This book grabbed me from page one and didn't let go until I finished the last page! I was seriously blown away sitting there like what the hell just happened?! The story was so riveting and had so many twists and turns I believe your mind will be blow as well! Riley Sager is a genius!

This is my second book by Riley Sager now and I must say I will be reading everything from now on.  I love mysteries and this book definitely had me guessing a lot.  I did guess right on one thing, but not the other (and the clues were there).  I was also second guessing myself as the story played out.



As with all mysteries, I have to be careful with how much I mention.  I will do my very best not to give anything away.



This book is basically Emma's story, but it does involve a lot of other people.  We go back and forth in time.  Present and 15 years earlier at Camp Nightingale.  The camp was run by a woman named Franny.  Her family had a lot of money and the lake there was created by a grandfather (great?).  Unfortunately, the camp closed down 15 years ago after a major tragedy.



Emma is now an artist.   Every one of her paintings have three girls and then she paints over them.  She can't stop herself.  Emma went to camp for one year when she was 13.  She was a late arrival and ended up rooming with three older girls (16 and 17).  Vivian was the queen b leader.  The one that acts super nice, but then is a total b before going back to nice.  She acted older and flirted a lot with the older teens working there.  Natalie and Allison pretty much followed whatever Vivian did.  They all went to school together.  Even though Emma was young and afraid, she stood up to Vivian the first night.  That made Viv decide to be a big sister to Em.  She could see something in her that reminded Vivian of herself.  Emma followed Vivian obsessively.  Emma also had a major crush on Franny's 19 year old son that was going to Harvard.  Chet was the younger brother that adored Theo.  Both boys were adopted and Franny was not young at the time.  Her husband drowned and she never remarried.  Just adopted the boys.  Their family had a lot of money.



One night, Vivian, Natalie, and Allison go missing.  Emma implies early in the story that she told some lies about that night and has a lot of guilt.  It's why she paints the girls.  So when Franny shows up at one of her art shows and invites Emma to her home, Emma agrees to go.  Franny is opening the camp again and she wants Emma to teach art for the summer.  While she had some issues with it, Emma decides to go so that she can solve the mystery of what happened to her friends.  A few people from 15 years ago (plus the family/groundskeeper/etc) come back and there are a new group of girls.  Emma has to stay in a cabin (the same one she was in before) with three new campers that she grows close to.  Emma starts finding clues from her past, but someone is also messing with her.  Things start to go wrong and Emma wonders if she's just going crazy.  The family obviously had some doubts because they put a security camera facing Emma's cabin door.  And only that one.



No one seems to trust anyone.  Everyone is keeping secrets.  And everyone lies.  There were a couple shocking moments and the pacing was great.  I flew through the book and can't wait to read Riley's next book.



I gave this book 5 stars.



Warnings for all the typical things you see in mystery/thrillers similar to this one. Missing children, bullying, lying, death, talk of drowning, inappropriate relationships, sex, spying/peeping.  This is an adult book, not YA.

The Last time I Lied is the follow up to Riley Sager's blockbuster hit, Final Girls. As many authors falter with their second book (especially after such a successful book), Sager continues his winning streak with another twisting and turning mystery.

We meet Emma, a successful artist, 15 years after the tragic night her friends went missing from camp. Emma is returning to be an art teacher to a new group of girls. Filled with dread, guilt, longing...Emma returns and it is immediately obvious that not all is right at Camp Nightengale. Liar painted on her cabin's door, three birds left as a warning, visions of dead girls. Who can Emma trust and what really happened all those years ago? Can we as readers even trust Emma?

Told in the present and the past through memories and journal entries, Sager writes and entertaining mystery that had me staying up too late just to finish. Well done!

This book was sooooo good. I cannot wait to read more from this author. The ending blew me away!!!!! Oh em gee!!!

This book hooked me from the beginning. Camp Nightengale is an all-summer camp for those that were privileged. Emma, being the youngest in her cabin, was one of 4 campers in the cabin. One night, the oldest three leave the cabin and never return. All three are presumed dead. Fast forward 15 years, Emma, after dealing with the mental health issues caused by the events at camp, is now an artist. Her paintings are dark and mysterious nature scenes with a secret hidden behind the woods. She receives an invitation from the Camp Nightengale director to have lunch. There, Emma discovers the director wants to reopen the camp and is asked to come back to the camp as an art teacher. What Emma doesn't know is that there are several other campers from that last summer that come back as well, all still believing she had something to do with the disappearance of the 3 girls. She is assigned to the same cabin that she was in all those years ago with 3 teens. Similar events to 15 years ago begin to unravel and some of the issues Emma dealt with and worked through come back. Through some sleuthing of her own, she encounters some unexpected and dark and twisted plots from an unassuming character. The twist at the end was definitely a surprise to me and one I would never have picked up.

