Lies She Told by Cate Holahan is a fantastic novel. The characters are interesting and flawed, which make them realistic and genuine. Holahan's writing style is descriptive, without being wordy, and clear, without being obvious. I really enjoyed Lies She Told and highly recommend it.

I received a free copy from Net Galley for reviewing. I liked the way the author told this story ..the story within the story. However, the ending was predicted half way through. Some of the subject matter was a bit too much to have all in one book which also messed with the belief factor. However, I do enjoy the author's way of telling the story which is why I gave it 3 stars in the end instead of 2.

THIS WAS INCREDIBLE. It was a rush of thrilling what-ifs and a mystery of what is real and what is not. I couldn't put this book down for a second, it was a gripping tale of suspense that I was not disappointed.

This book switches between the real life of Liza, a romantic suspense author, and the new manuscript that she is working on. As is typical with writing, her story starts to reflect reality as she steals traits from people she knows to create her new characters and new character situations.

As the story progresses, pieces of Liza's past are revealed, things that even she couldn't quite remember. I loved how the author took both parts of Liza's life (her reality and her writing) to create one narrative. Definitely recommend!

I was a bit torn by this latest book on my search for the 'next great thriller.' On one hand, I found the writing to be rather 'meh,' occasionally causing me to roll my eyes or laugh aloud. Yet, it is also quite a unique story line that definitely fulfills the definition of a page-turner. Once again inhabited by wealthy white folks (what is it with the stereotypes?!), Cate Holahan has created a dual plot structure, switching back and forth between the story of an author who is fighting to write another bestseller after some clunkers and the draft of the new book itself. We see the author, Liza, struggle with infertility treatments, a distant husband, and the mysterious disappearance of his best friend, as well as her attraction to her editor. At the same time, Liza's fictional character, Beth, struggling with the newly discovered affair of her husband while she fights the attraction to her therapist for postpartum depression. Real life begins to merge with the fictional life, as the author begins to wonder what is real and what is make-believe. This is a solid vacation, beach-read that will definitely keep you guessing.

I usually pride myself on guessing the twist before everybody else, but this time I was so wrong. A great thriller. So good, that I made myself finish it, even though I had a cracking headache. I did not want to close my eyes and rest before knowing what happened in the end. And it was worth it.

"Liza Jones has thirty days to write the thriller that could put her back on the bestseller list...struggling to start a family with her husband, who is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend...Liza escapes into writing her latest heroine.

Beth is a new mother who suspects her husband is cheating...Angry and betrayed, Beth sets out to catch him in the act...But before she realizes it, she’s tossing the body of her husband’s mistress into the river.

Then the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur."

Lies She told is an entertaining, light, and fast paced domestic thriller. Though I could tell the difference between the character's voices straight off, it sure was fun playing along, and trying to figure out who was really who. Honesty, I spotted one of the twist a long way off, with that said, I loved the concept of how this story was told. It alternates points of view of between fact and fiction, author and protagonist. The author's real life crosses and blends with that of the lead in the novel she is currently writing making it a pretty fun ride!

It's a smooth thriller with a good storyline and steady pacing. I enjoyed the twists of the character's development, as the plot thickened. As we dive deeper into the story, layers are stripped from what seemed at first to be basic characters. Once again here is a novel with a cast we mostly dislike. The difference in this book compared to other recent releases is that the characters are realistically flawed. There's no beating a dead horse with the unlikeable, morally corrupt, unreliable personality types. This theme was defined just right.

It took me a while to get into the book and for things to pick up, but once they did, it was very interesting, and overall a quick read. I'm definitely a fan of a "book within a book," and lines so blurred between fiction and reality that it's hard to know what is actually taking place. The author did a smash up job. I enjoyed how this story unfolds so much. I definitely recommend it.

Lies She Told is like getting two stories in one. One story about the author's life and another story that the author is writing. Cate Holahan does an excellent job of making each story you're reading feel like the important one. I can't wait to read more by this author. I was given an early copy to review.

This fast-paced psychological thriller is sure to please fans of Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware, and Lianne Moriarty. Told in alternating chapters, Holahan takes readers on a trip down the rabbit hole of life imitating art imitating life. Liza, a romantic suspense author, is struggling to write her next big hit as well as how to hold her marriage together when her husband is more concerned with his missing best friend and law firm partner than he is with her fertility treatments and creating a family with his wife. Beth, Liza's female fictional protagonist, is struggling with her new motherhood status and her crumbling marital status as her husband carries on an affair with another woman. Their two paths collide in ways the reader may never see coming.

This book was an AMAZING thrill ride that kept me securely fastened in my seat. I know that I was bellyaching in a few reviews months ago that the publishing world was going a little bit overboard with the unreliable female narrator. But Cate Holahan made me a believer by sucking me into the life of author Lisa and her book character, Beth, and their parallel stories. So many twists and turns, I swear my head was going faster than a bobble head on a dashboard coming in first at the Indy 500. A whole lot of cray-cray in this story!

Highly recommended!

