Oh, I really wanted to enjoy this one. I really did. The premise was great. The execution was kinda meh. Ms. Lamarr had a decent start to the story. Towards the middle of the book began to lose interest and found myself zoning out. I started trying to speed through to get to the end. I did feel that the ending was better than most of the book. Unfortunately this was too little, too late to save the book for me. I will also add the author throwing in a WTF twist at the end/epilogue was wild, kinda reminiscent of a Kiersten Modglin type twist that just made me more irritated than if she would have just left it out.

This review is made possible by an ARC of this novel that was graciously provided by NetGalley. All reviews are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator books for providing me with an ARC to review this book

After reading the synopsis I was really interested in the premise of this book. However I found myself bored and let down. I found the FMC irritating and almost DNF'd it a few times.

All My Lies follows a best-selling author and the dark decisions she made to achieve her lifetime goal of writing a successful novel.

But now she’s receiving sinister letters, emails, and threats. All because of her secret. Will she silence this stalker before everything comes crumbling down? Or will she lose everything?

All My Lies starts off with a troublesome scene for the prologue, and then immediately changes direction to focus on Sloan, the female protagonist (FMC). We’re introduced to a caricature of an older, wealthy, accomplished author as her wretched boss. (The purple prose is intentional here.) And it doesn’t take long for tragedy to strike, much to the benefit of Sloan.

There was a definitive choice to go for a diary-esque style of narrative that felt forced and clunky. Sloan’s choices were questionable, and I was unable to connect with her. This is especially telling, as I am a (almost) 30 year old aspiring author – So pretty much the same as the FMC. Her language, decisions, and general out-dated-ness makes Sloan seem both older and much younger than she really is. For example, when Logan brings up trolls, she not only doesn’t immediately think of internet trolls, she doesn’t even know what they are. What millennial doesn’t know what an internet troll is?

There were a myriad of missed opportunities for the author to show and not tell. As someone who is part of the publishing industry (typesetting, developmental editing, and proofreading), the overall impression I got was that this novel could have benefited from another set of opinions before going to print. Typos, grammatical errors, and stiff writing was littered throughout, which detracted from the narrative. And as the plot thickened, so to speak, it seemed as though there was a lack of research done around legal proceedings in the publishing world. (Not to mention the glaring conflict-of-interest that is revealed.)

It’s my opinion that while the concept itself is intriguing, it ultimately wasn’t executed the way it needed to be. I know it takes so much effort and time to complete a manuscript. So kudos to the author for jumping in and giving it a go. However, there seems to be a disconnect of what the concept is and what the author wants to write. Suspense novels require characters that have depth and the overall beats of the story need to layer in a way that captures the reader’s imagination.

I want to give a massive thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for giving me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review TL;DR:
Rating: 1 / 5 stars
Strongest element: Book cover design.
Content warnings: Death, murder, blood, stalking, vomiting, child death, rape.
Genre: Suspense

A psychological thriller with short chapters, intriguing characters, and a good plot. The book is an absolute page-turner!

From the very first page, you're drawn into Sloan’s story. Written from her point of view, the book also reveals her inner thoughts—some of which genuinely made me laugh.

At some point, I had a feeling that someone was involved, and I guessed it right. But what happened next… "What the hell do you think you're doing, you crazy bitch?" 😲

I’ll give the book ★★★★ (4) stars. I really enjoyed it, it was a quick and good read, fast paced and I was curious what would happen next. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion. Would love to read more books from this author!

Thank you Inkubator Books, Netgalley, and the author, Nelle Lamarr, for an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

First, let me say I almost put this book down after the first few chapters because the plot was incredibly slow and our main character was annoying beyond belief. Sloan, our main character, is a struggling writer who works as a personal assistant to a best selling novelist. After some (very) questionable choices, Sloan achieves her dream of being a best seller, but at what cost?

We spend a majority of the book dealing with Sloan’s guilty conscience, accident prone tendencies, and ‘woah is me’ personality. In addition to dull characters, there are quite a few plot holes and parts that make 0 sense. There were 3 main turn offs for me regarding this book. 1). I figured out the big plot twist pretty early on in the book, which seemed blaringly obvious. 2). Said big plot twist took way too long to come to climax. 3). The epilogue ruined the book, it had 0 point in being written. It tied up a loose end that honestly didn’t need to be tied up.

The synopsis of the book is what drew me in, but the plot and characters didn’t come full circle for me. I skimmed a bit of this book when I wasn’t eye rolling our main character. The only reason I kept reading was due to the short chapters. I would not call this a gripping thriller nor would I classify this as anything similar to McFadden, Sager, or Jewell.

This is the first book I have read from this author and certainly won’t be my last! I loved the flow of this book and how it kept me guessing. The author did a great job with tying everything together answered all questions I had throughout the book. Definitely a great thriller that I would recommend!

What a great book! I absolutely loved how twisty and clever this one was! I was totally engrossed from beginning to end and would definitely read from this author again,

3.5 ⭐️ I was intrigued by the storyline and I found Sloan to be an interesting character. There were some parts that were a bit slow for me but overall it was a good read.

The story was somewhat predictable, but the suspense was still good! In the end, the questions were nicely tied up.

