Oof. I really, really struggled with this one. I just couldn’t get interested in it, no matter how hard I tried. I didn’t enjoy the characters and was not invested in the story. The plot feels too convoluted and typical for this genre. Truthfully, I was just bored and was ready for it to be over. I’m sorry to say, I didn’t love this like I had hoped.

I am floored by this book! I’ll admit, it started off great and then mid way slowed down and then got dramatic around the 75% mark. The ending was ahhmazing!

Yara is coming home to throw her parents an Anniversary party. Yara is a famous tv series writer who suffers from awful asthma. While digging for mementos and other things in the attic, to display for the party, she starts finding little clues. Then her cousin is murdered, killed after trying to warn Yaya is something is astray. That’s when all hell breaks loose and Yara’s health takes a detour. Who are the people in her life, really?

I enjoyed this read, minus the slow downs, when it picked up, it kept up and kept on going. It had great details, mystery and suspense. It was easy to read and characters were well described and detailed. The finale was perfect and well written. Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy! Five star read!

We Lie Here is the newest novel by @rhowzellhall and it’s another must read thriller! This thriller is full of family drama as main character, Yara returns to her hometown to throw her parents an anniversary party. However, soon after returning to town an estranged cousin is murdered and Yara has strange things begin to happen to her. This book is full of evil and shocking twists. I recommend reading this novel, as well as “And Now She’s Gone” and “These Toxic Things.”

Thank you @netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

This one was a wild ass ride and I didn’t know what was going to happen. So many twists, unreliable characters, gaslighting. We lie here is a fantastically twisted journey into the world of those that won’t rest until they get what they want.

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. However, the writing was just so all over the place and the characters unlikeable to the extent that I found myself picking this up only to read before bed because I knew it would put me to sleep. Which was a real shame because the premise of this one was SO GOOD.

To begin with, the main character is.... something. She repeatedly reaches into her purse to touch her inhaler (she has bad asthma) in order to reassure herself that it's there, only to go to check into her hotel and start to have an attack. But suddenly, the inhaler is not only NOT in her bag, but she finds it in between the seats along with her boyfriend's credit card that she SWORE she gave back to him. She also details how she "lost" very important cards for work but found them on top of her fridge later.

Now I get being absent-minded, but Yara goes above and beyond, as evidenced later on when she sees a collections notice in her name (that was delivered to her parent's house), but somehow COMPLETELY FORGOT that she told her mother to go ahead and take out a $10,000 loan in HER NAME and SIGN HER NAME to the paperwork so her YOUNGER SISTER could go to college. Even though Yara was already helping to pay for Dom's tuition.

When the mother shows the daughter text messages that seem to confirm this conversation took place, Yara can't stop thinking about it but says, "mom sure showed those receipts with the saved texts."

And that was another issue I had with this one, although I willingly admit this is more of a personal pet peeve, so other readers may not take issue with it. Common slang, including words like woke, bougie & ain't, are commonly used, and the characters in question are 19 and 21, respectively. While this may be how some people talk, it repeatedly took me out of the story.

Sadly, the rest of this one wasn't any better. I see what the author was trying to do, but there was so much detail (often repetitive) that I no longer cared about the characters or what happened to them when we got to the ending.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

This was my first dive into Hall’s work and I fell in love with her storytelling! This is a very well crafted slow burn mystery that spends a lot of its time exploring our main character’s family dynamics and drama

I wanted to love this but I really didn’t enjoy it. I just wasn’t vibing with it. I loved the synopsis and just disappointed. I finished the book because I wanted to follow it through. I’ve read previous books by this author and really enjoyed them. This one just wasn’t for me.

WE LIE HERE is a brand new thriller out this month from @rhowzellhall. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and @amazonpublishing for a copy of the e-ARC.

Yara is hosting a 20th Anniversary party for her parents in her hometown of Palmdale, CA. A few months into being nicotine free, she is determined to stay at a hotel to escape the inevitable smoke clouds from her family members not to mention giving her some space from her family dynamics even though she knows her mother will guilt her into staying at their home.

When Yara's second cousin Felicia shows up demanding her time and telling Yara that she has information that will "change her life", Yara brushes her off assuming she is just eager for a party invite. However, when Felicia's car is found at Lake Palmdale and her body is retrieved from the waters, she starts to worry about Felicia's urgency and whether or not there really is a secret she needs to know about. She starts to investigate the history of her family and is met with slashed tires and shadowing figures. Who is following her and who killed Felicia?

