"So I Lied" is an engrossing psychological thriller with twist upon twist. I've enjoyed Ichaso's other suspense novels, and this one was different but just as engaging. The setting (North Wales) is atmospheric, and the characters are bitchy (old girlfriends with a history of betrayals and woundings). Highly recommended for fans of psychological suspense. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.

Pub Date: Jan 28, 2025
#SoILied#

I love this author and was so excited for her next title. This book did not disappoint! I was immediately captivated by the web of secrets woven into this story. I also like how the story centered on friendship and the relationships between the three women. "So I Lied" kept me on the edge of my seat and was a fun read!

This was wild. Enter three friends (who like hate each other low key) and put them in proximity close enough for all their dirty little secrets to come out to play. By the end you won’t know who did what, and who played who. A great thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This will be out at the end of January 2025!

4.5 stars!

This one gave me The 6th Friend movie vibes. It had so many twists and turns! And drama galore. It had the satisfying, unreliable narrator trope, but I won't tell you who. 😘 It was an edge of your seat thrill ride. Non stop. Compulsive. Shocking! It was maybe a little more tell than show then I would have liked, but all the surprises were worth it. I didn't see most of them coming! 😱 And, that ending, oh my! It was a banger of a puzzle, with all the pieces coming together to create an exciting read in the adult thriller genre!

Thanks for the e-arc Netgalley!

Book:
SO I LIED by Chelsea Ichaso
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Arc (Jan 28)

Review:
3⭐
I've read most of Chelsea Ichaso's YA thrillers, so reading her newest book---even though it's not YA---felt like a no brainer.
SO I LIED follows best friends: Joslyn, Cadence, and Rowan. The three of them head overseas to celebrate Joslyn's engagement. When newcomers overtake their trip, and lies from the past, what was supposed to be a celebratory occasion turns into a nightmare of paranoia and death.
Like I previously mentioned, I had extremely high hopes. Those weren't met in the beginning. I felt like this book that took place over a few days was slow paced. Until...the first Now chapter. That was the one that really hooked me. After that, I sped through this. It was like soke sort of hold was on me. I had to know the lies the friends kept referring to, I had to know what was going on with [Redacted and Redacted]. I learned that and so much more that I didn't see coming. Like, major plot twist times like 3.

Chelsea Ichaso has done it again! So I Lied was an absolute mind twisting and chilling read.
Three friends have gone away for a week before Jocelyn gets married, what’s supposed to be a celebration and a chance for three friends to reunite turns into a thrilling game of cat and mouse. Another border at the Inn seems to be following them wherever they go, each women has a secret that cannot be let out. What follows is a twisted story about betrayal, friendship and secrets.
Although it did take me awhile to get into this book, once things started unravelling I did not want to put this book down! I had my suspicions about what was going on but boy was I wrong!
Big thanks to Netgalley and Thomas&Mercer for the ARC.

I LOVED this multi-POV thriller! I feel like multiple POVs is so hard to pull off in a thriller especially -- how do you hide who is truly guilty when you're in so many characters' heads? But Ichaso pulls it off really well. The characters have a complicated, layered past that was fascinating to delve into, the mystery is very suspenseful, the dual timelines so well done, and I did not guess the killer. 5 stars!

This book was definitely one that I couldn't put down. I loved the alternating POVs and the secret POV. I loved the surprising twists and turns that would sneak up on you regularly. I couldn't believe how fast I tore through this. Definitely a book that can and should be devoured in one sitting.

So I Lied centres on 3 friends named Jocelyn, Cadence, and Rowan, who take a weekend getaway together for Jocelyn’s bachelorette party. What the 3 girls believed was going to be a weekend of fun and catching up together, turns deadly when past secrets come back to haunt them.

The chapters alternated between the three main characters, however, there were times when I forgot who’s point of view I was reading from due to their similar voices, and it would take me a moment to figure it out again.

The drama was entertaining and left me wanting to know more, enough to make me finish this book in one sitting. The amount of twists and secrets that came to light throughout the story left my mind reeling.

I thought the ending was a little messy. The "whodunit" aspect felt like it was all over the place with finger pointing and direction changes from one page to the next. I found it a little unbelievable at how quickly everyone was ready to jump onto a new potential suspect for whatever secret was being discussed at the time.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. It was shallow but addicting, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. If your looking for a psychological thriller with a classic whodunit trope, then I highly suggest you check this one out!

This was a fast paced thriller where you get invested in all of the characters. All 3 friends had secrets but so did the other characters which you don’t expect. I was shocked to find out what they did but it kept me turning the pages to find out. There were a lot of twists that I didn’t see coming but that’s what made it such a great suspense novel. It was exciting to read from the beginning to end.

These three women...ughhh. They all deserve each other for sure. They are all pretty awful people, behaving badly, and it's hard to have sympathy for any of them. It's not just lies and secrets. It's the extent of those lies and secrets and the intent behind them. That's not to say this wasn't deviously delicious watching them all kind of self-destruct and blow apart their friendships and their lives. If you don't mind admitting to yourself that you enjoy these kids of stories, you will definitely want to pick this one up and hold on for the crazy train ride.

This was a fun read! I liked the creepy forrest/ secluded setting. I also liked how we got to gradually find out more and more dark secrets each of the three main characters had. It seemed like a new twist or secret was revealed every chapter, which kept it exciting!
As much as I like alternating POVs, in this book I found it hard to remember whose POV I was reading due to little differentiation between the character’s voices, so it got confusing at times.
In the end, I also felt like there were TOO many twists, and some did not really relate to the others - so they felt just kind of random.

