This book kept me gripped throughout and I really felt for Isla.
Isla is a photographer and loves travelling. Something horrific happened to her in Australia and she’s trying to move on but then she finds out that the man who killed her best friend six years ago might be released from prison.
This dominates her thoughts and affects her relationships with her boyfriend and best friend until she thinks she’s going mad. Things start happening to Isla and her life starts to unravel.
Part 2 had me on the edge of my seat as I just wanted to know what had happened...
I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to spoil it but I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a really good psychological thriller.
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ Digital for giving me the opportunity to read this great book.

First Impression:
Quite possibly one of my favorite stop and admire the book cover contenders of the last few years.

The story:
Main female protagonist Isla has a successful career as a travel writer/photographer, recently returning from Canada to the U.K much to the happiness of her handsome boyfriend, Jack, her loving family and her friends. But Isla receives a devastating blow when she discovers the serial killer that she placed behind bars and murdered her friend six years ago is now up for appeal. And that is not all that Isla might be hiding.

My thoughts:
I must say that this book had its highs and lows. Psychological suspense is there and Amanda Brittany does splendidly well with creating a whole cast of suspiciously creepy characters from both Isla's past and present. The lows from my perspective was the backstory and the "which man will she choose?" aspect of the story had me feeling all restless and waned my interest. Also, I feel a bit cheated, but since I don't want to spoil it for future readers, I will just bite my tongue for now and should anyone on my Goodreads list read it , feel free to drop me a line and I will gladly vent. Haha!

Fact(s)
BTW, I think it is super cool that the author is donating the proceeds of her book sales( keep in mind, this is her debut novel) to cancer research in memory of her younger sister.

Described as a gripping psychological thriller, this is one novel which delivers everything it promises! As her debut novel, Amanda Brittany has raised the bar in this genre.

This is the story of Isla, who has successfully moved on from her traumatic past when she almost died at the hands of a serial murderer. When strange things begin to happen at the same time as the convicted man attempts to launch his appeal, Isla fears he is stalking her again. Despite having her life back on track and pursuing a career as a photographer / write and living with her boyfriend of two years, cracks begin to show in her life. Is it her mind playing tricks or is it worse than that?

Several times whilst reading, I was convinced I had it all worked out. WRONG! This is a very cleverly constructed novel. All the necessary information is there but time and again I made the wrong assumptions. I love that everything is all neatly finished off by the end of the book – I do so hate to be left with something niggling at me but no such worries with this one. This is a book which will get under your skin, no doubt about it.

My thanks to publishers HQ Digital for approving my copy via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

It was the cover that first attracted me to Her Last Lie, but the promise of a story about a serial killer victim survivor just sounded too good to be true. I've been looking forward to pick up this psychological thriller debut ever since... But unfortunately I have to say I ended up having mixed thoughts instead. The writing style itself is engaging and flows, and I liked the incorporation of the little blog bits into the story. That said, I did have a problem with the plot and the focus on the main character and her relationships to men instead of the actual suspense around what happened in Australia and what is happening now. The whole love triangle/cheating was a mayor turn off if you ask me, and the mayority of Her Last Lie felt more like a contemporary romance read with a dash of suspense rather than the psychological thriller I was expecting. I couldn't stand the main character Isla either, and not just because of her cheating... And I was also disappointed there wasn't more focus on what happened in Australia. I did love the travel bits and descriptions, especially those set in Sweden. This was also the part where the story finally came alive for me, which is a shame since it's basically the last 25% or so of Her Last Lie and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it to that point in a normal read. As soon as the scene with the Northern Lights (don't want to reveal more to avoid spoilers) kicks in, the real suspense finally kicks in and the story manages to grab my attention completely. There are some interesting final reveals and plot twists, although I do admit I saw some of it coming... But still it was a remarkably strong finish to what was for me a quite disappointing, weak and too romance-focused psychological thriller. Like I said, the final part of Her Last Lie definitely shows a lot of potential! But I kind of wish the rest of the story would have followed the same tone.

I tried to get into this book, I was hoping it would be every thing I wanted it to be, but sadly it wasn’t. It jumped around way too much and just strange.

Her Last Lie follows the story of Isla, the last, and only, victim to walk free from a serial killer six years ago. Determined to live life to the fullest, she travels and photographs the world, but her life is turned upside down when the man she thought would be behind bars forever is poised to be released.

