Prior to part 1 of the book there is a quote, which I believe is a true description of this book, "The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.". I really enjoyed this book, as it was an interesting twist on the idea of telling a story from multiple points of view. It alternates by chapter between the point of view of Liza, an author struggling to write another bestselling book after a flop and Beth, the protagonist from Liza's latest novel, who is a new mom who suspects her husband of cheating on her

At first I found Beth's story must more interesting, but as the book progressed, I became just as invested in Liza's story as well. In addition to writing another novel, Liza is struggling to get pregnant, as her husband is trying to find his missing law partner/best friend who has disappeared without a trace. While Liza's life seems straight forward, there is more to her story than what she is showing the reader on the surface. Her character Beth begins to suspect her husband is cheating on her, but her actions to prove this is true are unsettling at best. Reading Beth's story, you definitely question her reliability as a narrator, but you don't have anyone to refute her claims (with the exception of possibly Liza).

Overall this was a great book, I liked both characters, and continue to find myself thinking about both them and their loved ones, days after I finished reading the story.

If you ever wanted a book to bend your mind and twist it until you were so confused you didn’t know where to turn and what to think, Lies She Told will give you all of that and more! I absolutely loved this story! OMG, I was so torn between the parallels of Liza and Beth. My, my, my! What an incredible story.

Liza had long exhausted her excitement of her last best seller, Drowned Secrets. She was looking for that next thriller that was going to catapult her and her publishing house to the next level. She had been dragging her feet to get her latest novel done and for good reason. She was distracted of sorts. Her husband’s law partner was missing and it was wreaking havoc on their marriage. Liza wanted to practice making a baby with her lawyer husband, but all he could think about was his partner, Nick.

It wasn’t that Liza wasn’t sympathetic to her husband’s feelings. She was. It was the fact that he was spending all his time at his law practice and she needed him to be with her. Since her husband had literally given her the boot, Liza took this time to write about her heroine, Beth. Liza and Beth both had a dilemma. Beth’s husband was away from her because he was cheating. And what was worse, she was a new mother caring for their daughter, Victoria. Ok, some new moms struggle with the baby and dealing with life—it’s not easy overseeing another’s life. But to have your husband of twelve years step out on you—well, that was another matter entirely!

As Liza and Beth each struggle with their own problems, the reader will slowly but surely begin to wonder about a great many things. And I bet you’re wondering what exactly could that be? When I tell you these two stories are so similar, it will become clear that what you think you know, you really don’t! Holahan did an exceptional job at keeping the reader guessing. I got to the point where I had to go back and re-read paragraphs because I was soaking up the words too fast because their stories were so damn good! And when you get to the ending—Oh Wow! Like I said, if you’re looking for suspense and intrigue, THIS is the STORY for YOU! The twists in this story had me so wound up that I began dreaming about the characters.

You know a story is good when you can’t wait to get done handling your own life’s problems, so you can get back into theirs. I stayed up late a few nights, sacrificing my work sleep for this book. It was well worth it and more! What an amazing story and the characters are such that you will invest your time in getting to know what is real and what is fiction. I’ve never read Holahan’s work before, but I must say, if she writes every book the way she wrote this one, she has a HUGE fan in me. Wow, outstanding read!

Mello & June gives Lies She Told five truthful stars and counting! This was one explosive read that blew my mind completely. I was so not ready for what I received. Oooh, this was such a great story! Absolutely loved it! Lies She Told goes on sale on Tuesday, September 12, 2017. Trust me you will want to grab this book quickly and/or download and start right away. Warning—once you start, you will not stop until you’re done! Clear your calendar and enjoy. I know I certainly did! Until next time, Intellectual Minds, Keep on Reading!

3.5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC

Good cover & interesting blurb on the back cover

Great concept and unique idea

Story was a little confusing to start but picked up pace half way in
The main character is an author and chapters alternate between her point of view and then the main character's point of view from her novel.

Would recommend well written and engaging & I would now want read her other novel

Liza is writing a new murder thriller, but is her story based on real life? What is fact and what is fiction? Good read, hard to put down.

I am afraid I struggled to get into this book, I chose it, so no one forced me to read it but I just didn't connect with it.I wasn't that interested in the main character so wasn't really that interested in her story.I am sorry I hope others enjoy the book more than I did.Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Liza is a romantic suspense author who has thirty days to produce a rough draft for her publisher. Lies She Told alternates between her personal story and the one she is writing.

Maybe because I'm not a fan of the romance kind of suspense novels, I struggled with the story within the story. I mean, I'll give Holahan credit, it read like a romance style novel. Beth is a new mother who has caught her husband having an affair. She's unwilling to confront him about it but of course, feels totally betrayed. Reading about that was akin to a visit to the dentist for me.

