Quick twisty thriller about former camp roommates having to reconnect after twenty years when the secret they share is threatened to be exposed. Solid thriller enjoyed the dual timeline and multiple points of view. Lucinda Berry always delivers a final twist I don't see coming! Rating this 3/3.5 stars. I want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

A chilling psychological thriller with many twists and turns to keep you guessing. I really enjoyed this story and it kept me turning the page racing to get to the end.

This was my first Lucinda Berry book. The premise sounded like your basic "mean-girls do a bad thing, now they are grown-ups, and someone knows" type story. Now, that description's not completely wrong, but there's more. There are some heavy hitting topics in here besides just your basic murder. The storyline follows teenage Blakely and her three friends at a summer camp. They do a very bad thing involving a cute tennis coach. Twenty-six years later and someone knows. What happened? Will someone tell? A summer camp/bad girl story always gets me, and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed this and will look for more from this author.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Lucinda Berry and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will post my review to Amazon, Facebook and other retail and social media sites upon publication.

This is the slowest of slow burns ever!! I felt like there was a chance nothing exciting was going to happen, but, the ending was pretty twisty and redeemed the book for me. Four girls who attended the same summer camp every year got caught up in a mishap their senior year. They vowed never to speak to each other again, but 26 years later they reconnected, and more drama ensued. The characters were all too similar for me, and all unlikeable, which maybe was on purpose?

If You Tell A Lie by Lucinda Berry

My rating:
3.5 rounded up to 4!
4/5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A story of 4 friends who have attended summer camp every year until their senior year summer, something terrible happens at camp.

This was my first Lucinda Berry and I really enjoyed her writing style! I will definitely be reading more of her books after this one.

I’m still trying to process all that I just read. This one had a lot of promise and had me intrigued, but I also felt like there was so much going on it was hard to focus, but overall it was a good story!

This has multiple POVS and past and present timelines. I didn’t feel super connected to the characters. I think that was because of the switching POVS frequently that I kept losing track of who was talking.

This one was dark and definitely check your trigger warnings, but if you like a dark thriller with a strong focus on female friendships, this one is for you!

Thank you netgalley & Thomas & Mercy for the ARC! This will be published July 23rd, 2024, so add it to your TBR now!

Great plot twist in this book and a quick read. Lucinda Berry did not disappoint. A group of girls who met at camp and had become best friends were more than ready to enjoy their senior year! Mr. Crosby was a handsome teacher and one of the girls, Blakey, had a major crush on him and wanted to get his attention even though he was married. What turns out to be an innocent prank turns into something terrible that these girls will have to live with forever. Thirty years later the past comes back to haunt them and they have to figure out how to deal with that secret they have kept hidden for so long. Will the truth come out? And what will happen to them if it is exposed? I enjoyed this book! Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC. #IfYouTellaLie

Lucinda Berry never lets me down. The situations that she creates are always filled with intensity and tension. If You Tell a Lie is no different. Although there are many different triggers, Berry handles them with care and never gratuitously.

Lucinda Berry is the queen of twists and turns and did not disappoint in this book. This book is like mean girls in crack and Blakely is like Regina George if she had an evil daughter. Teenagers just trying to find their place in a set of impossible social circumstances paired with trying to make the most of out of one last summer at camp comes back to haunt these girls but in the end, everyone ends up having lies of their own.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced e-copy of this book. Releases July 23, 2024!

Overall I give this book a 4 stars. I was captivated through the book however I thought the ending was a bit farfetched - not bad just predictable to me. I liked the now and then plot and also liked the character development. A solid Lucinda Berry book!

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced reader! Publish date is 07/23/2024

For those who enjoy a cast of alternating characters set with dual timelines, "If You Tell a Lie" is the story of murder, secrets and coverups. I feel that it needed an additional 100 or so pages to fully flesh out the characters, as they were seemingly one dimensional and all blended together. Overall Berry's newest is a good summer beach read: it's easy to put down and pick back up and has a most unexpected ending.

**Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.**

I kind of knew from the beginning the truth and how it would end but I still very much enjoyed this book, I loved the view into the different characters and it didn’t feel like all the other thrillers I’ve read

This book was amazing, just like every other Lucinda Berry book! This story follows friends that have a toxic relationship with another. They continue to best friends until an event happens that changes their life as teenagers. They all grow up apart but are called back together when that toxic friend needs help. This story was so full of plot twists and turns that I would’ve never expected. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to everyone looking for books with great plot twists or just thrillers in general! 5/5 stars for me!

