3☆ A Good read

I Never Lie is a story about an alcoholic Journalist who is trying to make something of her career again.
When she makes a break through, when a girl is found murdered in her area, she persuaded the tv station to let her work the case.

I didn't particularly like the main character.
I found her slightly annoying. I also didn't like the fact she was using random men for sex so she could get pregnant. I don't really think it added to the story and certainly didn't portray her in the best light.

I was slightly confused at first as it started very randomly.
I really missed the crime involvement with this book. It mainly centered around alcohol which is fine I would of preferred less.
I would of liked more of a story.

I like my crime thrillers to be gritty and the story to be more involved so you feel part of the case.

I didn't dislike I Never Lie, it was a good read. The ending was really good. Just wish there was more detective work involved.
I do however think this book will appeal to other readers.

Summer is here and this is a superb summer read for those of us who like a bit of darkness in the sunshine. Yep, it's surprisingly light for alcoholism and murder, and that makes it ideal for reading on a plane, beach, or park bench with your lunch. But just because it's a book that can be easily read amongst chaos and noise doesn't detract from the plot twisting thrills. Sabral manages a lot in the brief chapters.

Alex is a cleverly crafted character with fathoms of depth that slowly come into focus. In the first few pages, she seems a collection of well-worn tropes. We've seen the character setup numerous times before... but Alex is one of those that develops against the cliche. She is flawed in a human way. She is a character that frequently left me disappointed and annoyed in an ultimately satisfying way. And that is the treasure of this entire book - it frequently swerves the easy, traditional choices that can score easy points. Instead, it delivers a subtle sense of unease. Sabral seems intent on unsettling the reader by carefully playing with expectations. The simplicity of the book lulled me into a false sense of security, it made me expect the predictable, I was ready for every move to be signposted from across the park, but it never really happened. All of which resulted in a conclusion I would typically dislike - it was brief and brutal. In many books, I would call it rushed and unsatisfying, but here it left me pleasantly uncomfortable.

This is a book to breeze through, but one that lingers. I suspect I'll remember the feeling of reading it more than I will the story that I read, and I like that. It bodes well for next summer, I'll be tempted to pick it up again.

a STORY THAT WILL APPEAL TO ALL ADDICTIVE TYPE PERSONS AND IS AN EYE OPENER FOR OTHERS. pLENTY OF CLUES/RED HERRINGS TO KEEP YOU GUESSING UNTIL THE END. QUITE WHY THE TITLE ? NOT SURE IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN CALLED SOMETHING DIFFERENT, BUT A GOOD READ AND I WOULD RECOMMEND.

This book was quite a departure for me, but it certainly had me gripped. I soon came realise how bad Alex's life is, with every new day being the one she is going to detox, start again but she can't stop pushing the self destruct button. Never Lie is very well written and kept me guessing who the killer could be. It does have plenty of twists, turns and red herrings which held my attention. I shall be adding Jody Sabral to my watch list for new releases in the future. Highly recommended.

What a great book. I couldn’t put it down. The characters are so real yet the outcome is far from obvious. You’re kept guessing to virtually the last page. Brilliant.

Really enjoyed this book! Great writing by Jody Sabral. Story is told from Alex's perspective. We are introduced to her character as a functioning alcoholic (in denial), trying to convince herself and everyone around her that she doesn't have a problem. She is having blackouts, hiding booze that she doesn't even remember buying. Her water-bottles are laced with vodka! Meanwhile she is trying to become pregnant and is looking for a sperm donor through men she meets on a dating app.

She is also trying hold down a job on TV reporting on a murder which happened near her and trying to rebuild her career after a disaster a few years back. Coupled with this we have a murder enquiry and how everything is happening seems to be centring around her life but between the blackouts and her hardly being able to think straight if she knows these people or not as everything starts to unravel around her.

I really like author's portrayal of Alex's realistic character and battle through alcoholism and what she believed and what people around her saw.

Thank you NetGalley, Canelo and Jody Sabral.

I struggled to maintain an interest in the main character as she did not come across as very likeable, which meant I wasn't very interested in what happened to her.

When functioning alcoholic Alex South has a miscarriage, she flees Manchester for London, leaving her fiance, Greg, and her radio show behind her. Now Alex is working as a crime reporter for a well-known TV station but after a drunken rant live on-air, her career is flailing.

When the body of a woman is found in a park close to where she lives, Alex jumps at the chance to redeem herself and calls the newsroom, volunteering to go straight to the crime scene. Could the victim be linked to the unsolved murders of Jade Soron and Maggie Horrocks? There's only one way to find out.

