Hmmm it took me while too get into the story but once i did i was gripped iits full of suspense and a few twists you dont see coming - i love trials in books it really irritates me how much prosecuters twist words but i guess its there job to do that. I quite liked Jude and fealt sorry for Richard her mum was a piece of work it still leaves you guessing which i suppose is a good thing.

This was a pretty gripping thriller by an author I enjoy! Though it took me a little while to get into it, when I did, I was truly invested in the story and knowing the outcome. An enjoyable thriller with interesting characters!

I hated the secondary main character (is that a thing?) by the end for completely different reasons than I hated her at the beginning. So that’s something!

In general though, the characters in this book are unlikeable, the story is dark and the prose slightly longer than it needed to be. There were some holes in the plot too that could have been played around with, but on the whole this was a complex, interesting exploration of historical crimes and the present day criminal justice system. Trigger warning: This book takes you through the murky worlds of mental illness, childhood sexual abuse, suicide and murder through the eyes of the innocent and the eyes of a perpetrator.

This was an ARC from NetGalley. My first from this author and although her style was a bit hard for me to follow at first I did settle in and enjoy the book. Pretty good domestic thriller.

Oh wow, this was real page-turner. Full of susp3nse and lots of twists. I could t stop reading this as it had me so hooked. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This book had promise and started well. I liked some of the characters but others I found frustrating. It did demonstrate the complexity of family relationships nicely. It was a little confusing to keep up with the plot and I’m not entirely sure I understood the ending but overall an enjoyable read.

Thank you NetGalley for a chance to read another amazing novel! This would have been an ARC for me, but I had a list to get through and this one is now out. The Night She Lied had you from page one. It was full of twists and turns. It seemed every three or so chapters, something jaw dropping happened. A couple nights ago, one of these moments happened and I voiced my shock, which awoke my husband. 😂 This was a well constructed story with a great plot, and characters you either love, love to hate, or could not quite put your finger on. The lie you ask? Well, that one was hard to figure out. What was the lie? What was not the lie? Who was the liar and who was not? It was a twisty winding thriller road that I wish I could experience for the first time again!

This is probably one of the top 5 best books I have read this year! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Time to choose my next book! Happy reading, y’all! 📚❤️📚

#lucydawson
#NetGalley

I have read a few Lucy Dawson books and have always loved them! This is no exception! I really could not put it down, but can’t really decide what genre it is . All I know is that it kept me gripped from start to finish, despite keeping the plot line quite simple! Told over different times and from different POV, it could have been confusing if it wasn’t so well written! It ticked all of my boxes, it had some scandal, some heart break, some anger, deception and a good old court room drama too.
If you want to fill your dark nights with an absolute belter then this is legit the.book for you!!

Wow! Talk about mother’s love! This book is an enthralling exploration of intricate relationships, hidden secrets, and the impact of domestic life on the complexities of family dynamics, delving into suspenseful and emotional territories. With unpredictable twists and turns it keeps readers guessing while shedding light on the darker facets of ordinary lives. The writers success lies in its ability to create a tense and immersive atmosphere, making it a compelling read for fans of psychological fiction.

The Night She Lied was a really good read. It kept me hooked throughout with all the secrets and twists in the plotline.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

I just finished this one. It was a lot. I was so sad I could not even handle it at some points. At other points I was annoyed and had to force myself to keep reading.
This was good.

I am Lucy Dawson fan right from her early books and she has done it again. She is to me, the Queen of psychological thrillers. She does go into great detail with the characters and there are alot of twists and turns but it's when you don't see the answer coming, that's what makes the book good! She never fails with any of her books!
Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for a copy in return for an honest review.

★★★ 3.5 stars

How far will she go to hide the truth...?

I'm not sure about the night she lied...depending on who you're talking about, they lie throughout the entire book it seems! Well, one character in particular anyway. I mean, every family have complex dynamics and hold their own secrets. But those that are facing Jude, threaten to turn her entire world on its axis.

Jude is an A&E nurse working the endless night shifts, at her behest, having lost of her partner a year before and suffering insomnia ever since. Becoming nocturnal is her way of coping. During the break of one of her shifts, she meets charasmatic Rik who is also nocturnal by choice and the two form a kind of understanding and, dare she say it, friendship. Until one night, she receives a troubling phone call from her mother prompting her to drop everything and race up to Berkshire. What awaits her is nothing short of a nightmare.

Lady Margaret Fawkes has been evicted from her lifelong home at Highcombe (Hall, Manor...I can't remember which - a big stately house at any rate), in which she had grown up as a child and spent her married life there alongside her newspaper mogul husband Benedict, at her father's and then her brother's discretion. Highcombe is entailed to pass down to the next male heir in the line and after the death of Lady Margaret's brother Anthony, the estate is then passed down to her nephew Timothy who has returned from his home in South Africa with his family to restore Highcombe and make it a working/running estate gaining income from functions and open days. Lady Margaret is appalled at the idea. But Lady Margaret has been evicted to a cottage on the estate, which is still a mansion by most people's standards...but not Lady Margaret.

When Jude arrives at Highcombe, it is to the devastating news that her mother Lady Margaret has been arrested and charged with historic sexual abuse. Jude is shocked. Her mother? This cannot be true. But there is an even bigger shock to come. And the hole that Lady Margaret pushes for Jude to dig herself just gets bigger and bigger...until she is left to flounder alone!

From the cliffhanger the prologue left us with as it then rewound a couple of years, readers know that something jawdropping is going to happen before the end. So it is expected. But is it what we expected? Or something else entirely? For me, it was a mixture of both while at the same time I didn't find it to be as earth shattering as I thought. Maybe because I knew it was coming? I don't know. At any rate, it does throw a different spin on things although right from the life-changing event happening, we knew what really happened but what everyone else got was lie after lie after lie. The shocker was Jude's cousin Timothy's testimony in court. That threw a whole new light on things. But did it change anything?