Isla is an interesting character. She suffers from survivors guilt, PTSD and has emotional issues. As anyone would, given her history. The novel manages to express all of Isla's issues sensitively, and in a way that drives the story and character forward as opposed to merely just being a quirk in her character. There's emotional depth there, and it made me warm to the character enough to care about what was going to happen. The paranoia she expresses also helped to ramp up the psychological suspense, as I wondered, along with Isla, about what would happen next. I also understood her irrational behaviour given her past, and could see why she seemed to turn to certain men one minute for affection, then want to run away the next. Yes, this made her difficult to 'like', but I never found her behaviour odd - it added to the overall feeling of Isla slowly unravelling at the seams.

The style of writing flits between the past, with lots of flashbacks to build up the background of the characters, the present and blog type posts - which make the flow of the text a little hard to follow at times, and also a little confusing. I found the blog posts in particular quite abrupt and jarring to the text, and often found myself skimming them to get to the rest of the story. I also didn't like the text later in the novel relating to Roxanne. I felt that as a secondary character there wasn't really enough background there for me to care enough about her to warrant chapters devoted to her. Again, it took away from the main story and felt a little unnecessary.

The ending was also a little rushed. We spend so much time developing Isla, that to have an ending last a couple of pages left me feeling very unsatisfied. The plot twist however, did leave me surprised.

A decent well written page turner of a novel, edging more towards drama than thriller.

A pretty good debut. It's not necessarily a thriller but more of an examination of survivor guilt and what are often bad choices. Isla has been dealing with the fact that she was the only one who escaped a murderer's clutches by, she thinks, living life to the fullest. That's not entirely true. She's got some serious issues with men which might leave you quite annoyed (they did me periodically). This would have benefited from a tightening edit but all in all, it's a fast entertaining read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The story was okay, however I wasn"t a fan of the style of writing. Overall an average thriller with an unlikable female heroine.

Another great thriller! The writing was really good and it held my interest till the end. Of course my guess was wrong like most of the time, well partially!

So the main character Isla is a 29-year old writer and photographer who lives a fairly normal life until she finds out that the man, Carl Jeffrey who killed her best friend 6 years prior is being released from prison. Isla was the only victim who walked away from Jeffrey's crime spree and she decided to live her life to the fullest after that. Until someone enters her life who changes everything.

The synopsis of this story sounded really interesting to me, I read Final Girls by Riley Sager earlier this year and it was amazing. This story kind of reminded me of that one, being as Isla is the only victim who got away. However, I didn't really enjoy this book very much..This book certainly wasn't as suspenseful as I thought it would be and although I would still put it in the thriller/suspense genre, it seemed to be filled with much more drama instead of suspense. There are certainly a few interesting plot twists throughout the book, but not enough to make up for the fairly slow plot. Overall I liked the story, it just wasn't really what I thought it would be and didn't really hold my interest.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book.

Actually 3.5 stars but I have rounded it down as, although the execution was really good, at the end of the day, it's the story that's important and, for me, it didn't quite hit the mark.
Six years ago, Isla survived a serial killer, her testimony at the trial being key to his conviction. Despite him being in jail, she is still, understandably, affected by his presence and what happened but is trying to get on with her life. Things are brought to another head however as the killer's sister is once again mounting an appeal and wants her to retell her part in things. Something that Isla, understandably, doesn't want any part of. So much so that she also fails to mention this to her boyfriend Jack. Instead, determined to finish her travel photography book, she ups and goes to Canada where she meets someone. Talk about getting herself in a pickle, all this just leads to some very strange behaviour on her return to the UK. Leaving things again unresolved, she pops off again, this time to Sweden for more photography and then things get really weird.
Ok so right from the off I didn't like Isla. Yes, I know I don't have to like a character, just need to have a connection with them but here, I dunno, it's almost like I really didn't care what happened to her. I didn't like her, I didn't like how she treated people, I didn't like the victim card she kept playing. I guess from the way the book eventually goes, there is a point that comes where you are supposed to lean more towards her. When things start to become clear but, to be honest, I was too far past caring to turn back by then. Sorry. There was also the thing about her not wanting to know something that I thought the outcome of which would be plastered all over the media anyway. Not really understanding how she could have avoided knowing to be honest.
The story was also a little daft in places. I did start off by nearly shouting at the characters when they failed with the blooming obvious. Yes, I know that the blooming obvious to me may not also be to them but still, after the fifth or sixth time I had somewhat lost patience with it all.
All that said though, the twist was clever, didn't see that coming at all. Well done for that, that was well executed indeed! Te rest of the reveal did however leave me a little flat. Yes, with hindsight, many of my criticisms of earlier in the book would not have been so justified but, and it's an important but, I got myself into that mindset and nothing was going to redress that for me. Again sorry, but I am not sure whether it is totally my failing though as the author led me to where I went. Maybe by being a bit over clever. Again, I don't know.
Anyway, there you are. My thoughts on my experience reading this book. As already mentioned at the beginning, the actual writing was excellent, just the story fell flat for me. I would be really interested in seeing what she serves up next time, this being her debut. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

3.75 Stars - Let’s first look at this cover a bit more! It’s really beautiful albeit it was better if the title was a bit smaller but nonetheless I really like this cover!

