Wow, this book was absolutely incredible. I only needed one chapter until it had me in an absolute chokehold. The book revolves around Lucy who is found wandering the streets covered in her best friends blood left without any memories of what happened and how she ended up there. Everyone in her small town believes she committed a horrific murder, killing her best friend Savy and Lucy can't fight the claims because she cant remember what happened that night. A few years pass and a true crime podcaster starts digging into the story and Lucy is drawn back in. The story weaves us through the terrifying events that led up to Savy's murder and all of the players in the small town are examined, nothing can stay a secret in a small town. The book had me guessing until the last page and kept me up into the wee hours on a work night. I could not sleep until I knew what happened.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It was go down as one of the best thrillers of the year!

Thank you Thank You to the Publisher and NetGalley for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review, it was truly a pleasure from start to finish!

Listen for the Lie does has podcast components so if you like audiobooks I do recommend listening to it!

Listen for the Lie was a great book. I loved the dark humor….because it was so relatable.

I can’t imagine spending 5 years being accused of killing my best friend and not remembering any details of the night. So kudos to Lucy to have a somewhat normal life after that.

I loved the podcast aspect of it….and enjoyed the voice in Lucy’s head. It added a lot of questions about if she really did kill Savvy.

My favorite character is probably Beverly, Lucy’s grandma. She was hilarious and definitely a good time.

I liked how the whole book came together in finding out how Savvy was murdered. And after the big reveal it definitely made sense. Kicked myself for not wondering if the murderer was the murderer!

Thanks to Netgalley and Celadon Books for a copy of Listen for the Lie in exchange of an honest review.

I love the way characters are introduced in the podcast format. The story unfolds and the characters continue to develop. The author was clever in the way the information was revealed and built up to a few possible endings. I will highly recommend this book to my book club and friends!

I loved this book. I’m a huge fan of podcasts being intertwined with the plot, especially when the audio is done so well. And January Lavoy will always be one of my faves.

"Men don’t protect us, not really. They only protect themselves, or each other. The only thing men ever protected me from was happiness."

lucy's best friend savvy is dead, and everyone thinks lucy killed her. she has no memory of that night. it seems as though she's found a way to pack up and move on, but when a true crime podcast features her story five years later, she's forced to return to the town that hates her and figure out what really happened.

i absolutely loved LISTEN FOR THE LIE by amy tintera — it has all my favorite tropes. someone returns to their small hometown after x amount of years and has to solve a crime. there's an unreliable narrator that actually works. there's a podcast element. there's brassy and incredible women. there's a foul mouthed grandma. there's twists and red herrings and plenty of seemingly viable suspects to be had. ugh, this one has it all.

lucy is the kind of character that i love — sarcastic, self-aware, and willing to fight back. beneath that prickly outer layer is a soft, gooey center — the part of her that has loved and lost and questions her reality constantly. savvy has her good southern girl image, but she's just as tough as lucy is. while we only get to know savvy through flashbacks, she feels like a believable character and an unbelievable friend. any of us would be truly lucky to have lucy and savvy by our side.

Loved it!! We need more dark comedy thrillers! I read a lot of thrillers, and I’m so over the same character in all of them- the MC who doesn’t know the truth about XYZ and then tortures herself and second guesses and drives everyone batty by climbing the walls in distress. It was REFRESHING to read Lucy, who is stronger than she knows and has this comedic wall she puts up to deflect all the crap that wants to stick. She has no idea what happened 5 years ago, did she or didn’t she kill her best friend? Have to go back to town for grandma’s birthday party and face all of her accusers? Fine. She might as well just get in cozy with the podcaster and see what secrets are spilled across town.
This was such a fresh take on the amnesia/unsolved murder trope and I am here for it.
Thanks to Amy Tintera, Celadon Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one!

Listen For The Lie kept me so engrossed in the story that I finished it in a day. I just kept listening to the audiobook! (It certainly helped that I didn’t have much scheduled that day.) I’m not necessarily a huge reader of twisty thrillers, especially ones that include podcasts, but this one most definitely kept my interest and kept me guessing.

Lucy and Savvy (short for Savannah) were close friends in their 20s in a Texas town a couple of hours away from Austin. After Savvy is found murdered after a wedding they both attended, Lucy winds up as the most obvious suspect because she is found injured and covered in Savvy’s blood. But Lucy’s injuries include her completely blanking on what happened that night, so there’s not enough evidence to charge her. Most people think she did it, though.

Five years later, a podcaster, Ben Owens, starts delving into this unsolved murder case. This coincides with Lucy’s grandmother begging Lucy to come home (she moved to Los Angeles) for her 80th birthday. It’s the first time Lucy has gone back there since Savvy’s death. As you might imagine, between talking with the podcaster and being back in her home town, bits and pieces of that time start coming back to Lucy. Bit by bit.

