I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yara returns to her hometown to throw an anniversary party for her parents. She has always had a contentious relationship with her mother and learns some hidden truths about her past and the source of the tension between them.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book through Netgalley. This thriller had me intrigued from the start, the characterisation of our lead is complex and nuanced and the twists and turns were very well executed. This was the rare book that managed to obscure the culprit from me for half the book before I figured it out: much longer than most manage. Lovely writing and an exciting tale.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the copy of We Lie Here by Rachel Howzell Hall. This was a great read and the story was so much more than the book’s description promised. What started out being a somewhat cozy whodunit mystery that morphed into a shocking what-heck-just happened thriller!
The relationships were vibrant and Yara and Dom were perfect sisters. They loved/resented each other and related to their parents in different ways. The contrast of their relationships with their significant others was fitting for their personalities. Other relationships were also well-defined and showed the importance of community and family. If you’re looking for a well-written smart thriller with amazing characters and relationships this book is for you! I will be looking for more books by this author.

I found the synopsis of this book to be quite appealing, and I have heard great things about the author.

I did find this particular piece a bit disjointed and the pace dragged and sped quite a bit. Overall, a good story premise but it felt much more like a draft than a "almost ready for publishing" type of novel.

Secrets. Family drama. Murder? A trip back to her hometown couldn’t have gone worse in the newest thriller by Rachel Howzell Hall.
This is my second book by this author. I quite enjoyed They All Fall Down, so I was very excited for her newest release. Though this one wasn’t a favorite, I still enjoyed it.
I was intrigued from the very beginning. I love unreliable narrators and this main character is very true to that trope! Not being able to trust the main character’s memory kept the book interesting for me. Another thing that added to the story was that it kept me guessing. I had lots of changing theories throughout reading and it was fun trying to figure out what’s going on. However, one of my complaints about the book was that it took way too long to get answers to any of the questions I had. We got mystery piled on top of mystery and didn’t get any answers until the end. I at least wanted some of my smaller questions answered before the 90% mark in the book.
My only other problem was that I thought the end was a little too easy. We only get a few pages of “confrontation” and then it’s over. I wanted a little struggle.
But overall, I enjoyed this book and will be reading more from Rachel Howzell Hall, since I’ve enjoyed two of her books now!

Thank you Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: mentions of racism, spiders

I am in general not a fan of books where we are following a female character with a spotty memory where there are no other conflicts or plot points that further interest me. I felt like most of the book is filled with interpersonal conflicts and takes place in a setting that does not speak to me.

Most of the characters are bland and I had trouble finishing this book. I stretched till 60% and I could not pick it up again. I honestly did not feel like wanting to know what even happens.

This book was given to me on Netgalley by the publishers. I think some people could definitely enjoy it but sadly it wasn't for me.

Did not enjoy. Disliked the writing style and found the story incredibly boring. Really disappointed I didn’t like this one more

Thought this was a pretty good thriller. It kept you guessing and was very fast paced. First book from this author so didn’t know what to expect.

In “We Lie Here” by Rachel Howzell Hall, Yara Gibson returns home to host a 20th anniversary party for her parents. But what should have been a time for last minute planning turns into a race to untangle the last twenty years of deception and lies that seem to multiply at every turn. Maybe there is even more in question that Yara’s sanity but will anyone believe her before it is too late.

A lot of characters to keep track of with a crazy twist at the end.

I received an advanced copy of this book and this is my honest review.

Yara Gibson is heading home to host her parent’s twentieth anniversary party knowing that nothing, but new drama will come from going home. This homecoming leads to more than just drama by opening deeply held secrets and mystery. It is a wonderful set up to an interesting family drama with some mystery and intrigue.

This is a mystery with lots of interesting twists mixed in with a good deal of family dynamic to keep it interesting. The beginning is great and really grabbed my attention. I did get bogged down in the middle with some chapters feeling unnecessary and seemed to drag the story down without adding anything new to either the character’s drama or the mystery. The last third of the book really picked back up and had an excellent finish. Even though it scored a three out of five stars for me, I will be putting this book in my class library mystery section and recommending it to friends.

This was my first one for this author and I will add These Toxic Things and And Now She’s Gone to my reading list. Thank you to Net Galley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced reader copy of this book.

“Mom gave me that lightning bolt pendant two years ago, on the day I graduated from USC with a film degree. ‘Light up the sky,’ she told me. I don’t think Daddy ever stopped crying. Also a Trojan, he stared at that lightning bolt around my neck and kept saying, ‘My girl, my Yaya’ over and over again. I’ve never taken off the pendant, a rare gift from my mother. My mysterious, sexy-witchy-woman talisman fills me with wonder-working power.”*

Yara returns home to throw her parents an epic anniversary party, but nothing goes as she planned. Her mom throws a fit when she discovers Yara has booked a room at a local hotel and makes Yara promise to stay at the house despite how her mother’s chain smoking aggravates Yara’s asthma. A crazy cousin seems hellbent on dragging Yara into family drama. Yara’s sister, Dominique, is more interested in hanging out with her thuggish boyfriend than party planning. And someone starts stalking Yara, vandalizing her car and leaving threatening messages, which Yara tries to ignore until the first dead body turns up.

WE LIE HERE provides a bit of a slow burn as the reader tries to reconcile what’s real, as Yara is an unreliable narrator. Yara’s family drama with an overly critical mother, who seems to favor Dominique is heartbreaking. I enjoyed piecing together the clues as Yara tries to sort the truths from the lies. Yara is an active protagonist, driving the plot rather than waiting for her law enforcement officer high school friend or US marshal boyfriend to find the answers. Yara’s job as a writer on a television crime show nicely provides her with the chops to serves as an amateur detective.

