I loved the cover. Loved the description. But when it came to the actual storyline it was to slow paced for me. It lacked substance and just wasnt as exciting as i thoughtit was going to be.

I really really enjoyed reading In A Dark Dark Wood so after I was approved for The Lying Game I was really looking forward to reading a enjoyable,gripping thriller but unfortunately after a good start this book turned out to be a disappointment and frankly rather tedious at times.It wasn't very hard to figure out what the so-called big secret was,there wasn't any surprising twists and the story was bogged down by pages and pages about baby Freya being fed,train journeys and time tables.

Isa (the mumsy one) Fatima (the Muslim one) Thea (the anorexic one) and Kate (the secretive one) have been close friends since attending the same boarding school.They used to play a game where they scored points by telling lies to their teachers,fellow pupils and even complete strangers.

Now seventeen years later Isa receives a text that consists of only three words I Need You so she drops everything,takes her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten,a place that she has so many memories of,both good and bad.

Something has been discovered buried on the beach,something that will force the four women to confront their pasts and the terrible thing that they did.

This will not be a cosy reunion,Salten is not a safe place for any of them.It's time for the women to get their story straight.

Like most readers I like to feel at least one emotion or some sort of connection to at least one of the characters in the book that I am reading.Unfortunately apart from poor Owen all the other characters where just so unlikable.The story is told from Isa`s perspective,a character whose dithering,self pity,horrible mistreatment of Owen and constant going on about feeding baby Freya became very repetitive and annoying.One minute she was going on about keeping Freya safe from everyday hazards and the next she was taking her back to Salten and into situations where both their lives where endangered.Because we only get the story from Isa`s point of view you don't really get the opportunity to get to know the other three women which is a shame because I thought the story would be about all four of the friends,not one as the main character and three as mainly background characters.

I liked that the story wasn't bogged down by pages about the girls time at the boarding school.I also liked the creepy,atmospheric descriptions of the walks across the marshes and the gradual decay of The Tide Mill.I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed In A Dark Dark Wood which was one of my favourite books from last year.

I found The Lying Game to be mostly implausible. The four “best friends” were only together a few months before being separated for years. I don’t believe three adults with responsibilities could and would drop everything for a cryptic text from Friend No.4. I did like two of the characters – Fatima and Thea but we didn’t learn enough about them.

The constant references to breastfeeding Freya and her “anxious squawking” were tedious. We get it – she is very focused on being a new mother.

I found the big secret to be unbelievable as was the reaction of the school. Overall a very disappointing read.

4 rebellious girls at boarding school share a secret which must be kept between only them at all costs. Almost twenty years later something happens which threatens to reveal their secret and could mean big trouble for each of them. Have to say I really struggled with the first half of this book but glad I persevered as it did improve. Good storyline but I guessed the outcome quite early on which spoiled it a bit for me.

An exceptionally well constructed psychological thriller. Out of all Ms Ware's books this is by far my favour ite. Brimming with intrigue and dark secrets, the storyline is pacy and superbly gripping. Loved that I sorted of guessed the twist in the tail but could not totally foresee the finale. Highly recommend this wonderful read.

Isa Wilde receives a text from her long-time friend Kate. 'I need you', and immediately rushes down to the coast to meet Kate and her other close friends. The four of them had been at boarding school together but a series of scandals had led to them being asked to leave. When a body is discovered in the Reach, a local tidal inlet, the past comes back to haunt the friends. They had always promised to be true to each other but Isa becomes more and more convinced that there is more to the events that summer than Kate is willing to admit. If the truth comes out Isa stands to lose her comfortable London life and her baby.

At its best this is a cracking read. Ware certainly knows how to twist a tale and her plotting is pacy. Although I found all the protagonists deeply unlikable people I did enjoy the story and twist was great. I did feel the ending was a little contrived but am willing to forgive that. This is a book written to appeal to the masses and it appears ready for the beach read season - it's a more intelligent option in this genre!

Isa's school days were hardly covered in glory and she's moved on and has recently become a mother when she receives a text message from her old school friend reading "I need you". Isa and her two friends, Thea and Fatima instantly drop everything to return back to the home of their old boarding school and remaining member of their quartet, Kate. As teenagers, the four devised a game called The Lying Game where they were dared to see how far they could take a lie. As all small lies grow into large monsters way out of control, the four find themselves facing the ghosts of the past and some uncomfortable truths.

