A perfect fit for fans of old school horror or the show Pretty Little Liars. I don’t want to give anything away so I am going to focus on how I felt when reading. Slower to start this book picks up a decent pace and it feels natural. Everyone has secrets and the mystery is well maintained. I found that Sager kept me guessing and I didn’t hate it. It was an exciting anticipation rather than a frustrating one.

Oh MAN. I love thrillers but lately they've been middle of the road for me. In fact, this book is leagues better than her debut novel, Final Girls. The basic premise is that Emma, a painter, was the only girl in a cabin of four girls that survived after the other three mysteriously vanish and haunt her for the next fifteen years. She goes back to camp in order to try and track down clues to her cabin mates whereabouts, only to get wrapped up in a trippy murder mystery. The entire time I was on the edge of my seat. While Final Girls was predictable, I had a very hard time deciding who I thought was the bad guy and even then I was wrong. It's hard to surprise me with mystery/thrillers. So, I'm giving this four stars for enjoyment alone. I also absolutely loved the setting. It's the perfect summer read set in summer camp, but with a creepy twist. Sager is really good at creating atmosphere and amping the anticipation of the story.

I docked a star because there were some slow bits, especially at the beginning when she's explaining everything gets rather tedious. We have to sit through her explanation of what she paints and why, and while it's important to the story, it drags. This part and also there were some areas in the middle that felt long to me, but that's probably just because I wanted to get back to the action.

If you read thrillers, I definitely recommend this one! I was surprised not only by the way that it turned out, but also by how much I liked it, which is always exciting.

Last year I was fortunate enough to get an ARC of Sager's first book, Final Girls, an 80s throwback slasher killer thriller that I really enjoyed. I was equally drawn into this sophomore effort, although this is a very different type of story.

The Last Time I Lied follows the story of Emma Davis, a young woman with terrible secrets in her past. At the age of 13, Emma was at the center of a mystery at an all-girls summer camp. Her three cabin mates disappeared one night, without a trace, never to be found again. Emma lives with secrets and guilt surrounding that tragic night, which slowly unfold as the story progresses. In the present day, Emma is asked to be a camp counselor for the grand reopening of the camp after 15 years of being closed due to the tragedy and scandal. The story weaves seamlessly back and forth between present day and the past, and Emma is a character worth rooting for.

Early in the story we learn that Emma is now an artist, and that her paintings all contain the three girls....hidden under layers of paint. Even in her art they vanish. This was a compelling plot point and really intrigued me. One thing I liked is that there weren't too many wild twists and turns, rather, the story moves along without revealing too much and is more of a slow burn. I started to piece things together, but then the ending is a pleasant final jolt that I did not see coming. It does remind me of another popular book that was published in the last couple of years but I don't want to clarify the comparison as that would give away the ending.

The Last Time I Lied is well written, well plotted, and has a lovely suspenseful atmosphere. It's a great beach read with the setting an all-girls summer camp. Sager also does a good job describing the anxiety and confusion a 13 year old can feel. Definitely recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

Summer camp, lies and an unreliable narrator. I’m sold! I grew up going to summer camp but my memories are much happier than Emma’s. Thank goodness!

Emma, a talented artist, returns to the camp where tragedy struck her cabin mates 15 years ago. She’s determined to find out what happened to the girls even if it means she may lose her sanity.

I really enjoyed my first book by Riley Sager. I think fans will be thrilled with this sophomore book. No slump here!! The book is filled with so many twists and turns. Just when I thought I had it figured out the author would point us in an entirely different direction. This book will keep you guessing until the VERY LAST page.

Atmospheric and unreliable this is the perfect summer read.

Thought this was an amazing follow up book to final girls. So good. Enjoyed writing and characters and development so very much

There is nothing I love more than finding a new author that captivates my attention and draws me into a dark and twisted tale... well, besides my son, fur kids, coffee, and rosé. The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager is a 5 ⭐️ creepy tale of the horrors of summer camps, with a side of mental breakdowns, betrayals, and the ghosts that haunt us.

And the story goes...

Vivian, Alison, and Natalie are three of Camp Nightingale's inhabitants, along with new girl, 13-year-old Emma Davis, who was thought herself lucky to escape her emotionally unavailable parents for the summer. Three truths and a lie. A game they played after lights out, but is it really a game after Emma watched the others disappear into night, never to be seen again.

