I really enjoyed The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of Lovers and Liars from Netgalley. It has a premise right up my alley as it follows the lives of three sisters as they navigate their adult lives. Sylvie is the youngest, a librarian, and recently engaged after being a widow for ten years, Middle sister, Emma, is caught up in a MLM nightmare that no one knows about. And Cleo, the oldest, is dating Danny, but is in love with her bff, Isaac. This is all then centered around Sylvie's wedding at a castle in England.

The biggest issue I had with this book is the amount of characters. There are the three sisters: each of them has a husband/boyfriend: Emma has two kids; Sylvie's fiance has a daughter; there's the sister's nightmare of a mother, Donna; Sylvie's two friends; Isaac, Cleo's best friend; Simon's father; and a caretaker, Louisa. And then the two dead characters - the girl's dad and Sylvie's husband. This is too many people in the short book! Most of them felt one dimensional and not important to the movement of the plot. It was distracting and annoying for someone to be mentioned then not brought up again for several chapters.

The book doesn't know if it wants to be funny or serious either. It has a lot of trauma in it for everyone involved, but it doesn't feel as though the author the characters take any of it that seriously. The whole situation with Emma and Donna and their night walks when Emma is a pre-teen! Just no.

I'm sure others will enjoy this book, but it was not for me. Take out a couple of characters and not rush the ending and it has more promise. Rounding up to 3 stars from 2.5.

This was a fun and drama filled novel about three English sisters. It was so much fun to read. I would recommend to fans of Marian Keyes.

This is the story of three sisters, who are reuniting after 10 years because the youngest, Sylvie, at 35 is getting married again. Cleo the oldest is in a long term relationship with a man she doesn't love, Emma is married with two sons and running up debt for her family. Sylvie has found love after losing her husband 10 years ago in an automobile accident. She has built her deceased husband up in her mind and isn't sure she can let him go and move on with Simon. Simon is a very rich man of questionable wealth. Interesting family dynamics largely due to growing up with a narcissistic mother. I liked how all the sisters ended up when the book was finished. 3 1/2 stars.

The story of 3 sisters gathering with their families at a destination wedding. Each sister's life is examined along with their mother.

I read this book in about 24 hours. For a majority of that time, I was kind of confused what the plot was? It kind of seemed like everyone was in crisis up until the end when all of a sudden they weren't and all was fine.
The three sisters all had challenges of their own but to me the most stressful was Emma. At the beginning of the story you find that Emma is tens of thousands of dollars in debt and with each chapter her debt grows. THAT WAS STRESS INDUCING.
The resolution of the story felt to easy? Like, everyone came clean with the secrets that they were hiding and everyone was just ok with it all?

I also wish there had been more character development. I knew that I was supposed to root for and love these characters for the struggles that they faced in their childhood but I didn't really feel that with this book.

All this to say, I still enjoyed the ending of this book. I was rooting for most of these characters to at least be ok.
I would give this 3.5 stars.

This is a book that I would still recommend. The story was enjoyable and the setting was obviously very dreamy. Who wouldn't want to escape to a castle in Northern England!

I really don't know if I can give this book a star rating, but a 5-star rating seems appropriate.

As you can tell, this book is about lies; it is also about a family of 3 sisters, a mother, and the men in almost all their lives. This book had me feeling several emotions as I was reading it. I had a twisty, anxious feeling in my stomach for some parts, deep anger for other parts, and a nearly ho-hum feeling for a lot of it. But this book blended these parts well and kept me fascinated, so that I just had to finish it!

One sister - Sylvie - annoyed me with her dreaminess and longing for her long-dead husband (I know that sounds cold, but if you read this book, I think you'll see what I mean). Another sister -Emma- is keeping a HUGE secret (lie) from her husband that may destroy her family, and the last sister- Chloe- just can't seem to get her act together romantically even though she is an intelligent, sharp-witted woman.

Sylvie is getting married, and the whole family, including their estranged *itch of a mother, is going to England to a castle to see it happen. Of course, this castle happens to be Sylvie's fiance's castle!

Things go from excellent to bad to worse and then to nearly excellent again.

Everything is tied up neatly in a nice epilogue.

A perfect beach read, in my opinion. This was a fast read, told from three different views, and kept me riveted.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher Ballantine Books/Random House, the author, and NetGalley. My thanks.

I love a good sister story. The Peacock sisters each have a secret and are all still processing the trauma from their childhoods. This includes MLM nightmares, loss of a spouse, a castle and a little bit of wanderlust. I was here for the secret reveals and a happily ever after.