Liza’s life isn't any joy either. She's attempting a new fertility treatment trial. She's neglected to tell the doctor about her depression as that would have barred her from the trial. Oh, and she's no longer seeing her psychiatrist. And her husband is no longer really behind her attempts to get pregnant.

The constant back and forth between Liza and Beth took a while to get used to. It didn't help that formal names often don't appear in the first few paragraphs of a section and you have to make sure you know who you're reading about. Once you figure out it's always a back and forth, it gets easier.

I also struggled with this book because I really didn't care for either of the two “main characters”. Now let me explain that I don't have a maternal bone in my body. So, one character doing everything possible to get pregnant and another willing to stay in an unhappy marriage for the sake of a child were not characters I could relate to. The average score I've assigned the book is somewhat of a “it's not you, it's me” situation, given that I am definitely in the minority of not being entranced by this book.

As the storylines blur and merge, the action picks up. The last third of the book moves more into being a true psychological thriller and definitely moves quickly and keeps your interest. So, I would rate the first part of the book a 2.5 and the last part a 3.5.

My thanks to netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advance copy of this book.

I really rather enjoyed this one. I started it before bed with the intention of reading for a couples hours and calling it a night. What actually happened was I quickly became so engrossed in the story that I stayed up way past my bedtime and read it straight through.

I found it to be well written and well paced. The plot was interesting and well developed. There were twists and turns. The characters were compelling. There were a lot of breadcrumbs dropped along the way, and by 40% I had an excellent idea where this was heading. That said it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story as I still found myself intrigued on how this author was weaving the two stories together.

What stopped this from being a complete 5-Star read was I did find the back and forth between fact and fiction confusing at times. And I admit I am still a bit confused by the ending. But all in all, this was a fantastic read and gets two thumbs up from yours truly.

Liza is a best selling author, or at least she used to be. Her first book was a hit and the ones that followed haven't been well received. Now she's been given 30 days by her publisher to write another great book. She's got a lot of pressure to write the book, but she's got problems at home. She's also struggling to have a baby with her husband who has been less than attentive. That may be understandable, however, since her husband's best friend has gone missing.

Meanwhile Beth, the protagonist of Liza's latest book, is facing struggles of her own. She's got a newborn baby and has recently discovered her husband has a girlfriend. Liza and Beth's stories are told in alternating chapters.

This book is great for writers (or aspiring writers) to read. Liza's writing process is a big part of this book. Readers will see hints of how Liza's real life influences the story she's trying to complete before her deadline is up. The book was hard to put down and easy to devour in a couple of days. Even though I thought the book was very engaging I found it to be predictable at times. So I was really surprised to find a pretty big twist in the last few chapters. This story kept moving and was a great suspense read to wrap up the summer with.

This was a great story, with chapters alternating between author Liza and Beth, the character she created for a new novel.

Liza’s first book was a hit, but she hasn’t been able to replicate her success. Additions to her stress are that she is trying an experimental hormonal treatment to become pregnant and her husband’s best friend/law partner has gone missing. Beth, the protagonist in the book Lisa is writing has a newborn, but suspects her husband is having an affair. I found both story lines good. In fact, I wound up reading the last half of the book in a way-too-late reading session.

Excellent book that I will recommend to many.

Story of writer who tells her own story as fiction but doesn't realize what happened to her. At times confusing.

Lies She Told is an amazing blend of psychological thriller and twisty whodunnit! While the first third of the novel feels a bit sluggish and the protagonists unsure and whiny, it quickly evolves into a tale that can't be put down.

Lawyers, a journalist & a best selling fiction writer living the good life in New York. I wasn't too fussed about any of the characters really & felt no connection to or sympathy for either of the women. One women 'real', the writer & the other woman, the protagonist in the new fiction book she's writing. The chapters jump between them both, the fiction possibly drawing on her real life, not wanting to give too much away.
I'm not sure why, but it wound me up so much when Liza referred to the 'geek squad' who fixed her laptop! She just annoyed me for being so belittling & rude!
Anyway, it all started getting a bit silly towards the end [Possible spoilers from here] after being slow to begin with. It wasn't the ending I was hoping for/expecting & it definitely wasn't just. Perhaps because I didn't sympathise enough (at all?) with either of the female characters, it just left me thinking - eh, you expect me to be rooting for these two?!
(And come on - NYC police are made out to be just slightly incompetent/naive!)

Kept me on the edge of my seat. This was an excellent book that I'd recommend to all fans of psychological thrillers!

I won't rehash the blurb with this one.

I loved the premise of the lines getting blurred between fact and fiction. You have Liza's POV and then you get Beth's POV via the chapters that Liza is writing. Beth's POV isn't clearly marked, but you quickly catch on to the back and forth between real and not.

