I was completely engrossed in this book, I loved it, it made me laugh, think and wonder and cry over certain events that were so true to life and yet so unimaginable. Paula Treick DeBoard does a excellent job describing the main characters of Lauren Mabrey and Megan Mazeros who were college roomates as different as their backgrounds and were inseparable friends who did everything together. The story is told in the past and also the present and it flows seamlessly through each voice of Lauren and Megan, keeping the suspense going. Many memories of college days were poignant, as were the dreams of what each girl dreamed of being. The jealousy and betrayals over boyfriends became a real issue and started the downward spiral. Can trust be regained and justice served? Secrets were kept, many lies covered them up, and events exploded with a sure fire rage leading to inevitable estrangements to protect the reputation of a highly regarded senator and his family. Thanks to Net Galley and Secret Ninja's for this ARC that held me captive for days.

This is a timely novel about female friendships, family, the rich vs the poor and other topics that are a mirror of what is currently going on in our society. I don't want to spoil it so I can't go into a lot of detail but do want to say that it's a wonderful novel with two very well written, though pretty unlikable main female characters. Megan and Lauren meet in college and become fast friends. How good of friends they are is in question because they are from totally different backgrounds - Lauren is the daughter of a rich Senator and Megan is a poor girl from the Midwest. They also lie to each other in telling their pasts to each other. Despite the question of how good their friendship is, everything changes when Megan spends a few weeks in the simmer before their senior year at the island retreat owned by Lauren's family. After that summer, they don't see each other again for years until Megan decides to tell the world what really happened that summer even though it will be disastrous to Lauren's family.

This is a fantastic novel about friendship and betrayal.

I received an advance review copy of this book from the Great Thoughts Ninja Review Team. All opinions are my own.

This book was very good. I read it in 2 days. Love the Author. Only gets better. Run...to buy this book. Highly recommend!!!

This is a wonderful story of friendship, tragedy and surviving. Megan and Lauren are college room mates who are as different as can be. Megan is from a wealthy family whose dad is a US senator. Lauren is coming to college with money from her dad's life insurance who died of mesothelioma. When spending a summer break with the senator and his family, she is raped by by Megan's brother. No one believes her. Years pass and finally Lauren gets the chance to tell her story. A great book that has you rooting for both the girls as they make their way through life.

Unfortunately the novel was archived prior to my download. This will not happen again.

Paula Treick DeBoard couldn't have written a better, more timely novel than her latest: Here We Lie! When two girls, one from a middle class suburb in Kansas, the other, a privileged daughter of a Senator with multiple residences along the east coast, find themselves as roommates at an all girl's college, they bond almost instantly. The friendship develops quickly and an incident on a vacation alter both of their lives forever. Told from both Lauren and Megan's perspectives at that time and presently, Paula Treick DeBoard will have you devouring their entire tale!

This tale is a poignant story that mirrors the current #timesup movement. This is a conversation that needs to be had! I think the author triumphs in telling a realistic story that reveals just enough detail to enrage you at the injustices done to sexual assault survivors but leaves enough unsaid to protect the vulnerabilities of the one who was harmed. 👏

4.5 stars rounded up!

Here We Lie by Paula Treick DeBoard is an absolutely riveting, powerful, thrilling, and thought-provoking domestic suspense novel about friendship, jealousy, secrets, lies and betrayal.  I was totally engaged from start to finish and found myself mesmerized with how well this story was told and with the way it unfolded!  I was extremely impressed!

Paula Treick DeBoard delivers an impressive and well-written story here that takes you on an emotional journey of the friendship between two best friends, Megan and Lauren.  The story is told in an alternating dual point of view between Megan and Lauren and the timelines shift back and forth with the story opening up in 2016 and then transitions back and forth between the late 90’s, early 2000’s and then back to the present in 2016. I really enjoyed getting to know and understanding the friendship between Megan and Lauren with the way that this story was presented.  Sometimes I find that a dual timeshifting POV is distracting or I like one time period better than another but it definitely was not the case with this book.  I thought it flowed effortlessly and was easy to follow along with the storyline and all the characters involved.  

The characters are well-developed, flawed, and realistic to a point where I was totally connected to the characters and to this story.  This was my first book by Paula Treick DeBoard and I will definitely be checking out her previous and upcoming books!  Highly recommend!

Published: January 30th, 2018

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Harlequin and Paula Treick DeBoard for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review!

