They built a life on lies

Sutton and Ethan Montclair’s idyllic life is not as it appears. The couple seems made for each other, but the truth is ugly. Consumed by professional and personal betrayals and financial woes, the two both love and hate each other. As tensions mount, Sutton disappears, leaving behind a note saying not to look for her.

Ethan. Sutton. Sutton. Ethan. Ethan & Sutton are two imperfect people who are trying to make a perfect marriage happen between two imperfect people. All hell breaks loose when Sutton disappears. Ethan is immediately cast to the forefront as the perpetrator. Things are not always what they seem. This is a twisty, domestic mystery/suspense. My attention was held from the very first page. Reading the blurb may remind you of Gone Girl, do not let that deter you from picking this book up and reading it. Lie to Me stand on its own. It is a novel you can get lost in. It is a chaotic, whirlwind of a domestic mess and I loved it.

Many thanks to JT Ellison, Harlequin (US & Canada) and Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological suspense.

I had a hard time picking a rating for this one. The second half saved the book for me, as it seemed to pick up speed and held my interest better than the first half. That might be partly due to the change in narration, but I also think the story started coming together a little better and the suspense increased. Ultimately, I decided I had too many issues with it to give it a higher rating. The first thing being how similar the premise was to that one big book about a missing wife. There were also unanswered questions at the end and I had the biggest twist figured out at about 30 percent into the book. Another big problem for me was the issue of abuse being glossed over. That's just not ok with me. But, I did want to finish it to see how the story ended, so that kept it at 2 stars. Thank you to HQ Digital and NetGalley for this ARC!

Thanks to Netgalley who gave me a copy of this to read! I loved it!
Starts with someone telling us that we won't like them, that they are evil. And then goes through the story, Ethan's wife has left him....or has she? This story seriously has so many twists and turns,every time I thought I had cracked it I would realise that I totally hadn't. It even has a line from the person at the start "you are starting to work this out now aren't you" (or there areabouts) hmmm nope! I really really enjoyed this and the ending was great too! Another twist!

ok so this book had me 50/50 I really got into the mystery of what happened to Sutton I had so many ideas running through my mind. I liked that while reading the book the author gave out enough tid bits to keep you going but not so much you get frustrated. now when finding out what happened to Sutton I will say that was one of my thoughts I had run through my mind as to what happened and I wasn't really surprised at all I felt the first part of the book was strong but the last part lacking and not as thrilling as I had hoped like I said 50/50

Lie to Me by J.T. Ellison.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.
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Thanks @netgalley for the free ebook to review! All opinions are my own.
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Sutton and Ethan appear to be the perfect literary couple. But a year after the unexplained death of their infant son, their careers are in shambles, their marriage is falling apart, and then - Sutton disappears., and Ethan, despite his bewilderment and grief, is suspected of murder.
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No lie - for the first several chapters, I thought this was another Gone Girl: a wife goes missing, and the husband appears set up for a murder charge. Domestic suspense, questionable narrator, crazy wife. But then halfway through, the point of view switched from Ethan to Sutton, and everything I thought was true in the story was thrown into a new light.
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Unlike other domestic noir novels, this one DOES have a happy ending! The storyline moved quickly, and although I guessed most of the plot points, it was still fun to see it all unravel. I had a little queasiness with the infant-death-storyline as a mom of an infant, but that's just me being sensitive!
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I'm not a huge fan of domestic suspense, as I don't enjoy reading about destructive marriages. But this was probably a good first-entry into that sub genre.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read Lie To Me by JT Ellison.
A young couple that share a disturbing history tell their story of love, hate, death, destruction, and sadness - but who is telling the truth.
This is Gone Girl with a twist - spoken in three voices - Sutton, Ethan, and another unknown voice.
Ethan and Sutton live a charmed life - both writers - that fell in love and got married, had a child, and a career. Then one day, they hate each other, their child is dead, and neither can write a novel.
Then Sutton disappears - is she dead or did she run away. It doesn't take the police long to think Ethan killed Sutton. But things do not appear to be what they seem, and a smart policewoman knows something is amiss. and she is going to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Really good - well written - fans of Gone Girl and Girl on a Train will love this one.
Recommend.

