I was expecting an awful lot from this Author which I had heard great things about. However I found this novel very disappointing and to me it red a bit like a St Trinians novel once the book took is back to the boarding school where the four friends met and started The Lying Game. I lost interest half way through and did not finish the book.

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Utterly brilliant.
From start to finish, as always, I was totally gripped and read in one sitting.
I will never get bored with Ware's books. She's a fabulous writer.
Loved it and will be recommending it to the whole world!

Thoroughly enjoyable psychological thriller. The highly evocative seaside setting provides a wonderfully creepy backdrop, along with the flashbacks and continued presence of the girls' boarding school the main characters attended. The retro public transport, decaying seaside town and tension between "town and gown" created a vivid picture in my mind. I found the set-up compelling - it was relatable to be invited into the tight group of girlfriends at the core of the novel, even as their age and histories have weakened their bond - the friendships formed in the heat of adolescence rang true. I found the lead's young baby and her dealing with the unfurling of the plot while trying to mother a newborn, a unique twist on the usual thriller which lent a further tension and danger - on top of this the baby herself and her reactions are described in a very charming and realistic way. Overall this was a great page-turner that had me racing to the end - perfect holiday read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read.

The lying game by Ruth Ware.
Isa and her three best friends used to play the Lying Game, competing to convince people of outrageous stories. Now, after seventeen years of hiding the truth, something terrible has been found on the beach. The friends' darkest secret is about to come to light...
A really good read with good characters. 4*.

I really enjoyed this book. Ruth Ware is an author whose books I really enjoy. Her books just keep getting better and better. Page turner's right to the very end. Highly recommended author.

A superbly crafted thriller that might be a bit of a slow burn but that just adds to the atmoshpere and building the plot.
Really enjoyed the book and would recommend

I have to start by saying I do enjoy Ruth Ware’s books. In fact The Death of Mrs Westaway is high up on the list of my favourite books. Unfortunately The Lying Game just didn’t have the same impact. I enjoyed parts of the story but there were also large parts where I felt my attention wandering, which is not ideal.

The Lying Game was a definite slow burn for me. It’s safe to say that it took a while before any secrets were revealed and these brought forward even more questions. In one sense this worked because the tension gradually built. I was intrigued about what happened all those years ago. Just not necessarily enough to grab my complete attention. There were a few occasions where I found my focus on the story wavering. However for the last part of the book I will admit the pace picked up which definitely helped.

Overall The Lying Game was a bit hit and miss for me. I enjoyed the premise and the idea of friendships forged in childhood having a lasting effect. This group of characters were tied together forever by a lie and it was still having a ripple effect years down the line. Even though this book might not have been quite right for me it has in no way put me off reading more books by Ruth Ware.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Having enjoyed Ruth Ware’s first two novels, I found this one fell a little below expectations - sadly. It is very much a slow burner, too slow in my opinion and doesn’t start to pick up pace until about half way through and then the second half is padded a bit too much with dialogue between the central character and her husband.
It is something of a Mallory Towers for grown ups...the story beginning at or at least reflecting back to where it all began, at a private school for girls where four misfits became fast friends and developed the lying game. They unwittingly become involved in a death which ramps up the stakes of the game which they carry into their adult lives having all gone their separate ways.
The discovery of a body brings them back to a place they never thought they’d return to and so unravels the murder.
I did enjoy this book despite my misgivings because I like the author’s easy style and would class it as a good quick holiday read - nothing too deep or involved and easy to pick up where left.

Love Ruth Ware’s books. This is no exception. Very well written and put together. Plot secure and very strong characters. I’m waiting for one of her books to be a movie.

My nerves were on edge reading this superbly crafted thriller.

To get a text “I need you” hmm I thought, that could be interpreted several ways. So I was anxious to see if I was right or wrong.

Ruth Ware has been a hit or miss with me so I’m addicted at reading what she produces in case I miss a ‘good ‘un’.

4.75 from me

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

Well what can I say apart from I really enjoyed this book. This is my second Ruth Ware book and like the first I was not disappointed, it is completely different from The Woman In Cabin 10 but I think that to me is only a good thing.