Well, about the story! I liked it and really enjoyed it. The writing was really good and it held my interest till the end. Of course my guess was wrong like most of the time, well partially! But the thing is when it ended I wanted more for the ending! It was a bit rushed. While reading the story, you don’t like Isla’s character and when the story came to an and the damage was done and you couldn’t like her if you wanted it! Told in dual POV, 3rd person. It’s a standalone novel. Overall, it was an enjoyable read for me and I hope you like it as well!

Thanks to Amanda Brittany, Netgalley and HQ Digital for the advanced digital copy in exchange an honest review.

Isla is a twenty-nine year-old writer and photographer. She lives a fairly predictable life until she learns that the man who killed her best friend six years ago might be released from prison.

This story was low on thrill and high on drama with a dollop of psychological suspense. There was a lot of reminiscing, backtracking to the past, and reflecting on old relationships. There was also an interesting twist that was eventually revealed, but this the story sort of dragged after the halfway mark when Isla’s thoughts became repetitive. The word Facebook was used 68 times.

♢ I liked this story but didn’t love it.

2.5 stars. This was a strange book because though I didn't like it for the most, I was hooked enough to continue right through the end, wanting to what was going on. I must say, I liked it more when I finished it, but because of the structure, I spend most of the time being irritated at the protagonist. I almost abandoned the book when it seemed like Isla's life was defined by her relationships with various men, odd considering that she had been almost murdered by a man she had befriended on a trip. So by the time you realise that Andy is fictitious and created by the person who's out to get Isla, you already don't like Isla and don't really care what's going to happen to her.

I kept telling myself that because she's a survivor of an attempted murder, I am supposed to sympathise with her, but for the most part Isla was difficult to sympathise with. This was mostly because she seemed to be taking bizarre decisions for someone who'd had a horrifying experience, putting herself in situations that make her vulnerable. Perhaps that was whole point of it, but it made me irritated with her and unable to connect. In fact, I didn't understand her state of mind at all -- her irrational (and rational) fears seemed at odds with her wanting to go away to desolate locations to be on her own. The Isla who was coming apart at the seams because she kept imagining the man who had almost killed her stalking her and the Isla who plouged ahead with her life were difficult to reconcile.

Although well written, this book was much more of a romance novel than a psychological thriller, so not really my thing. I found the plot very contrived and the actions of the protagonist were chronically cliched (forever grizzling, dismissing very obvious signs of danger as 'it's all in my mind, I must be going mad'). There was no real pace to the story and the trip to Sweden made no sense at all; it only served to make the denoument feel even more disjointed and unrealistic.

Isla is hoping to publish a book. It is a journal of her travels supported with many photographs which she documents. Currently she is in Canada and she meets a man. Upon her return home, her boyfriend encourages her to finish her book and so she plans her final trip to Sweden. Off she goes and then - she disappears. But Isla has a history. Six years ago she escaped the serial killer, Carl Jeffery.

When her journal is read her family are worried and start to investigate.

I love the structure of this book. The way the text was supported by excerpts from Isla’s blog gave it an interesting twist, an added dimension. However, I was disappointed in the section devoted to Roxanne as I felt that this was a little contrived in order to develop the plot. What was very interesting was how survivor’s guilt and paranoia affected Isla so it was difficult to gauge what was a real threat and what wasn’t. However, I had to suspend belief when she walked off into the snow for hours without thinking about how far she was walking, the weather or the coming night. Really?

Whilst not a brilliant book in my opinion, it is certainly well worth a read. Well written and not easy to guess where it was going and what would happen.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Another great thriller! Isla narrowly escaped being the next victim of a serial killer six years ago and lives in a constant state of survivor's guilt, often plagued by visions of being stalked by the man who remains in prison. Determined to finish and publish her travel/photo journal, she flies to Canada and falls in love, only to question her relationship with her live-in boyfriend, Jack. Upon her return she is wary and confused as her emotions are derailed by an ex-boyfriend who suddenly reappears in her life as well. Nothing is easy; she plans a trip to Sweden but things go quickly awry and her life spirals out of control. Kept me up at night reading!

Gripping and twisty, another book added to my bests reads of this year list.

I enjoyed this book, although I found it very easy to figure out the plot. Not as good as I thought it was going to be.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Amanda Brittany for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.