5 stars! I loved this book!

This story revolves around two best friends who meet at university. The summer after their third year of studies they have a major falling out that causes them to lose touch completely for over a decade. Fourteen years after their falling out, they are reunited in the midst of a major political scandal.

I was quickly drawn into this gripping and suspenseful drama from the very first page. I adored the two main characters, Megan and Lauren, who narrated this intriguing and addictive story. This novel weaves together a Past and Present timeline which flowed perfectly.

The author, Paula Treick DeBoard, did a fantastic job capturing the emotional chaos of the female bond/friendship through university years. The love, loyalty, highs and lows between Lauren and Megan were palpable.

I loved DeBoard’s writing! So many sentences made me silently cheer inside my head because they were so brilliantly worded. This is my first book by DeBoard and I am very excited to check out her previous and future works!!

A big thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin and Paula Treick DeBoard for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Megan Mazeros and Lauren Mabrey become roommates in their private college and become fast friends. They are from two different worlds. Megan grew up in Kansas with her parents. Her father suffered a long and painful illness. An illness that holds a big secret for Megan. Lauren grew up the daughter of a Senator in a well-to-do family. She is what you would call the “black sheep”. Her mother is always sweeping in to sweep everything under the rug. As we go back and forth in time, we learn about the lies that both women have told each other and others and the biggest lie that changes everything.

This book is so on topic right now. It describes the courage it takes to come forward with a story of abuse so perfectly. I felt every fear, every sadness, every triumph. It was also about becoming the person you are meant to be and shedding the things we have held onto for so long. Both characters are flawed, they are human, but you want so much for both of them. The writer writes in such a way as if you are actually there, a fly on the wall, watching everything transpire. It is timely. It is hard at times. It is a very good read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin for this wonderful book.

Reading this book is like reading today's headlines about sexual assaults and harassment by politicians. Told in dual timeless by college friends Lauren and Megan, the story flowed beautifully from the present to past to present. For the most part, I liked both Lauren and Megan even though they each had their flaws, as does everyone. So many secrets, so many lies told by both. But even so, Lauren and Megan become pretty much inseparable. What was heartbreaking was how that friendship changed because of one horrible night for one of the girls. How could one friend not believe the other? Was it just another lie? This book is incredibly captivating from the start and was very well done. I'm surprised I have not read any of Paula DeBoard's other books but now I'll certainly be adding them to my to-be-read list.

I received an advance reader copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own

College besties (Megan and Lauren) enjoy strong friendship until tragedy strikes. Will their friendship endure this challenge? Or, will Lauren's privileged family prevail and keep them apart?

Armed with the life insurance money received after her father's death, Megan decides to leave Kansas once and for all and attend a private, all-girl's college in Connecticut. There, she meets an unlikely friend, Lauren, who is the wealthy and privileged daughter of a senator. I was utterly engrossed by this very timely, #MeToo movement storyline and devoured it over a weekend.

This was my first time reading anything by this author, and I will be back for more!

Trigger Warning: Rape

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book! All opinions are my own.

I'm always on the lookout for books that deal well with social issues, and Here We Lie, the latest novel from Paula Treick DeBoard, is just such a book. On the surface, it's a story not all that different from hundreds of others, the tale of two young women from startlingly different backgrounds who forge a friendship that will shape both their lives in unimaginable ways. But if you look a little deeper, you'll see it's so much more than that.

Megan Mazeros can't wait to get away from her small mid-western town. Her father recently died of cancer, and his death has shaken her far more than she ever thought possible. Her mother seems ready to move on with her life, and it doesn't seem as though Megan has much of a place in her plans, so she's more than happy to head off to the east coast for college. Maybe there, she'll finally be able to discover who she really is. Maybe there, she'll be able to leave the shadows of her past far behind her.

Lauren Mabrey is no stranger to privilege. The daughter of a powerful senator and his strong-willed wife, she's grown up with every luxury money could buy. Even so, Lauren isn’t happy, feeling constantly like a stranger in the midst of her family. Her goals and dreams are so different from theirs, and her mother is constantly criticizing her for her unwillingness to fall in line with their expectations. So, when Lauren gets accepted into a small women's college, she's eager to attend, if only to get out of the shadow of her powerful family.

