Listen for the Lie is a contemporary mystery about a woman who returns to her hometown where everyone suspects her of murdering her best friend five years earlier.

Lucy is reluctant to return to her Texas hometown for grandma’s 80th birthday. She’s never shaken the suspicion that she murdered her best friend Savvy and because she lost her memory of that entire night she’s never been able to point the finger at anyone else. But now the popular true crime podcast Listen For The Lie is covering Savvy’s murder and everyone who knew the women is being interviewed. The podcast reveals secrets, misdeeds and motives that could point the blame away from Lucy. But she will need to recover her memory to either clear her name or to finally discover if she really got away with murder.

I really enjoyed this twisty and entertaining murder mystery. Lucy was a smart and funny protagonist and I liked her banter with everyone from Ben the podcaster to her grandmother. The mystery kept me guessing up until the end and I thought it was a satisfying conclusion.

Rating: 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Audiobook notes: Listen For The Lie was narrated by married couple January LaVoy and Will Damron. Because this book features a podcast it’s the ideal audiobook experience and both narrators do an excellent job with the material and bring the characters alive.

WOW!! Thank you NetGalley and Celadon books for granting me access to this book in exchange for my honest review.

I think it might be best to go into this one knowing as little as possible, so I would say all you need to know is this: 5 years ago, something tragic happened in Lucy’s past. Her best friend, Savvy, was murdered and Lucy has no memory of that night. Everyone thinks she did it, and Lucy starts to wonder if everyone is right.

This truly was “unputdownable” which I don’t think I’ve ever said about a thriller so far! Lucy will definitely be a polarizing main character, but personally I loved reading from her perspective and hearing her internal thoughts. I somehow did not guess how this ends, and there were many twists and turns along the way. The podcast element/chapters were done so well, I would love to read this again via audiobook to see how the podcast element really comes to life.

Highly recommend and I will definitely be reading more by Amy Tintera in the future!

Lucy left town after her best friend was murdered. She doesn’t remember the event, but the entire town thinks she killed her. Now that a podcast about the murder has begun, the entire world will think that.

I have been seeing five star reviews everywhere for this one, and they are all so right. This is the perfect mystery/thriller. There’s a lot of darkness, but also a lot of humor. That mix isn’t always well done, but it’s perfect here. The characters are full of wit and sarcasm, even when they are doubting themselves. This may be the thriller of 2024!

“Listen, when the urge to murder someone strikes, sometimes you just gotta go with it.”

Listen for the Lie comes out 3/5.

I loved Listen for the Lie! Thrillers with podcast plots are always a must-read for me, and I could not put this book down. I loved Lucy as a protagonist - she had some excellent one-liners - but all of the characters in this book were memorable. The twists and turns in the plot were unpredictable, and the ending was very satisfying. I loved that Savvy had such a presence throughout the story. I would recommend the audiobook version as well - parts of the story were told in podcast format,

Absolutely brilliant "whodunnit."

Five years ago, Lucy was found wandering down a dark road, confused, looking a hot mess with her best friend's blood all over her. The town filled in the blanks like their own little game of adlib from there. Fast forward, and Lucy finds herself back in the spotlight when a podcaster makes her the main character of the second season of his hit show, "Listen for the Lie." Now with some prompting from her incredibly quirky and amazing grandmother (seriously I wish she was my grandma) Lucy finds herself investigating that night that changed her life forever.

Switching from first person POV to podcast interviews with townspeople "shedding light" on what happened all those years ago, this is one of those cases where every character you meet, you're thinking to yourself "wait it could be them!" and then you meet another one and the cycle starts over.

The characters are so loveable, if you're into sass, snarky comments and dark humor and somewhat inappropriate times, you will love Lucy. And honestly, I wish Beverly was my grandmother. I do wish we had gotten to know Ben and Paige a bit more but with as many time hops, interviews and twists the story took I think it was paced really well and overall I really enjoyed it.


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6221219904

First off - thank you so much Netgalley & Celadon Books for giving me an arc copy of this one in exchange for an honest review!
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I love love love how this has two different perspectives from the main character - present and five years ago when she allegedly killed her best friend people think. The book goes into detail told by Lucy about her friendship with Savvy and her minimal recollection of that night. As the story keeps unfolding more and more Lucy gets her memory back and finally puzzle pieces what really happened on the night her best friend was killed, only once she gets all her memory back she finally finds out who really killed her and it’s not her - it’s someone she wouldn’t of thought from the beginning of all of this. I really enjoyed Ben’s character as well. His little romance going on with Lucy and also trying to investigate what happened to Savvy and solve her murder as a podcaster was so different and a cool little twist.
The writing style when the podcasts were highlighted were cool to read and made it interesting! I liked this writing style and thought this was a very well done book. I did find myself laughing at times because Lucy the main character would randomly hear Savvy say “let’s kill” in her brain and she’d just repeat it 😂 it was very odd and strange but made me laugh because I pictured this devilish voice 🤣 I mean in Savvy’s defensive she should want to kill the person that killed her and tried to kill her best friend Lucy. Overall a really well done thriller, I’ll definitely be on the look out for more books from this author! Catch this one in book stores March 5th!

