Thank you @graydonhousebooks @htpbooks @netgalley for my review copy!

📖Rainy gets talked into a girl’s trip to Vegas with a group of girlfriends she doesn’t know very well. When secrets are revealed, Rainy’s past comes back with a vengeance.

💭I couldn’t put this thriller down. I love Fisher’s books because they’re twisted and dark and oh so binge worthy. I loved the dual timelines and the way the past and the present were revealed. It kept me turning the pages, and I was equally interested in both timelines. If you’re a fan of dark thrillers, make sure to preorder this one!

✍️How I rated other books from this author:
Atheists Who Kneel and Pray 3⭐️
The Wrong Family 3.5⭐️
The Wives 5⭐️
I Could Be a Better You 5⭐️

What a suspenseful read! I saw someone describe this as a “soapy mystery” on Goodreads and I think that fits it to a tee. It’s definitely got soap opera vibes! Rainy was an intriguing and sympathetic character. The dual timelines really hindered this book - they basically served to break up the drama and I was more interested in Rainy’s youth with the Vegas storyline seemingly out of place. The ending was a bit messy but it was fun nonetheless.

𝐀𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 ✈️

𝔸𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣: @tarrynfisher
ℙ𝕦𝕓 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕖: April 26th 2022
𝔾𝕖𝕟𝕣𝕖: Mystery/Thriller/General Fiction

4.25 / 5⭐️

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 💭:
This is my third Tarryn Fisher book - and I am a Tarryn Fisher fan.

This book has Tarryn's signature writing, but the suspense in this one really reeled me in. I needed to know what the HECK was happening. I am a sucker for books about cults and this story was a crazy ride!

The book goes back and fourth between now and then (past & present) and really showcases strong women characters in both timelines.

I WAS A FAN OF THIS BOOK!

Thank you @netgalley & @harlequinbooks for this ARC of #AnHonestLie #Netgalley #HarleQuinBooks

An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher is a psychological thriller about an artist whose dark and twisted past comes to light during a girl’s trip to Vegas.

Present day is told from the POV of Rainy, an artist from New York City who moved to Washington with her boyfriend Grant. To please Grant she begrudgingly joins a group of female friends, known as The Tiger Mountain group. These cutthroat friends invite Rainy to a weekend girls trip to Vegas, she cringes but gives in even though she knows there’s a chance that her secretive past could be exposed.

Then chapters are told from Summer’s POV, a 13 year old girl, who is mourning the loss of her father when her mother makes the decision to move to a cult run by her childhood friend, Taured. Their life in the cult is one filled with terror and abuse.

Rainy’s chapters were truthfully a bit slow, and when switching back to her after a Summer chapter it killed the momentum at times. Her chapters were filled mostly with her dealing with the overbearing and bitchy “friends” of hers, until a certain point in the Vegas trip where it gets a little crazy.

Where Rainy’s chapters could be slow, Summer’s chapters were filled with chaos and terror that you could feel as you read. Her chapters kept me engaged, and pushed me to read through Rainy’s because I wanted to see how they were going to connect.

All in all this was not a bad book, I just suffered from not being fully invested in reading anything at the moment. Summer’s chapters are what really kept me going with this book, but I also was dying to see how Rainy was going to have to deal with her past catching up in Vegas. This was my first Tarryn book after following her on Instagram for years and always wanting to pick up one of her books, but never being in the mood or just intimidated from knowing how much friends around me enjoyed her books. I now have even more motivation to read her other books over the rest of the year.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ebook ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Compelling, intriguing and unputdownable. 3 words to describe An Honest Lie. If I wasn’t reading An Honest Lie I was thinking about it. Delving into 2 timelines, now and then, I couldn’t decide which timeline fascinated me more. The then time period had all the information I needed to know to fully understand the now period but the now period was surrounded in so much mystery and secret that I just needed to know what was happening! I loved the cult vibes; cults have always interested me in how they work and what happens so this was a happy surprise. I went in completely blind and applied for this ARC because I love Tarryn’s work. And I wasn’t disappointed.

I really liked this at first. Rainy is a fun, likeable character, and her interactions with some of the women are really entertaining. The flashbacks to her childhood are also fascinating and horrifying, and keep the book moving quickly.
*
Unfortunately the last 75 pages or so completely fell apart for me. Rainy makes some really stupid choices that have no logic behind them, there were a lot of plotholes, and red herrings brought up that didn't end up making any sense in retrospect.
*
I'm disappointed because I think it had a lot of potential, and I really enjoyed the characters and some of the twists, so hopefully some of the inconsistencies are addressed by the final version.