Halfway through freshman year, Megan and Lauren begin rooming together. At first, Megan is a little put off by Lauren's careless way of approaching the world and can’t help but think that if she had all the privilege Lauren seems so willing to take for granted, her life would be far easier.  But as time passes, the two women form a strong friendship that embraces their similarities and respects their differences. It's the kind of friendship they have both always yearned for, but never really found until now. They vow to always have each others backs, and, for the next two and a half years, nothing comes between them.

Then, the summer before senior year, Megan joins Lauren and her family for a vacation on the private island that has been in the Mabrey family for generations. It'll be just the break she needs before the hustle and bustle of her final year of college. Plus, she can't deny her attraction to the affluent lifestyle enjoyed by Lauren's family. But then, something goes horribly wrong, and neither Megan nor Lauren will ever be quite the same. The reverberations of one random act of violence will be felt by both women for years to come, until, years later, Megan feels compelled to come forward about what really happened on that terrible night.

Here We Lie is an intensely powerful read that takes an unflinching look at political power and the privilege it affords to those at the top of the social ladder. The story isn't always easy to read, as the author doesn't hold anything back as she explores the ramifications of sexual violence, but I feel it's a story that has needed to be told for quite some time. Obviously, if books about sexual assault cause you some distress, you'll want to give this one a pass.

The story is told in alternating chapters from both Megan's and Lauren's points of view, and I found myself more drawn to Megan's chapters as she's a far more sympathetic character. She doesn't always do the right things, but I was never in doubt as to her integrity, whereas Lauren's self-involvement and irresponsible actions had me questioning her at pretty much every turn. Even so, the author succeeds at making their friendship completely believable, and even though I sometimes wanted Megan to kick Lauren to the curb, I could understand why she didn't.

My one criticism of the novel has to do with its ending. It's the kind of idealistic ending most of us dream about but one that doesn't necessarily hold up well in real life. I wanted the villain to be brought to justice and for Megan to get some closure, but the way in which the author brinhd these things about didn't quite ring true for me. Even so, Here We Lie is a book I'm more than happy to have read, and I hope countless readers will pick it up and love it as much as I did.

Buy it at: A/BN/iB/K

I finished this book at 3 am this morning. I just had to know how this was going to end and I simply could not put it down. Megan and Lauren’s story was timely and so emotional.

I enjoyed their friendship and felt like it was very true and honest. I think I always longed for a friendship like theirs, so close and comforting so I enjoyed those moments with them.

The emotion that goes along with this subject and with the characters was gutting and felt so real to me. I love when writing can do that, make me feel like I’m inside the characters head and experiencing what she is. This was done sublimely!

I highly recommend this book to lovers of drama, family and friendship. This one was just beautiful and I loved it!

I started this book late last night and finished it less than 24 hours later - that is how amazing Here We Lie is. I did not want to put it down. The book focuses on friendship and on the things that strengthen and ruin friendships. The two main characters are so relatable and dynamic that I could easily picture both of them - in fact, this book played like a movie in my head while I was reading it. A+!

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All Opinions are my Own.

This book reaffirmed my love of “campus novels”, and it touched on some prominent themes in today’s news. The dichotomy of the rich girl/poor girl friendship was so well done, and I enjoyed the backgrounds and the current day stories throughout the entire book. There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout the book, so I was able to guess the ending pretty early on. That being said, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book at all—I was racing back to my Kindle to get back to the story!

Megan was more relatable for me than Lauren, but both characters were very well developed and believable. I found myself rooting for Megan throughout the book and wanting her to end up with the happy tie-up at the end. I don’t want to include any spoilers, but suffice to say that Megan overcame all of her obstacles by the end of the novel.

This was definitely one of my favorite books in a long time, and I will look forward to more books from Paula DeBoard in the future!

Fabulous book. Thoroughly loved. Highly recommend!

I know several other reviews have said this, or will say this when written, but this is such an important book for this time of power and money over facts and truth.

I enjoyed how this book was told in both alternating view points and periods of time. It kept the story moving but also left a few things up in the air. The author mentions some events just vague enough to keep you wondering which characters were involved and which are effected by it.

I liked the friendship between Lauren and Megan—I really liked Lauren’s character up until the climax. I felt for Megan and for any one else that has to experience and then live with something so terrible. While I know this particular case is fiction, it’s sickening that there are so many cases that are true.

Again, a very well written, timely story. I received and Advanced Review Copy. All thoughts are my own.

I am a big fan of DeBoard's and this book did not disappoint.