Quality of Writing: 6/10
Pace: 7/10
Plot Development: 5/10
Characters: 5/10
Enjoyability: 8/10
Insightfulness: 2/10
Ease of Reading: 6/10
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I got this Advanced Reader Copy a while ago from NetGalley, and I will admit it took me a while to get into the book. I put it down for some time, but picked it up again today, and was immediately sucked in. I don't know what changed, but it was like a Twilight book. The writing had problems, but the book was definitely a page turner.
For one, the plot is very convoluted. You have to pay attention to a lot of details, and things get mixed up very easily.
Two, the characters are a little shaky. Especially Becca Curtis. She plays way too many roles/personalities. Also, the book had too many points of view.
There was a lot of extra, random drama that was just there for effect, and it didn't add anything to the story.
Something I did like was how casually the author included the LGBTQ+ community without it being the main focus of the story. It threw me off at first, because I didn't expect it, but it was nice to see the representation.
Overall, the book was interesting, but not something I would highly recommend. You definitely have to be able to remember details in order to get through it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher's for a copy of this book.
I got the impression that this book would be for young teens and not adults,interesting storyline but as this is about teenager's in 2019 it is a bit out of date,the teens describe in the book would be more in the past either in 1970 or therabout.
There was also unnecessary details describing the school and its environment which made it slow going in some places,and also made the reader lose the important parts of the story,likewise difficult to really associate with any of the character's,similar backgrounds poor rich kids having a difficult time.
Needed more polishing up.

Intrigue and murder at an elite all girls school is what this story is all about. J.T. Ellison was able to give a realistic portrayal of the cliques and games and lies that come about when 200 girls live in a boarding school.
The question is who is lying and why? The answer isn't found until the very end of the book. I enjoyed the quest for the truth in the lies.

Thank you NetGalley and Mira Publishing for the early read.

Good Girls Lie was a Goode read! There seemed to be lots of things going on with the girls, teachers and everyone else at the Goode School. It kept me interested in wanting to get to the end as fast as i could.

2.5 stars
This was a struggle to get into and a struggle to finish. Being such an avid reader of all genres, I have a hard time when a book doesn't pick up or get good until more than 30-40% into the story.
That is what this book was for me. It felt like it went on and on, and the way the characters spoke didn't feel realistic to their age.
If you are a fan of this author, it's worth reading, otherwise I would suggest skipping this one.

Thank you Net Galley for my advanced copy of this book and my review is my own opinion.

Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison
So this story is set in a private girls school setting, has some mysterious goings-on what with secret societies "tapping" prospective girls late at night, a suicide or is it, and other odd happenings. This overall was a pleasant albeit kinda slow but steady read, it kept my interest and had a few twists and turns but nothing edge of my seat. Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for this ARC.

I'm torn here. I suppose my overall impression is that this was needlessly drawn out. But. The tension and storyline didn't suffer for it, so what difference does it make to me if there was more of this book than there needed to be? I don't see myself recommending it, but I can't pinpoint a reason.

I have read Gregg Olsen books before and I really enjoyed this one. I loved the characters and the ending came as a complete surprise. If you're looking for a good read, you can't go wrong with this one!
Thanks, NetGalley for the copy!

J.T. Ellison has always been a reliable go to author for me, but, I think this was my favorite of the books I've read. From the very beginning, I did not have a handle on the main character, Ash Carlisle, and needed to wait out the slow drip of information until everything became clear. Ash is a student that comes to the US from England shortly after the death of her parents. She is alternately loved by some and hated by others.While this may sound like the normal experience of a teenage girl, rest assured there is A LOT about Ash that is outside the norm. I read a book review of a thriller once upon a time that compared the plot to revealing the layers of an onion and think that is an appropriate comparison here but I wasn't always sure how much was being revealed and that lead to a fair amount of suspense. Fair warning, there is no happy ending for any of the people in this book and only some of them get their just rewards, but, Heartily Recommended

Not my favorite book by this author. The pacing was too slow for me. I also don't know quite how to define it. Sometimes it reads as an adult book and at others it's a young adult book. The story itself is interesting and has unexpected points. Overall it's a good mystery.

