True Crime Podcast + Unsolved Murder + Dark Humor? 100% Yes!

Oh my gosh this was such a wild ride!!!! Listen for the Lie had me captivated and on the edge of my seat trying to solve the mystery from page 1!

What do you do when the worst night of your life is one you have no memory of? That is exactly what has happened to our Anti-Heroine, Lucy. She has tried to move away, build a new life and put her past behind her but the voice inside her head just won’t let her rest. Add in her lovingly scheming Grandma Beverly and investigative true crime podcaster Ben Owens and the voices become a headache forcing her return to the one place she swore she would never return…home.

🎙️ True Crime Podcast
💀 Unsolved Murder
🏡 Small Town
🧠 Amnesia
🖤 Dark Humor
🔐 Secrets
🔍 Magnifying Glass
🫶 Grandma Beverly

Listen for the Lie felt like I was watching a television series play out on the page! Such a fun read and I can’t wait to see what Amy Tintera has in store for us next!

Method Read: 🎧 & 📖
The narration by January LaVoy & Will Damron was out of this world and the podcast details truly brought the story to life!

Thank you Celadon Books and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies!

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

Wow! Just wow! This book was so good. I was concerned that the podcast trope had been overdone, but nope! This book took it to an entirely new level! The amnesia trope is also done really well. I loved Lucy with her snarkiness and sarcasm. She was the perfect protagonist in this amazing thriller. A lot of the time I don’t love the person running the podcast, but in this case I adored Ben.

I haven’t been so impressed with an audiobook in a long time. The production was done so well, and both narrators, January LaVoy and Will Damron, were phenomenal. The way they blended together was spot on, and they truly brought this story to life. If you’re able to, I highly recommend listening to this one.

This book was a quick read that I didn’t want to put down. I needed to know what happened to Savvy, and if Lucy actually murdered her best friend. The small town setting works perfectly, and I adored Lucy’s grandmother! This book will definitely be one of my favorite thrillers this year.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for an advanced listeners copy in exchange for my honest review.

Lucy can’t remember anything about the night of her best friend Savvy’s death , but she was found that night walking alone with blood on her clothes. Did she kill her best friend ? Tune in to Ben Owens podcast ‘Listen For The Lie’ to find out 👀

This book was amazing on audio!! I don’t listen to audios often but I can honestly say the formatting of this one was perfection ! Dual narrators - but totally felt like more than 2 ! Background sounds , some music , it really had it all . The podcast portions were done so well, makes me want to listen to a real crime podcast by Ben Owens - so entertaining .

Also , such a great ‘whodunnit’ storyline overall! I was completely invested in these characters and couldn’t stop listening ! It was mysterious and thrilling yet hilarious and clever all in one.

I received this ARC from #NetGalley and #AmyTintera in exchange for my honest opinion of it. I had expected a tale of deceit and murder but got a lot more than that... Lucy was more than expected and less than hoped at the same time. Savvy's demise was unexpected and unnecessary, IMHO. However, I would recommend this book as a good read because Lucy got her closure and Emmett got his comeuppance in the end.

Imagine not being able to recall the details of an event that would forever change your life! That’s what happened to Lucy when her best friend was murdered and everyone blamed her! After being lured back to her hometown by her grandmother, Lucy meets, Ben, the podcaster who is digging up the past. Lucy agrees to meet with him and things become clearer. I loved Lucy’s character and her quirky family! The storyline is throughly entertaining, despite the dark subject matter of murder. The audiobook was fantastic and was narrated by one of my favorite narrators!

Lucy is unable to remember what happened the night her best friend, Savannah, whom everyone calls Savvy, got murdered. Everyone in her hometown town of Plumpton, Texas, believes Lucy is guilty since they left the wedding together, and soon after, she is the one found wandering the road covered in Savvy's blood after the gruesome murder. But why would Lucy murder her? She married the dreamiest guy in town and had everything she ever wanted. Or did she? Savvy was also the social butterfly around town, always kind and welcoming with a smile to everyone. They were known for being best friends around town. After the murder, Lucy leaves Texas to live in Los Angeles and start a new life. But when a podcaster, Ben Owens, investigates Savvy's murder for the second season of his famous podcast, Lucy returns to her hometown after speaking with her grandmother, who guilts her into attending her eightieth birthday and informs Lucy of her mother's broken leg. While in town, Lucy ends up investigating the murder. So, will she recall what happened that night? And uncover herself as the murderer? Or will she uncover something more dangerous and shocking?