The book treads well worn territory but thats not to say it isn't an interesting read. There's much to enjoy here, I liked how Isa brought her baby daughter along when it would have been a lot easier for the author to have her leave her with her husband, her anxiety over her daughter giving a real gravitas to the consequences of her actions years previously. There's also the awkwardness of being confronted as an adult with the childish things the group did as teenagers, being reminded of a silly lie Isa told years previously suddenly becomes very embarrassing. The setting of the old dilapidated mill by the seaside is inspiring too as you feel like everything, including the building, is falling apart around Kate. The characters as adults were well rounded and very well written too, each woman having her own definite voice.

There's a few flaws though. The book focuses more on the present than the past which means that the reader doesn't really get a sense of how intense the girls friendship was as teenagers and it seems slightly unrealistic that they would have kept in touch for so long after such a short period of time together. I'm not sure that all of the procedural events ring true, but then since when has that ever got in the way of a good story!

If you're wanting a thrilling beach read with plenty of twists and turns then this book is perfect. I was genuinely left guessing right up until the end and as melodramatic as the ending was, it was certainly a page turner. A good thriller, perfect for the summer.

I received a ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

I first knew of Ruth Ware when I spotted 'The Woman in Cabin 10' at the local library. A book that I am eager to read soon, especially as I do a fair amount of cruising. This is the first book that I have read by this author and am impressed.

I will admit that when I first started to read 'The Lying Game' I wasn't sure whether this book was going to hold my attention. It wasn't long before the story grabbed me and i just had to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next. The ending was totally different to what i had been expecting and was one that came close to pulling at my heart strings. I prefer not to say what a story is about as i would only be repeating what others have said, but i do highly recommend this novel.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers. This is my honest review.

Reviews can be seen on Goodreads and Amazon.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Vintage who invited me to read The Lying Game, a stand alone novel about the lies of youth coming back to haunt the present.

Isa, Thea, Kate and Fatima meet as 15 year olds at Salten boarding school where they form a close bond to the exclusion of everyone else but Kate's father who lives close to the school and hosts their wild weekends away from school. The girls are out of control, smoking, drinking and playing the Lying Game which involves trying to fool anyone they can with outrageous lies. They are only together for a year but the lies they told that year bind them together forever and now 17 years later Kate needs them so they return to Salten.

I found The Lying Game to be an extremely strange novel and it demanded too much of a leap of faith from me to find it even remotely plausible. To be fair I struggle with all the 'lies" books as I'm not interested in why people feel the need to lie in the ways that drive these novels. In this case the big secret in the novel can be put down to teenage solidarity but it beggars belief that all four could have kept the secret through their boozy teens and early 20s when the consequences were not as severe to them as they would be now. I also find it hard to believe that 3 women with responsibilities would drop everything to answer the call of a friend they haven't seen for 15 years. Once the novel finally reaches its conclusion it's a cop out with no consequences for the women but more lies.

The novel is well written with some good descriptions of Salten and the coast. The pacing is fair with revelations coming in dribs and drabs but only one of the characters, Isa, is well drawn as it is told from her point of view. I think the novel might have been more interesting if we had more than one reaction to events.

This books reads very differently from the previous novel by Ruth Ware "The Woman in Cabin 10". It begins with Isa receiving a text saying "I need you" and that is enough for her to take off back to Salten where her old boarding school was.

We then have some flashbacks to how Isa met her three friends Kate, Fatima and Thea on the way to Boarding school and who basically became a version of mean girls, with their little clique and their "lying game". This aspect of the novel turned me off and I wasn't comfortable with some of the antics they got up to. Did I really want to read about a pack of spoilt brats.

However the book comes back to the present day and Isa now has a 6 month old baby Freya who I feared for whilst reading the book - she really has a few harrowing experiences as well as being hawked around on various trains and all manner of people looking after her.

The tension of the book for me began to build when the friends realise that they may lose their careers over what happened 17 years ago and most of all that Isa could lose Freya. Coupled with the house they are staying in basically being swallowed slowly by the sea and sounding like something out of the Hounds of the Baskervilles with all the dark marshes around them.

Unfortunately because of the "lying game" I didn't have much sympathy for any of the characters and the book was beginning to drag on. Then suddenly there was a game changer for me and I actually needed to find out who did what and why. The book unexpectedly exploded with unspoken deeds from the past that began to shape a different path than the one I originally thought the book was taking.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars and my thanks go to Netgalley for a copy of the book for review.

Four friends share only one idyllic summer while at boarding school. Isa, Kate, Fatima and Freya become a clique at school bonded by their ‘lying game’. The game is to lie to others but never to each other. Is that possible when a lie is needed by one of the girls not only to protect her closest friends but someone else she deeply loves?

The book begins 17 years after the girls have left school when a body is found near Kate’s home. It is at this home where they spent many blissful idyllic weekends with Kate’s wonderfully loving, free spirited and generous father, an artist and their teacher at the school.