I had high hopes for this book, but came away feeling very meh about it.

The characters were meh (and there were SO MANY, I had a hard time keeping them straight); the mystery was meh; and the wrap up was meh. There just wasn’t a lot about this story I liked.

I was surprised that the disappearance of the girls had such a shattering effect on the main character, seeing as she had only known them TWO weeks. These were not lifelong friends, here. TWO weeks. I thought the reason why the girls went missing was lame and unrealistic; I didn’t buy it.

I did, however, like the twist at the end of part one (and I saw it coming, which made me feel smart); and I’m a sucker for epilogues like the one the author provided, so there was that. Plus, I stuck with it, so it mustn’t have been ALL bad.

Fifteen years ago, Emma Davis witnessed a tragedy at Camp Nightingale, the first summer camp she attended. The other three girls in her cabin went missing, never to return. Now a painter, she revisits this incident through her artwork, painting and repainting each of the three girls.

When the camp opens for the first time in fifteen years, Emma is offered the position of art instructor. Emma quickly agrees; She's ready to get some answers about the missing girls and put an end to the torment that has followed her into her adult years. The question is, however, will she find the answers she seeks or will she, too, succumb to the curse of camp Nightingale?

Much like Sager’s previous title, Final Girls, Emma is the girl that remains after a pretty tragic experience at a summer school for wealthy children. Following the incident, Emma was cast in a shadow of doubt by others involved and to be honest, herself as well. The setting of a summer camp is perfect; some of the very best horror movies revolve around such a setting.

Sager’s allusions to the various rumors regarding the camp’s past added another element of fear and terror. The reader, much like Emma herself, found themselves question each and every thing that transpired 15 years ago, opening up the cast of suspects to nearly anyone who was present at the camp. Sager takes the reader on numerous twists and turns, throwing in a few false leads as well. Just when you think you have it figured out, something else is revealed, taking you on a completely different path.

Many thanks to NetGalley for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first book from Sager and I am kicking myself for taking so long to pick this one up. It was definitely worth picking up and checked all the boxes when it comes to mystery/thrillers for me.

Camp Nightingale was supposed to be a great adventure for Emma Davis. But when the other three girls from Dogwood cabin walk out the door never to return, everything goes to hell for Emma. Shortly after ordeal, she has a breakdown and learns to paint out her feelings. 15 years later she is becoming a well known artist and is on her way to fame. But the events of that night still haunt her and she need answers. And being given the chance to go back to the camp for the summer as a counselor, just might might be what she needs to be able to get the answers she needs to move on.

Emma is one those characters that I felt horrible for. She has been carrying guilt from that night all those years ago. But with everything she has been through, from the nervous breakdown to the strange painting with the girls hidden away in them, it was also clear that she might be the most reliable narrator either. There was a great cast of characters, some from the past and some from the present. Some were a little suspicious but certainly interesting. And their parts played very well into the mystery.

The story flips back and forth from the present to flashbacks of Emma’s time at camp leading up to the girls going missing and the aftermath. All the pieces are there, she just has to put them all together. But it wasn’t all that simple. Being back at the camp wasn’t easy for Emma and when she thought she started to have things figured out some other piece of information or memory would put a monkey wrench in it all. As the story progress, it got even more suspenseful with little clues here and there and down right creepy in places and even I couldn’t figure out what was the truth or who to trust. It wasn’t until the end that it all came together and wow was I wrong on so many fronts. But holy crap was it amazing. Not at all where I thoughts things were going at all.

The Last Time I Lied was an atmospheric, creepy and suspenseful thrill ride filled with lies and betrayals and truths as well. The way this was written made it feel like being there with Emma on her hunt to the truth. I especially like the whole “two truths and a lie” game that the girls played at camp. This was a seriously twisted tale! And I enjoyed it so much. I can now see where there was so much hype about it when it first came out and I am certainly glad I picked it up and would definitely recommend it those who love an eerie mystery.

The Last Time I Lied is a mystery about teenage girls who went missing at a camp and Emma Davis their cabin mate that last saw them. Emma returned to Camp Nightingale to figure out what happened to them. Doing so started a chain events. Riley Sager had an interesting plot that could’ve been more. I wish there had been more development in the 2 truths and a lie game that was played and more details about the truth of the camp's origins. Last time I lied was a solid mystery but not a thriller as expected or even that suspenseful.

Note: I was allowed an advance copy of this book to review. In no way did that affect my opinions.

Meh. I figured out who it was half way through... the ending was meh. The main character was ok, unreliable which is my favorite. I enjoyed this but I’m not dying to tell everyone to read it.