Hmm... this book is difficult to review. On the positive side, it was an easy read: perfect for holidays or long journeys - it was pacey and mostly engaging. The chapters are short and twists and turns happen quite quickly.

However, there were a couple of downsides for me: firstly, the dialogue seemed to be used solely for driving the plot forwards and not for improving characterisation - modern teenagers don't speak like these characters. Secondly, the text doesn't fit neatly into a genre: there were too many teenage dramas for it to be comfortably an adult novel, but yet too much adult content for it to be a YA book. With a few tweaks, I think it could have been adapted to be a great young adult novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounded down. I had trouble getting into this one, and emerged with mixed feelings. Once I finally felt engaged by the book (after the 30% mark), it was a more enjoyable read, but the list of ridiculous inaccuracies and the level of soap to which the book ascends were an issue for me. The book also, for me, is a fascinating case study in a book that should be YA but is very much not--this is an adult thriller, but regardless I bring my experience as a YA reader (and writer) to it, which informs a lot of my thoughts on it.

And that is the thing: the book is laughably out of touch with teenagers and what it means to be a teen girl in 2019. None of the teenage characters, one of whom is a POV CHARACTER for over 60% of the book, sound or act like teenagers. They talk like, well, moms. Baby Boomers. The MC expresses an attitude toward social media and cell phones that reflect that of a grandmother, not a 16-year-old. The 35-year-old Dean (my age!) who has said-same conversation with her expresses similar ideals, again, like a grandma. I am a digital native--I came of age as this technology was implemented and my peers invented social media. The Dean, who writes romance novels so not a Luddite, acts like a 50+year-old and not someone my age. I literally laughed out loud at this interaction in the first few chapters:

35-year-old Dean: "I noticed you aren't active online. I was happy to see it. Unless you have private accounts we aren't aware of?"
16-year-old girl in the Year of Our Lord 2019: "Goodness, no. I find social media a waste of time. Not to mention an invasion of privacy."

Slow blink.

It gets worse/there is more, but that bit made me snort at a bus stop. We're meant to believe that this private school housing the elite's daughters manages to ban cell phones completely--they are LITERALLY not allowed on campus at all, ever. W H A T. And then the Internet is severely restricted with only certain websites allowed to be visited (the MC uses a VPN to get past this and do what she wants). Just not believeable.

The author says in her notes at the back of the book that the Goode school was inspired by her women's college, from which she graduated in 1991. Reading that snapped it all into place for me. Especially given this book has an "11 years later epilogue," I am sure one iteration of this book--even if it was just the original idea--was set in the 80s or early 90s. ie: a time without cell phones, the Internet, social media. The author clearly wrote a book that reflected her college experiences from 1987-1991, but set it with modern teens in 2019. I would have vastly preferred this as a "historical" novel, set around that time--it would have erased 50% of my issues.

But, OK, I have more to say about how none of the teens feel like teens/the book being out of date. I also snorted out loud when our brilliant hacker MC goes to her computer class to a room FULL OF MACS on which she is asked to code by her Silicon Valley whiz teacher in JAVASCRIPT. I died. Even if they did start with Java, why did our genius MC brag to the reader like knowing Java was special--she mentions no other programming language that would actually indicate she knows what she's talking about. She doesn't comment on the Macs. It just felt, again, dated to the 90s. If she'd said Ruby, I would have been impressed. But that + the Macs (should have at least been PCs, if not Linux)... it was just another inaccuracy to add to my list. (I'm not saying you can't code on Macs; people do, but they tend not to be the preferred unit for programmers and it feels like a novice mistake of the writer)

Every once and a while the book did try to be young and hip: there is a single reference to Juuling (lolllll) and young cop likes a Billie Eilish song (lollll). But writing teens/young people is more than references, it's about tone and feel, especially for a character's internalizations and their dialog. The dialog was consistently off, with teen characters sounding like moms. I would have almost preferred the book be set at a college, though it still would have felt off if set in 2019.

