A car accident the night of their senior picnic changes best friends Scarlett and Pepper forget. The lie about the accident to protect each other. Now twenty two years later, it’s been buried but Pepper’s daughter shows up to investigate what really happened.

This was a really good suspenseful read! Boy, did I really hate Pepper; she was a horrible person and made me hate read the parts with her. She gets even worse as it goes by. There were also some really great characters, so it evens out. I loved how the entire story really leads you on; dropping more information here and there about the past. The past time period was also great. The past event took place at a senior picnic in 1999- the same year that I graduated high school!

“Our new truth: the lovely lie.”

A Lovely Lie comes out 5/28.

I enjoyed this book so much!  It was such a page turner, and I really wish I had started it on a day when I wasn't so busy.  I really didn't want to put it down!  Jaime Lynn Hendricks has been added to my autobuy list.

In 1999, Scarlett and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident after their senior picnic.  Two of their classmates were killed, and they decided they needed to lie to protect themselves and their futures.  Shortly after the accident, Pepper leaves town, and Scarlett doesn't hear from her again.  Fast forward 22 years, Scarlett is married to Vince and raising her teenage son living a comfortable life.  But when Zoey, Pepper’s daughter, shows up out of the blue, her life is turned upside down.  Zoey brings news of Pepper’s death and a letter she found addressed to Scarlett.  Zoey plans on finding out who her father is and about her mother’s past.  What "accident" was she involved in that made her keep Zoey?  What other secrets was her mom hiding from her?

Told in multiple POVs and dual timelines, this fast-paced thriller will have you guessing until the very end.  There were so many secrets and lies that you just didn't know who to believe.  It had so many twists and so much drama!  This book was so incredibly entertaining!  I absolutely loved it and would HIGHLY recomm

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫: This book may cause loss of interest in all other activities in your life! It definitely may lead to sleep deprivation! And be prepared for a book hangover!

This book demanded to be inhaled, and inhale it I did! My plan was to read it over period of 3 days with a group of lovely book lovers: @tifflovesthrillers @thrillerschillersandkillers @lil.bit_reads & @rebby.reads . I usually enjoy having a reading schedule and pacing myself. Well A Lovely Lie was not having it! Just one more chapter led to me reading it in less than 24 hours!

This book had plenty of drama, secrets and unlikable characters! To be fair, good people who make good life choices don’t make for entertaining reading. And this book not just entertained me but it took me completely out of my day to day reality, making me forget everything except my need to read!

The mind of Jaime Lynn Hendricks must be a wonderous place. I Didn’t Do It was one of my favorite reads of 2023 and one of my favorite books in general and now A Lovely Lie did it again - gave me that magical feeling of joy inspired by despicable people doing despicable things in the funnest way possible!

I am so immensely grateful to @thrillerbookloverspromotions for making this exclusive tour possible! And a shout out to @jaimelynn and @scarlet for giving us early access to such a wonderful read! Jaime as long as you continue writing them, I’ll continue reading them, that’s for sure!

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler/Scarlet for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Huh. I'm not sure if I even liked this one. And yet I read almost all of it in one sitting. It's a very fast read with short chapters but zero suspense. I found myself rolling my eyes A LOT. Even though the characters are adults, it read more like a young adult novel. Granted, half the book takes place during a senior year in high school. But none of them have grown up. The characters were very unlikeable and you can figure out the "mystery" (if you can even call it that) pretty early on. Still, I'm giving this 3 stars because it wasn't awful. Just disappointing.

This was a thriller!! There was no shortage of twists, and the suspense was continuous. There was always something wild happening, and I loved every second of it. I was fully devoted to this book from start to finish. I thought I had it all figured out, but I was happy to learn I wasn't. There were so many layers to this one, that one shocking revelation just wasn't enough. There were many. This one will mess with your mind, but in the best way. I highly recommend going in blind, but if you're interested in the synopsis I will include it below.

If you love a book full of drama, secrets, and lies then this book is for you!!