An interesting and intriguing story. Who to believe? What's the truth? Lot's of twists and turns right up to the end.

I enjoyed this book! with all the reviews saying it is Gone Girl. I have read Gone Girl and though it starts out a wife missing it was nothing like it. What is going on? the perfect marriage? As the story unfolds we meet the worst mother and friends, What??? I could not figure out what was going on. The Paris scenes were lovely. as each page turned another part of the plot was revealed. Everyone had two faces. Nothing was as it seemed. The end was almost over the top but the author made it work. I have read all of J. T. Ellison’s books and was happy to be chosen by Net Galley to read and review it. This book was very good.

Lie to Me isn't the best thriller that I've ever read. It's probably not even in my top ten. Don't get me wrong, I vaguely enjoyed reading it, but it had too many things wrong with it for me to truly get into it and love it.

Firstly, Lie to Me tried so hard to be Gone Girl. You could tell that Ellison was going for a certain vibe with Sutton and Ethan. A vibe that was very much like Amy and Nick. Except it didn't work as well at all. Sutton wasn't as mysterious or, I guess, out there as Amy. She didn't have the same dark intelligence. And Ethan was just so dull.

The major issue that I had with this book was the main character, Sutton, going back to her abuser. The abuse came up several times throughout the novel, but it wasn't addressed by anyone after a certain point. It was very much brushed over and used to deepen the mystery of what happened to Sutton after she disappeared. Like, at one point Ethan punched Sutton so hard out of anger that he broke her nose and she bled everywhere. And yet he's still meant to be a good guy? Nah. Nahhhhh.

And also the ending wasn't particularly clear. I'm not sure what went on in those final few paragraphs because it wasn't explained at all. I think Ellison was going for a shocking twist ending, but instead it made no sense. You have to make allowances for thrillers to be a little farfetched, but there's farfetched and then there's nonsensical. I'm disappointed.

This domestic noir novel shares a lot of similarities with Gone Girl. I enjoyed it but found it was a little slow paced. I had some difficulties to get into the book (lack of momentum). I wasn't able to finish it and had to jump to the last chapters for the end.

When Ethan Montclair wakes up one morning to find a note from his wife Sutton saying that she is leaving and for him not to look for her, he swings from disbelief to anger to fear – for her (she has been suffering from depression) and for him (what will people think?).
He calls round her friends then a lawyer before finally calling the police, who immediately start to question Ethan’s version of his supposedly perfect life – especially when Sutton’s friends suggest that things were not quite as good as they might have seemed.
As the questions start to mount up the lies start to unravelling.  The friends were right and Ethan slowly begins to reveal the truth – or at least his version of it.  And that is what makes this book so good.  Nothing is as it seems – no one is who them seem.  For a woman (me) who likes an unreliable narrator, this book is a perfect fit.
Told through “then” and “now” stories and the voices of Ethan, Sutton and the detective investigating their case, I spent most of this book questioning what I knew and the rest wondering what would come next.  It did all get a bit crazy and confusing at times, with some great twists, and I have to admit to having suspend disbelief a few times but the writing was so good and the characters so compelling I forgave that pretty quickly.
This was my first J. T. Ellison book so I’m not sure if this was their usual style or just for this book but I liked it.  There was humour there, which stopped the book being too heavy or serious, and I loved the chapter headings especially – they made me smile and they helped tell the story, showing just how twisted some of the characters were – as well as the fact some were short, really short at just a few paragraphs, keeping the story moving at quite a pace.
Anything I didn’t like?  Well, the characters.  Sutton and Ethan are self-absorbed, self-obsessed and so un-self-aware I found myself really, Really, REALLY, disliking them.  Normally, this would put me off a book.  Here, the writing and the story were good enough for me to forgive this.  Plus, it wouldn’t haven’t been as good without me (almost) hating them!