Speaking of college. This book and it's author have NO IDEA how college admissions work. I found it so damn frustrating to read the inaccuracies over and over again. First, the Dean says 90% of their graduating seniors get into an Ivy League. Each class has 50 girls, so that's 40 girls. Divided by 8 Ivies: 5 per Ivy. The thing is, even at a school like Exeter, to which Goode is compared in the text, only 29% of students get into Ivies--which is WAY above the national average, but nowhere near 90% (it may mean 5+ students from Exeter in a given year, but it's a much larger student body; typically Ivies will only take so many students from a single school). It's just too high and too specific. Generally, it's laughable that 90% of a graduating class would go to only 8 schools when there are 40+ suitable elite schools for smart rich people.

And then: it is stated and then repeated that the girls can/have applied to schools like Harvard A YEAR EARLY (as juniors!) to get early admission. On the first day of school, the Dean remarks that one of the girls has already gotten into Harvard. Bullshit. (The student is not an athletic recruit and it's not a likely letter--it's an admission.) The Dean remarks to someone else that if they want, the MC can apply to Harvard next year to secure her spot--the MC is a sophomore in the narrative. WTF. This is simply not how college admissions works, and I expect the Dean of an elite boarding school to know this. I expect the author of a book set at an elite boarding school, set in the year 2019, to do a Google search.

Also, hey, the Dean is obsessed w/ moving to NYC to become a famous author, agian, in the Year of Our Lord 2019 and I'm like "why tho?" Anyone who is a published author should know you don't need to (and really shouldn't b/c $$$) move to NYC to make it as an author. Just write a book, Ford. Finish. (Again: would have made sense in 1991!)

All of this almost made me DNF the book. The first 20-30% was painful to read, plus it's all build up. Given the twist was painfully obvious to me from the 2nd or 3rd chapter, I was just waiting for the book to really start. And when it finally did, I was compelled to read, and ultimately there was a lot I liked, and a lot that annoyed me. It fell in the middle.

BUT, things I liked:
- Dean Ford, aside from her inaccuracies about college & the occasional moment she's written like a 50+-year-old (re: phones/social media)
- The few and fleeting chapters from the cop Kate's POV (would have preferred way more of her)
- The *idea* of Becca's "secret" and her relationship with Ash*
- Every single description of the school, the town in VA, etc.--it was vivid, evocative, and I felt like I was there (it's based on the author's college)
- The Gothic aspects
- The momentum in the plot once the book hit the 50% mark
- The end (it was the right kind of soap!)

So this isn't to say I didn't like the MC POV, except that her not feeling like a teen was a huge problem. So the few adult POV chapters scattered throughout ended up being my favorite. I liked getting a sense of the bureaucracy from Dean Ford, and the barest glimpse of the investigation from Kate. Really would have like most or all of the book from Kate's POV! I also want to know what came of her suspension lol. The more this book leaned into being adult, the better IMO. (And it makes me think I might like the author's other books, as long as they don't have teen MCs)

*It's worth mentioning that this book is technically queer. Readers looking for a queer boarding school book will likely find aspects of the book satisfying BUT. Some of the queer politics felt dated, which, again: if only this book had been set in 1991! None of this would be a problem. But in a book set in 2019, I found the other girls' attitude toward a queer girl very off. (I can understand a parent not being accepting of a queer child, but all the teens I mentor are able to be out at school, and it is zero problem.) (I have more thoughts under a spoiler cut tag on Goodreads)

I want to dig into the twist/main conceit of the book a bit. As I said, I guessed the main twist very early, but that's not a terrible thing. Didn't bother me--it added to the suspense of the read. But I do think there were some... narrative cheats employed, and in the big reveal section I have a few issues. In terms of narrative cheats, it always bugs me when the POC MC has a huge secret and keeps up the lie in 1st person. This book does that--the MC "lies" to the reader as much as they lie to everyone else, as a way to keep up the surprise. Also because the twist is that the Ash we know as our POV MC is not actually Ash, but the real Ash ALSO has some POV chapters but they're never labeled... it's a bit messy. I know what it was supposed to do, and it did to a degree. As a reader, you're meant to get whiplash between these chapters--Ash in one place is totally different from Ash in another. I was fine with that. But having noticed this device and already sure of the twist, I paid closer attention, and so that is how I noticed that imposter-Ash maintains the lie in 1st person internalizations, and that's where I'm iffy. It's not a dealbreaker, just a note.