When the identity of the body is made known, the friends cannot keep their promise to each other until the last moment in this riveting excellent crime, mystery novel.

BonnieK

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I have loved every one of Ruth Ware's books and this one was no different. She manages to an ordinary setting and cast a menacing shadow over it! This book was Mallory Towers gone bad. It was a very atmospheric read which painted a very vivid picture of each setting in my head. The next book can't come quick enough!

Astonishingly this is the first of Ruth Ware's books I have read, it definitely won't be my last!

The opening pages immediately piqued my interest whilst the early use of time shifts set the scene perfectly. Ware's characterisation and sense of place are outstanding. The Mill House is at times foreboding and sinister yet also feels like an old friend welcoming you in.
The subtle tension ebbs and flows throughout the book, like the waters of The Reach, it draws you in and then holds you within it's depths before the terrifying conclusion crashes down upon you.

Thank you so much to the Publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Highly recommended.

Four teenage girls at boarding school enjoy telling tall tales and compete to try and make people believe the most unlikely stories. They call it the Lying Game and even have set rules to follow.
But when a tragedy happens and they are all caught up in covering it up, the deceit becomes too real. Lying becomes not only a game but a habit and a necessity to the point that they no longer know what the truth is.
Years pass and they get on with their individual lives, until one day a body is found buried on the beach and their most serious lies are finally threatened with exposure. Eventually they discover the real truth behind the tragedy but they have to consider how much of it to reveal and what the consequences could be for each of them.
This is an absorbing tale of friendship, guilt and deception. For those who enjoyed her earlier book The Woman in Cabin 10, this is another psychological crime thriller that will not disappoint.

I think I was expecting this book to be a take on the Four Marys from the Bunty comic in the 60s/70s, all jolly hockey sticks with scones for tea.
In a way it is. Four friends who would never have met if not for boarding school; each there for very different reasons. The daughter of the art teacher, the posh 'last chance', the sad girl with a dying mum and the 'foreign' girl whose parents are working abroad.
Move on seventeen years. Try to remember not so much what you did but why. Why would any sane person do that?
Fifteen year olds are not sane people - purely because they are fifteen. Adult brains that think more logically are still a few years away.
Ruth Ware can remember being fifteen. Adults either have selective memories of their teens or they remember every horrible, embarrassing moment. She remembers and has the talent to take her, probably harmless, memories and twist up the OMG level.
The denouement is tragic but necessary.
A great book.

Great book. Brilliant plot and main characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Very enjoyable.

This novel is a slow burner. Right from the start you know something dreadful happened in the past with the four girls. What you don't know is what happened. Kate, Fatima, Thea and Isa were at Boarding School together. This was what most intrigued me. It was so perfectly defined how different the relationships are between girls at a Boarding School compared to a state school. Being apart from parental supervision and normal family life they form a very close bond because they live in each other's pockets day and night. This particular clique of girls had a secret from their schooldays that had affected them all in different ways. Life had moved on for them all but the secret they share is unbearable. They learn that actions have consequences. The novel also gave an interesting insight into the minute-by-minute account of motherhood, although I admit I thought Freya was too good to be true! The ending was tense, sad but a very subtle one. Thank you for letting me read it. I shall post this review on Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook and my blog.

I have read both of Ruth Ware's other books (In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10) and in comparison, I just didn't care for The Lying Game. It's not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. It's just not a book that I particularly enjoyed.

The story itself just didn't hold my interest. A group of friends, who as teens played The Lying Game, are reunited when a text comes through saying, "I need you." The three ladies not living in Salten basically drop everything and rush back for Kate.

I won't go into the "mystery" other than to say that I didn't find it that riveting. The story just couldn't hold my attention. In part I think this may be due to the fact that I really didn't like Isa, the main character and narrator of the story.

In the end, I would suggest reading the book if you are a fan of Ruth Ware's work. This may end up being something you enjoy. It just didn't happen that way for me.

Another first class thriller from Ruth Ware that is a dead certainty for the bestsellers list. The tension, fear and atmosphere in this book is wonderful. I found myself getting anxious. Four women are connected by a secret from their schooldays and to find the truth they must confront their past. Lovely plot twists and great characters. Stunning!!

I am reviewing this for NetGalley. It is essentially a murder mystery from many years before when four friends were briefly together at a boarding school. The start goes well with the reader anxious to discover what the mystery is as one of the four summons the others back because she needs help. After it becomes clear who has been murdered and,indeed,that it was a murder at all,the story slows up. Who did it is not really in doubt long before the end. The four lead women are well drawn as are the muddled circumstances of their initial meeting. A book for a relaxed holiday,maybe.