What I liked:
- Setting and atmosphere
- Characters with secrets
- Fast paced

What I didn’t like:
- Didn’t love most of the characters
- Had a hard time distinguishing between the POVs. Each chapter said the name of the person whose POV it was, yet I found it hard to remember as I read
- A little overboard on the twists

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

So I Lied by Chelsea Ichaso is a first person multi-POV thriller about three friends on vacation in Wales before one of them gets married. Rowan, Joss, and Cady have been best friends since high school and been through a lot together, including the death of Joss’s brother who was also Rowan’s former boyfriend and father of Rowan’s daughter. When they reach the inn run by Joss’ aunt, they meet Magnus and Valentina and their fun vacation now risks exposing their secrets.

Of the POV characters, I think Rowan was my favorite. She is still struggling with losing the love of her life and raising her daughter on her own, but also tries her hardest not to be bitter. Her main flaw is that she steals small things that she thinks won’t be missed, including a jacket and a stuffed toy, though she does try to fight the urges when they come up. Another thing I liked about her was how she does try to be understanding because she knows she isn’t perfect.

Joss, Rowan, and Cady are all messy. Their friendship is riddled with secrets that are self-destructive and would destroy another member of the group. All three of them have done something that is unforgivable and all three of them know it. I love messy women, I love messy women narratives, and I love it when they have to face the consequences of their actions, but we can see their logic when they made a decision in the moment or we’ve spent so much time with them that now we feel empathy.

Magnus and Valentina are a big part of the suspense elements as a girl who went missing in London, Lisa. Joss, Rowan, and Cady are convinced Magnus had something to do with Lisa’s disappearance but Joss is also attracted to him despite her impending marriage. I can’t go into more detail without going into spoilers, but I really liked how Valentina’s role evolved throughout the narrative and where she ended up.

I would recommend this to fans of thrillers starring messy women, readers looking for a book about the destruction of a friendship, and those searching for a thriller that slowly unspools all of its secrets.

Three best friends are headed to Wales for a peaceful bachelorette trip at a beautiful BnB in the countryside...what could possibly go wrong right? Try EVERYTHING!

Rowan, Jocelyn, and Cadence head to Wales to stay at Jocelyn's Aunt Helen's BnB. Her marriage to her fiancé Landon is coming up and she just wants some girl time with her two best friends. Told in 3 points of view, we quickly come to realize that all 3 women are carrying some deep, dark, heavy secrets. They end up meeting two other guests, Magnus and Valentina, and through their interactions with these two guests, secrets start to be exposed causing riffs between the three friends. How far will they go to keep up their lies and keep their secrets hidden???

I enjoyed this book overall. The mystery of it is really what kept me reading although some parts lagged and were slow. I always hate when people keep secrets from their friends in books, though, and the secrets these women were keeping from each other were truly disturbing. Like....how can you keep that kind of stuff from your best friends???! I love a good twist at the end of a thriller, but this one felt like the twists were overdone because there were so many. On the other side of that coin though is that every time I thought I knew what was going on, I was wrong.

The only critique I would give this book is just a little bit more character development. All 3 of the women almost read the same to me. There weren't really distinct characteristics to each of them to where I knew at all times who's chapter I was in.

With that being said, I enjoyed this book and would reccommend it.

Thank you for the E-Arc NetGalley!

Chelsea Ichaso has become an auto read author for me. So when she posted that this was available on NetGalley, I ran and downloaded it! I was not disappointed! This was different than most of her books in that this was about adults. I loved it! Every time I thought I knew the answer I was wrong or something else was thrown in! I liked the complexity of the 3 woman friendships. I think it was pretty accurate in that everyone has secrets, but if they were to be talked about things could be a lot better! I highly recommend this book, especially if you are looking for a quick thriller! 4/5 for me!

This book was addicting. I was hooked off the bat. The switching POVs and fast pacing made me want to keep reading. This toxic friend group was so intriguing to read about. The setting of Wales felt perfect for the story. I would 100% pick up another book from this author! Read this!

This had a good premise but I thought the book itself was boring. It centers on 3 friends named Jocelyn, Cadence, and Rowan, who take a weekend trip for Jocelyn’s bachelorette party. They are immediately faced with some threatening characters and also long buried secrets come to light.

The chapters alternate between these 3 main characters but I had to keep checking back to remember whose chapter it was because the voices were not distinct. I couldn’t relate to any of them and when it’s introduced that one of them dies I didn’t care which one it was. The ending was interesting and there were some twists but I just couldn’t get invested because I just didn’t “get” any of the characters.

Overall, this was not for me but hoping others who like the psychological thriller genre enjoy it. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

So I Lied by Chelsea Ichaso is an engaging and suspenseful read that hooked me. The story is full of twists and turns, and the well-developed characters make it easy to get invested in their journey. Chelsea Ichaso does a great job of building tension and keeping the reader guessing until the end. While a few parts felt a bit predictable, the plot was still compelling and entertaining. If you enjoy thrillers with strong characters and unexpected twists, this book is worth a read.

I have been reading this author's YA books for so long and was looking forward to Chelsea's adult thriller. I loved the premise of this and the remote location + girls' trip. This novel didn't disappoint and I look forward to what Chelsea does in the adult space next!

2.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book seemed right up my alley. Three friends with secrets go on a bachelorette trip in a remote location where a killer may be on the loose. Ultimately this wasn't very good. The chapters were told in alternating perspectives from the three women and it was hard to tell them apart. They also kept alluding to their big secrets to be unveiled. And then there was a timeline shift where we found out that one was dead and, to keep it a surprise, they were just referred to as "friend." I've seen this dome well in other books but it didn't work here.