And then real-Ash... this is where the book sunk into a level of soap that didn't quite work for me. Ash's POV chapters toward the end are just... ridiculous. Over the top soapy evil. Borderline non-sensical.

So ultimately, it was a good read if taken solidly as an adult thriller, which it is being promoted as (good). But I think younger readers/YA readers/those familiar with Actual Teens will be annoyed by the same things I was, and readers who don't like a slow start may be frustrated. My most sincere wish is that it had been set in 1991. Would have really elevated the read.

J.T. Ellison is such a fantastic author! This book did not disappoint... like wow y'all have got to start reading this one! Seriously the suspense and thrill of this novel was like no other. I also loved how he created the characters, they really came to life!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

Ash Carlisle knows how to get what she wants, what she needs, maybe even what she deserves. Good Girls Lie is a twisting, turning road paved with carefully crafted deceit and destruction. This is my first book by J.T. Ellison and most certainly will not be my last. The chill factor is through the rafters. I loved the intensity and level of detail given to the reader. Good Girls Lie is a YA thriller checking all my YESSSS boxes. I could picture each scene, feel the angst, the mounting insanity. I would suggest going into the story blind and letting it unfold. I read this novel straight through as I could not put it down.

I enjoyed this book. Its told from various points of view plus goes back in time. The main character is likeable but you know she's hiding something and keeps you going so you can find out. Set in a school setting.

I'm not sure how to feel about this book. I've loved all of J.T. Ellison's previous standalone novels-enough to spend a big chunk of my road trip move searching for [book:Tear Me Apart|36839879] (which was amazing) last summer-but this one just didn't sit right with me. Her usual intricate plot was completely absent, which reduced this promising book to a confusing mess of bratty teens, stiff adults, and a boring story. I was very surprised this wasn't classified as a young adult novel, because it certainly felt like one.
Something that really bothered me about this book was the awkward and stilted language. I know that Ash is supposed to be British, so it made sense that her dialogue felt more formal, but all of the other supposedly American characters also seemed to be speaking in a very unnatural way. It made the book tough to follow.
There were also many extraneous details that never seemed to get resolved. This, along with the implausible storyline and frustrating narration, completely ruined the book for me until the ending. I really enjoyed the twist that brought, and actually gasped out loud. This definitely saved the book for me. I love you, J.T. Ellison, but I was unfortunately disappointed in this book.
Thank you to J.T. Ellison, Harlequin/Mira, and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Follow me on Goodreads or Instagram (@the_bookblog) for more bookish content!

Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison is my introduction to this author, and I am certainly anxious to read more. This is a dark, twisty, sinister tale that left me with goosebumps, and aren't those the very best kinds of thrillers?

Ash Carlisle arrives at the Goode School in Marchburg, Virginia from Oxford, England following the deaths of both of her parents. The novel takes on an almost gothic feel, set in and around the elite all girls boarding school, and when mysterious deaths start to occur, it is clear that something nefarious is happening at Goode. Something is, indeed, rotten in Marchburg.

This is a well-executed thriller with a high creepiness factor and diabolical twists at every turn. The ending is, quite simply, chilling. Recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin - Mira (U.S. and Canada) for this ARC.

J T Ellison is one of my favorite authors. I discovered her on Netgalley and have read many of her books since. GOOD GIRLS LIE did not disappoint; it is well worth the read for sure.

Set in a school, I thought this would be a change from my usual crime stories. But bodies start appearing. An interesting story that held my attention and kept the twists coming. I would not have guessed the final outcome! A private girl school is the setting with an overseas student joining them. But as expected not is all as it seems. An excellent story which kept me reading to find the answers, not just the students but also the staff. I will be looking for more by this author!