Draws you in with a mysterious prologue then sets the scene and introduces our FMC Sloan who is an aspiring author working as an assistant to a cantankerous but very successful novelist. When Sloan finds said novelist dead at her desk an opportunity that can't be resisted presents itself. Fast forward a year and Sloan is a successful author but somebody doesnt want her to succeed. We meet many interlinking characters and multiple mysteries begin to unfold. Clues were dropped along the way and are successfully wrapped up by the end. Written from the POV of Sloan, the writing style is easy to read and has elements of dark humour. The chapters are fairly short so that helps with the fast-paced feel. However please check the trigger warnings before reading!
With thanks to Netgalley and Inkubator books for access to this ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC, I liked the shorter chapters but parts drug on. Overall it was an OK read but could’ve been shorter.

I didn’t love All my lies. But didn’t skip any.

What do you think of my review? Too harsh?
All My Lies Nelle Lamarr 3.5⭐️

A psychological suspense. Sloan is a budding author who worked for a difficult famous reclusive author as her PA.
Sloane eventually achieves her dream of being a best seller, but is hiding a dangerous secret.

In the beginning I felt sorry for Sloan so part of me wanted her to succeed, but that soon changed.
The author is also a romance writer and includes a romantic thread. It has short chapters which I like.

I haven’t found a book using this trope that’s really grabbed me yet. It’s original in its execution. Parts of it had me intrigued, it started really well. There were areas that I found were a bit slow going, the action bits felt a bit over exaggerated, yes there are twists, one of which I didn’t like.

This book was an easy ok read, but didn’t wow me. If you loved Yellowface, I think this is one for you.

I just finished this book, and I absolutely adored it.
It is such a fantastic thriller.
I adored her main character, and she has a way of making you feel for her. Sloan has been waiting for quite some time for the words to flow and make a bestseller, in the mean time she works for a nasty best selling author. She happens to stumble across this author being dead and flee’s- taking her newest unpublished book with her.
From there it becomes absolutely fantastic- there are chapters where you have no idea what’s coming for Sloan, and just as you think you figure it out she has thrown in a twist. The ending is spectacular, and although I had a hunch of who the culprit was- I never guessed it was going to end the way it did.
I look forward to checking out her other books, and getting sucked into them as well. Please do yourself a favour and check this one out- I don’t think you will be disappointed if you love books and thrillers!

This book had so many twists I did not see coming! While it was a thriller, I felt the story was slow and didn’t keep me wanting to read. In most thrillers, you can kind of tell what’s going to happen in the end, but in All My Lies, the thirsts were definitely not predictable!

Lies. Deceit. Trickery. This book had it all!

So good! I had a feeling at the beginning that Logan was unhinged but whoa, didn't see that ending coming! I mean Barbara sounded next level, Sloan had her own issues, but Logan was the real maniac!

Thank you NetGalley for the early read!

I have mixed feelings about this read, the storyline and synopsis are intriguing but parts of the plot dragged despite the book having short chapters, there's a specific scene that made me predict the ending and I was right ... did guessing the ending ruin it for me? No, however the build up to the reveal was too long in my opinion, the book could have easily been shorter...

Overall: I enjoyed this one and I'd like to come back to this author in the future

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'm always very happy about an ARC and being able to give it a review! <3

I have to say that I really liked the protagonist and I LOVED her humor. The whole writing style was really good and reminded me a bit of "Yellow Face".

For me, the whole story wasn't a big page-turner because you could soon guess which direction it was going in. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun reading the story - especially because of the protagonist.

However, there was something at the end that I found really unfortunate... if the book had been written 20 years ago, OK, but NOW? Really unfortunate and that's why I have to take a star off (I don't want to give any spoilers here but maybe the women know what I mean)

It was a solid thriller that you can easily read in between. But unfortunately that's all... the story won't stay in my head for very long.

Nelle did it again.

This thriller definitely thrilled.

Starting off with a detailed description of someone trapped instantly turns into the day of an assistant.

The turn of events leaves you grasping for more.

I enjoy the author writing about an author Sloan and showing the struggles she encountered along the way to reach her full potential.

Although I was able to figure out the end game here the details leading up to it were well thought out and depicted.

Great work.

Slithery layers of lies, just what one expects in a thriller. Sloan is an award-winning author's personal assistant. She despises her boss but continues her tiresome job as she needs the money. When she finds her boss dead, she snatches her manuscript to pass it off as her own, with a few tweaks. But the deceit starts long before the theft. Someone obviously knows what Sloan did and makes it clear in ominous messages. Sloan turns to her boyfriend for support as her world crumbles.

The premise of this book grabbed me by the throat but the characters and plot didn't click with me as much as I had hoped. Parts were implausible and rushed, not this author's strongest writing. But the quick chapters zipped by and I cared enough to reach the ending.

My sincere thank you to Inkubator Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this novel.

All My Lies follows Sloan who aspires to be a writer and loves to lie, her lies spiral when Sloan finds her boss dead and she decides to steal her manuscript and publish as her own. As Sloan's career blows up, she becomes a best selling author, she starts getting threats of someone who knows what she did.

Overall, I liked this book, I really like that there are smaller chapters which makes it easier for me to keep going or stop when I have to. Sloan as a main character was not very likeable, but since she lied all the time it makes sense why the reader might not be fond of her. The killer/stalker twist for me was not a big twist as I did suspect what would happen, I did enjoy that the author left small breadcrumbs for the reader, which is how it made it easier to find out. The last twist, let me first say I had small suspicion, however I felt it was truly well done as the last chapter made this character be seen in a very different light, and that was the twist for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Inkubator Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.