This was my first Rachel Howzell Hall book and I have been wanting to read her work for some time. The atmosphere was palpable as Yara's asthma and anxiety were both riled up by the suffocating nature and stressful relationship with her family members. Family can be complicated and this book did a great job of portraying how you can love people and still not get along with them all the time.

I was particularly interested in Yara's relationship to her family members as they clearly tiptoed around family secrets and walked on egg shells to please the matriarch of the family. While somewhat predictable from the outset, I found myself wanting to read more and find out what the secret was that Felica tried to tell Yara.

I would say to read this one if you like complicated family drama/secrets, fast-paced story telling, novice investigators and cut-throat rivalries.

I will certainly be picking up more of RHH's work when I am in the mood for a thriller as I really enjoyed her style!

Who is an author that is new to you that you recently that you enjoyed?


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Such a wild ride!

Girl???? Lmao

I'm unsure what to rate We Lie Here. On one hand I loved it because it was crazy and over the top but at the same time I hate it because it was crazy and over the top🧍🏾‍♂️

Things I liked about the book:
- it was engaging, this is one of those stories that would translate well to film.
- short chapters and it was well paced.

Things I didn't enjoy:
- how long the book was, a vast majority of the chapters could have been edited out.
- I know this is a thriller and at times you don't get much fleshed out characters but I felt like I didn't know enough about any of these characters to truly understand their motivations... idk if that makes sense but yea.


This book is out July 12, 2022. eARC provided by Netgalley in exchange of a honest review

Rachel Howzell Hall is an author that I will keep adding to my TBR. We Lie Here was not my favorite of hers that I have read thus far, but I did like it. Yara Gibson is heading back to her hometown to plan and host an anniversary party for her parents. She isn’t looking forward to it because she knows she will have to deal with family drama as well as dust storms that kick up her asthma and anxiety. Yara receives a text that says someone has information for her that will change her life. After telling this person off, Yara is still intrigued enough to do investigating on her own. But does she want to know the secrets she is about to reveal? The writing of this one seemed a little bit disjointed somehow. While everything did connect in the end, as I was reading I found myself a little confused. The ending is a tiny bit of a shock which made up for the rest of the story, and while I am glad I finished out the story, it was a little bit underwhelming.
Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas&Mercer for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

We Lie Here is one of the most twisting and turning mysteries I can recall reading. With plenty of family drama, suspenseful action, and misdirection... any mystery or crime fan should pick this up instantly.

When nothing is as it seems, wouldn’t it be nice to at least trust your own recollections? Yara knew she didn’t want to visit her hometown, but the longer she’s there, the more reasons she has to leave ASAP.

When Yara goes back to her hometown to oversee the last week of planning and putting on the biggest party the community has ever seen for her popular parents’ anniversary, she thinks that dealing with her mother will be the most stressful aspect. Within the first day, she finds so much more to worry about.

An old friend of her mother insists she has secrets about her family that Yara needs to know, but she acts pretty sketchy the whole time she tries to convince Yara to meet her to learn more. Yara doesn’t have to worry whether or not to trust the friend when the friend turns up dead soon after talking to Yara.

Yara should just be dealing with the party, but instead she has her severe asthma, threats with absolutely no clue where they’re coming from, and an apparent murderer on the loose. While some of it was guessable part way through, how it all fit together wasn’t revealed until the end of the book. Overall, I’d give this book 3 out of 5 stars. The book was an interesting combination of an unreliable narrator, with an unexpected mystery.

We Lie Here, by Rachel Howell Hall, is a family based suspense novel. I thought the writing was done well and kept the story moving. While I liked the main character, I hated how she kept giving in to her toxic mother even though she seemed to know how unhealthy it was for herself. As a Mom and Nana, I really just wanted to slap the narcissism out of "Queen Bee" (mom). Otherwise, I enjoyed the story and got caught up in all the action. There's a little bit of romance but it's not the main storyline.
Yara Gibson cannot stand her hometown. So when she heads to Palmdale, California, it's definitely not for pleasure. But she wants to give her parents an amazing 20th anniversary celebration. All seems to be going according to her plan. Then she randomly gets a bizarre text from an unfamiliar number. Later on a woman claiming to be her cousin, Felicia, shows up at her hotel and demands that Yara listen to her. Now she's too shaken up to just ignore the weird confrontation.
When Felicia turns up dead the next day and has left Yara some very interesting clues, she feels compelled to find out exactly what happened. But now she's realizing that her family has a lot of secrets and one of them doesn't want any of those secrets to come to light.