This was one of the most un-thrilling thrillers I’ve read in a long time...Emma was an annoying main character with virtually no redeeming qualities...none of the character’s actions or responses really made sense...the writing had gaps that just didn’t ever fit? Really, you fall and your ankle/foot are at an unnatural angle yet somehow it’s just a sprain? Pretty convenient in order for her to swim to save herself...you sneak out of a window, confront everyone you were sneaking out to hide from and then, even though EVERYONE KNOWS YOURE NOT IN YOUR CABIN YOU STILL GO BACK IN THROUGH THE WINDOW?!? For gods sakes...bottom line, i thought it was predictable..it was just a lackluster thriller for me...disappointing as I’ve heard such great things about Final Girls? Makes me hesitant to bother reading that one...

Though Final Girls is on my TBR, this is the first Riley Sager I've read. It was an interesting tale with a lot of twists and turns, and I'm definitely going to read anything else they publish. Despite the male author, they describe the inner life of teenage girls and the drama involved really well.

All the rich bitches summered at Camp Nightingale until fifteen-years-ago on the Fourth of July when three girls vanished in the middle of the night and the camp was shut down. . . until this summer.⁠
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Emma Davis thought she had a good idea of what happened to her "friends," ⁠but she's about to discover much more than she ever bargained for when she returns for answers.
What happened to those girls? What other mysteries will Emma stumble across along the way?⁠
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The Last Time I Lied is a novel full of twists and turns that will leave you wondering, "What next?!" with each page turn.
I loved how the author occasionally placed you in Emma's shoes by switching from first-person to a second-person point of view. I haven't come across many novels that use this tactic, but I'm a fan!⁠
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It also helps that this is the perfect season for such a book as this. I swear I could smell the bug spray and sunscreen of camp's past, feel the heartbreak of the impossibility of a random summer crush and taste the perfectly toasted marshmallows.⁠
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This was my first of Sager's books, but I'm very much looking forward to devouring the two others that now grace my shelves. ⁠

Obviously, this one has been on my TBR for quite a while and although I started it several times, something just wasn't clicking for me. I loved The Final Girls so was really looking forward to this one, but honestly, I just found it boring. I know that Riley Sager is a good storyteller, but I couldn't find much interest in this book, and when I really tried to invest, things just got sillier and sillier. The plot was all over the place at times and it was impossible to connect with any of the characters. I will certainly read more from this talented author, but this one was not for me.

Overall I enjoyed The Last Time I Lied a lot. While there were some aspects that I found to be predictable, Riley Sager is able to create a page turning thriller that I wanted to continue all the way to the end. She added a nice twist to a classic thriller trope of a summer camp. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but did wish that she would be go one step further, as before the book finished, I had an idea about what the ending would be like. Despite the little predictability of the book, I am still eager to read more Riley Sager, as I feel she can only grow as an author.

Enjoyed this thriller! This book kept me guessing and wondering from the very beginning. I’m a harsh critic on thrillers but I would definitely recommend this to friends! Excited to try another Riley Sager book!

Riley Sager does it again! Much like THE FINAL GIRLS, THE LAST TIME I LIED is a creepy, atmospheric summer thriller. Summer camp + missing girls + creepy legends about asylums and flooded towns = perfect beach read.

I found the ending a bit disappointing and the twist reveal fell flat for me. However, the suspense leading up to the end was so strong and compelling, it’s still a five star read for me.

Can’t wait for Sager’s latest summer book, LOCK EVERY DOOR.

Wow. This book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. The plot was suspenseful and the characters were well though out.

Great novel, great premise! The novel starts out great, I love the twists and turns it made. I was definitely not expecting some of the things that happened and I was surprised at how invested I was in this story and how connected I felt to the characters. Riley Sager does it again!

I enjoyed this story. I found this book to be an entertaining mystery/thriller. But, at times I thought that it was a little repetitive and it drug out a little bit. To me, there were a few parts that were unrealistic but I still enjoyed the story. I wanted to know what happened to the girls and why she was being "haunted" by Vivian.

I really liked the twists and turns throughout the story and how you really couldn't trust any character. I think that this was a good book, but I enjoyed Final Girls more, I think. I really loved the setting of this story. I feel like it would be a perfect book to read during summer around a bonfire or by the pool.

It has an eerie vibe to it because it takes place at a summer camp where these girls went missing and the main character, Emma, is trying to find out what happened to them. It was a little slow at the start but then it picks up pace. I really enjoyed Final Girls and this one was also an enjoyable read. I am looking forward to reading Riley Sager's upcoming release, Lock Every Door.

Other places to find my book review:
Book Blog Review: https://turningthepgs.wordpress.com/2019/05/20/book-review-the-last-time-i-lied-by-riley-sager/
Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2155054798