I liked this book but not as much as I had hoped that I would. I decided to read this book after seeing a few really good reviews. I love a good thriller so I decided to give it a try. I decided to take a peek at the first few pages of this book late one night and ended up putting other books aside so that I could focus on this one. Unfortunately, the book became much easier to set aside the further I read.

I love a good thriller with a lot of twists and turns. This book takes some pretty ambitious twists that could have been really exciting if I had been even a little surprised. All of the big twists in this story were fairly easy for me to predict and ended up being quite disappointing. I had the urge to set the book aside for a bit whenever there was a bit reveal in the story which was unfortunate.

I didn't have any really strong feelings about the characters in this story. I don't think that took anything away from the story though. I think that this is the kind of book that being unsure of the characters actually works well. Ethan and Sutton both had characteristics that were hard to like but understandable because of the things they have been through.

This was a very easy book to read. I think that it had a nice overall flow and I found myself reading big sections of the book in a single sitting. I liked the short chapters that kept the pace of the book feeling quite rapid. I thought that alternate perspectives were worked into the story exactly when they were most effective. My biggest issue was the fact that I was really let down with every twist that proved to be very predictable. These usually happened just as the focus of the book shifted and I found myself setting the book aside a little easier.

I do think that many readers will enjoy this book a bit more than I did. It is a fast paced story that has quite a few exciting moments. I would definitely pick up more of J.T. Ellison's work in the future.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from HQ Digital via NetGalley.

Sutton and Ethan Montclair had the ideal life--a beautiful marriage, a gorgeous house, successful writing careers, and a beautiful baby son. But with the death of their baby, Dashiell, things started to crumble. Peering into the cracks, it was clear that Ethan's career isn't going well and Sutton was depressed and broken after Dashiell's death. So when Ethan wakes up and finds a note from Sutton telling him that she's left and not to look for her, he doesn't know what to think. Did she really run off, leaving her phone, laptop, credit cards, and ID behind? Or did something more sinister happen? As for Ethan and Sutton's friends--and the police--they quickly start to wonder if the something sinister is Ethan.

So in the years since Gone Girl has come out, I've seen so many books compared to that juggernaut and felt that so little truly were similar (and keep in mind that I wasn't one of those that *adored* the novel). However, reading LIE TO ME, I felt like this book really deserved the plot comparison to GONE GIRL -- wife missing, volatile marriage, husband under suspicion, unreliable narrators, etc. For a while, I was curious how J.T. Ellison would differentiate her novel from GONE GIRL, but she pulled it off (more on that later).

This novel was compulsively readable; I read it basically in two sittings. I stayed up until midnight to finish it, which is no small feat considering my small children don't care how late I stay up! It slowly builds suspense with the unknown, dropping little hints as to bits and pieces of the story. We start with Ethan's piece of the story, eventually switch to Sutton, and then finish with both of them. Interspersed are various portions where an unknown "narrator" speaks directly to us, the reader, as well as the police. All of this creates suspicion and tension and lets us know that we certainly have unreliable narrators in both Ethan and Sutton. Who do we believe? Even the police--called in to investigate Sutton's disappearance--are confused. I was completely hooked and, honestly, madly flipping the pages.

The Sutton portion slowed things down slightly, but things rapidly picked back up. I won't lie (ha), I worked out some of the plot, but it certainly didn't diminish my enjoyment of the novel, and I definitely didn't figure out everything. The book's a little crazy, with a slightly wild plot, but it's a fun and thrilling read. The supporting cast is interesting--especially a policewoman itching to become a detective, and some of Sutton and Ethan's friends. As I mentioned, the plot is a little insane, but fun crazy, and Ellison weaves together all the pieces quite effectively.

This is my second novel by Ellison and I'm finding that I just enjoy the suspense and escapism of her novels. (You can read my review of her novel, NO ONE KNOWS, here). The book isn't always perfect, but it's a really enjoyable thriller, hence the 4-star rating--which makes it higher than GONE GIRL for me. Sacrilege for some, but I just enjoyed this one more.

