Let me start by saying I have been a huge fan of this series and really appreciate that the stories have been able to continue outside of the school, Ellingham Academy. This latest in the series has Stevie and her friends in London. This was a great mystery and cold case, the locations were amazing including an old historic English manor. Unfortunately I struggled getting into the rest of the story. I was disappointed in Stevie and the way her story unfolded. I found her to be callous and the way she interacted with her friends made her very unlikeable. Her relationship with David was very strange and their story seemed unnecessary.
The bottom line is that this is a great mystery but for me the relationships and angst were a deal breaker for me. At this point I am not sure I will continue with the series.
4 ⭐️ for the mystery, 2 ⭐️ for the drama= 3 ⭐️ overall

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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I have been a longtime fan of Maureen Johnson (at the risk of dating myself think "way back when Tumblr was the best way to connect with authors you loved.") and let me say, I feel personally victimized by the ending of "Nine Liars." MAUREEN! How am I possibly supposed to wait for another Stevie Bell mystery to tie up all of the loose threads you left us? I literally gasped out loud when I realized that the final page was, indeed, the end of the novel. I wanted another hundred pages!

Stevie (and by extension, Maureen) are at their very best in "Nine Liars." We have an English country murder house, we have a long-unsolved mystery, we have Stevie and Co. traveling internationally, we have the end of Ellingham and the beginning of a new chapter quickly approaching, and we have dreamy coat-wearing David. It was an absolutely superb reading experience.

Senior year at Ellingham has found Stevie mostly pining after David, who is studying abroad in London, putting off her college applications, and aimlessly going through the motions as she drifts along looking for her next source of excitement. When David surprises her by arranging a week-long study abroad trip for her, Nate, Janelle, and Vi, she thinks it might be just the thing to jumpstart her mind and help her start looking further ahead than the next 45 minutes.

When she arrives in England, she finds herself unprepared for David's new friend Izzy and taken aback by the fact that Izzy seems to have found the perfect mystery for her to work on during her time in London. Izzy's Aunt Angela was staying at an English country manor with friends when two of them were murdered with an axe during a game of hide and seek. The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but Angela has carried a key piece of information with her through the decades that might just prove the murder was one of their own party. With little information, virtually no evidence, and the clock ticking down to their return flight to the US, will the third time be the charm for Stevie, or will she finally meet her match?

Stevie's mysteries are a must-read for adult and young adult fans of mystery. The writing is so well done, the clues so expertly laid, and the characters so lovable and real. Fans of Karen McManus, Holly Jackson, and Alexa Donne, in particular, would be good fits for Johnson's deep back catalog. "Nine Liars" is already catapulted itself to my "Top Reads of 2023" and I will be eagerly awaiting our next installment. Special thanks to NetGalley and to Katherine Tegen Books for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "Nine Liars" in exchange for an unbiased review!

Coming to Nine Liars as a long-time Maureen Johnson reader (especially Shades of London) is a bit like coming home, albeit with new neighbors. The references to Jack the Ripper and to the Shades of London was a small delight for sure, though the bulk of my excitement was to continue to watch the characters of Truly Devious grow and develop. I will say that, as with all the Truly Devious books, I don’t really see how the reader would solve this mystery with Stevie, and that it took quite a while to even understand exactly how the central mystery would become relevant, but I read these books for the characters and the relationships and for interesting mysteries even if I can’t solve them myself. I would absolutely recommend this book to any young adults and new adults interested in mystery series, and I think it could even serve as an entry point without being too confusing or spoiling earlier mysteries for a first time reader - something that has become quite rare in series.

My Review:

9/10
Before I even start my review, I wanted to say thank you to the HarperCollins team for approving me for this title on NetGalley. That's not all though. Around a month or two ago, Maureen Johnson was holding a giveaway, where there were only 150 printed ARC's circulating the earth, and I won a copy of one of them. It is truly a beautiful thing, and I cherish it. This was the post on Instagram I created and here is what the beautiful book looks like. So thank you Maureen for picking me as a winner!
Now let me get onto the review portion of this review. I am first going to branch out and say that I liked this book much more than the other standalone novel, The Box In The Woods, for one reason. There were more suspects and characters involved in the story. I found it gave my imagination more to work with, and made the puzzle of who the murderer was, more difficult to solve. It was a thinker.
Another reason I enjoyed reading this novel is because there were two mysteries going on simultaneously. Not just who the murderer was, but also a missing persons case. This novel I felt stayed more true to the original trilogy. I mean this in a way that the murder took place in the 90's and it is affecting the missing persons case today. So kudos to the author for that. There is nothing else to really say.