I enjoyed this dual timeline revenge thriller featuring a woman trying to forget her past trauma. Summer and her mother sought refuge in cult thinking there were worst ways to live - boy were they wrong. Fast forward to when Summer is now an adult going by the name Rainy and starting over in a new city, her boyfriend tries to get her to make friends with the wives and girlfriends of his friends. A wild weekend in Vegas ends up triggering her past but she uses the opportunity to get revenge on her mother's killer. Twisty and edge of your seat thrills. This was an easy read that was hard to put down. Add it to the list of great cult thrillers out this year. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy!

Secrets and lies. Of course. There has to be when you spent your formative years in a cult and you have never known quite how to bring that into your new life. This book was sometimes frustrating. I wanted to scream, "These people are not your friends. No one who loved you would force you to be with these people." There was a little too much time spent changing for others, in and out of cults. Everyone was very manipulative and quite bullying. This was a quick read with fast paced action and a main character you may find frustrating in her own weaknesses. Still, enjoy.

As a huge lover of cult books, this one was a no from me. I didn't feel like the storylines felt very cohesive and then when you FINALLY figure out how they overlap, it almost felt like too much explanation making the ending feel brutally long.

Unfortunately, this will not be a favorite. But I can't stay away from Fisher so I know I'll be back for the next one.

Two cult books in a row! This always happens to me. If I read a book about a group of friends in a remote location where one turns up dead, I'll inevitably read another right after. Same thing with books that take place in winter snowstorms. Anyway, this was my second cult book, and while I liked the other one a bit better (I'll Be You), I loved this one too. Fair warning, the plotting is over the top and will require a suspension of belief, but if you can just relax into it, I promise you a fun read.

An Honest Lie is about a woman named Rainy, an artist, who moves from NYC to Tiger Mountain in Washington where her fiancé, Grant, is from and where many of his best friends live. Grant really wants Rainy to get to know his friends so he is constantly pushing her to join the other wives when they have their regular happy hours. When they invite her to a girls' weekend in Vegas, Rainy says 'NO.' However, when she gets home, she discovers that Grant knew all about the weekend and had already accepted on Rainy's behalf. Wouldn't have stopped me, but Rainy reluctantly agrees to go. Her hesitance is something she's never explained to Grant or anyone else. When Rainy was 13, her mother dragged her to a commune-type place that is run by a guy she knew years ago. Rainy and her mom are flat broke with no place to go, but her mother insists that their stay will just be temporary. This "commune" is on the outskirts of Vegas and is a place that haunts Rainy's nightmares.

Enter the cult portion of the novel for that's what this commune is really all about. Rainy loves it at first, but soon she's being separated from her mother and falls under the leader's spell. Everything obviously spirals out of control until Rainy is finally able to escape. Now with this girls' trip to Vegas, all the memories come flooding back. What's worse, the other women on the trip are treating her strangely, and Rainy is miserable. She's about to leave for home when she gets a text telling her that Braithe, the leader of the women's group, has been kidnapped and will be killed unless Rainy can save her. Given their location, Rainy is pretty sure this all relates back to the cult, and even though she doesn't like Braithe at all, Rainy feels she needs to stay and save her.

The commune years had me on the edge of my seat, and the action of the present was fast paced. Rainy is a great, strong character, and author Tarryn Fisher did a terrific job keeping the action moving and exciting. If you're in the mood for an escape from real life for a little while, this is a great book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Tarryn Fisher, and Harlequin Books for providing me an eGalley in exchange for posting an honest review.

Tarryn Fisher's latest thriller combines a girl's trip to Vegas with a religious cult. Unfortunately I felt a strong disconnect between the flashback POV and the present day POV and the end of the story just didn't really come together for me. I've really enjoyed Fisher's past books, but this just wasn't a favorite for me. I'll still be excited to read what she comes out with next!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader digital copy of this book. Taryn Fisher rarely disappoints. Another great thriller that leaves the reader turning pages quickly. I enjoyed the back and forth chapters of different time periods and narrators. The plot line is very similar to other books. If it were a bit more original of a story, it would have been a 5 star read.

