Liza Cole is a writer of Romantic Suspense and she's looking for the one that will make her name. It's also her safe space as her husband has been sorely stressed over the disappearance of his best friend and law partner, Nick. Liza thinks he's also having an affair with a female law officer.

Her husband doesn't think she knows, did not see her watching them at a restaurant.. or entering his lover's apartment. He's always 'working late'. It's all made worse by the fact that they've been trying to have a baby without much success.

To deal with her real life issues, she's working twice as hard as her book. Beth is her main character and she could be forgiven that part of her new book mimics Liza's real life. Of course, there are some differences. "Beth" has a baby girl .. but a husband that also cheats.

And when the mistress' body is found floating in the East River, fact and fiction meet ......

The first half of the book rotates chapters. One is Liza .... the things she is going through. The next chapter would be the story she is writing about 'Beth'. It's like trying to read two books at the same time. The first half is a little slow ... no mystery, no suspense. But then it changes.....

The last half of the book is extremely good. Who killed the mistress? Was it Liza ... or her husband? And when her husband's best friend makes an appearance ... what does that mean to them both?

Very well-written psychological thriller. Characters are finely drawn. None of them are perfect .. they are all damaged in one way or another. Lots of twists and turns and surprises until the explosive ending.

Many thanks to the author / Crooked Lane Books / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this compelling story. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

"Liar." And I don't protest. He's right. Blurring fact and fantasy is my trade. I am a con artist. A Prevaricator. I make up stories. 

“I don’t invent my characters. I steal them from my surroundings. To be a writer is to be a thief. Every day I rob myself blind.”

There was a lot to figure out in this book. There are actually two story lines. The one Liza is writing about Beth and the one she is living. Two couples whose lives will never be the same.

While constant hormone therapy is making Liza forgetful, and paranoid, on some level she realizes that she knows things, has done things. Awful things. Or was that Beth?

The lines were pretty fuzzy on a lot of fronts here. The author, her characters, the inappropriate relationship with a shrink. I liked Beth. She was the take charge of my life and marriage woman. While Liza was all kinds of messed up and had no clue what was going on right under her nose. Or did she?

I guarantee this will keep all you writers up at night!

Lies She Told is a character driven, intense psychological thriller, creatively told from two different perspectives. The main character is a fiction author and the chapters alternate between the character’s real life and the character in her novel. After a while reality starts to blur with fiction and you end up with some nice twists. Highly recommended.

This novel goes back and forth between a novel being created, and the story of what is going on in the author's life - and as the story continues, the two paths grow together. I can't recall any other work that uses this technique, although I imagine it's been done before. Regardless, it is done extremely well here. It is well written and certainly pulled me along wanting to know what was going to happen next in both of the stories - and both stories were resolved in ways that totally made sense to me. It wasn't just a thriller with a gimmick, but two thrillers that pull the reader along with an ever accelerating rush to find out what is going to happen next. Isn't that exactly what thrillers are supposed to do? Well, this one surely succeeds. I will definitely be watching for more from this author.

Probably the best summer beach book I've read in this year's crop. Liza, a novelist, correlates her story to her own life and disintegrating marriage. There's just enough difference to cover the things she perhaps feels most tenable in her own life.

Rather than give away too much of the twists and turns of her plot I'll just say this is not one to be missed. The author writes from the heart and does it well. Don't miss out on this one!

She's an author of Romantic thrillers/suspense novels. She hasn't written a bestseller in a while, but she's working on it.
There is so much going on in her life right now. A husband who has withdrawn from her. Trouble with her book not coming together like her publisher would like. She's in an experimental case study of fertility drugs, that seem to make her loopy.
Oh, but that is only the beginning. She is looking reality of the difference between her life and the life of her character in her book, Beth.
A very creative way to write a book. This is like a book within a book. I highly enjoyed that. I would recommend this book as a great read.
5 Stars

I love mysteries. Rarely however do they surprise me. This one did. Great plot and wonderful characters. The revelations come at a pace that keeps the reader reaching for the rest of the story. Sometime this is a frustrating but in this case it was very well done. A great summer read..

Liza is a writer and is in the middle of writing her next book. She is also trying to start a family with her husband. But her husband is worried about his best friend Nick who is missing. They find Nick murdered and Liza's husband is arrested for the murder. The chapters of the book alternate between real life and that of Liza's book heroine. It was a fast paced thriller book. Thank you very much to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid 4 star suspense mystery. I felt the rapid changing of points of view between Liza and her fictional character made it very interesting. It kept me wondering when will the lines blur and at what point will Liza go psycho? So it was a good twist that she in fact realized that she was in over her head, and tried to recognize that. However, it was too late with her husband. I didn't suspect he and Nick until later on. The ending was solid. Overall, I liked this book and have recommended it to a fellow Netgalley reader. Thank you for the opportunity.