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

**Make sure to grab yourself a copy when this one is released on March 5th!**

“Trust me, there’s no pleasing people. If they’re determined to think the worst of you, they will.”

Lucy was suspected of killing her best friend, Savvy, after she's found wandering a road covered in blood. They were last seen leaving a wedding together, but Lucy has no memory of that night. With little to no evidence, Lucy was never convicted. Five years later, a true crime podcaster comes to town resurfacing the case to find out what happened that night. Told through Lucy’s POV and transcripts from the podcast, the truth about that night may finally come out.

This was my very first ARC read (!!!!) and can I just say what a great first one it was?! Thank you so much to Amy Tintera, Celadon Books, and NetGalley for the early access to this one!

Listen for the Lie had me hooked from the very beginning! Lucy’s POV paired with the podcast transcripts made for a very well-rounded, suspenseful storyline. Lucy’s sarcastic and flippant ownership of being a suspected killer had me literally chuckling out loud at some points. This twisty thriller kept me on the edge of my seat and I couldn’t wait to see what happened!

👍🏻: main character’s sarcastic personality, story told through main character’s POV and podcast transcripts, secretive small town, missing memories, memory fragmentation turned full recollection moment, dual timeline

👎🏻: I wished that the piecing together of that night started having reveals just a tad earlier so it felt less rushed into the full reveal, the reveal of that night felt a little bit over the top for the reasoning behind it

What if the truth doesn’t matter?

It’s been five years since the mysterious murder of Savannah ‘Savvy’ Harper. Lucy is found with bruises and Savvy’s blood on her dress and absolutely no recollection of the night’s events. Most of the town of Plumpton, Texas assumes Lucy killed Savvy after a fight, but without a murder weapon and enough evidence, the case is never solved. Until a crime Podcast ran by Ben Owens shines new light on Savvy’s death. Resigned to be found guilty, Lucy comes back to town and slowly unravels what exactly happened that night.

This was such a fun ride, great mystery and witty writing. I really liked Lucy from that first chapter, silly and funny in that morbid humor way. Lucy’s internal monologue was really hilarious at times, the quick jokes and dark humor are a plenty!

All the different characters and fast paced chapters made this book, and the mystery, a huge page turner. I’m usually a big fan of the podcast plot, as well as true crime documentaries so this definitely checks those boxes. While some may find this theme overdone or too predictable, I did not see that in this debut - it was just the right amount of crime to mystery ratio, and I think many people will binge this book just like I did!

Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon Books for the review copy.

Thank you Netgalley, Amy Tintera, and Celadon books for my advanced readers' copy.
I loved the writing style, and especially the bittersweet sarcasm of the main character, Lucy. She's a pretty unhinged female character, right up my alley.
Lucy left her hometown in central Texas a few years ago after she was accused of killing her best friend, Savannah. Shocked by her friend's tragic end, Lucy cannot remember anything from the night in question. But when true-crime podcaster Ben Owens brings up the incident years later and is adamant about finding out what really happened that night, Lucy’s world comes crumbling down again.
She wants to know if she really did kill her best friend as many still think, so she heads back down to Texas at her grandmother's request. Her relationship with her grandma is very special, which makes her return to the one place she wasn't planning on visiting ever again a bit more bearable.
Needless to say, she and Ben bond about the night in question, which adds some spice to the story.
The author narrates it from dual timelines: back then and now. I really liked how the transitions guided the reader to come to its own conclusions. At about two thirds of the book I had strong suspicions about what transpired the night Savvy was murdered, but I still enjoyed the way the author wrapped everything up.
A solid suspenseful mystery/thriller novel I highly recommend to anyone looking for something fresh to read from the genre. This was my first book by the author, but I will definitely read something else she writes in the future.

WHAT A FANTASTIC BOOK!

I've already said this recently, but I have just been struggling to find good thrillers lately so I was soooo happy to have gotten this as an ARC. There isn't a whole lot I can say besides gushing over how much I enjoyed reading this. The pacing was excellent, the characters were intriguing... All the recipes of a good thriller were here and the twist was executed perfectly. I can't wait to read more books by this author.

If you love thrillers, you MUST read this one!

BLURB :: Lucy is suspected of murdering her best friend…but she has no memory of that night. Everyone in her small hometown believes she did it. So when a hit true crime podcast begins investigating Savvy’s murder, Lucy returns to the town she vowed to never set foot in again, determined to solve her friend’s murder, even if she’s the one who did it.