Lucy was a great character, with a lot of snark and spunk. I also loved her grandmother Beverly. Her parents? Not so much. And the young men in town? Ugh.

I mainly listened to the audiobook for this title, although I partially followed along with the ebook. January LaVoy is one of my favorite narrators and that’s a big reason why I decided to try this book. Will Damron narrated Ben’s parts and I enjoyed his voice.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Listen For The Lie was such a clever thriller. I haven't liked one this much in years. The decision to have the main character not know the ending of the book as much as the reader did was a great way of leading us through the story without too much unconscious bias. I didn't see the ending coming either and yet it did make sense which is my favourite combination in a thriller. Amazing read.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Lucy and her sarcastic humor. Ben comes to Lucy's hometown to try to interview her for the podcast he is doing on a 5 year old unsolved mystery with Lucy as the main suspect. We find out the new information Ben does in real time through his podcast. The story goes between present day and 5 years ago. My favorite character was Lucy's grandma. Highly recommend!

Rating: 5/5 Penguins
Quick Reasons: a whodunit with all the best trappings; entertaining, fast-paced read that will have you guessing until the very end; complex, realistic characters; mind the triggers; a hard hitting look into the worst parts of being human

HUGE thanks to Amy Tintera, Celadon/MacMillan Books, and Netgalley for the title! My review is voluntarily written and in no way impacted or altered by this gesture.

This is a hard-hitting, gut-wrenching look at what it's like to be human in a world where social media and word of mouth spread like wildfire, especially in the worst case scenarios. Amy Tintera utilized 2 strong point of views in this title--that of our main character, and that of the podcast where all the grisly details, secrets, and stories are coming to light one episode at a time. This was a BRILLIANT way to juxtapose the "in the moment" glimpse with the "happenings of the past." The writing, as well, is done beautifully--just enough drama and intrigue to keep you entertained, just enough mystery and red herrings to keep you guessing without spoiling yourself on the ending. By the 80% mark, I STILL had no idea where the ending was going to take us, who the true whodunit really was (with everything revealed throughout the story, I half expected it to actually BE our main character!)

These characters and their motivations are realistic, endearing, and entirely human. I found myself easily connecting with our main character, cheering her on...and then remember that oh, wait, she's accused of doing something horrible to her best friend. This was a whirlwind of a read that refused to let me put it down, once I'd started. Even when I had to put it down, it was there, lurking in the back of my thoughts, waiting for me to piece it all together. I don't read a LOT of mystery books....but this one makes me think that maybe I NEED to read them more often.

I definitely recommend this to lovers of murder mystery/true crime podcasts/etc, relatable and human character motivations, and books that will keep you up all night trying to figure out the clues before the big reveal. This was an entertaining race to figure out whodunit, and I immensely enjoyed the journey Amy Tintera took me on through this read. Can YOU find the lie before it's too late, Penguins?

I enjoyed this book. I like the short chapters and how they alternated between the main character and the podcast. My theory changed throughout the book, and I reminded clueless until the end.

A big thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can't bring myself to give this a 5-star rating, but would give it a 4.5 if I could. For a book that was full of a lot of pretty awful people and situations, it was a hilarious and fun read. I rarely read for long stretches of time, but ended up getting through the entire second half of this in a single sitting. I can't think of any books it reminds me much of, but I was occasionally reminded of a couple TV series: The Flight Attendant and Barry.

With a recent true crime podcast’s rise in popularity, Lucy finds herself back in the limelight as a suspect in her best friend’s murder. The character development and relationships were fantastic. I have read other psychological thrillers with a podcast plot…this one shines. With this novel being told with an Unreliable Narrator, the twists met my expectations of a good thriller and I am still left with questions. I would welcome a chat with anyone who would like to discuss this book!
The twisty black wire adrift a bright red background on the cover not only reflects the podcast references but also the twists and turns of solving a crime.

This book hooked me right from the beginning. While I was worried for a little bit that it would be an amateur detective (which I hate) and did go down there somewhat - it was a banger! I loved the aspect that the victim was not the way everyone was "remembering" her, I loved that the podcast was an investigation into a cold case. I thoroughly enjoyed the cat and mouse game throughout. I love love loved that she spoke to us (the reader) and really gave us a look at the way she operates - this was so refreshing! What I didn't like is that everyone was going around kissing our MC. Pretty unrealistic that she's everyone's cup of tea. The commentary on men and society and singledom was not overdone.