Yet another hit by Ms. Lucina Berry! First, thank you so much for the E-Arc! I'm a huge fan of Lucinda Berry and this book was no different. Super fun read for summer.

Another great read from Lucinda Berry. As always the pages practical turned themselves and I didn’t want the book to end. This was another dark journey that grabbed my attention and held it captivated from start to finish.

If You Tell a Lie, written by Lucinda Berry, is a friendship triller that will keep you guessing until the end! Blakey, Thera, Grace, and Meg are childhood friends that went to camp together each summer. But their last summer at camp is not a positive one, and now twenty odd years later they come back together after falling out of touch. That last summer comes back up, and they need to work together, and trust each other. But is that such a good idea!

I love this author, and this book did not disappoint! I could not put it down, and I feel like I got really invested into the characters. Definitely recommend! Thank you to NetGalley, and to the author and publisher of this book for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Name of Book: If You Tell a Lie
Author: Lucinda Berry
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pub Date: July 23, 2024
My Rating: 4.3 Stars
Pages: 271

Story is told in the two timelines of now and then by the four friends as well as Regina Cosby the wife of the coach who was murdered.

Blakely, Grace, Meg and Thera became best friends when they were preteens attended a summer program as ‘Camp Pendleton – for gifted and privileged students. The girls were roommates in Cabin Naomi and returned every year until the summer before college.
Their last year at camp Mr. Cosby the handsome counselor/tennis coach is brutally murdered.
Our four friends vowed secrecy especially about the prank they played.

They were able to keep the secret it in their past, now twenty-six years later they each receive a note. ~
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID
THAT SUMMER AND I’M
GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY.
True this note was like the 1997 slasher movie “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
(Here is a link to the movie trailer in case you don’t remember
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEnCEM48QaY

As the story progresses we discover that these girls were so nasty they took “Mean Girls’ to the highest level of meanness.

The story definitely kept me curious – I could not put it down.
I love this author and wondered why the reviews were all over the place.
When I finished I said ~
Yes this was a story that I loved- hating!

About the Author – ‘
Dr. Lucinda Berry is a former clinical psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. Now, she spends her days writing full-time where she uses her clinical experience to blur the line between fiction and nonfiction. She enjoys taking her readers on a journey through the dark recesses of the human psyche.

This is my fifth Lucinda Berry novel. My first was " The Best of Friends" which I loved and became a Lucinda Berry fan!
Of the four I have read all but one was GREAT.

Want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for granting me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for July 23, 2024.

Another great book by Lucinda Berry! If you tell a lie is about a group of four girls who meet at summer camp. Their time at summer camp is like an escape from their real lives because they are considered outcasts or unpopular at their regular schools. Each of the friends has issues that they deal with but when they are together, they don’t feel the weight of their issues. On their last summer together, everything changes and not for the better.
What started off as a lie/prank unraveled into a tragedy and it is something that the friends must carry with them for the rest of their lives.
This book goes back and forth between past and present time in each of the friends POV. I really was engaged to the story from the beginning. It was very fast paced for me, and I couldn’t put it down!
The ending had a good twist too which I had somewhat predicted about halfway through, but it was really good! I really recommend this book for anyone who likes good fast paced thriller!
Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer . All opinions are my own.

Sometimes I just have a feeling about a character, something I can’t quite put my finger on. That was the case here, and I was right! Hot dang! 😆 However, Ms. Berry still got me with a few twists that I never saw coming. She’s sneakily good!

Teenage girls are enigmas. At a six week long summer camp where everyone is an outcast the rest of the year, what would you do to finally fit in? Even if you and others knew it was wrong? You might let yourself get carried away…

This isn’t an easy read. There’s some heavy stuff in here. Sexual abuse, loss, graphic depictions of eating disorders, etc. The story isn’t sexually explicit, but it isn’t entirely clean, either. I would want to know that before reading, so that’s why I mention it.

In IF YOU TELL A LIE this book creeped me out in true LUCINDA BERRY fashion. It was phenomenal! It lived up to the hype that the blurb made me feel. This group of friends reminded me of pretty little liars. Reading this you will be afraid of a group of girls you see together.

What harm is one lie? Well apparently a lot. These girls were ruthless and reckless and my eyes were about to pop out of my head while I read this book.

Lucinda Berry does a flawless job writing compelling stories with very well-developed characters whose psyche you feel like you’re able to see into.

🤯🤯

LB does it again!
The plot is so engaging! The characters keep you at the edge of your seat! Lucinda Berry should be on everyones auto buy list.