@jaimelynnhendricksauthor killed it with this book! I loved everything about it! I especially loved the multiple POV and jumping back and forth between then and now. Soooo good!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ All the Stars for this one!

Thank you to @thrillerbookloverspromotions and @jaimelynnhendricksauthor for an advanced copy and the opportunity to promote this awesome book!

Pub: May 28, 2024

“Is it better to believe a lovely lie or know the horrible truth?”

QOTD: predictive text time!
My lovely lie is _________
My lovely lie is that I am a little bit more than a little bit of a fool 😂😂

✨

My name is Arianna and I am a happy victim of the compulsively readable thriller, A Lovely Lie. This book kept me captive for an entire day as I threw aside my to-do list to spend time in Flordia with Scarlett, Pepper and Zoe. Zero regrets, 10/10 experience.

A Lovely Lie is another winner by one of my favourite authors, @jaimelynnhendricksauthor . It may only be February, but I can safely say that A Lovely Lie is on my top 10 thriller list for the year. It’s that good!

The dual timelines are so well done and by setting the past in 1990s, Jaime Lynn Hendricks takes full advantage of the plot potentials of life before social media and the internet took over the world.

She’s the queen of creating loveably hateable characters and her female characters are always standouts. She’s not afraid to create messy, manipulative and evil women and she does this with a fresh perspective. No spoilers here, but I can say that each of the women in A Lovely Lie fascinated me in different ways.

A Lovely Lie delivers the perfect combo of twists and drama and packages it up into a bingable book you won’t be able to put down!

Make sure to add it to your TBR. You can also preorder it from your fave bookstore. I’m definitely adding a physical copy to my collection. In the meantime, I highly recommend digging into Jaime Lynn Hendricks’ backlist, starting with Finding Tessa. You won’t regret it!

Thank you so much to @thrillerbookloverspromotions @jaimelynnhendricksauthor and @scarletsuspense for including me on this book tour 🖤

Thank you to ThrillerBookLovers Promotions, Scarlet, #partner, for an advanced e- copy of A Lovely Lie in exchange for my honest review.

This is the second book I’ve read by Jaime Lynn Hendricks and I am a fan! You better believe I will be adding her other two books to my tbr immediately!

I flew through this book…it is so addictive and twisty! From the very first page, I was hooked and that never let up. Told from multiple points of view and alternating between the present and the past, this book kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat the entire time. I also loved the inclusion of the police interrogations because it added another layer to an already complex story line and had me questioning who and what I could believe.

I love a story where I am not sure how I feel about all the characters and I love it even more when my feelings change throughout the book and that definitely happened here. Characters I was lukewarm about to begin with I ended up growing to like towards the end, and the reverse happened with a few, too. And of course, I’m always a sucker for books about lies and that is the foundation of this story and it all spins horribly out of control from there. So many lies are told over the course of this book…it’s hard to keep track.

This is one book you do not want to miss. It’s totally binge-worthy and filled with such great twists and turns, many of which I did not see coming. Jaime Lynn Hendricks has definitely become a must-read author for me!

Is it better to believe a lovely lie or know the horrible truth?

This was a really well-done mystery/thriller. I enjoyed the characters, the plot twists, and the overall atmosphere of this book.

Anything that can make me like an irrevocably loatheable character? Solid win.

A Lovely Lie is insane because I thought I had it figured out. I felt I knew who the bad guy was (literally all of them when I first started reading). I loathed almost every character, and that's difficult for me to want to continue? Disliking every character was a constant until about 40% of the way through!!

But that ending? Fantastic really. Not even for the reveal - just for the level of visceral disgust created in me by this author's imagination. *Chef's kiss* - That might sound crazy to enjoy being disgusted, but I just was?! I enjoyed how gross she left the characters who stayed together, and while I was obviously happy for the 'good guys,.' You can't tell me some small part of you doesn't also relish knowing there are people actually that crazy IRL? It somewhat makes me feel better about anything I've ever done - because nothing will top horrendous behavior from people like this!