I am very glad I read this book, and I think any mystery fan would feel the same way about it. If you are not a huge reader but are a fan of:

- Knives Out

- Clue

- One Of Us Is Lying

This book might be just the thing to help you fall in love with reading.

Nine Liars is a continuation of Stevie Bell’s story that begins with Truly Devious. You can read this book before the other ones as it is a stand alone mystery, but I highly recommend the Truly Devious series if you haven’t read it. It’s so fun and fast paced. If you want more information on the books, I actually have book reviews for all of the books in the series. ❤️

I loved being back in this world after a small hiatus. This book took us on a journey through England, and it was so much fun! Stevie, Janelle, Nate, and Vi are still such fun characters to follow. The mystery Stevie finds herself involved in was a bit different from earlier ones, but it made it all the more intense as the stakes were higher. It felt like it’s setting up Stevie for the real world.

This book has set up something that I’m so anxious to see resolved in the next book, so I’m highly anticipating the next Stevie Bell mystery. I can’t wait! ☺️

This book was a 4.5/ 5 ✨

Very good! I loved the Truly Devious trilogy and am so glad to continue to get more of Stevie’s detecting adventures. Nine Liars is an excellent addition to this series, keeping me intrigued and interested throughout. I really liked the English setting and found the mystery to be very well done. I didn’t love the ending, but I’m obviously going to pick up the next installment to see what happens next!

I loved joining Stevie and her friends on a new mystery and that ending! I will always love joining Stevie and her friends on adventures and I’d like to add ew, David.

I'm on a quest to get everyone I know to read the Truly Devious books by Maureen Johnson. This latest installment of the bestselling series may be the 5th book, but you don't necessarily need to read the first 4 to appreciate this amazing mystery!

Nine Liars is brilliant. Stevie and her friends cross the pond to visit David and help solve a cold case. No one else could have written this book as well as Maureen Johnson. We learn more about our main characters while also meeting The Nine. Each of The Nine were fleshed out characters in their own right and the mystery surrounding their last week together in College kept me on the edge of my seat! The shocking twists and turns that fans have come to love are present and ramped up! But the very best part of Nine Liars, like all the Truly Devious books is Stevie. Maureen Johnson completely captures how minds work and how sometimes emotions don't just go from A to B in a straight line. I highly recommend Nine Liars!

Updated review now that Harper Collins Union has received a contract.

I love these mysteries, I love Stevie and her friends, I love the writing. This particular mystery was nicely layered and kept me guessing and interested. I love when Stevie does her thing, figuring everything out and laying it out for the reader. Very ready for the next book in the series!

I despise David. I have nothing more to say about him and wish he would go away.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the eRC in exchange for an honest review.

A fun addition to the series! The setting was particularly delightful, and it was interesting to see Stevie and her friends in another new context.

Such an enjoyable addition to Stevie’s story! These books are always a good time to read and the mystery is as unpredictable as ever. Johnson’s writing is easy to follow, the characters she writes interesting as ever. I didn’t know that there would be more books after the last one but I am always happy to read more of Stevie’s mystery adventures.

This book was INCREDIBLY average, hence the 3-star rating. Granted... I didn't love any of the previous books either, but I feel compelled to finish since I've made it this far.

1) Stevie is incredibly annoying about David. I still don't understand how he has lasted this long. Not once in the past 5 books has there been a reason for me to like David. It's not that he does anything bad, it's just that he's just some guy. I would understand if he was the end all, be all of teenage boys but... he's the bare minimum.
2) I did enjoy the backstory of The Nine when we were first getting to know them, but the actual reason for the deaths of Rosie and Noel was so dumb and it made no sense to me how it wasn't discovered earlier. They died in the 90s; crime technology was good enough to have discovered the killer.
3) The Nine in present day were god awful and I wished all of them had been the killer just because I didn't care for any of them and wanted them all in jail.
4) Nate and Janelle need to drop Stevie as a friend tbh (although I do think she treats Nate far better than she treats Janelle, so I'd understand if he and Stevie were platonic soulmates).

Overall... I will continue the series since I'm this far in, but it's not worth your time to start it if you haven't (though if you haven't... why are you reading this review for the fifth book in the series? Get outta here!).

I absolutely loved the first 4 books in this mystery series, but not this one. Yes, all the main characters are there, but this one is just different. There is a lot of talk about sex. Stevie seems more fixated on the idea of having sex with her boyfriend than in solving the cold case. There is more drama and less mystery in this one. It does end in a way that calls for a follow-up book, I just hope there is not as much relationship drama in the next one.