This one is perfect for those who are interested in a slowburn 'whodunit' mystery in a small town. Yara comes back home and is then suddenly enveloped in an investigation from the past and then more and more secrets get revealed. Its totally twisty and the ending completely came out of the blue and was crazy! After enjoying author's previous book, this felt a bit lacking mainly due to slow pace.

Thank you @netgalley for my advance copy! I am a huge RHH fan and was excited to see a new one out so quickly!

For most of the novel, we have a somewhat cozy style “whodunit” and a slow burn where things are not always what they seem, everyone is suspect and our narrator (Yara) is somewhat unreliable but the ending-damn! I did not see it coming AT ALL , like in the slightest! It was explosive and nuts!!!
The characters are extremely vibrant, fleshed out and enjoyable. I felt like Dom was pictured so perfectly I could totally see her in my head while reading. I enjoyed the dynamic of the sisters and their relationships with their parents. It seemed realistic and felt genuine. It definitely showed the importance of family and the way they support/hurt us.

RHH writing is trendy, smart and extremely atmospheric. She really transports you to where ever her novel takes you and I could feel the grit, dirt and wind of the Palmdale desert. Also, have to give props to the bad ass cover because it just screams amazing!

This is a hard review to write. I really like this author and love her writing style. I rarely DNF a book and I didn’t with this, but I wanted to. It fell a little flat for me. I felt the characters were underdeveloped. The family drama, seemed to go on for too long without an end in sight.
I’m sorry this was not for me, it will not stop me me from reading another of her books, she’s an incredibly talented writer. I’m choosing not to share my review on my social media as I don’t feel it does justice to the author. Many Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my e-arc.

What’s the old saying? You can never go home? In Yara’s case, she doesn’t want to go home but has to as she is planning her parents’ anniversary party. Between a cousin she never heard of trying to warn her/give her information, someone keying her car, and overall family drama, she is not having a good time.

I liked the story and the characters were developed well. The only reason I’m rating this a 3 is that I guessed the ending halfway through.

Another powerful novel from one of our best writers. Hall's human insight , her perfect use of setting, and the quality of her prose lift this story far above routine mysteries. Highly recommended.

So conflicted about this novel. I love this author and can't see myself never reading her- however, if I'm honest, I have to say I didn't love this book.
I didn't hate it- I finished it, and the payoff at the end was... not mind blowing, but it worked.
I agree with other reviewers that the beginning and end are compelling but there is a soft middle that was a slog to get through. I had to go back and re-read several parts because I wasn't sure where 'we' (we, as in Yara and us, the reader) were and where we were going and what was happening in between waking up in random places and the boyfriend and hotels and being back at the house and the cabin... where are we again?
I love a good mystery and I think that's what helped me going. I wanted to know what happened to Felicia- what secrets did she have to tell and how did she wind up dead before she could tell them? The interpersonal relationships between Yara and her sister, her father, her mother were given such pivotal roles in the story that I quickly grew tired of family dynamics. It's like reading a romantic suspense and there's more romance than suspense. Where's the danger? Remember the dead person?
Rachel Howzell Hall has a great voice and a talent for vivid details. Future books may be more up my alley- I much enjoyed her previous series and a few of her stand-alone novels.

I almost DNF'd this book around 20%, but decided to stick with it since it was a NetGalley ARC. This book was so similar to THESE TOXIC THINGS, I kept thinking I had already read it. And toxic is the perfect word to describe the family in WE LIE HERE, especially the mother, who was awful from page one and everyone just makes excuses for her. I guessed the main "plot twist" as soon as the main character commented how she is only 5'4" and the rest of her family are athletic giants - again, so similar to THESE TOXIC THINGS. The main character is also incredibly immature for someone who is 24 years old; the overuse of slang didn't help in this area. The only thing that saved WE LIE HERE from being a one star review was Howzell Hall's use of setting. She writes about setting and place so eloquently, you really feel like you are there; I just wish these traits carried over to the rest of the plot and characters.