**Thank you to Penzler Publishers, Scarlet & NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. I received this book for free, but all thoughts are my own. – SLR 🖤

Scarlett and Pepper were teenage besties who were involved in a tragic accident the night of their high school graduation. They get their stories straight for the police, then Pepper leaves town soon after and never comes back. Scarlett makes a life for herself by marrying and having a baby with Pepper’s high school boyfriend (!!). When a mysterious young woman named Zoey breezes into town 22 years later, Scarlett’s carefully constructed house of cards threatens to collapse.

Jaime Lynn Hendricks is a queen of the juicy popcorn thriller and she’s back with another five-star wild ride! Thank goodness I had no plans for the weekend, because once I picked this one up, there was no way I could stop reading! JLH’s writing style is so snappy and kept me hooked the entire time. This book is action PACKED with tons of secrets, lies, and shocking twists. It’s got multiple POVs, dual timelines, and lots of characters you will love to hate! A totally bingeable read!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Penzler Publishers, and Thriller Book Lovers Promotions for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Title: A Lovely Lie
Author: Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Genre: Thriller; Suspense
Series or Standalone: Standalone
Rating: 4.5 Stars

Thank you to Jaime, Scarlet Imprint, & Thriller Book Lovers Promotions for an advance copy of A Lovely Lie.

On the night of their senior picnic, best friends Scarlett and Pepper are involved in a car accident that leaves two other seniors dead. Soon after Pepper moved away and Scarlett lost contact. Putting that night behind her, she goes forward with her life, gets married, has a son, and works at a prestigious hotel in Florida. Twenty two years later, a girl named Zoey walks into the hotel and introduces herself as Pepper’s daughter and tells Scarlett that Pepper has died and has a mysterious letter addressed to Scarlett. At 21 years old, Zoey is searching for answers as to why this letter mentions Pepper’s initial desire to get an abortion and inability to follow through. Zoey is determined to get to the bottom of her mother’s cryptic letter, but finding the answers could leave a trail of destruction and impact more lives than she knows.

This was my first book of Jaime’s but it absolutely won’t be my last. I was hooked from about the first page.

Jaime did a great job at giving me characters that come across as wildly unlikable, yet I still was invested in their successes (or downfalls) and by the end had given me a pretty solid redemption arc for one or two. I feel like the redemption arc in thrillers is rare and hard to achieve successfully so big kudos on that. I also like books that flashback to a time where the characters are on the cusp of adulthood but still hold an immature outlook on the world and their own vulnerabilities. It’s always cool to see how an adult character is written in comparison to their young adult version to gauge growth (or lack thereof).

The story was intriguing. Instead of returning to a hometown, these people just built a new life in their hometown ignoring everything that happened in the past, despite them all being connected in some way - it was a nice break from the ‘return to hometown’ trope. There were so many moving parts and so many deep secrets…I truly felt for some of these characters in finding out they kept things from people who were still actively in their lives for so long and how painful that must’ve been!

The twists & surprises pretty much start about 10% in and don’t stop until the final page. And, a rarity in thrillers, but we truly get a happily ever after!

“Is it better to believe a lovely lie or know the horrible truth?” Great question! A Lovely Lie was a twisty and bingy thriller that covered just about everything that appeals to me ⬇️

🚘 Dual time lines
🚘 Unlikable characters
🚘 Multiple POV’s
🚘 All the drama, secrets, lies and betrayals
🚘 Investigative interview transcripts

Overall this was a really fun read that kept me on my toes while I revelled in other people’s dirty laundry 🤣. I was a fan of the character relationships and not gonna lie, I loved hating on them all 🤷‍♀️. If you’re looking for a fast paced and thoroughly entertaining read, this is it. 3.75⭐️

Thank you to Thriller Book Lovers Promotions for the copy!

What started as a young woman trying to find her dad, turned into betrayal and lies. Zoey has recently found a box of her dead mother’s things. In it clues Zoey into believing her father is nearby but that there was a mysterious accident her mother was involved in. Being a journalism major, Zoey heads to her mom’s hometown to investigate.

Scarlet is living a quiet life with her not-so-impressive husband. She has a job she likes, a son she adores and a husband she is hoping to divorce soon. Along comes Zoey asking questions which upends Scarlet’s life.