He said, she said, but what's the real truth? Nothing is quite what it seems in this novel and we, the readers, get small hints along the way while the police think they know exactly what happened. Fast paced and immensely entertaining, this one will keep readers guessing until the very end.

The book opens up with a narrator that has done something horrible and then there is a body waiting in the woods to be found and then a letter from the wife say that she has left and not to look for her. The husband has no idea what has happened and if foul play was involved. Due current marriage difficulties it could have been true, that she just ran away. Does he call the police or not?

The book kept me on the edge of my seat and did not want to ever put it down. The writing and the pacing were spot on. Just when I thought I knew what was going on there was a major twist that I did not see coming. I struggled between rooting for the husband and then against him and then for him and then I was just confused.... but in the best kind of way.

If you like thrillers, especially physiological thrillers, you NEED to read this book.

If you liked Gone Girl, you will like Lie to Me. I had a hard time putting this book down, kept you guessing till the very end.

This is a story about a dysfunctional marriage with a capital D. Has Sutton just walked away from their marriage as her note says or has something bad happened to her? Ethan doesn't know but he brings in the police just in case it is the latter and he becomes a suspect which would be the case because of the state of their marriage. It doesn't help his case that all of their friends are convinced that Ethan definitely could have hurt his wife. This book is very easy to read and quite addicting. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Like the Rolling Stones singing loud and clear: "You can't always get what you want."

And this one seems to set me outside the perimeter of shinier star ratings. I find myself standing alone on a darkened corner with no taxi in sight.

Ethan and Sutton Montclair are a married couple living in Franklin, Tennessee. Both of these individuals are novelists. Ethan crafts best-selling books and Sutton sticks with historical romances. There appears to be more that shifts this odd couple in opposing directions than what binds them together. Sadly, no truce in sight.

Ethan comes home to a note left in the kitchen by Sutton: "I'm leaving for a while. Don't look for me." But Ethan starts to contact her best friends who have no idea where she is. We'll meet the Ice Queen of the Century in the likes of Sutton's mother. Ethan feels it's best to lawyer up.......just in case. Advice, both good and bad, starts pouring in. Where is Sutton and does Ethan have that shadow of guilt when one's wife goes missing?

J.T. Ellison creates a constantly ballooning storyline here. The reader climbs the escalating layers of marital indiscretions, unwanted pregnancies, careers tanking, a missing spouse, a dead body, overzealous police, mistaken identities, alcohol abuse, and unstable personalities. And that's just in the first half of this book. Ellison throws everything imaginable into this plot at an almost breathless rate. You can't get to the last pages without stepping over more landmines in the road from American to foreign soil.

The chosen characters are a very unlikeable lot. They are certainly not going to give you "the feels" in any way, shape, or form. The sole level-headed individual in the entire book is the rookie detective, Holly Graham, who seems to be the only one "adulting" her way through this book.

Most certainly, read this one for yourself. You may arrive at a totally different conclusion than I did. The higher ratings by others prove that. It was just overkill for me. Perhaps I will get what I want from Santa in the next J.T. Ellison book. Only cut out all the fancy bows and tinsel........

I received a copy of Lie to Me through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to J.T. Ellison and to Mira Books for the opportunity.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a real twisty thriller, which kept you guessing all the way through with a satisfying ending. I marked it down from a five star because I felt some of the relationships in the story were a little confusing and not as realistic I would have liked, especially the relationship between Ethan and Sutton and Sutton’s relationships with her friends. I also felt the police side of the story was a bit two dimensional. However… On the plus side, there was conflict aplenty and lots of secrets and lies to be unearthed along the way. I had guessed who was behind all the mayhem very early on, but that didn’t spoil the story, because there were so many other things happening, and the reason why was a complete shock when it came. Very clever, completely absorbing and the writing flowed along at a cracking pace.

I would like to thank HQ Digital and Net Galley for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book but it just did not do it for me. The characters were horrible, the writing was ok and I struggled with this book. When I got to the end, what a big disappointment. The last page, really? This book left me just flat. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.