The mystery is 5 stars. The teen angst romance thing is 2 stars. The whole stupid part of her not doing anything for her future, lying to friends, and the ending things she does? Negative stars!

The fifth case of Stevie Bell finds her on the other side of the Pond. With her friends in tow and thinking towards their futures, Stevie finds herself investigating an old double murder (she is not supposed to be investigating even a single murder, but what else is new?). A friend of her boyfriend points her to a former nine-person acting troupe; “former” as they’ve all moved on and because two are dead. Yet, one of these Nine believes one of her old friends is the killer. With her wits alone, Stevie must find who and why, all battling her anxieties of her future.
It’s a great read, for the mystery alone. It’s even better now that we know Stevie and her company. We see her take bigger risks; not the action movie ones, but the ones that matter and show how she is growing up.

🔎 A R C • R E V I E W 🔍
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Title: Nine Liars
Author: Maureen Johnson
Rating: 4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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I bought the Truly Devious series back in 2021 and I flew through the first three and then was super excited for Box In the Woods - and enjoyed it, so when I saw that there was now a 5th installment, I was super excited.
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I really enjoy the camaraderie between Stevie and her little gang of misfits. Seriously, they are all just so unique that they fit together so perfectly. I just want to hug them all. And as per usual with Stevie, comes some kind of cold case murder to solve but this time in London. This one is told in dual timelines, that of the present and in 1995 when the murders take place. I will admit, I really didn’t care for a single one of the characters from the past, they sounded like stuck up and irked every last nerve of mine.
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I did really enjoy the unraveling of the mystery and the final conclusion to the cold case and all the odds and ends that happened in-between. Love this series, love everything about Stevie Bell and the gang, love the mysteries, but that ending?! UGH, that was really one of the worst cliff hangers ever and now I’m extra salty that I have to wait for what is going to feel like forever for some kind of resolution to this ending.
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Overall, a great installation to the truly devious series. This one just came out on 12/27 and if you enjoyed Stevie’s antics in the past be sure to pick this one up!
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What is a series you always recommend?
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#netgalley #netgalleyearc #earc #electronicadvancedreaderscopy #fourstarread #fifthbookintheseries #trulydeviousseries #ellinghamacademy #solvingmurders #steviebell #yamysterythriller #murder #pastmeetsthepresent #nineliars #maureenjohnson

In the not so distant past of 1995, a group of nine close friends celebrated their pending university graduation by spending a weekend at a large country estate. Two of the nine were murdered. Fast forward to the present and Stevie Bell, who has been the murder-solving heroine of the Truly Devious mystery series set at a Vermont boarding school. When Stevie receives an invitation from her boyfriend David to come to London to solve a past murder there, she finagles a study week abroad with her three closest friends. With alternating chapters describing the two sets of friendships and their reaction to the 1995 murder, the pace picks up as the week abroad winds down. While there is some satisfactory resolution, the twist at the very end is a clear opening to the next in the series.

Another fantastic addition to this series. While this one can be read as a standalone I wouldn't recommend it. The characters have evolved a lot from the first books and the relationships are easier to understand if you have read the first books. Plus they are really good books! I loved the mystery itself and its Agatha Christie vibes. It was fun that this book took us overseas for the mystery I really enjoyed the mystery itself and I thought the ending was good. Looking forward to the next book!

Reading Between the Wines book review #15/115 for 2023:
Rating: 4🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book 🎧: Nine Liars
Author: Maureen Johnson
Genre: Teens Y&A
AVAILABLE NOW!!

Sipping thoughts: This is the 5th book in this series but only my 2nd. I still was able to follow the story. Although young, Stevie is such the Detective. She is on a trip to visit her boyfriend in London and gets pulled into solving a cold case over 20 years old. I love how the present and past collides. Stevie is more than determined to solve the case. The last line of the book has me on edge for the next installment.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @HarperCollinsChildrenBooks an advanced copy of @NineLiars.

#NineLiars #MaureenJohnson #HarperCollinsChildrenBooks #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #TeensYandA #TeensY&A

The Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson is one of my favorite young adult mystery series. I thought the series would be over at book 3. I was so excited when book 4 came out, and here we have book 5. Based on things that happens in the book I'm excited that it seems there will be a book 6. Stevie and the gang are in England this time. There is a mystery for Stevie to solve, based on murders that happened in the 1990s. The Nine - the comedy troupe in the 90s who has several members of their team get murdered seems like a very interesting group dynamic. Stevie has very little evidence to go on and she's facing internal conflict over her future and there are also strange dynamics in the relationships with her friends. I'm hoping that in book 6 Stevie will show some more growth. It seems her friends are all growing and coming into their own and Stevie is a little lost.