I did not expect to love this book as much as I did! I usually take a hard pass when I see a podcast mentioned in books. However, this book was getting a lot of hype, and I had FOMO Feelings. I finally took the plunge and picked it up, and I am glad I did!
Listen For The Lie is my first time reading a book by Amy Tintera, and I was surprised in the best way. And I am looking forward to seeing what she writes next.
It's a twisty whodunit with grit and humour; I don't think I've laughed so much reading a thriller, and it was for all the right reasons. This book had from the beginning.
The character development in this book is top-notch, with each primary and secondary character having a distinct personality and fully developed, making every interaction so much fun to read. The dialogue was so witty and fresh. Lucy had this dark, sarcastic humour about her that made me laugh out loud and instantly connect with her and her grandma, Beverly, but I can't say there wasn't a character I didn't think was entertaining. Listen For The Lie is not your traditional thriller; as much as I wanted to know what happened to Savannah, lovingly known as Savvy, I was not rushing to find out because I loved reading about everything happening in Plumpton, Texas—the snarky and shady back and forth between the characters were clever. It kept me on my toes and kept me guessing.

The other great thing about this book is that the author hits the mark with the right tones at the correct moment. (IMO) There are some hilarious parts, but the author doesn't forget that the police must also investigate someone who committed a gruesome crime. And those parts are riveting and intense in equal measure. There are enough twists in the story that it's not easy to figure out who is ultimately guilty of killing Savvy, so the author also does the thriller portion of this book justice. I paired my ADC copy with the ALC for
I was lucky enough to get this book in both digital and audio formats, and while both are fabulous, the audio was brilliant. I liked that there was a podcast format within the book. I liked that we had an unreliable narrator and that she didn't even know what happened again until the end, making the audiobook great to listen to.
It sounds like a podcast with the theme music played at the beginning and end and the different characters' POVs throughout the podcast.
I felt like I was listening to an actual podcast. January Lavoy and Will Damron did a fabulous job narrating. They both brought life to the primary and secondary characters and made me feel like I was with them. It was a realistic and fully immersive experience. I highly recommend listening to this on audio 🎧 and if haven’t listened to a audiobook before this would be the perfect one to start with.

<b>Publication Date March 5, 2024

<b> Warning ⛔️ if you find foul language offensive, you might want to skip this book; it is throughout it!
<b><br />Fun Fact: January Lavoy and Will Damron are a married couple since 2022-present

<b><br />Plot 4-stars Audio 5-stars

<b><br />I want to thank Celadon Books, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ADC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Every once in a while, a mystery/thriller really delivers. This is that book.
This story was incredibly interesting, tying together past and present timelines, a case of amnesia, and utilizing a podcast to bring the story together.
I enjoyed our main character. Her traumatic past and her present difficulties were hard to listen to/read about, but allowed for a layered and richly developed character. In mystery/thriller style books, I often feel that characters have less personality, that there's such a focus on "how," we lose the importance of detailed characterization. Amy Tintera excels at combating that. Not only is her writing of our main character impressive, but she's also managed to create a slew of other interesting, flawed, sometimes terrible, and sometimes wonderful side characters.
I really enjoyed the inclusion of a podcast into this story, especially while listening to the audiobook. It allowed for the addition of more characters, more perspectives, and a way to dive into the mystery through a lens that wasn't the main character's. I feel like the podcast element really elevated the story and had me genuinely confused, in a good way, about what the ending was going to be.
While I don't mind guessing the ending to a mystery/thriller if the writing and storyline are up to par, it's more fun if I don't. I definitely didn't guess the ending to this story. It wasn't that the ending was so far out of the realm of possibility that it didn't make sense, which has happened to me with mystery/thrillers and is incredibly disappointing, it's because Tintera hides her clues expertly throughout this story.
If you are looking for an interesting mystery/thriller to keep you guessing throughout the story this is the book for you! And the audiobook? So good!