It was just okay, and I felt like dragged in parts.

Thank you for the advanced reader copy Netgalley & Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books.

I absolutely adored the first half of this book! The second half was okay, the pacing felt a bit off compared to the first half and the days leading up to the wedding dragged a bit. Overall, I found this read to be a fun, lighthearted and fairly quick read. I loved the lowkey pop culture references (and they usually fall flat to me but these were well done). Lovers and Liars was a solid read!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

In the book, the protagonists are three sisters who are brought back together for the occasion of one of their sisters' wedding, which takes place in an English castle. As a librarian and a widow, Sylvie, whose name is derived from Sylvia Plath, is about to tie the knot with Simon Rampling, a man who is extremely wealthy.

Even though her sister Cleo, who is named after Cleopatra, is a criminal defense attorney and has relationship issues, she will take on the responsibility of investigating Simon's history in order to ensure that her sister is making the right choice by marrying that man.

On the other hand, Emma's life is falling apart because she has made a number of decisions that are problematic from a financial standpoint, and she has been attempting to conceal the entire situation from her husband.

Add to the above mix a toxic mother who used to care about nothing but herself! Will she change this time, though? You need to read to find out.

The book is narrated from the POVs of the three sisters, and thankfully, all are in third-person narration style. I think the author has done a great job with the family dynamics. I enjoyed reading about the three sisters, their stories, and how they bonded. Themes of unity and forgiveness were really impactful here.

There were times when the story seemed predictable, but that did not detract from its endearing qualities or positive atmosphere. Some of the themes in this story include love, forgiveness, healing, and unity. It was an entertaining read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

3.5/5

I am always drawn to a story about sisters, something about that family dynamic never gets old to me and throw in some drama and I’m set. This follows the Peacock sisters and there was lots of secrets and drama in this family that kept me pretty entertained. Based on the title I knew there would also be lies obviously but I didn’t realize how big and dramatic some of them would be. None of the characters were super likable to me, but they were interesting enough and this one went by quickly. I really enjoyed the setting of the castle for Sylvie’s wedding and enjoyed the details and history highlighted throughout. I struggled a bit with some of the situations but overall this was mostly enjoyable for me. If you like family dramas with toxic relationships and complicated upbringings give this a try.

****Publishing May 14, 2024****
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sylvie, a school librarian, an introvert, has been widowed for ten years and now is about to get married to Simon, a wealthy British professional bird photographer, at his family’s castle in the English countryside. Sylvie’s sister’s: Emma, a failed entrepreneur who is hiding debt from her husband, and Cleo, a high-powered lawyer who is about protecting her sisters, reunite for her wedding. They haven’t seen each other in 10 years, since life is busy. All come bearing secrets even Cleo, who is suspicious of Simon. Is he who he says he is? Will the sisters hit it off from where they left off? This book will have you turning the pages to see what comes about everyone’s lies, including Simon’s secret? Will Sylvie still get married?

A fun light read that will have you shaking your head at times and laughing out loud! Between the characters and storyline, it makes for an entertaining read! A great book to take on vacation!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine (Ballantine Books), I was provided an ARC of Lovers and Liars by Amanda Eyre Ward via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. #Netgalley . #LoversandLiars

This books reminded me some of Liane Moriarty’s books in a way, a family with secrets, that they are probably keep from each other, that if they actually talked about everything would be solved in two seconds, but alas, we need the conflict to have a book.
Sylvie definitely deserved so much better than the people she had around her and I am so glad she found her strength and that’s all I am going to say because spoilers.
Cleo and Emma were so frustrating, I understand they gad trauma and whatnot with that mother but really for ten years they hid the truth and themselves from her sister and well, messed everything else too.
Overall made me feel so much this book, specially frustration, hah, but that’s what I want in a book, to feel!
Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book.

This book was fun, but pretty silly and superficial - it skimmed over some pretty serious issues in a tonally odd way and the characters as a whole felt one-dimensional. As a librarian, the librarian parts were so silly and frustrating, but that may be a personal issue (it didn't help that I just finished the new Emily Henry book, which is also about a children's librarian but did a great job with library stuff). The premise was fun, I love stories about sisters and I did enjoy reading it, but overall not executed that well, unfortunately.