I've noticed that recently I've rated almost all of the thrillers I read pretty bad or with just average ratings. I assumed that it was simply because I had read a fair amount of similar books in such a short time. But when I took "Lies She Told", it turned out that there was still room in my head for a good plot, and that good book found its way to a good rating even in the biggest crowd.

Cate Holahan brings us an interesting story of a colleague, writer Liza Cole. Liza wrote a successful first book - a bestseller, but it seems that her later works can hardly reach the same level. We meet Liza in moments when her life is quite complicated; the editor gives her a month to submit her new book, she's struggling with infertility and decides to be subjected to experimental treatment that makes her suffer from various undesirable side effects, while her husband David is physically and mentally absent due to the disappearance of his business partner and best friend Nick.

Liza's story is intertwined with the story of the protagonist of her new book, Beth. Beth is a young mother who becomes a witness to the affair of her own husband, Jake. This cognition breaks down her illusion of a perfect life, but Beth decides to preserve the debris of her marriage, and instead of confronting her husband, she switches all of her anger to Colleen, a young policewoman, her husband's associate and mistress.

While the plot is progressing, two completely separated stories reveal common elements, and the boundary between them is irreparably clouded. Beth is increasingly influencing Liza and it becomes clear that she is not just a book character. Cate Holahan leads us to unexpected places in the thoughts of her characters and creates a thriller that you'll hardly drop out of your hand before you finish reading the whole book.

The book goes back and forth between Liza's life and that of the story she is writing. I have to admit, at first I found myself more intrigued with Liza's story, but as the book progressed, they equally caught up to each other in the suspense, and had you wondering, what was really happening, and where did fiction cross over to real life. Add in an ending you don't see coming, and you have a great Fall read, one full of drama and suspense!

Found it confusimg in the beginning as character POV's were switched between. Other then that, was a good psychological thriller. Makes you think about the reality and fiction of things.

The book was okay. It was kind of predictable. After we hit a certain point in the book I basically had most of it figured out. I can't really tell though if we were supposed to figure it out this quickly.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was one of those books where you want read it all in one sitting, or in my case, in 6 hours split between 3 days, while on my breaks at work.

Liza is writing a book with a female lead character named Beth. Each chapter switches back and forth between Liza's and Beth's point of view. Beth is the fictional character that Liza is writing about, but the parallels between their lives are pretty obvious. It was fun to read about each of their lives and drama unfolding simultaneously.

I'm not the type of reader who has to try and figure out the book before I finish it. I don't try and guess who did what, and how the book will end, but sometimes it's pretty obvious and you can't avoid it. This book was not that way with me. I really didn't know if Liza was crazy, and if the story she's writing is all in her head, or if she really knew what was going on and all her crazy ideas in her story about Beth were real.

There are some obvious things that happen in this book that are clearly a stretch compared to reality, but go ahead and read any other psychological thriller you loved and tell me that you can't find something in there that's not entirely *possible.*

The ending was unexpected, in some ways. There were a few twists at the end that I didn't see coming, so that was exciting for me.

I liked this book a lot. It's one of the better psychological thrillers I've read lately, as far as creativity and content goes. It was a page turner and I would recommend that any of my mystery/thriller lovers read it when they get a chance.

I gave this novel 4 stars only because the beginning was a bit confusing,but as I got further into the book I realized the authors intent. Which is brilliant but confusing. It's very emotional and the characters are well written. I was so drawn in that I read it in one sitting.
Liza and David met in college and naturally married. Liza, a one time best seller, is in a rut but feels she's finally making progress in her new novel. David, a lawyer has taken over his partners cases since Nick disappeared. Between work and the stress of trying to find David, he's grown tired and uninterested in Liza. As Liza's world turns upside down she frantically searches for answers but sometimes the truth is better hidden.

This book had me hooked from the start, I loved the idea and believe it to be quite original.
I will be recommending this to everyone, I throughly enjoyed this.

Thank you for this advance reader copy of Lies She Told, by Cate Holahan. Kudos to Ms Holahan. This was a wonderful page turner that was difficult to put down. The story of the writer Liza who has only thirty days to finish her novel had me spinning until the very end! No spoilers here, just plenty of twists and turns right till the end!

If nothing else, I was delighted with the intriguing twist in the telling of this mystery tale and it will be difficult to review this without spilling the hint of a spoiler here and there.

Liza is a New York writer of detective thrilers, under an editor who is keen for her to write according to what 'fashion' in pulp fiction dictates. Having enjoyed success in her first publication, he lost few novels has begun to flop, so there is pressure to emulate that first big success.

The narrative thus moves to her new character Beth, a young mother who realises her glib husband is cheating on her. Liza.promises that this will devolve into a slasher tale and murderos foul is promised the reader.

Meanwhile, Lisa is trying unsuccessfully for a child. He husband's partner has disappeared and when his body turns up, Lisa realises she is involved in a real-life thriller of her own. Her stability appears to crack as Beth, the antiherone of her latest, begins apparently to take on a life of her own.

What could be going on?

Needless to say there is more someone here than meets the eye. Things take a distinctly gothic turn in the telling, as the written word appears to undermine reality.

The pages will. Be turned to find out where the lies end and the truth begins.
An absorbing and entertaining read.