Lies She Told is a very interesting book. And I wish I would have liked it more. It has a great premise; a struggling writer with marital problems is trying to finish her next (hopefully) best seller. Along the way, the reader is treated to reading what Liza (our protagonist) is creating - yes, this is a book within a book. I loved this - I thought it was very interesting and well-thought out. It gave me as a reader a deeper understanding of Liza and it gave the real author, Holahan, a chance to stretch her literary muscle.

But.

I figured out the entire book somewhere about page 100. Just to be sure, because I thought, "hey, it can't be this predictable", I read the last 2 or 3 chapters. And, lo and behold, I was right. Guessing the entire book while only a third of a way through it just made me lose the will to actually finish it. Which is tragic, because, as mentioned before, I really liked the premise. And, while I'm sure I missed a minor plot twist or two, I just feel... finished with the book. I have no real need to actually complete it.

I do recommend reading this book, but if you're genre savvy, it may not be the most enjoyable book you pick up.

Great book, easy read… Held my attention and was sad to see it end. Thanks for the opportunity to read it!

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is a thriller within a thriller. Liza is a suspense writer and trying to get back on the best seller list. However, she is dealing with a distant husband and fertility issues. This book bounces between her own story and the story she is writing. As you will quickly see, the stories parallel. Explosive, intense and very enjoyable read. Unputdownable!

This book was written in such an unusual manner, without giving anything away for future readers suffice to say that it kept my interest throughout the entire book. It held my interest until the final page. Thanks.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read and review this ARC for free!

I really enjoyed this book. It made me glad for a 1 1/2 hour wait in hubby's doctor's office. I couldn't put it down. Told in a very interesting way. First we meet Liza, the mystery writer, and the next chapter is Beth's, the character in her mystery novel. Through Liza and the chapters of the book the story unfolds and we get to know each woman's life. The story intensifies, twists and turns and lines get blurred. By then end my head was spinning. While I loved the book, and thought it was very well written and thrilling, the end was almost a "meh" for me.

Way too confusing. It was hard honestly to tell who the "real" characters and story were versus the fictional version that was being created. I got lost so early on that I didn't want to continue reading. I vaguely skimmed through the remainder of the book to try to get a grasp on what happened. Definitely not a keeper in my library

What a rush! Liza and Beth - who's reality and who is fiction? In a brilliant parallel story line, Cate Holahan tells the tale of a troubled writer struggling to bring a character to life that will satisfy her demanding (if not totally swoon-worthy) publisher. Through both writer's and character's ups and downs, a story unfolds that may be stranger than fiction. Holahan sprinkles hints throughout the story, but leaves the reader guessing until the very last page. Her characters (and her character's characters) are insightful, complex, and real. She clearly understands the depths of pain suffered by a woman scorned, and the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her family. Just when you think you know who's who, guess again.

Lies She Told is a page turner that will suck you in from page one and not let go until it's done.

“I don’t invent my characters. I steal them from my surroundings. To be a writer is to be a thief. Every day I rob myself blind.”

These are the words of the protagonist of the novel, Liza, and indeed, the book deftly blurs the lines between what it means to be an author—what is real and what is fiction in the life of a fiction writer.

Liza is a thriller writer, although a few times she calls herself a romantic suspense writer. I’ve read romantic suspense, and the novel within the novel is not in a romantic suspense book. In the book that Liza is writing, new mother Beth is depressed because she discovers her husband is having an affair. Beth has some sex, but it’s not romantic. Romantic suspense heroines are plucky and don’t weep all the time feeling sorry for themselves.

For that reason, I liked the main storyline with Liza more—she was at least working at her career and trying to have a baby despite reproductive barriers. I definitely identified with going to writing conferences and being a midlist writer. Anyone who has been published or has seriously worked toward publication will also identify.

Liza is writing her book at the same time she’s trying to get pregnant from her husband, who has been distracted by the disappearance of his good friend and law partner, Nick. The mystery of what happened to Nick is compelling, although I didn’t buy the resolution one hundred percent. Even granting the leeway you have to give fiction, it was a stretch.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

This author provides a unique way of telling a story by moving from one voice to another by chapters. I found the book interesting but a bit unbelievable.

I loved this book, its almost two for the price of one as the main character is writing a book which is every other chapter. This is another fast paced gripping read that I will be recommending!

Lies She Told was a fabulous suspense novel. Liza is an author, married to Jake, whose best friend Nick is missing. She is writing a novel about new mother Beth, whose husband is having an affair with police officer Colleen. Told in alternating voices between Beth and Liza, the suspense builds to an explosive climax in both fact and fiction. Lies She Told offers a one-two punch that I did not see coming.