THOUGHTS :: I’m obsessed with stories that have mixed media, (in this case - a podcast element) ESPECIALLY when the audiobook reflects it; sounding like I’m listening to an actual podcast. LISTEN FOR THE LIE lives up to the HYPE! 👏🏽 I DEVOURED this book, not wanting to stop listening. Fast paced and suspenseful, it’s a story you can easily binge in a day!

There’s dark humor, witty banter, a hint of romance and a protagonist whose SASS is unmatched. Lucy has an UNHINGED, sarcastic persona and I loved her. 🤣 This isn’t your typical predictable thriller; I was guessing until the very end…did she? Didn’t she? If not, who did? That’s a sign of a great unreliable character and a solid plot line. Also >>> Grandma Beverly is a showstopper. 🤭

The chapters alternate between Lucy’s POV and the podcast interviews of her friends, family and town locals who ALL had an opinion on what transpired that fateful night. **I HIGHLY recommend consuming this on audio for a full experience!!**

4.5 ⭐️

WOW I am at an absolute loss for words. I was so hooked to this book. Like I genuinely cannot tell you the last time I was so interested in a book. I sat this book down once and that was to run to the bathroom. This book did sort of remind me of Stacy Wilingham's All the Dangerous Places, but was even better.

Publication Date: March 5, 2024
#ListenfortheLie #NetGalley

The debut adult novel (she typically writes YA) from Amy Tintera is simply in a word engaging! I'm not typically a lover of the thriller genre but this book kept me up to the wee hours of the morning.

I was reeled in from the first line "A podcaster has decided to ruin my life, so I'm buying a chicken".
With a start like that you'd be expecting a funny book but this book deals with domestic violence, toxic relationships and dysfunctional families. Lucy, the main female character is the unreliable narrator, who hears voices telling her to kill people. It becomes clearer whose voice she's hearing as you get deeper into the story. Lucy can't remember what happened 5 years ago when she was found wandering around covered in her best friend's blood. She was never charged with Savvy's murder, but most of the people in the small town of Plumpton, including her parents and ex-husband were and still are convinced she's guilty.
Ben, who has a very successful true crime podcast, comes to town to try to figure out what happened. Unbeknownst to Lucy, her kick-ass grandmother Beverly has orchestrated the whole thing because she's never believed Lucy was the murderer. Lucy agrees to help Ben but only because her grandmother has asked her to.
There are many twists and turns and a lot of suspects, but the journey to get to the truth was never boring. I really enjoyed this book despite the subject matter.
This is a true "me too" movement book and a lot of good points are made about how a woman's version of the truth is completely dismissed in favour of the man's version.
A quote from the book "Men always believe each other".
5* + read and I'll be looking for more adult novels from this author.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A very solid and creative thriller. I have seen the podcast angle executed poorly or clumsily in the past, but it is used well here. This is a clever, fun, and suspenseful romp that is also plenty sexy.

4.5 stars

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera was the kind of thriller that took me off guard. When I first started it I was casually into reading it, and didn’t have particularly strong feelings about it either way, and then I got going with the book and was shocked when I realized I was already around the halfway mark. This is that kind of book. You don’t realize how deeply immersed in it you are until you clue into how much of it you’ve actually flown through in no time at all. It hooks you into the plot before you even notice and then you’re a goner because you need to find the answers the characters are seeking, while trying to put things together for yourself.

One of the things that really sucked me into this book was the podcast aspect to it. Not only does it center around a podcaster trying to solve this real life crime by coming to the town where it happened and interviewing the people that were there the night of the incident, but it also features snippets of the episodes of said podcast at the end of a number of chapters. Having this different style of the story being told, which presented a number of revelations in a different format was really immersive and one of the many reasons I found myself flying through chapter after chapter. It also served to throw me right into the plot because I feel like this was the aspect of the story that had me trying to put things together to figure out what happened the night of the murder, and who the murderer was, the most. It kind of threw me into the podcast and brought out that solving a true crime drive as a result.

Savvy, loved by all and lauded as a sweet, giving person, was murdered one night after a wedding and no one knows why or who did it. Although the entire town thinks it was her best friend Lucy, who stumbled out around the same place Savvy’s body was found with no memory of the events that took place that night. Without enough evidence Lucy is let go without charge, but the entire town believes her to be the killer regardless. Now, years later Lucy returns to her hometown for her grandmother’s birthday, when a podcaster by the name of Ben just happens to be to uncover the events of that night and find out who really killed Savvy and why.