15 years later, a rising artist in New York, Emma is consumed with the ghosts of that summer, paints huge canvases filled with dark and tangled forests hiding the images of the missing girls. One of her paintings is discovered by the owner of Camp Nightingale, Franny, who requests that Emma to return as the resident art instructor. Unsure of the motives of the owner, Emma decides to go, with the hopes of uncovering what happened to her friends all those years ago. But what she finds is the same dark, foreboding lake, and that she's staying in the same cabin as before... with three new girls, but the same sinister secrets. Can she uncover the truth or will old lies and ghosts of the past resurface to haunt her??

Riley Sager's The Last Time I Lied reads like the creepy and scary stories told around the campfire to unsuspecting campers. A forbidden tale of all the terrible things that could happen at camp, keeping the reader hypnotized and on the edge of their seats wanting to know what will happen next... absolutely dark and fantastic! I cannot wait to read more Riley Sager's other thrillers!! Make sure to grab this on July 8th with a bag of marshmallows to read by the campfire! You won't be disappointed! (But don't forget your flashlight because it will definitely make you wonder what's lurking in the dark!!)

Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Group, and Dutton Books for the advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review!!

#TheLastTimeIlied #NetGalley

Loved the premise of this book. The setting and set-up promised a very creepy tale. There were lots of twists and turns....perhaps a few too many? Some readers will love it, it for me, it was just “ok”.

Two Truths and a Lie. 1) Emma is guilty. 2) Emma is innocent. 3) Emma is going crazy.

The ending is what makes a thriller/suspense read; it can certainly save a story (i.e. The Woman in the Window IMO). I was not disappointed with what author, Riley Sager, cooked up for me in his latest The Last Time I Lied.

Thirteen year-old, Emma Davis, is at sleep away camp for the summer when two weeks in her three bunk-mates (Vivian, Natalie, and Alison) disappear - never to return again. Fast forward fifteen years later and Emma is invited back to Camp Nightingale for its reopening. Is she crazy for accepting the invitation or just crazy? What really happened that night? Read and find out!

Chapters are either the present or fifteen years ago and told from Emma's POV. The characters that create the narrative - in the past and their present - are rather interesting. I kept changing my mind on who I should be paying more attention to, and what could have happened: I absolutely love when a suspense read keeps me on my toes the whole time.

The Last Time I Lied is the sophomore book from Riley Sager. There was no sophomore slump here. Sager's follow up is even better than his first novel.

TLTIL is about Emma who is returning to summer camp-- as an instructor this time. However, her last time at this camp all of her bunkmates disappeared. This book flashes into alternate time lines flipping between the present and fifteen years ago when the girls disappeared.

There were definitely twists in this book that were a little guessable but not all in any way. Highly recommend to any suspense novel lovers!

We have another book with Lie in the title! 2018's Girl. I'm at about a 3.5 here. This took me a LONG time to get through (LONG being relative... about 3 weeks) because I could not get into it. The plot was interesting, but I got tired of reading about the BAD THING THAT HAPPENED without really knowing what our protagonist's involvement with said bad thing was. That said, once I got to about 70% of the way through, I couldn't put it down. I liked that we get a clear(ish) resolution and that there are some nuggets that are worthy of a book discussion. Admittedly, I did not go to summer camp as a kid, so I think I was having trouble to connecting with the setting. Some folks are not going to like the ending, but I bought it. Judging from the advance reviews on Goodreads, I'm in the minority for not absolutely loving it, so I would give this a try if you were a fan of Sager's first book, Final Girls. Thank you to Netgalley for my free review copy!

Emma Davis, an up and coming painter in the New York art scene, is haunted by the disappearance of her three cabinmates from summer camp at Camp Nightingale. After fifteen years, she takes a job as an art instructor when the camp opens again, hoping to find out what happened to her friends and to truly put the past behind her. I found this story to be very unnerving and downright spooky. I enjoyed it a great deal but did not enjoy the loss of sleep I suffered after finishing it because my mind would not let it go, replaying the clues over and over thinking I must have missed something because I didn't see that ending coming. This book definitely had a Hitchcock edge to it that will leave you questioning what was truth and what was a lie. Great book!