What if everyone around you believed that you killed your best friend?

A couple of years ago, Lucy was found wandering through the streets at night, drenched in her best friend’s blood. The worst part of it all is that Lucy cannot seem to remember anything about that night. Of course, the people in her town don’t believe that story one bit - not even her own parents.

Now, years later after the death of Savvy, A successful podcaster, Ben Owens, took particular interest in Lucy's case. Owens chases Lucy back to her hometown so he can get the full story directly from her. Will Ben Owens be able to put all the pieces together and help Lucy remember what happened that night? Did Lucy kill Savvy?

This book isn’t your typical thriller, instead, it is packed with a lot of dark humor and big personalities. I loved our FMC, Lucy, but her grandmother was really the gem here. If you know, you know.

The past/present timelines were *chef’s kiss*. Everything was perfectly calculated in this book. When I tell you I couldn’t put this one down… I needed to know if Lucy was actually being truthful in not remembering anything about that night or if she was simply lying.

This story made for one heck of an enjoyable audiobook due to the podcast aspect. The narrators, real life couple, January LaVoy and Will Damron killed it in this one. I hope they’ll collaborate together in future projects because the chemistry was amazing.

Besties, you won’t want to miss out on this book, seriously, add to your carts!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author for this ALC.
Pub date: 03/05/24

Find me on IG @coffeebreakwithrachel

Amazing! Unputdownable!

One of those books that make me think I won the lottery for getting it as an ARC.

Lucy was the prime suspect in her best friend’s murder, but the police could never prove she did it. Five years later a podcaster decides to make a podcast about what happened that day, and well… things happen! This book was written to be an audiobook. The production of this is absolutely perfect, if you have to decide whether you want the physical book or the audiobook, the answer is the audiobook: it has little podcasts pieces and it’s absolutely perfect!

Thanks NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for providing me with a digital reviewer copy of this amazing book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

It’s warm here in Ohio today and this might be why I’m thinking summer blockbuster reads. This one might be kicking off that season and one that everyone talks about all year. I know it’s on the list of favorites of the year.

While I have never listened to a podcast, I love reading about them. And for the audio version, I loved the little bit of music that played that alerted the listener that the next part was the podcast. This really helped me not miss that switch. I recently was joking that I almost never heard the chapter number when listening even though the narrator always reads it. Ben Owens, the podcast host, is very personable and likable. And I never trust the characters in a thriller, but I really wanted to believe he was genuine. Sorry you’ll have to read for yourself to see if he

I sympathized with Lucy and the weight and stigma of not knowing if she killed her best friend and thought it was gutsy that she would search for the answer. And OMG I loved the voice in her head telling her it wanted to kill. This made me doubt Lucy’s innocence, but brought such comic relief to the tense story. I usually get sick of something done over and over, but that voice never grew old. And January Levoy used the perfect voice to bring those moments to life.

I think both listening and eyeball reading works for this one, but this time I might give the edge to the audiobook. January and Will Damron really hit their narration out of the park.

This will seriously be the book everyone is talking about, so grab this soon so you can be in on the discussion.

I would listen to anything January LaVoy narrates.

Listen to the Lieis a true crime podcast where the host, Ben, tries to get to the bottom of unsolved murders. This season he is focused on the murder of Savannah and whether or not her best friend Lucy had anything to do with it. While not convicted, Lucy’s hometown including her parents and ex husband are convinced she did.

I am a sucker for a whodunnit with an ending I don’t see coming. Add in a snarky FMC with dry humor and I am completely sold. This book was essentially modern whodunnit perfection.

When Lucy was found covered in her best friend’s blood, her best friend, Savvy, was found murdered, Lucy had no memory of what happened, and no other suspects surfaced, it was easy for everyone to assume that Lucy murdered her best friend. With no actual evidence, Lucy was never charged and eventually moved to LA, leaving her small hometown and the accusations behind. Or so she though, until a podcaster decides to investigate the cold case.

I absolutely loved everything about Lucy. I love the memory loss trope when it is done well, and here it was executed perfectly. Lucy has almost no fear about what the podcast will uncover and despite all of the gossip about her, is as eager as anyone to know what really happened.