Listen for the Lie is definitely a thriller to pick up, because when I say you get completely sucked into the mystery of what happened and uncovering clues and startling revelations due to the podcast, boy do I mean. I completely blasted through this book because I could not put it down as every little thing left me needing more, from the chaos, to the new information revealed that had me needing to read the next chapter, just to have more information exposed and resulting in a cycle of me not being able to stop at the end of any chapters.

The characters were exquisite in their realness and imperfections. The kind of imperfections you would expect from people either accused of murder (Lucy), or potentially brought up as suspects due to the podcast. Not to mention just people willing to believe the worst of someone just because they’re essentially told to. Lucy was a fantastic character to have the story told by as well, because she was unreliable in her inability to remember, as well as in her own shaky uncertainty in her own innocence and the effect this trauma has had on her mentality over the years. It all came together to form a book that had all the best parts of a thriller, with characters you actually were rooting for not being the culprit and so much tension with the uncertainty of it. Even Savvy. The townsfolk present this perfect image of who she was at her death, saintly and kind, when in reality her identity is so much more complicated and one only certain people choose to remember.

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera gets a highly recommend from me for all of the thriller lovers out there. Don’t miss this one because it is such an immersive, impossible to stop until you finish kind of book.

The plotting within the pages of this book is riveting with the characters as the stars. The twists, red herrings, and ongoing suspense keep you fixated on the story. Amy is an amazing character with her unreliable memory and quick wit, as is charming podcaster Ben Owens, but my favorite has to be Amy's grandmother, Beverly, with her persuasive and charming personality and penchant for day drinking. This book is perfect for fans of whodunnits and small-town mysteries who like a good twist.

Oh my goodness, this was fantastic! I was craving a really satisfying thriller, and I love plots where a character has to go back and face their past to discover what really happened. And Listen For The Lie had all that and more! I loved the true crime aspect of it and the main character, Lucy, was fantastic. This story was gripping and hilarious and I loved every minute of it!

Thank you Celadon Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. All opinions are my own.

For fans of true crime podcasts and unreliable narrators, this debut mystery will keep you asking what happened and does the truth even matter?

I really enjoyed the alternating narration/podcast interview style of this book. The pacing was consistent and strong throughout the story and kept me turning the page. This is definitely a bingeable book.

Our main character, Lucy, uses dark humor and sarcasm to protect herself, even 5 years after tragedy strikes her life. I loved her banter and found myself laughing even at the most inappropriate times. Red herrings left and right in this one leaving you guessing until the end who the real killer is. Honestly, the amount of drama swirling in this small Texas town will keep you on your toes. It’s hard to really like most of these characters, including the FMC at times but that just adds to the unreliable narration and makes this a crazy mystery to follow.

Check trigger warnings for this one, particularly concerning DV.

Overall an impressive debut adult piece from an author who has only written YA.

I absolutely ate this book up!If you are looking for a page turner that will keep you guessing, then this is the book for you. Clear your calendars on March 5,24, you will want to be doing nothing but reading this book. This story is about Lucy whom everyone in her small town believes murdered her best friend Savvy after a wedding. Savvy’s body is found and Lucy is found walking hurt and battered herself with no recollection of what happened.
This is a top tiered classic “who done it?”. So many questions and people in the town that had their own reasons for wanting Savvy out of the picture. I really had a few people narrowed down, but I wasn’t correct in the end.
Ben a podcaster has taken up the mystery and visits the town and interviews everyone that had anything to do with these two women, and attended the wedding reception. Lucy finally agrees to cooperate with Ben as she tries her best to deal with this nightmare once and for all.
The story has you engaged from the very first chapter. The storytelling style is fabulous, Lucy has a dark sense of humour, very sarcastic type of personality which I loved. The chapters are short, and I had a hard time putting this one down. Although the podcast style type book seems to be very popular lately, this author does it the best I have seen yet. Absolutely 5 🌟 I cannot wait for Amy Tintera’ s next book. I will be first in line.
Thank you SO much to Celadon books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

✨Book Review✨

Listen for the Lie
Amy Tintera @amytintera
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: March 5, 2024

A special thank you to @celadonbooks for #gifted copy of this book. As well as a thank you to @netgalley & @macmillan.audio for an audio copy.

This book absolutely kept me guessing. As an avid lover of true crime podcasts this book was perfect.

This story was so unique and captured my interest immediately. It was one that I didn’t want to put down once I got started. Lucy’s inner monologue was one of my favorite parts of this book. She embraced her unfortunate role in her friend’s murder and played it off with witty comments and sarcastic remarks. Lucy’s family dynamic broke my heart but I’m so happy she had the love and support of her grandmother. Her character was probably my favorite in the book! 🤣

Quote: “Sugar is my main weakness, unless you count my inability to stop murdering people in my head.”

I enjoyed the twists and whodunnit vibes. I definitely was a little creeped out at times as well! I absolutely recommend this one to everyone who enjoys a twisty thriller!