I'm really confused at the entire premise of this book, a premise that feels both stale and overdone, but previously done much better than I read here. This feels like a mess of a book and I don't understand what the point of it all was? The development of the characters and their fractured relationships is resolved way too easily and everything in the entire book felt rushed. I especially did not understand how despite Emma being at a castle where no money needed to be spent, why her debt kept going up every second?? A pyramid scheme about sex toys? If this book was funny maybe l'd appreciate that but I couldn't even understand what the tone was to be. This all just felt messy and confusing to me, really disappointing.
Thanks to Netgalley For this arc.

The Peacock sisters are reunited after a decade apart, but will their secrets and lies ruin their reunion?

I had previously read The Lifeguards by Ward which really impressed me. When I saw this story about sisters, I could not resist! I absolutely adore books that focus on sibling relationships, and I thought Ward did a stupendous job exploring the bond between the Peacock sisters.

I guess you can say these sisters trauma bonded. Each suffered lasting damage at the hands of their narcissistic mother, but they found comfort and safety in each other growing up. As adults, they had grown apart with one reason being a secret Emma and Cleo had been keeping from Sylvie for a decade.

While each sister's had their moment in the spotlight, the core of this tale was their shared sisterhood. There were some really beautiful and touching moments experienced between the women while they found their way back to one another.

All that sounds so serious when in reality, this was quite a fun book. The castle setting was well utilized to deliver some amusing moments with a sprinkling of interesting historical bits. There were outings that allowed me to get a sense of the flora and fauna in the area, too. And Sylvie and Simon were so bookish. How could I not root for the bookish couple?

A great setting, fleshed-out characters, and a focus on the relationship dynamics had me fully engaged in this story. I was wholly invested from beginning to end and was utterly delighted with how Ward chose to end the story. It was a perfect way to top off this tale of sisterhood and healing.

Oh my gosh, what a delightful read! I don’t have sisters (4 brothers!) so am always fascinated by the relationships between sisters we don’t get to choose (as opposed to those we do) and this was such an intimate look. I also loved the setting. A real pleasure to read!

Thank you Random House Ballantine for Lovers and Liars, I just love a book about family relationships and especially sibling stuff. While I often love family themed books that span time/years, this one works for the long weekend focus and gets points for a really creative setting with the castle/medieval wedding destination theme. Hints of childhood fairytale themes imbue this book in ways that work as the themes ask how we can accept the stories we held/were told and roles we played as children and yet acknowledge their limitations or that we can grow up, reframe the narratives, and tell our own story. I will say that the toxic mom was a lot but it was also needed to move the story into the self growth themes that were part of what I liked the most.

Standouts
1. interesting female characters always work for me and I loved the way each sister has their own story, their own challenges, and yet also thinking about their relationships with each other and with others. They were interesting characters and I found myself liking them more and more.
2. self growth themes. I think it is hard at times to reconcile that perhaps things in childhood weren't really what we needed and that it takes time to understand that. I liked that this book examined the roles we play in families and how they might not be all that great.
3. fun setting, I do love wedding and relationship themed plots and this one has a fun setting that helps the book lean into the kind of adult fairytale vibe I think the author was trying to weave into the story.

A dysfunctional family of three sisters all hiding secrets and a narcissistic mother vie for attention in Amanda Eyre Ward's latest novel "Lovers and Liars." The family drama skips back and forth between the sisters: The oldest is a criminal defense attorney who digs up dirt on her youngest sister's fiancé, ready to spring it on the eve of her wedding. The youngest is still mourning her husband who died 10 years ago and questioning her commitment to her new fiancé. Meanwhile the middle sister is hiding her financial failures that will force her into bankruptcy from her husband and her sisters. Throw in a mysterious rich, handsome fiancé who comes with an ex-wife with a sketchy past, a wedding in a castle and a staged entrance by their narcissist mother who revives fashions worn by Princess Diana for a lively, fun beach read.

This is my first book by Amanda Eyre Ward, Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing - Ballantine and Ms. Ward for the advance reader copy. She will definitely be on my "watch for" list of authors going forward.

Absolutely delightful and funny and heartwarming and relatable! This story reads like a modern day fairytale; complete with a handsome prince or two, a narcissistic mother, and her three daughters who are lost in a big world looking for love. I loved every word of this book, it brought me so much joy! Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on May 14, 2024

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I've adored Amanda Eyre Ward's books although the last one was just ok but entertaining. With Lovers and Liars, we get 3 sisters and a wedding, and a narcissistic mother. It was an absolute handful by managed to be light as well. I just didn't really care for the characters or the wedding. It would have been better if maybe it wasn't triggering to me with dysfunctional sisterly / parent relationship.