The characters are a complex bunch. I didn't really warm to Jude though I did sympathise with her. Rik, I wasn't too sure about as his appearance seemed a little too coincidental, but at first glance I liked him. But was he to be trusted? Johnnie was the poor hapless solicitor friend of the family who I found endearing. Timothy was caught in the middle of Lady Margaret's complex drama and then there was Lady Margaret herself. She was something else. A complex but completely horrible character. The way she treated everyone as if they were dirt on her shoe, the way she could take a character trait and turn it into a failing, especially when it came to her daughter, was appalling. She was a completely horrible character.

The story unfolds through the past and present, with a few flashback chapters to 1994 when the alleged abuse occurred. It is mostly told in Jude's first person narrative but also switches to the third person perspective of the cold and aloof Lady Margaret as well as detailing childhood scenes from 1994. It is quite a dark read and while it does feature child sexual abuse it is not graphic in nature and is only alluded to in part.

This is a hard book to rate. I enjoyed it for the most part but it's not one of Dawson's best. I'm not sure why. I was certainly engaged throughout though I did feel it dip a little and drag out some, but on the whole there was something missing. Maybe the characters being so unlikeable it was hard to connect with any of them though it was still an interesting read. I wanted to love this book but by the end, it did fall a little flat for me.

I would like to thank #LucyDawson, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheNightSheLied in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

I was sucked directly into this dark and twisty story surrounding Jude and her family. Told in dual timelines and multiple narratives, we learn of Margaret's crimes, her dead husbands wretched secrets and of Jude's seemingly innocent involvement. 

At times it was hard to tell when the narration was switched, it went from first person to third person sometimes without warning but once I'd gotten used to it, it was much easier to follow. 

There were secrets to unravel and lies turned to truths, it was impossible to know who was lying. It was easy to follow until the ending - because I'm still not sure what happened. I was shocked by what happened but I'm still not sure we know the truth. 

I found Jude a little bland but Margaret was a character I loved to hate. She was truly despicable but in a way that brought the book to life and without her there would be no story worth telling. 

Highly recommend if you like thrillers, suspense, police & court procedural books

Always a Dawson fan I couldn’t wait to get into this one. Actually it does start a bit slow, but hang in there as it will pick up as the pieces fall into place.

This is a suspenseful domestic thriller that goes back and forth in time and is constructed quite well, keeping the reader engaged. The mother of our protagonist, is one of those hateful selfish characters you love to hate. The daughter Jude, our protagonist, I wanted to slap upside the head sometimes as she allows her manipulative mother to …well, manipulate her. Admittedly, I was engaged.

Secrets and twists keep you committed and sometimes wondering what’ the heck is going on here as one is flying through the second half. I liked this a lot but for me it left a few things dangling that I would have liked closure to, but no spoilers here. A solid 4-star read, imo.

My thanks to Net Galley and Bookouture for my review copy. Get yours today at your favorite retailer.

Wow, where do I start? I really wanted to love this book. The description really pulled me in and the first several chapters kept me very engaged. After that it started to get incredibly confusing and it felt very long. It was really hard to keep track of the different time periods, and some of the writing went from 1st person to 3rd person. As promised, there are definitely a lot of twists and turns, but I had started to lose interest through the middle of the book. I can certainly say that Margaret and Jude had a manipulative relationship and I didn’t like- or trust-either one of them.
I did quite enjoy the courtroom aspect and wished there was more of that in the book! The ending was very abrupt and quite unbelievable in my opinion. Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me overall

I struggled with this book and found it to be very slow. Thriller books are my favorite but I just couldn’t get into this one.
Thank you NetGalley, Lucy and Bookouture for the ARC!

One of those books that will keep you turning pages until the end. I caught myself holding my breath several times and had to take a few breaks. Awesome storyline and character development!

https://hockeysticksgripsandtrips.com/2023/11/24/book-review-the-night-she-lied-by-lucy-dawson/

Summary:

Every family has secrets. Would you kill to keep yours?

It’s midnight in the hospital when Jude’s phone rings, interrupting her precious fifteen-minute break. When she sees it’s her seventy-year-old mother, Margaret, she braces herself for the usual complaints. But her blood runs cold at four words that will change everything… ‘Something terrible has happened.’

Margaret has been accused of an unspeakable crime committed twenty years ago. She insists she’s not guilty, and begs Jude to help her prove it. But as Jude is drawn into the dark secrets of her family’s past, she starts to question whether her mother is really as innocent as she claims to be.

Soon, Jude realises what happened twenty years ago is more entangled with her own life than she could ever have imagined. And as she stands face-to-face with her mother’s accuser, she knows the cost of protecting her family will be someone else’s life…

My Thoughts:

Lots of trigger warnings in this one! This one was super stressful to read with very unlikable characters!! I

Some disturbing content to be warned regarding pedophilia.

I still don’t know if I really grasped what happened and who I believe!! Thank you to @bookouture and @netgalley for the advanced reader’s copy

A psychological thriller packed with suspense and false story lines blurring identification of the true protagonist’s characters and actions. The differing time lines and actions of various characters who often warp the truth in the retelling of their perspective of events make for a convoluted plot line that is difficult to follow. The many flaws in relationships particularly between mother and daughter compounded by , lies, secrets and allegations of historic abuse lead to a court case revealing twists, turns and unsavoury details resulting in a gripping shocking conclusion that could not have been predicted. Many thanks to author publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.