Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Behind Every Lie.

When Eva Hansen wakes up in the hospital after being struck by lightning, she is given the devastating news that her mother is dead. Murdered. And she may have killed her.

As she works to clear her name, Eva must unravel her mother's past, exposing herself to shocking secrets, and a dangerous person out for revenge.

I really enjoyed the premise, a woman traumatized after getting struck by lightning has little memory of what happened the previous night. This makes her an unreliable character, nothing new in novels, but at least her unreliability is due to surviving a shocking ordeal, not because she's mentally ill.

As Eva's paranoia and confusion increases (is it the result of the lightning or is she trying to block the moment she killed her mother?), the readers are left doubting (or not) the veracity of Eva's memories. Coupled with a recent sexual assault, Eva is understandably fragile.

But, is she a killer?

The timeline is set between the present, and the past, where readers are given an inside look at how Eva's mother, Kat, survived a tumultuous marriage and the choices she made that ended up with her dead.

There were some twists, nearly all of which I figured out, especially one I wished the author had kept hidden awhile longer but I understood the need for it to be revealed early because it drove the story forward.

When I started reading, I didn't like Kat, but in the end, I understood her more. I didn't want to be friends with her but I respected the choices she made and what she had to do to protect her daughter.

Eva read like a shallow character in the beginning, always needing to lean on her boyfriend for moral and mental support. But, in the end, I was pleased to see she found her strength and stood up for herself, her body, and her mental health.

The climatic finale is dramatic, and requires a bit more suspension of disbelief than I expected to give but I did so because I enjoyed Ms. McDonald's writing and the story so far.

This was a decent story about a mother and daughter, the lengths we will go to protect a child, and how people will always run from their past, yet rarely escape it.

4.5 lightning struck stars

This complex thriller kept me guessing! Just when I thought I had some things figured out, there was another twist.

It’s a great opening premise, the main character, Eva, is in the hospital after being struck by lightning. Her mother was murdered the same night and Eva can’t remember anything. This frustrates both the police and Eva. All the clues point to Eva being at the house that night, but is she guilty of the crime? Eva sets out to discover the truth, including a visit to London, her mother’s original hometown.

Along the way, the reader isn’t sure if her paranoia and strange behavior are symptoms of the lightning strike or is Eva pretending that she can’t remember? I didn’t quite know who to trust and there was quite the web of deceit! Some secrets are buried very deep for good reason.

There is an alternating storyline with Eva’s mother from the past and we start to get some clues that there are secrets in Kat’s life and it seems that someone doesn’t want Eva digging too much into the past. As Eva digs deeper and some memories start to return, the story builds to a stunning conclusion that I did not predict!

This is another mother-daughter domestic tale from Christina McDonald that I truly enjoyed. The pacing was excellent, and it is definitely a page-turner.

*I will update my Goodreads review the week of publication

I love getting lost in a great thriller and Christina McDonald’s latest novel is the perfect example of why! Behind Every Lie will grab you from the beginning and keep you hooked until the last page! Christina McDonald does a fantastic job with creating so many possible scenarios for the who, what, where, why, and when that your conspiracy theories will be plentiful (and in my case all incorrect)! Behind Every Lie is extremely well planned out and masterfully executed! Even though this book comes out a month into 2020, I can guarantee it will be one of my top 3 thrillers for the year! Behind Every Lie is a complete and total 5 star read! I can’t recommend this novel (and author) enough—a definite must read!

Having recently read The Night Olivia Fell, I was beaming about the opportunity to read and review Behind Every Lie. I admit, I was guarded going into this book. After all, my personal bar had been set pretty high after The Night Olivia Fell and I wondered, could lightening really strike twice with the same author (you’ll understand this pun a little better when you read the book)? Fortunately, luck has nothing to do with it. When you can write a deep story as compelling as Behind Every Lie, you don’t need luck, you just have a gift for writing. The way Christina McDonald develops characters throughout the story and describes places is like taking a master class in creative writing. You can’t put this book down and your heart breaks as the story unfolds. If you needed a tissue (or two) for The Night Olivia Fell, I recommend keeping a box handy for Behind Every Lie.

