A compelling page-turner, from the gripping opening chapter to the satisfying last line. I enjoyed the mystery, despite wishing it was more sophisticated and had more depth. Still, I definitely did not see that whodunit coming! 👏 Loved how all the dots connected.

But what really got to me was the love story and when Ariel describes how she feels about Drew... whew, don't I know it. Them summer vibes too. And the bus scene with the stranger made me cry!!! 🥹

I enjoyed the social commentary about technology and surveillance being a double-edged sword, but feel that the book could have dug deeper. The climax also felt underwhelming after so much tension, with everything too neatly wrapped into a bow.

An engaging, breezy and riveting read that never lets up! Extremely readable and bingeable 👍

Wow I thought I reviewed this story a long time ago. Sorry.. I love how her stories come alive from the first page until the end. She takes you on an incredible journey. This was a nice surprise with twist and surprises along the way. Happy I read this one.

It took a while for the story to build, then it came in like a firehose.

When a cellphone tower outage 5 years ago wrecks your world....this get really complicated. Abandonment, corporate cover-ups, lost love, drug dealers.....there is a lot here.
The story begins when people get blasted with a text message from five years ago. Three people (related) get a message that sends their lives spinning. Secrets get uncovered, friends are threatened and lost loves are still being looked for.
The ending is not completely unseen but it is happy!

I've read Sarina Bowen for quite some time, but The Five Year Lie is very different from her previous romance books.

From the very beginning, the book pulls you in. Getting a text from someone you loved that you thought was dead? Umm... I need to know more!

I thought Sarina Bowen did a good job for her first thriller. It was suspenseful with some unexpected twists and turns. Without saying much to give away any of the plot, It kept me intrigued for sure. However, I did feel some parts were a little lack luster.

3.5 stars rounded up

What would you do if you received a text message from someone who has been dead for five years?

There are so many things that I really loved about this book (LOVED the thriller aspect and trying to put together the pieces). One thing that I did not love was the dual timeline format. I really liked the present day storyline and perspective but could have done without the past timeline.

Thank you to NetGalley, publishers, and Sarina Bowen for the advanced copy!

The Five-Year Lie by Sarina Bowen is an intriguing suspense novel with a promising premise. The story unfolds with a decent pace, and the mystery surrounding Drew's disappearance keeps readers engaged. While the plot twists are decent, some elements of the storyline felt predictable. The characters are likable enough, but their development could have been deeper.

Overall, it's a solid read that provides an entertaining escape, but it doesn't quite reach the heights of a truly gripping thriller.

A tense story about how well you can really know the people in your lives and the people you thought were gone forever. Fast-paced and fun!

Might be in the minority but I was slightly underwhelmed! The author lost me with the romance part, but I enjoyed the characters and a couple of the twists had my jaw on the ground. Will absolutely give the author another chance and can't wait to see what she comes out with next! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Ariel Cafferty, mother of four-year-old Buzz in Portland, Maine works part time as office manager for the family business (Chime Co.) and creates blown glass pieces.

An urgent text message from Buzz's dead father Drew Miller sets Ariel on a quest for answers.

The story moves back and forth in time to reveal very sinister uses of the company's technology, tied into police and judicial corruption

3.5!!!

I love everything Sarina Bowen does so her adding a thriller into the mix was super exciting.

This mostly takes place in Portland, Maine, so knowing all the places and streets mentioned added a layer of fun.

Overall this book kept me on my toes but I cannot get past how easily Ariel just found Drew/Jay and let him back into her life after 5 years of NOTHING and thinking he was dead. That transition was a little too seamless for me to get past, although I'm a sucker for a happy ending so will still recommend this book to everyone. 😂

Absolutely fantastic read! I love a good domestic thriller and this one did not disappoint! Can’t wait to read more by this author xx

A woman receives a mysterious text from the man she thought was dead, leading her on a quest to uncover the truth about his disappearance. As she digs deeper, she realizes that everything she knew was a lie, and someone is still hiding the truth. With her safety and her son's at risk, she must unravel the mystery before it's too late.

This book was somewhat understated for my taste. However, I did appreciate the intricate plot and the way everything unfolded. At times, it did feel a bit drawn out and overly explained, but the ending was swift and satisfying. I particularly enjoyed the clever storyline and the unexpected twists it offered. It could be described as a cozy romance mystery, with just the right amount of intrigue and charm.

The narrative seamlessly transitions between the present and events that occurred five years ago, providing a comprehensive understanding of the story. I highly recommend this book to fans of compelling mysteries and captivating romance suspense.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for my digital ARC copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I’ve enjoyed so many Bowen romances over the years – a number of college hockey books and then professional hockey books. (Hockey is my least favorite of the Big 4 of American sports, but somehow it’s 99% of of my sports-related romance reading. Go figure.) I’ve also read a couple that weren’t hockey-related. When I heard she had a new suspense book, I snapped it up.

I would say The Five-Year Lie is more of a romance/suspense hybrid, told in a split timeline and with most of the romance content taking place in the earlier timeline.

In the present day, Ariel Cafferty is in a Monday morning team meeting when her phone lights up with an incoming text. Her heart stops when she realizes it’s from a voice from the past – Drew, who she had a whirlwind romance with five years before. The message urges Ariel to come to their meeting spot in the park as soon as possible. There are a couple of issues with that though – number one, Drew disappeared abruptly from her life with no explanation and number two, he is dead.

It turns out that the message was part of a snafu on the part of a cell-phone provider – Ariel and many other people got messages that had been sent five years before and never received. Ariel is still intrigued by the message though – Drew disappeared out of her life without a word, and now she finds that *he* did try to contact her.