This was the perfect balance of snark and banter with the tension at the core of the story. I have been needing a mystery with an FMC who doesn’t make a stream of questionable choices and who I genuinely enjoyed. This was the book I have been needing.

There was no shortage of suspects, and I tried the whole time I was reading this to figure out whodunnit it. I did not even get close. I love being as shocked by the who part of the whodunnit as I was with this book.

I listened to this on audio and the audio was spectacular, if you are an audiobook person, I cannot recommend the audiobook of this enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. I leave this review voluntarily.

If you were a fan of Lisa Jewell's None of This Is True, add Listen for the Lie to your TBR immediately! The audiobook is produced well, with a full cast of voices. With a story that centers around a podcast, I love the cuts to the podcast transcription (in the book) and surrounded by the theme song in the audiobook. Until the very end, Tintera did a fantastic job keeping me on my toes until the bitter end.

Thank you to Netgalley, Celadon Books, and McMillan Audio for both the Kindle and audiobook versions in exchange for my honest review.

For a debut novel---this was just amazing! I loved the narration, loved the story and really loved the grandmother! Looking forward to more from this author for sure!

Awesome story...I loved it. lots of twists and turns in this book. I also love that there are 2 people reading this book. Makes it so much better. I would recommend this book to anyone....its really good

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera, 352 pages. Celadon Books, 2024. $25.
Language: R (243 swears, 94 “f”) ; Mature Content: R; Violence R
BUYING ADVISORY: ADULTS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Lucy (29yo) left her hometown five years ago after being accused of killing her best friend, Savvy. Her anonymity in California is shattered when Ben Owens (28yo) starts season two of his true crime podcast, trying to solve the cold case of Savvy’s murder. With her identity exposed, Lucy doesn’t have a reason to say no when her grandma asks Lucy to come back home for her birthday—with the murder fresh on everyone’s minds.
Tintera’s writing is compelling. I was invested from the first sentence—I couldn’t wait to figure out what was true and what wasn’t. With the subject matter at hand, Tintera did a fabulous job of balancing the thriller suspense with dark humor that provided comic relief—I laughed out loud so many times that I lost count. This is the first non-YA book that I’ve read by Tintera, and the only negative thing I have to say is that I’m disappointed that she put so much sexual content in the book. Everything else was great.
Paige is Black, Nina is Latina, and everyone else is implied White. The mature content rating is for drug and alcohol use; innuendo; illegal activity; groping; nudity; mentions of condoms, genitalia, rape, and oral sex; and sex. The violence is for blood and gore, assault, mentions of domestic violence, and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This audio was super entertaining! I love listening to a book that has a podcast in it - I don’t think physically reading gives the same effect.

Super twisty, and just so well done.

I had to give up at 70% it is too slow moving. I only lasted this long because the drunk 80yo grandmother is awesome and reminds me of Blanche on the Golden Girls. She has some great 1-liners.

From the start this story felt like dirty laundry “been there done that”.

I also found the MC extremely unlikable and a loser. I was even more baffled by how she is described by others bc she wasn’t actually strong or self-assure; she was whiny and somewhat of a cry baby. When she kept crying about not having had sex in a long time I told her to go buy a vibrator. That’s what a strong woman would do.

I also grew so tired of the 90210 incestuous between all the characters. I have no interest in gossip or who is sleeping with who and other cattiness which is a large part of the story.

Lastly, this book needs to be audio format only as most of it is podcast episodes and interviews.

Thanks netgalley for my ALC.

I really wanted to love this audiobook. There was a lot of hype around the ending but it finished and I had to listen to it three times to see if I missed something. Nope, all just rolled out as expected…. Quick short chapters were easy to listen to and it was set up like a podcast which I think many will enjoy. Personally though I don’t enjoy the multiple voices. It gave me Run Rose Run vibes, I’ll have to see if it was the same narrator.

This has been posted to Goodreads.

📖 Listen for the Lie
Author: Amy Tintera
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: thriller
Format: Audio
Audio Length: 9 hours and 18 minutes
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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"You don't owe anyone your whole story."
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A FIVE star thriller!! Amy Tintera had me invested from the beginning. LOVED the true crime podcast in between the chapters. I was back and forth guessing who the murderer. I was entertained the whole time. HIghly recommend it!!