On arriving at the scene, Alex learns that a gym membership card issued to Sarah Wilcox has been found next to the body. Later identified as Alice Fessy, it appears the murdered women all have one thing in common: they were internet daters who used the same website. Is that how the killer's selecting his victims? And if the body is Alice Fessy, who and where is Sarah Wilcox?
Despite suffering from blackouts, learning she's done things she cannot remember and waking with injuries she doesn't remember getting, Alex doesn't think her drinking is a problem. As an alcoholic she spends much of her time in denial, convincing herself that she's in control. Obviously she isn't, and things go from bad to worse for our journalist.

The story is told through chapters that alternate between Alex's point of view and diary entries starting a year ago written by an unknown woman, who clearly knows Alex pretty well, although figuring out who penned them isn't too taxing on a reader's little grey cells.

While I did enjoy the story, Alex's alcoholism overshadows the murder mystery which is a shame. As a character, sometimes I liked her, sometimes I wanted to reach into the page and shake her 'til the empties fell out of her bag, but in that sense the day-to-day struggle of an alcoholic was portrayed fairly well, even if the constant mentions of detoxing started to become a little tedious.

Although red herrings are thrown in, I have a feeling many readers may find the conclusion easy to predict, either in whole or in part. That shouldn't detract from the enjoyment gained, though.

Overall I did enjoy this title and would probably read more by this author in the future.

Follow Alex - a high functioning alcoholic news reporter as she follows the case of a London serial killer. The killer may be using the dating site she uses and its all a little too close to home. This is a physiological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.

Difficult story of obsession and addiction. Enjoyed the story but couldn't like the main character much she seemed to revel in her addictions. The ending was uplifting.

Great book following the story of Alex, a functioning alcoholic who works in TV. Having appeared drunk on tv on a live presentation a year later she is in the right place at the right time to pick up the reporting on what turns out to be a serial killer on the loose in her local area. The story takes us through why she left her previous life up north to move to London. A very good read with some twists and turns along the way. Really enjoyed reading it.

I Never Lie is a compulsive, easy read that I sped through. It is a book about addiction and its consequences, centering on the protagonist’s alcoholism.

The story follows Alex, a self-destructive reporter who fled to London from Manchester after a traumatic incident the year before. She’s covering the story of a suspected serial killer in London who’s killing women near her home, leaving the reader to wonder: is Alex a danger to herself – or to others?

The story is neatly structured between Alex and diary entries from the past; Alex is well-developed, even if her self-destructive behavior is sometimes frustrating to read; and all of the secondary characters are well-developed and seem like they could be real people. An enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read I Never Lie by Jody Sabral in exchange for my honest review.

this book was a but repetitive in places. was okay, nothing special. bit of a twist at the end. okay to pass time but wouldn't recommend it

This book had me captivated and I simply could not put it down, a tale of addiction and how we are all a little broken in our own ways. The plot kept me guessing until the end and was full of twists and turns! I’d highly recommend this book to friends.

This book was a super page-turner, I was hooked from the very first page and the pace did not let up. This book offered something really different in the way of the plot from many other crime books out there at the moment. So if you fancy something a bit fresh this is a book for you.

A TV journalist is battling an ongoing alcohol addiction, trying to hide it from friends and co-workers. At the same time, she is trying to relaunch her career as a TV Reporter. She gets her big break when a woman is found dead in a park near her own home and follows the case all the way through.

What I really liked is that her character is incredibly real and flawed. She has a messy life and is trying to look like she has it all together on the outside. So she is not a picture perfect person and it presents a very real message of how not all alcoholics are living on the streets, drinking cider out of a paper bag.

The plot rolls along and it gets so interesting as more bodies show up and a person of interest is on the news with everybody looking for her. Nobody knows where she went. But the ultimate best bit of this book is the twist at the end. I had a tiny inkling it may be coming but it really did throw me a wobbly. Something that really gets the jaw-dropping!

This is a great read for both crime and psychological thriller fans as it really is a solid blend of both. Well worth grabbing to enjoy! I read this really quickly as the pace did not let up and I just had to know more! 4 stars from me. Loved it!

Are you in the mood to read a book from the point of view of a thoroughly unlikeable alcoholic who spends most of her days in a haze in the grip of her addiction? Alex South is meant to be a crime reporter, but unfortunately she's got a bad rap because she can't stay sober. Given (not sure how in the world she managed to get the job) the chance to report on a serial killer in the neighborhood close to where she lives, Alex discovers that she knows all the women who are dead.