Ariel works for the family business, a doorbell security company called Chime that sounded a bit like Ring. She has worked there for years and is comfortable with her office manager position being a perquisite of being the daughter and niece of the two founders. Ariel appreciates the easiness of the job, since it allows her to pursue her artistic passion – glassblowing, and also take care of her young son, Buzz. Yes, Drew left something behind when he left.

(I kind of groaned at the secret kid trope, though since it was Drew that took off and then died, he wasn’t really a secret kid. Also, Ariel has a sentimental reason for calling her son Buzz. I still HATED the name – apologies to any fans of it out there.)

In the earlier timeline Ariel meets Drew when he’s hired by the family company. She doesn’t know that he has an ulterior motive for working there, or that Drew is not his real name. Drew is ambivalent about getting involved with Ariel; he’s on a mission and he doesn’t want to be distracted, nor does he want to hurt Ariel. But their attraction is undeniable, and soon they’re in love.

On the day that Drew disappears, Ariel’s father dies suddenly. He isn’t exactly mourned; he was hyper-critical of Ariel and abusive to most of the people around him. Ariel’s uncle (her father’s brother; co-owner of the company) is much more likable and has been in a relationship with Ariel’s mother since shortly after her father’s passing.

Sometime after Drew disappears, Ariel finds an obituary detailing his death in a motorcycle accident in North Carolina. This leaves her as a single parent to Buzz, and until the wayward text, she doesn’t question any of the events that have lead up to the present day.

The suspense plot involves Chime possibly being involved in some shady things with their products – they apparently heavily market the cameras to police and there is evidence of corruption and surveillance misuse related to that. I thought this aspect of the story was fresh and interesting and realistically scary. The nitty-gritty of the tech stuff was sometimes a bit tedious, but not enough to detract from the story significantly.

One thing I liked was that Drew was not portrayed as uber-competent in his espionage – unbeknownst to him, he is actually caught in his sleuthing activities pretty quickly. It’s not that he’s incompetent, just that he’s in over his head a bit, which felt realistic to me. Drew is an Army veteran who lost part of his leg to an IED, and while he has something of a tech background (enough to get hired at Chime, anyway) he is more of an action type than a computer savant. He has personal reasons for trying to dig up information on Chime’s activities.

In the present day storyline, Ariel tries to understand what happened when Drew left, but her investigation, with the help of another Chime employee, leads to sinister happenings. There is a break-in at her house that leaves her terrified for the safety of her son. Ariel doesn’t know who to trust since her family and the police are both implicated in these events.

It’s hard to talk about one of my issues with this book without delving into a spoiler, so here goes:

Spoiler: Show

I was pretty engrossed in The Five-Year Lie when I was reading it but in retrospect my feelings are a little less enthusiastic. The writing was decent and the plot held my attention, but the melding of suspense and romance didn’t quite work. Ariel was a pretty strong heroine but the other characters – except perhaps Zain, Ariel’s computer geek co-worker – were kind of bland and superficial. My grade for this was a low B.

I love Sarina Bowen’s writing and you should too. I don’t usually read thrillers (real life is scary enough) but I was willing to try for her. This was a good read and I’m grateful for love story throughout.

This was marketed as a thriller, but this is a weird romance with a little bit of mystery? And very slow.

I previously have read 2 of this author's mm romances and very much enjoyed them so was suoer thankful to receive an ARC of this one for my honest reveiw. This one starts interestingly enough, and I liked the twists but it got a bit bogged down in the middle. Ultimately enjoyable read.

Ariel and Drew fall in love while working at ChimeCo--Ariels family business. Drew disappears and Ariel ends up with his obituary. Years later she receives a text messages from the day Drew went missing. There are multiple POV's and the story is pretty good however it took a bit to get into it. Ariel wasn't my fav FMC , she irritated me often.

Ariel and Drew work together at Ariel's family business, ChimeCo., where they fall in love. One day Drew up and ghosts Ariel without any explanation, followed by a very unexpected obituary. Fast forward five years and a glitch in a cell phone tower delivers a five year old text message to Ariel from Drew: Meet me ASAP. What happens next is a whirlwind exploration trying to find out just what happened to Drew. Ariel teams up with another ChimeCo. employee and together they piece together the guy Ariel knew as Drew. Told in both the past and the present, and from two POVs, this allows the reader to figure out what is going on long before Ariel does and I liked this aspect. This is my first book by Sarina Bowen, and this is Sarina's first mystery/thriller. I enjoyed this story a lot. It has a slower pace and not a lot of ups and downs, but it was what I needed at this time.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What would you do if you received a text message from your ex who’s been dead for years? Ariel, it turns out, will spiral and become intertwined with the mystery surrounding his disappearance and death while putting herself in danger.

This was a fun, quick book. It definitely took a little bit to pick up and get going but once it did, I didn’t want to put it down. I thought the storylines about the ethics of doorbell cameras and how they can be extremely dangerous when put in the hands of the wrong people.

I hate to say it but Ariel was an insufferable main character. She’s spoiled, selfish and just irritating. I also feel like they threw one twist out of left field with no lead up to that being a possibility.

But regardless, I had fun! And I really liked the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I enjoyed this book as it was well written, especially the main characters in this book. I loved the kid “Buzz” he was perfectly reflected in this book and how a child would act. The mystery was fun to figure out and see what was going to take place as you progressed through the story. I did enjoy the mixture of the Present and Past so you can see how the story evolves. It was definitely a good domestic thriller to read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks and Sarina Bowen for the ARC of this book!