I don't want to tell you too much regarding the plot of this book because as is the case with all good thrillers the less you know the better so I will try to some it up without giving much away. We meet Isa in this story, Isa went to a boarding school in her teen years and her and her friends played a game called they lying game where they would gain points by telling the biggest lie, there were certain rules they had to follow but the biggest being never to lie to one another, Isa get a text from on of these girls asking her to come quick and she knows she has to drop everything and go as something is very wrong, when she arrives at her old friends house things start to unravel and she begins to realise that they may all have to lie and follow the rules in the events that follow.

I will say that this is a slower book than the previous I have read by this author and it did take me a while to get sucked in but sucked in I did get and I enjoyed every heart stopping moment of it, I thought I knew things but went back and forth all the time and Ruth Ware kept you guessing until the end.

I think the one thought that was going through my head when I was reading this is how much of a good movie this would make and I would 100% watch it!

If you are a thriller fan or a fan of this author I would highly recommend this one, however I wouldn't say it is the best place to start with her work.

Of girls and women. Of secrets, of loyalty, of lying and of truth. Of friendship above all.

First-class mystery, this is.

Kate, Thea, Fatima and Isa. Once they were reckless and innocent fifteen-year-olds, breaking the curfews at their school, drinking, skinny-dipping, roaming the marshes. They were them against the world, playing the Lying Game - to provoke, to fight the cold world without any sensible adult in it - and all of this had created the unbreakable bonds of friendship. When one has written "I need you", the others has come running, then and now. So when the unimaginable happened, they came. And they has lived with what happened that one weekend.
17 years ago, the SMS with "I need you"arrives and they come once again.

I have enjoyed reading this book immensely. Ms Ware is a master of psychological mysteries - and yes, this story truly could happen like that (maybe I would re-write some parts of the ending, but this is just me and my preferences). The truth is - I completely understand the girl s and I would do the same - and then I would suppress the memories far down and live with the guilt. And I would be as blind as they were to the real consequences and to the reality of the world. Because they have been as innocent in their souls as any 15-year-old would be, even if they were experienced liars and rule-breakers.
The world in which they have lived, the one that had formed them, is a world without any real, sensible parent figure present - which is a sad testament of our times. it is exactly because of that that the four non-average girls had felt the need to establish such strong bonds and such strong need to protect the other ones, to fight for the other with furious loyalty. This kind of friendship is rare and precious - but can also be blinding. But still, it is precious. Even if here I would recommend the strong dose of the truth and the whole truth to be told, because many things would have happened differently. But it would be another book, then.

The mystery here is first-class, too. The tension is well-built, gradually we know that something is very wrong, yet one can onlu guess what and where. And even if were are told (some) of the truth, we are never sure that we know all of it. To which I say - wonderful writing skills!

And applause for the character of Mary Wren. Very vital to the story.

From now I will read anything by Ms Ware.

And now I need to contact my posse again, old and new. Because the emotion connected to the power of friendship is what I am leaving this book with. Not with just an intellectual pleasure of a good mystery (even if it IS a good mystery) - but with strength of the power of fierce friends having your back.

This is a book that really makes you think about who you trust and believe. The lifelong friends in this book are bound by many secrets from the past which make them come together at the request of one of their number as she is in danger. You won't know who to believe from one page to the next but you won't want to stop reading.

This was my favourite Ruth Ware to date. I couldn't put it down once I'd started as it was so engaging. If you like well-written thrillers, then I'd highly recommend this book.

a nicely build mystery that is sometimes a bit slow but overall very nicely plotted out and told!
If you want a fast and easy read, and don't mind a bit of a slower tone, worth a read!

So Ruth Ware has become a sort of modern Agatha Christie, I read the woman in cabin 10 and found it riveting. To get a galley of her’s I felt really lucky and I wasn’t let down. The Lying Game had me desperately wanting more. The story circles around a group of girls, a dead father, a secret and a call of help. Any description I give pales the miraculous way ms Ware weaves suspense and story together.

It’s atmospheric and surprising which in this genre is difficult to achieve.

A lesson in how crime fiction/ mystery is done.

Gritty, thrilling and quite unputdownable. This book will draw you in and throw in some nice twists and turns.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK and the author for the chance to review.