It isn't too hard to figure out the ending, as the story unfolds. But the story lies within the details. Once you get to the ending, you really see how blurred Liza's point of view was. She's an author and that's her job... to write fiction. It's how fiction bleeds into her real life, that will keep you hooked reading this one.

I was given a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Fast paced and mesmerizingly realistic, this novel grabs you from the start and does not let go until the final twist! The setting was interesting, an author trying to finish her book, needing it to follow up her previous best seller. Do her personal issues keep her from writing, or is she compelled to write about them? If so, what is reality and what is fiction? Is she a new mother with a cheating lawyer husband, or is she a childless woman with PTSD, accused of a horrible crime?
The characters are all well developed and the descriptions of each setting is great - you can hear, see, smell and feel what is going on. Highly recommended.

Lies She Told centres around the life of author Liza Cole, as she attempts to write a novel – which she hopes will be as successful as her previous bestseller – whilst simultaneously dealing with the death of her husband's business partner, among other personal issues.

This novel follows an extremely interesting structure. The chapters alternate between Liza's P.O.V in the real world, and the P.O.V of Beth, the main protagonist in Liza's novel. We are, therefore, following both Liza's actual story, alongside her fictional story. At first, the similarities between the two are small – a shared feeling or a similar setting for example – but after a while, the similarities become more pronounced, leaving us to answer the question: what is real and what is fiction?

I personally love this structure. As a writer myself, we're forever told that elements of us, our personalities, feelings and life stories will inevitably bleed into our fiction, so not only does this structure work in terms of building tension and results in an awesome novel, it also subtly explores several interesting elements of writing, which I find very clever and engaging. As well as this, the structure offers us, in essence, two novels to read at once, both of which I found clever and full of suspense. The alternation also serves to increase tension, as you jump from one cliffhanger to the other. I always looked forward to the next chapter in both stories, and couldn't wait to find out what happened next.

Lies She Told will appeal to anyone looking for a unique and engaging thriller, or anyone searching for a novel that's a little bit different. Must read!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Cate Holahan created two books in one! Liza, the protagonist in one of the books, is experiencing difficulties in her life and marriage. At the same time, she is writing a book and facing a deadline. As she is dealing with her own struggles, she is trying to create a successful suspense novel. The author has done an excellent job of telling the stories in parallel and keeping the excitement going in each.

I look forward to other books by this author.

Imagine reading two books inside one. Sound interesting? That is what Lies She Told was. Author Cat Holahan found an interesting way to weave two novels into one novel! What do I mean? Every other chapter is from the perspective of the main character, Liza. She is married to a lawyer who has a best friend and law partner, Nick, who has been missing for some time. Liza is also an author. So the chapters that are not her are her chapters she is writing for her new novel.

I will start by saying this confused me in the beginning. It's not really explained right away. I thought there was two story lines intertwining, but turned out I was reading the novel as she was writing it. As confusing as this was, it was also quite interesting because I felt it gave us a glimpse into her mind and what she was actually feeling at times. I had an inkling these two stories, real life and her writing, were tied together some how, but boy was I surprised in the end. Holahan wrote a good story about the mental struggles of someone going through something serious, such as the inability to get pregnant and getting hormonal injections. As a female, our hormones are everywhere, but this lady was crazy. Down and simple. And Holahan wrote crazy really well.

While the book intrigued me and made me curious as to what was going to happen, keeping me flipping pages, I felt it was a bit disjointed. The lack of explanation on the exchanging chapters between story lines ruined the beginning of the book because I spent a little time trying to figure out what was happening. The behavior and decision making of Liza was a little all over the place, but that could be written off to how the story played out. I still feel it made it a bit hard to follow or stay on track with. Many times I confused the two stories in my head thinking Liza had done something, yet it was her character in an off chapter. None of these small irks of mine ruined the book, but I felt it made it harder for me to enjoy.

I would still recommend Lies She Told to everyone, especially if you are a murder, mystery lover such as myself. It does have a lot of suspense and a lot of guessing!

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

This was a real page turner that took me deep into the book before figuring out what was going on. The perspective/double story was used well in the writing of the book.

Author - 1⭐️
Story - 1⭐️
Ending - 1⭐️
Offensiveness - 1⭐️
Recommend - 1⭐️

Lies She Told is an exciting read that weaves an author's story with that of her developing fictitious character's. Both women find themselves struggling with the emotional ups and downs of trying to be a mother and longing for their marriages to return to happier times. Two murders with similar circumstances, one real, the other a figment of her author imagination, push Liza to question everything she thought she knew about her marriage, her childhood, and her writing.
This was a refreshing thriller in the face of the recycled plot devices and narrative elements popular since Gone Girl. Cate Holahan masters two complicated narratives and slides the puzzle pieces of their plots snuggly into place with intention and well-written ease.
I enjoyed this book and was grateful for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.