinking about this one weeks later. A great thriller that I highly recommend!

I’ve never read a book by Tarryn Fisher, but this book drew me in with the blurb and the cover. While it was not what I was expecting, I had a good time being surprised by it. I’m looking forward to reading more from her!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Graydon House Books, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Tarry Fisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub date: 4/26/22

Rainy joins an unexpected girl’s trip to Vegas. After a wild night, her friend Braithe never returns. She receives a text message saying they have her, but knows that she is the one they want.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. I was not expecting this to be such a culty and wild ride. The beginning was slow and jumping from past to present which made it such a mystery. Around halfway through, it picked up and got me flying through it with all the action! I really liked the strong female lead in this one and the plot centering on her past and history of being part of a cult. This was an intriguing theme to me, as I’ve never read a book with such storylines. I have however, watched a lot of shows and documentaries on it. Which made me enjoy this book a lot more!

Recommending this for fans of cults and thrillers!

I always enjoy crawling inside Tarryn's genius mind and riding the rollercoaster of twists and turns.

An Honest Lie was a page-turner. I was hoping for a cameo of Muslim Black somewhere in the story. I'm still a little fascinated by him.

This story is told in the past and present with the main character, Rainy (Summer) boldly taking us on her badass journey and making us nervous.

I enjoyed the story and couldn't put it down once I started.

Wow, this is the type of girls’ weekend I would be terrified to embark on (but love to read about)! A absolute A plus for me!

This will be posted on my Goodreads page today 4/26/2022.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this twisty book!

I really enjoyed this book. It was very quick to read and I did not want to put it down. I liked Rainy - I thought Fisher did a good job of making her wary/suspicious without it being outlandish or making Rainy unlikable for it

I thought the cult stuff was the more interesting part of this book. There are still a bits of it all that doesn't make sense to me (or just were overall introduced too late in the story for them to mean much). I wish this aspect was explored more than anything else.

On the opposite end, I did not like the parts with "the girls." I found them all annoying and their actions ridiculous for women their age. It seemed very cult-ish (which if this was Fisher's goal, well done!). I found myself wanting to go back to the "Then" parts rather than wanting to read the "Now" ones.

Overall 4 out of 5 stars!!

Thank you to @graydonhousebooks @htpbooks @netgalley for my gifted eARC of “An Honest Lie.”⁣
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I started this one in a weird place: I loved “The Wives” by this author … and absolutely despised “The Wrong Family.” I realized I was putting a lot of pressure on this book to live up to “The Wives,” which really isn’t fair. I got stuck in the middle of this one just wanting something to happen, but I think if you go in knowing this is a slow burn, you’ll really enjoy it. ⁣
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This is the third cult thriller I’ve read this year, and I think by nature their pacing is a little more even than, say, more murder-y thrillers. I highly recommend this one if you go in knowing it takes a bit of patience up front — but the pay off is worth it. ⁣
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Plot: “Lorraine—“Rainy”—lives at the top of Tiger Mountain. Remote, moody, cloistered in pine trees and fog, it’s a sanctuary, a new life. She can hide from the disturbing past she wants to forget.⁣
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“When Rainy reluctantly agrees to a girls’ weekend in Vegas, she’s prepared for an exhausting parade of shots and slot machines. But after a wild night, her friend Braithe doesn’t come back to the hotel room.⁣
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“And then Rainy gets the text message, sent from Braithe’s phone: someone has her. But Rainy is who they really want, and Rainy knows why.⁣
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“What follows is a twisted, shocking journey on the knife-edge of life and death. If she wants to save Braithe—and herself—the only way is to step back into the past.”

This is such an amazing and unputdownable read! I went into it completely blind and it was such a wild ride, that had my anxiety so high I couldn’t stop until I reached that final page.

The story toggles between past and present and follows Rainy who moved to tiger mountain to be with her boyfriend Grant, hiding from a past she wants to forget. And summer a teenage girl who moves to a commune with her mother after her fathers death. When Rainy reluctantly agrees to a girls trip to Vegas, but when her friend is kidnapped she’s forced to face a past she’s long been hiding from.

I don’t want to say too much because going into this book knowing very little makes it so much more thrilling. I love the way Tarryn writes her thrillers, they are never typical and always have me furiously turning pages, just needing to find out what happens next. I loved all of the unique women in this novel, Tarryn does an amazing job of showing their strengths. Rainy is such a strong character and I loved every second of reading about her.

An Honest Lie is an unputdownable thriller that will have you frantically turning pages wanting to find out what happens next, and I can’t recommend it enough.

As with The Wrong Family, the beginning of the book is what I felt I had to push through to keep reading. I'm not a fan of dual timelines, and it's what she seems to love to write. If you keep going past the confusion, you start to understand the story and then it takes this twisted spot inside your brain. You go on this wild, page turning ride of pain and suffering mixed with wanting a fairytale ending, and BAM! I tell you, when I read that last paragraph, I got choked up!!! Yup, I'm psycho or something, but I literally felt the same thing Summer/Rainy felt.
So in the end, I loved the story!
The beginning is why it's not 5 stars from me. Still, I urge you to read it! It's awesome!
4.5/5

This book was definitely not what I was expecting. But I did really enjoy it.
Told in alternating timelines: then (Summer) and now (Rainy). The setting of Summer’s past definitively had me sitting on the edge of my seat more than the present with Rainy. Summer grew up with some deeply disturbing situations as she tells her story living in a compound (cult). Once Summer was able to escape the compound, she reinvents herself as Rainy. Rainy is a bada$$ heroine. The last 40% of the book was fast paced as Rainy decided to take her revenge with her dark and hidden past once and for all.
This book brings the past and present together in a thrilling finale but I did feel it was a little incoherent and unbelievable. It left some holes that needed to be filled. I was yarning for more as I had a few more questions that was left unanswered due to the lack of information

Overall, I would Recommend this one if you enjoy a cult like thrillers or books exploring a more darker dynamic.