While I felt the pacing was a tad slow at times and the large cast a bit unwieldy, I immediately became invested in Yara as a character, which kept me turning pages to the satisfying conclusion.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

*Please note that my review is based on uncorrected text.

Yara is planning an epic anniversary party for her parents,who weren't able to have the lavish wedding of her mother's dreams. Almost immediately upon returning to Antelope Valley from LA, Yara is accosted by a women she discovers is a cousin she's never heard of. Felicia has information that can change Yara's life forever...but she is found drowned in a nearby lake before she can tell Yara her secrets. As Yara digs further into Felicia's murder, she finds more questions than answers.

This book was crazy, from Bee not giving any cares about Yara's health, insisting her asthmatic daughter stay in her smokes filled home, constantly smoking around her to the high percentage of mental illnesses in every woman in the book. I couldn't put this book fown, I had to see what absolute insane thing was going to happen to poor Yara next. And I would absolutely watch The Queen of Palmdale!

This book was surprising and kind of heartbreaking for a thriller. Yara is throwing an anniversary party for her parents, despite the fact that her mother is a very difficult person and she clearly can't stand Yara. Yara tries so hard to please her.

As Yara digs through the attic of her childhood home, she finds photos and letters that intrigue her. There are angry letters between her and her former best friend Felicia, pictures of a ballerina, photos of her father with another girl. Felicia contacts her repeatedly saying she needs to tell her something and then she ends up dead.

I figured out the story before Yara did, but I was still engrossed and wanted to learn more about how it all went down. I'd really like to read a book about the original family story.

This was my first book by this author, and it just didn’t do it for me. The writing was a bit choppy, like the author tried to be fast-paced, but then the story moved really slowly. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, and by the time the climax of the story came, I had already guessed what would happen. I ended up skimming the last 25% because I wanted to know what would happen, but I didn’t want to wade through every word. I’m going to try another by this author and see how it goes, but this one wasn’t it for me.

It took a long time for this one to get going for me. And then about halfway, it lost me completely, which is a disappointment, because I love the author’s writing style. I love her voice, I love her humor and charm. This wasn’t her strongest thriller, but I will definitely continue to auto read her books.

Rachel Howell Hall is my go to author as soon as her books hit the stores or Netgalley I am ready for them! If ppl don’t know her they need to! Her books are a force to be reckoned with! Never ever a dull moment! Love her and her books!

This was my first exposure to Rachel Howzell Hall’s writing after seeing many good reviews for previous works. Overall, I found this book a bit paradoxical – I was engaged and enjoyed the writing, but there were several distinct quirks that irked me somewhat.

First a quick summary of the novel. Yara Gibson is an emerging TV writer, and, even though she doesn't always see eye-to-eye with them, is throwing an enormous party to celebrate her parents’ 20th wedding anniversary in Palmdale, California – a place she tries to avoid whenever she can. After a faithful run-in with Felicia, her mother’s childhood friend, sees her constantly text message Yara with “news that will change your life” and then subsequently turn up dead shortly after, Yara starts to get an uneasy feeling about her family – are they all who they say they are? A series of twists and turns sees Yara arrive at a cabin near Lake Palmdale which apparently holds the key to unlocking the mystery of both Felicia’s death, and the history of her family.

Some aspects that I enjoyed:

– The book is humorous, incorporates current culture (e.g., “Bye Felicia”) and is an easy, page-turning read
– The author’s ability to describe time and place is very good. I could imagine Palmdale vividly
– The plot in general, minus a few distinct points, was interesting

I do, however, have some issues with this book:

– I’m not sure if its because the manuscript has not been typeset/proofread fully but I found myself confused at times about what was going on – e.g., the settings in terms of the room/context etc change quickly and I had to re-read previous sections to get an idea of time and place as I didn’t find the author linked these well from scene to scene
– The characters in general were a bit under-developed. There were a lot of “accessory” characters here and I realised I didn’t really know much, nor did I care, about anyone outside of the main family
– The plot, while interesting in terms of building suspense and sticking to the thriller genre, was just a bit foreseeable and expected

Overall, while an enjoyable read, there were just a few things that detracted from the overall quality of the book. A 3.5/5 star from me. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC to review this novel.

When Yara plans to throw an elaborate anniversary party for her parents, she discovers that her family is hiding decades old secrets.

Burdened by a seemingly unintentional campy writing style, and an extremely predictable plot, I couldn't give <u>We Lie Here</u> more than two stars. The premise was interesting and I wanted to like Yara, but I struggled with the way she would miss/refuse to see what was so glaringly obvious from page one. If there were a few more twists and turns carefully woven in here, this would have been a much more entertaining domestic thriller.

This was just not for me, I couldn’t get invested in any of the characters or the plot of the story, I am sad about this as I was looking forward to reading this. May work for others, but not for me .

We Lie Here is a standalone psychological thriller by best selling author, Rachel Howzell Hall. It's my first book by this author. The book deals with family secrets and one woman's quest to understand and reveal the truth, whatever that may be. Yara is back in her hometown to throw her parents a party, when she is approached by a women who claims to know some very important things which will change her life, however the women is killed before the secrets can be revealed. I enjoyed this fast-paced psychological mystery which asks us the question about how well we really know those closest to us. I'd recommend this one and I will definitely be reading more by this author.
Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an early copy of this book.