I'm not sure exactly how to classify this book. It's not a detective mystery, it's not a psychological thriller (unless you count the fact that Alex is delusional about herself), and it's not crime fiction. The prose centers mainly on Alex promising herself to detox and then proceeding to drink away. How she manages to actually do any on air reporting defies belief. She's not even remotely a "functional alcoholic" because she misses work, passes out, and has blackouts. I couldn't stand her character. It was obvious where this was going and I won't spoil it in case someone who reads it doesn't guess right off. How she could even manage to look presentable to go to work is beyond my ability to buy as well. The woman drank almost non-stop. I guess you could say I don't have any empathy for Alex and you'd be right. There wasn't much to get from this novel and I was disappointed with the pace and the revelations. The "pull it all together" epilogue at the end made me want to throw my Kindle AND Alex across the room!

I do thank NetGalley and Canelo for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. I really don't like reading books with unreliable, nearly psycho narrators who have major issues, so I need to be more careful when reading the blurbs and selecting the titles.

Not a comfortable book to read.

I have broken one of my cardinal rules as a reviewer, I looked at the reviews this book has received on Amazon to see whether I’m doing my usual “little boy sees Emperor wearing no clothes” and yes, I am. I’ll now explain why I found the whole story so exhausting and unfulfilling.

“There’s a man in my bed. Shit. It’s not what I was expecting. They usually gone by now, but this one, well he’s different.” I should have guessed just from these opening words that this book was going to test me on several subjects, alcohol, trying to get pregnant regardless of who the man is and sleeping around. Gosh! This makes me sound so Mother Grundy!

Let me try to dig myself out of this very deep hole by giving a summary of the story. Alex South left her boyfriend of many years after suffering a miscarriage. She moves to London and starts working for the UKBC bureau. After a disastrous broadcast when she was so drunk she couldn’t stand up, she’s given a second chance when a body is discovered in London Fields. She’s asked to cover the story as it unfolds, especially as several more bodies of women are found with the same MO and in the same area.

This could have been a very good thriller because there are so many suspects, both male and female. However, you must wade through page after page of Alex’s alcoholic blackouts. Sipping vodka from a water bottle and talking about detoxing her body and coming off alcohol.

None of the characters is memorable. They all one dimensional. You very quickly work out who the killer is going to be, which then leaves you scanning the rest of the book to see if she can stay sober for just one day.

I think the author, Jody Sabral has been particularly brave having her main protagonist an alcoholic. She doesn’t pull any punches about her behaviour or how she behaves while trying to hide her drinking. I just can’t find it in my heart to have any feelings, either good or bad for her, nor for anyone else trying to find the killer. In fact, if there was one reasonably good portrayal of a character, it was that of the killer. You could almost feel empathy for them, just not enough to rescue this book only getting two stars from me.

Bluebell

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Unfortunately, I could not get into this book. I had high hopes, but it just did not capture my attention like I had hoped.

A suspenseful plot, an authentic setting and an unreliable protagonist guarantee that I would read 'I Never Lie' and it didn't disappoint.

Fast-paced it moves between Alex a TV journalist's point of view and diary entries of a recovering alcoholic whose dark issues become apparent as the story unfolds.

Alex, a London based TV journalist, is on the precipice of career success. She moves to London to further her career but also because personal life implodes, and now threatens to impinge on her career.

Alex is an alcoholic in denial, and it makes her vulnerable in all area of her life. Someone is murdering women in London, and Alex's involvement seems serendipitous but is she in danger?

Alex is challenging, her constant denial of her alcoholism is tedious but authentic and an essential catalyst to the thriller's plot. The plot is well- executed with twists, some of which you may not see coming. I enjoyed trying to work out what is real and what is part of Alex's alcohol delusional state.

The final twist is a little disappointing for me; I imagined something different. However, full of suspense it does answer the questions raised by the plot.

Written by a TV journalist, the setting is authentic and absorbing and makes the perfect backdrop both for the murders and Alex life's disintegration.

Originality, cleverly built suspense and realistic characters are evident in this thriller, even if using an alcoholic as an unreliable protagonist is popular in many psychological thrillers currently.

I received a copy of this book from Canelo via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I liked the idea of this book and it started well. Unfortunately it didn't come together for me. I found it focused on the alcohol addiction too much and the ending was a little weak.