4.5 Stars

An Honest Lie is proof that I, a strictly 1st person POV romance reader, will read absolutely anything that Tarryn Fisher writes. And, as usual, she has delivered something I normally wouldn't give a second look to and made me love it.

This story is told in two parts - past and present - simultaneously but weaved so seamlessly that I was never confused or missed a beat. Everything about this storyline is addicting, and I found myself unable to put it down once I started. And as someone who struggles with reading books from 3rd person point of view, Rainy's story was written in such a way that I barely even noticed. It will keep you on the edge of your seat, with twists and surprises popping up from beginning to end.

Tarryn Fisher's incredible talent shines throughout An Honest Lie, and I swear I fall more in love with her writing with each book she releases. And while I will always wish for more romance in her stories, I will recommend each and every one of them over and over.

“'𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒌𝒂𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒘' - 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆’𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅. 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒌𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏.”

In a year filled with books involving cults, An Honest Lie was one I knew I needed to read, having loved Tarryn Fisher’s The Wife and enjoyed The Wrong Family.

Fisher’s ability to weave a page turning tale continues to be on display in this book; I loved the back and forth past and present timelines. Summer’s story of being captivated by Tored as a teenager, being sucked into the cult, and then trying to escape with her mother was enthralling. Sara and Summer’s friendship in such a weird environment was a highlight too. I also really liked the part of the present timeline where we get to see Rainy’s resilience and how she was coping with her past. I did find it harder to connect to the present storyline; it was hard to see the women as friends or even to really understand why Rainy spent time with most of them. The insecurities that Rainy felt with her boyfriend, Grant, didn’t always seem believable either (maybe partly because he was such an ‘outside’ character for most of the narrative). He really gave no reason for Rainy to not believe in his love for her, but perhaps that was to show how she was still affected by the trauma of her youth and how she blindly trusted a man who betrayed her family so deeply. The last third missed out on some of the earlier tension and stretched believability but the ending showdown was satisfying; without giving anything away, it definitely felt like a full circle justice moment.

At its core, An Honest Lie is about women and the misogyny they face in the world, and the lengths women go to cope. Fisher continues to write page turning stories, even if everything didn’t quite hit the mark. Thanks to Graydon House and NetGalley for the ARC!

4 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down! Though I must say I think I enjoyed the backstory a little more than the present.

Rainy is an artist living with her boyfriend, Grant, on Tiger Mountain. The Tiger Mountain wives invite Rainy on a girl's trip to Vegas but Rainy has a past no one knows about, including Grant. Deciding to put the past behind her, she decides to go.

Summer is 13 when her dad dies and her mom moves her to a small compound outside of Vegas. Her mom's childhood friend is willing to take them in and give them a fresh start. What her mom doesn't realize is her friend is running a cult.

When Rainy's past catches up to her in Vegas, she will need to confront her demons in order to move forward.

Alright, this is such a tough one for me to review. I’m always immediately intrigued by a cult plot and when I started this, I was completely absorbed and began devouring it! I finished it in almost one sitting, but I felt like I was just waiting for some jaw dropping Tarryn Fisher twist and felt the last 100 pages and the ending just dragged on. I essentially absolutely loved it, until I didn’t.

It’s a tense psychological thriller with compelling alternating timelines.

Overall I still found this one enjoyable as I’m fascinated by cults but unfortunately had such high expectations so it missed the mark a little. I will however continue reading more from Fisher and interested to see what she does next!

3.5 stars rounded to 4 for goodreads

Wow, what a win! Tarryn Fisher is an excellent writer. I really loved the contrast between the two cities (Vegas and Seattle), the themes, and the main character. I felt she was the perfect amount of unreliable. This will be a hit.

The back cover description does not do this book justice. It is hard to discuss this book without spoiling anything in defense of whoever wrote the summary. I'll try to be general; I give An Honest Lie a solid four stars. This was a good one and a perfect read for summer. The ideal companion for a girls' trip, especially if you're headed to Vegas!

I received an advanced copy of An Honest Lie from Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing in exchange for this honest review.

This book was a slow start for me. It took me several times to sit down reading a chapter here and there until I was invested in it. The story starts slow as we meet Rainey, her boyfriend, and this community in the mountains. The crew they hang out with is interconnected through childhood and work. The wives are grown-up mean girls creating Instagram-worthy moments. So Rainey is reluctant when they invite her on a girls' Vegas trip. Even though she makes multiple attempts to decline the invitation gracefully, it turns out her boyfriend has already made the arrangements for her to go. By then, it's too late to tell him the truth about her childhood finally and how she grew up in a cult.

Rainey packs up and joins the women with an attitude to make the best of the weekend and, most importantly, get through it. At first, things are going well, but then things take a strange turn, and no one will tell her what's going on. Then Rainey gets a text from a woman on the trip; except it's not her, it's her kidnapper. And Rainey is who they really want.

The friends are strange, and the situations are frustrating, but the story falls into place once the protagonist takes control. Once I got to the book's second half, I was flying through it to connect all the dots. Day jumps back and forth through time to tell a heartbreaking mother-daughter story and the strength that comes from pain. This is the first book I've read from Tarryn Fisher, and I definitely plan to pick up more titles from this author.

An Honest Lie was an absolutely astonishing read. The story takes you on a wild ride of a mother and daughter stuck inside a seemingly innocuous organization that is nothing like what it seems. I will say thought that I'm giving this read four stars instead of five, only because the story was amazing- the ending felt rushed and fell kind of flat. I felt like there were alot of lose ends, and roads that could have been taken to add some oomph to the overall story. Either way, it was a great read.