The story begins with a cloudy reflection of a grisly crime scene. Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She can’t remember what happened but the police are highly suspicious of her. Eva, not suffering from the effects of memory loss, tries to figure out what happened during the period her mother was murdered.

Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London—Kat’s former home—for answers. But as she unravels her mother’s carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesn’t want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesn’t know who to trust. Least of all herself.

Told in alternating perspectives from Eva’s search for answers and Kat’s mysterious past, Behind Every Lie explores the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships, family trauma, and the danger behind long-held secrets.

This book will be released February 2020 and I definitely recommend adding it to your TBR. It will be thinking about this one for the next few days.

Oh wow!!! This was definitely a fantastic read. I was a little worried if it would be as good as her first book The Night Olivia Fell, but I think it surpassed it. I was hooked from the first page. Suspense right from the beginning. This story goes back and forth from the present to the past, which I don't always enjoy.
However in this book I was eager to go back and forth trying to fit all the pieces together as each timeline was just as interesting and suspenseful as the other.

Christina McDonald has quickly become a favorite author and I can't wait for her to right more!!

Behind Every Lie is a fantastic thriller that would make a great gift. The storyline and characters are well developed. The writing is well done.

'Behind Every Lie' was a well-crafted story which left me pondering my ambivalence for what I had just read. In the end, I believe this title suffered from too much of a good thing. This novel was thoroughly developed and flawlessly executed, interweaving the backstory with the present conflict. Unfortunately, the plot was self-evident within the onset of Kat's initial telling of her story. After that, it was a matter of assessing how much time I wanted to invest in the rest of the story to see how everything fell into place. Also a forgone conclusion was the plot point regarding Liam. Again, the book was well-written, but the detail and the structure were so meticulous that there no room left for doubt.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Christina McDonald for an ARC of 'Behind Every Lie' in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed emotions about this book. It was interesting enough to keep me reading but at times lengthy and boring. I’m glad I finished and I’ll leave it at that.

Although I felt the plot had a few too many twists, I enjoyed this mystery. It was well written and certainly suspenseful. It was an original concept that drew me in immediately and kept my interest. It did require a little suspension of disbelief to accept the ultimate resolution, but I did nonetheless. I would recommend it for a fun, quick read.

Behind Every Lie by author Christina McDonald is another thrill of a book! She catches us off guard in the best way possible and throws us through a great thriller novel! Loved this and absolutely recommend! Full review to come closer to release date.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In BEHIND EVERY LIE, McDonald catches us off guard on the first page, and throws us into an unexpected moment of perturbation, providing an immediate adrenaline rush with a cinematic, heart-thudding, bloody scene. Eva was struck by lightning, they tell her, but that isn't the worst of it - Eva might've been the one who killed her own mother.

The author's writing is taut and focused, writing more for suspenseful depth and atmosphere than speed - still managing to provide a pacy, entertaining storyline as she dares bring dark subject matters to the table (sexual assault, domestic abuse, the intricacies of memory...). She crafts her characters in a way it's easy for us to become familiar with them and their inner psyches, then instantly bond with them.

Especially Eva. It's one thing to try and get back an expunged memory but it's another to let that be the inductor of a past trauma that made you struggle with self-perception and self-trust. Eva Hansen's journey makes us feel excitement, intrigue and fury as light and darkness, evil and vulnerability, snake their way into the plot and towards the end where everything is wrapped up in a clever conclusion, like a puzzle coming together with a startling click.

Motherhood-related thrillers have known an observable growth over the years, but Behind Every Lie proves to be competently made and more skillful than its predecessors.

The police are very suspicious of Eva Hansen, who has woken up in the hospital after being struck by lightning. It seems just a block away from where Eva was found, the body of her mother was discovered. She has been murdered and the cops find Eva’s lack of memory a little too convenient. In order to find out what happened to her mum and to clear her own name, Eva decides to journey to her mum’s home, London. But she may not like the answers she uncovers as she proves the life of a woman it would appear she never really knew