LOVED this book and could not put it down. Listen to all the reasons I loved this: Podcasts within books, main characters who are sassy, strong, and unliked by all the other characters, unexpected romance within a thriller, funny Grandmas, and not seeing the ending coming at all! Easily 5 stars

Listen For The Lie, is the story of Lucy and Savvy.. they become very close after college. It seems like an odd match, as they really didn’t get along in High School. But they are older now and people can change right? Well one night they both attend a friend’s wedding, where things get complicated. Savvy is found dead, a brutal death and Lucy is found wandering around full of Savvy’s blood a day later. It appears that Lucy is the killer but the local police can’t prove she is the one.. so she Piglet, is at a pretty great time of her life. She has the career she wants, an editor for a London Publishing house, a fiancée who she loves dearly and a new home. The home is her safe haven, her kitchen her heart. She is 14 days away from her wedding and she is happily enjoying each day, as the wedding approaches. She feels giddy with her life, almost like it is too good to be true. The author tells about each day, leading up to the wedding, in such a realistic way. Piglets family, her in laws to be and finishing up work for her wedding/honeymoon. As if she wasn’t nervous enough, her fiancée admits to a terrible betrayal, that makes her rethink everything. Can anything be the same again? Is there someone she can trust with this betrayal? What is she to do? This was a very good read. The characters were honest and human. Showing you can have every feeling under the sun, before your wedding. That sometimes you have to listen to your intuition and not chalk everything up to wedding jitters.
This was a four star read for me. I want to thank Netgalley, Lottie Hazel & Henry Holt & Company for my copy of Piglet for an honest review. It was a pleasure reading and reviewing this book. I hope you enjoy it too. can’t be prosecuted but she can’t live in the town anymore. She becomes a pariah. She heads for Los Angeles to star over and mourn her friend. Oh, one twist she has no recollection of anything that happened the night of wedding, accept for getting ready for it.
After living in LA for a few years the secret of the murder gets out and she loses her boyfriend, her job and her home. A podcaster Ben Owen, has rekindled the drama behind the murder. He goes to Lucy’s home town and speaks with her ex husband, her mother, family and people from town. Everyone thinks they know what happened and are eager to speak with Ben. Ben though, is looking for the truth.. Can he figure out who did it? Can Lucy get her memory back? How could her perfect life, marriage and home not be enough? This was a suspenseful read. I really like the use of the podcast episode chapters. It really put another layer it to a very interesting story. I liked how w the author brought together Lucy and Ben to figure things out. You can only hope they both have Lucy’s interest at heart. This was a four star read for me. I love a good mystery and this book didn’t disappoint. I want to thank Netgalley, Amy Tintera and Celadon Books for my copy for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review this book. I hope you enjoy it too.

✨𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀✨
• unlikable narrator
• small town secrets
• podcaster
• amnesia
🌶️🌶️

✨ 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 ✨
In this small town where is a liar, Lucy returns and, with help she didn't ask for from podcaster Ben Owens, is forced to try to remember if she killed her best friend

✨ 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 ✨
I listened on audio while reading with my eyeballs and it made staying focused on the audio easier. Since the book is centered around a podcast it was cool to hear the podcast chapters arranged to sound like a podcast episode. The voice actors were amazing.

If this book wanted us to dislike main character and prime murder suspect Lucy, then the story nailed. Not only is she sarcastic but she is so blasé about being a prime murder suspect ; she does not give a rat's ass about a whole town hating her. Her questionable choices throughout had me screeching.

This is for the thriller/mystery lovers out there wanting to solve a crime. Just be prepared to hate pretty much everyone in this entire town, including podcast host Ben Owens.

This book was hard to put down with lots of twists and turns. I ended up listening to this book after learning episodes of the podcast was mixed with the book itself.

I enjoyed this debut novel that explored a small town murder 5 years after it happened.

While the main story is told from one perspective, we do hear multiple points of view from the podcast episodes.

If you are a true crime fan and enjoy small town stories, add this book to your TBR.

Thanks to @netgalley and @celadonbooks for providing the ARC.

I absolutely loved the main characters in this book! I would love to see this become a series!

Thank you NetGalley for the early release copy 😁

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC ebook in exchange for feedback.
Savvy and Lucy are friends until Savvy turns up dead. Since Lucy is found wandering and covered in blood, she is suspected of the murder. Lucy, however, does not remember anything about that night.
Ben comes to town to research and interview about the case for his podcast, Listen for the Lie. Ben and Lucy team up to find out what happened that night at a friend’s wedding.
I really liked the Lucy character, snarky but likable. Some characters not so likable.
Great book, fast-paced but easy to follow. I will look for next reads by this author.