If something is always true for thrillers, it’s that the past never stays in the past. This always brings in the mystery and answers and this story holds to that well. Many questions made me curious and kept me going, but I also loved the characters. We had good backstories for each and also some POV so I felt I understood their motives well. Seeing the mystery and story unfold from multiple sides added so much!

This was a fun one, it had a twist or two that shocked me and had me laughing out loud. It’s full of secrets, love, lies and murder. I definitely recommend this one!

The book releases May 28, 2024.

4.5 ✨

Hendricks is just good. Good at weaving tales with people who are shady and unreliable, sometimes at the same time. This one was such a tangle of lies coming at you from pretty much every character that you didn’t know who to believe.

I loved watching the story unfold, the lies unfurling so that the reality hit everyone right where they would feel it most. Pepper was a first class narcissist and psycho but I loved her POV, delusional as it was…

Thanks to #thrillerbookloverspromotions for putting this on my radar!

A Lovely Lie, by Jamie Lynn Hendricks was a deep twisty thriller. Perfect for those who love more than one POV, a nostalgia for the 90’s. Pepper and Scarlett were inseparable in high school. Pepper the bouncy cheerleader and Scarlett the “friend”. After highschool, all ties were cut by Pepper after a fateful night and tragic event, one that was never spoken again, until 22 years later, Pepper’s DAUGHTER pays an unexpected visit. This is one ☝🏻 to watch this spring!

Pub date - May 28, 2024.
#thrillerbookslover #bookpromotion #alovelylie #bookreviewers #bookblogs #jamielynnhendricks
5 ⭐️

Rating: 5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
•
Remember when I said my toxic trait was not being able to DNF? Well friends, I have another one for you, my biggest toxic trait is buying books and then letting them sit on my shelves. Im embarrassed to admit this but this was my first JLH. Why why why did I wait so long to read a JLH book?! WHY HAVE I BEEN MISSING OUT FOR YEARS?! (*As I grab all of her books off my shelf to binge immediately*)
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“You have no idea about the backstabbing that goes on when people pretend to be friends.”
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Fair warning: A Lovely Lie will give you a severe book hangover. That prologue *chefs kiss* talk about drama city. Told in a multi POV and dual timeline this book had me hooked from the start. I hated 75% of the characters, yet I couldn’t help but get wrapped up in the drama, lies, deception and manipulation. Seriously, these characters are diabolical, but you can’t help but want to know what happened that night at the senior picnic. I was glued to the screen as I read this one way past my bedtime.
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The epistolary format, via police interviews after the picnic and past conversations, gives you the right amount of detail to hint at but keep you guessing about the epic conclusion of this book. I had my theories (one of which was right - yay go me!), but JLH finds ways to constantly have you shifting your opinion with perfectly placed twists leaving you shocked to your core. The ending was superb, absolutely everything I could have asked for. I loved every second I spent with these characters as I read through their past and their present. This is a fast paced thrilling read and one I will definitely be thinking about for a while!
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All the stars for A Lovely Lie!!! Releasing on 5/28 - be sure to add this to your must read list!!! Huge thank you to NetGalley, Jaime Lynn Hendricks and Pendleton Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book really kept me on my toes with so many surprises throughout the book. The short chapters made it a breeze to read. I loved the multiple POVs and switching between the past and present. What an ending! I need to read more from this author! Thank you Thriller Book Lovers Promotions, Jaime Lynn Hendricks and Scarlet Suspense for my copy.

The night of their senior picnic, best friends Scarlett and Pepper are involved in an accident that killed two of their classmates. They lie about their night to the police and vow to keep the secret forever. Twenty something years later, Pepper’s daughter shows up at Scarlett’s work looking to find out who her father is….and stirring up everything from the past they’ve tried to put behind them.

Told from multiple POV’s and then and now timeline, this was a fast paced read with lots of highschool drama. Even as the characters are now adults. Who all is lying? What really happened that night? I couldn’t put it down until I knew!! Highly recommend this book!