Rainy has escaped a gruelling past and is trying to build a new life for herself. When she starts to get weird texts from her new “friend” Braithe, she is quickly thrown back into her past. She fights to uncover things she has left forgotten and is forced to fall back into her past in order to survive.
A suspenseful read. Recommended for all who enjoy his genre.

* I received this book from NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House in exchange for my honest review

Tarryn Fisher once again delivers a story that has yet to be told. She is a genre of her own. The concept of honest lie is one I have yet to see. Tarryn busted into a genre that can be overly saturated, and stands out. Her story telling is truly one of a kind and Honest Lie will keep readers up all night turning every page.

First off, thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this digital ARC.

While I've not read any of Tarryn Fisher's work prior to this book, I had heard nothing by great things about her and her writing! This book is told between two timelines, which can sometimes been a bit to follow but I did enjoy these intertwining perspectives. this book didn’t have me flipping the pages and gasping but it was a fast paced which is my preferred type of book vs a slow burner. It was an entertaining thriller that intertwines family, cults and relationships within the dual timeline perspective. Overall, not my favourite from from 2022 so far but still one that I would recommend and enough for me to grab the book everyone raves about (the wives)

Haven’t read a book in one sitting in a long time! This one kept me always wanting to know what was going to happen next.

Told between alternating time lines, past and present, Rainy Ives is trying to live with the trauma of spending her childhood in a cult where she was tortured and brainwashed. Her present life takes her back to where it started and she has to rely on her instincts in order to save herself and others.

I personally really like reading about cults, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. You could really sympathize with Rainy as she recounted her time in the compound. Also, didn’t absolutely hate any of the characters. It was fast paced, short chapters, and an easy read. This is the second book of Tarryn Fisher that I’ve read and I look forward to reading more from them. I give this one a 4/5.

Thank you @netgalley for an advanced ARC in exchange for an honest review. An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher will be available on April 26, 2022!

In my opinion, this is not the worst Tarryn Fisher I've read but it's close. It is by far the most disappointing.

Her plotlines read louder than her plot.

Like a literary siren, she draws me in, drowning me in the deep dark sea of nothingness.

In this book, we follow Rainey, who in the opening pages is being encouraged by her partner to join his friends for a weekend away. Peril ensues.

Interwoven between the scenes of this weekend of danger are flashbacks to when Rainey was younger. A lot of thrillers are doing this dual timeline pov and it might be time to move on to something else. There's a craft to bringing the timelines together and still having a reader at the end that cares. I'm not sure it was successful on either the individual timelines or the summary.

But I can't ruin this book for the lot so this one lands around the middle. I enjoyed parts of it and other parts felt overwritten. I think we could eliminate some of the persuading chunks of the book and live more in the action parts, which is what the book promised.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House, and Netgalley for this advanced copy!

Out April 26th

An Honest Lie...⭐️⭐️

Unfortunately I did not like this one. The two storylines felt weirdly forced together and the end was just too far fetched for my taste. I liked the storylines separately but they felt disconnected like I was reading two different books. This also was nothing like I thought it would be, I wish they’d mentioned the back story a bit more in the synopsis.

Pub date: 4/26/22
Genre: thriller
In one sentence: Rainy has buried her dark past - but a girls trip to Las Vegas will unearth her hidden secrets.

This book was much darker than I expected, especially in the past timeline. Rainy grew up in a very controlling environments, and we get flashbacks to her childhood abuse. These scenes were hard for me to read, and they didn't fit as well with the present timeline as I would have liked. Sometimes it felt like I was reading two separate books, rather than two timelines of one book. The story's conclusion also disappointed me - it felt very over the top and unrealistic.

If you like really dark thrillers, this may be a winner for you!

Thank you to Graydon House/Harlequin for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An Honest Lie is a psychological thriller about Rainy who has recently moved from New York to Washington for her boyfriend Grant. As she is adjusting, Grant pushes Rainy to join an all-girls group for a weekend away in Vegas. As Rainy is forced to look back at her past in a cult, secrets, and mysteries arise when one of the girls in the group goes missing.

The story was told through the then and now. I found myself more encaptivated by Rainy's past. I enjoyed reading those chapters but had a harder time with the now. I think the book would have been more promising by just sticking with the past. There was no real tie-in to the present and it felt like the book was doing too much. While I didn't love this book, I have enjoyed much of her writing in the past and will continue to read her future books as they come out.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.