He did it again! An atmospheric thriller that keeps you guessing until the very last page. This one includes all of my favorites: Unreliable narrator, family secrets, red herrings, gothic undertones and a complex plot, filled with psychological suspense. This is the perfect summer read!
The Last Time I Lied is one of those stay up all night and read no matter how early you have to get up in the morning for work. I was lost in the pages of this haunting story that spans generations. As we learned from Final Girls, Forests + Riley Sager = a terrifying experience.

I was so ready to be mad at this one. The last few pages threatened to be a flop and then there was the twist....holy crap balls I did NOT see that coming!!

Riley Sager's latest work is absolutely incredible, a page turner all the way through. Love, love, loved it!

As someone who loved Final Girls, I couldn't wait for this release - literally! Getting to read this ahead of its publication was so sweet and yet again, this is an amazing thriller.

I enjoyed this book! The description peaked my interest, but once I started reading I was hooked!
The author is quite skilled at reeling you in and not giving you too much info all at once, she seems to know just when to dangle another tidbit of information about what happened. I thought it was a great way to keep the reader enthralled!
I am hooked and will definitely be reading any thing else he publishes!

I was really excited for this book given Sager's debut in Final Girls. However, I was pretty disappointed with this work. The premise had potential but was poorly executed and the twists were surprisingly boring. The strangest part of the book was the Emma's attitude about the missing girls/other people from camp. She spoke about them as if they had been BFFs for years, but in reality these were people that she had only known for a week or two. Even suspending belief enough to buy into the idea that people can be "bound together forever by a traumatic event" is a bit of a stretch in this case. I finished the book, but all in all it just wasn't believable.

Emma Davis had attended a summer camp 15 years ago. The camp was operated by a wealthy family and catered to an upscale clientele. Emma thought of herself as being lucky to be allowed admission to Camp Nightingale. It was in a beautiful country setting with Lake Nightingale, a man made lake at it's shores. Due to an unexpectedly late arrival on the first day she was assigned to bunk with 3 other girls that were older than her real group. But her stay was made better by being friended by Vivian who seemed to assign herself the role of Emma's older sister and taking her under her wing. All seemed too good to be true when one night Vivian and the other two girls left the cabin. Vivian told Emma that she could not see what they were going out to look at and had to stay in the cabin. The next day an unthinkable tragedy unfolded. The three girls that left the cabin could not be found anywhere. After days of fruitless searching the search was discontinued and the camp closed.

Emma developed into a talented painter during the next 15 years but seemed to be stuck with painting scenes including hidden views of the three girls that disappeared at the camp. Out of the blue the owner of the now defunct Camp Nightingale decided to reopen it again and attempt to resurrect it's fame. Emma was surprised to get an invitation to return to the camp with the job of teaching the girls attending painting techniques. She agreed and went back to work with the secondary mission of trying to find out what had happened to her former 3 bunk mates.
Mr Sager utilizes first person narrative to tell the story and the method does it's job quite well as Emma returns to the camp. She stays with 3 of the campers in the same bunk as she had lived in 15 years ago. What happened, why and what is going on now is seen through the eyes of Emma Davis whose findings are available to the reader as soon as she perceives them. The plotting is excellent, Emma is a believable character with a personality befitting a young lady devastated by what happened at the camp. The ending develops from the facts as presented in the book but not readily perceived as the reader is drawn into the excellent plot.

There are always campfire stories that reflect the local legends usually containing a warning about making bad decisions. This story takes those legends and spins the story around some missing girls and the one girl who was a "witness" to it. The story has flashbacks that helps with building the suspense and well-written characters that remind you of the stereotypical summer campers.

This book kept me guessing the whole time! 3 girls go missing one day while at summer camp and the only girl left in the cabin is Emma. Haunted by what happened to the girls who are never found, Emma returns as a camp teacher 15 years later when the camp reopens again. Such a confusing mix of past and present in a well woven tale, Emma tries to make sense of the tragedy and everyone’s part in it. A involving summer thriller, this book will keep you guessing and reading until the very last page!

Riley Sager knows how to creep under your skin. The words that flow through these pages are like a thrill ride to hell and back all while you’re looking over your shoulder. And just when you think you have things figured out, he pulls the rug out from under you.

There's something striking about the way Riley writes. I'm instantly drawn in and it never lets up. The atmosphere that is portrayed throughout the pages really gives you a feel of nostalgia. You can tell that he's definitely a fan of 80's horror and that makes a world of difference.