Cover Image: Good Little Liars

Good Little Liars

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

Good Little Liars was my first book by this author, and I was not disappointed.
I literally could not put this book down. There were twists I didn't see coming.
The writing style was amazing, and the book kept my interest from the first chapter.

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The cover and premise of this one drew me in but I just could not get into this story. It was a very slow burn with little pay off, weak character development, unlikable characters, and just an okay read. There was some good drama and I loved the setting but that was about it for this one.

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Emma, Marlee, and Clementine are all back living in their home town just as their 25-year reunion from a private girls’ school is gearing up. The reunion itself is reason enough for the women to start reminiscing, especially when it comes to their classmate, Tessa, who accidentally died on campus during their senior year. But was it an accident? Who was really there to say…really? This was the first book I’ve read by this author, and I enjoyed it. She did a great job of switching between perspectives and keeping the characters clear (even when I thought I might get confused---I never did!). I was a little dissatisfied with the reason for Tessa’s death to have been such a secret, but have to say I really did enjoy the rest of the book.

Special Note: Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

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I really enjoyed this book! I initially thought it might be predictable, but it turned out that it kept me guessing throughout the story. A fun read for book club!

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Twenty five years ago, a student died at a prestigious school is Australia: was is an accident or murder?
In the present day, school friends are preparing for a reunion and secrets are ready to be revealed…
Emma’s day gets off to a bad start when she sends an email reply to all instead of just her best friend Marlee. Hugely embarrassed, she returns home and discovers her husband naked with their cleaner.
Harriet is coping with the breakdown of her marriage to Ben but she also needs to deal with her whirlwind daughters coming home.
Marlee starts a new job and has a one night stand wtih Ben but will the consequences be long lasting?
I loved the way that the different narrative strands were woven together thoughout the book. Emma and Marlee inspire empathy and sympathy whereas Harriet projects a tough image which hides a heartbreaking past.
But how does this all connect to the death of Tessa 25 years ago? Again, this thread is cleverly intertwined throughout the plot thanks to the skill of author Sarah Clutton. Many of the characters have knowledge of the circumstances of Tessa’s death but it isn’t until the end that we get the full story.
The main women characters are all strong, often possessing an inner strength that they weren’t aware of as they face the challenges of the events in the book.
Good Little Liars was an enjoyable read about the relationships and empowerment of women, whilst having a mysterious death at its core uniting the different threads.

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Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgally for review purposes.

I didn't know a lot about this book going in and I'm kind of glad after reading the description given for it. Let me say I liked this book ! The characters stood out and we're envolved, complex, and likeable but the mystery was a little flat for me. This book felt more like a fiction novel about women struggling with their identities and who they are, who they're suppose to be, and their roles in life. The mystery kind of just felt like a side story, but not the main story.

Still, I got a good feel for their lives and it felt realistic. It all also wrapped up well and that's one of the things I look for in stories.

I'd recommend but probably not if you're looking for a mystery you can't put down and more of just a chick lit type.

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Haunting and extremely suspenseful.
Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Denham House is an excellent all girls school and a class reunion for the girls who graduated twenty five years previously is being planned. The story evolves around three friends, Emma, Marlee and Harriet who have all been haunted by the death of their friend Tessa days before the graduation. Emma has always had her doubts that Tessa’s death was accidental. After having to leave their home after her husband left her, Emma and her daughter move into the old Head’s cottage on the school grounds as she works at Denham House. In the cottage she discovers an explicit photo of Tessa and this stirs up all her suspicions of their old teacher Dr Brownley, who is now the Headmaster and is also the brother of Harriet. Emma starts to question the events of 1993 and finds that all her friends remember the event differently but they are all hiding secrets of their own. The story is told from the perspectives of Emma, Marlee and Harriet with flashbacks from twenty five years ago. This is a really good debut book, with likeable and believable characters. A compelling and recommended read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

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In Good Little Liars the main character Emma is haunted by the death of her friend Tessa. Twenty-five years after Tessa's death, Emma finds herself back at her old school and discovers an explicit photograph of Tessa. This discovery leads Emma to ask questions and head down a determined path to find the truth. Her determination draws in her old friends Marlee and Clementine, each who are trying to deal with their own feelings and experiences from 25 years ago.

Alternating the POVs in this book was a lovely touch. It allows the reader to understand a bit of what is going on in each of the women's' minds.

I would absolutely recommend this book to a friend, and plan to suggest it for my book club.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion on this book.

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First off, a huge thank you to Bookouture for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

I feel terrible that it took me forever to get to this book, but once I did I read it in two huge sittings. On a road trip but still, it really kept me engaged from start to finish.

It all started back in school with a dead classmate, and a group of friends that are just full of secrets and lies. In the present day, a large group email is sent by accident which opens up the can of worms again in relation to the deceased student. Someone saw this, someone heard that, and all of a sudden the whole mystery is on everyone's minds again.

There are multiple different viewpoints being told within the small circle of friends, each with their own issues, lives, marital problems, and point of view on the situation. It flipped around enough that I stayed pretty interested as I would want to get back to one woman or the other.

The part with Emma and the house keeper, omg😂. Also some parts with Marlee and Ben😂

It all ended a little conveniently once they figured out what happened, but it wasn't a terrible ending. There was one character mentioned in the epilogue portion that hadn't been mentioned before and I didn't know what it meant!

All in all this is a funny mix of mystery, drama, women's fiction, bit of a thriller at times, and a whole lot of lies to unravel. I would recommend for readers who enjoy multiple points of view and seeing storylines come together!

Thank you again to Bookouture for the advanced copy!

Blog post can be seen at
https://onenursereader.wixsite.com/onereadingnurse-1/post/good-little-liars-by-sarah-clutton

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Everyone experiences events differently depending on how it affects them. This is the basis of any school reunion ever. Add in some huge life changes with their accompanying challenges and the emotions stirred when returning to the scene of a friend's death, and you have the setting for an excellent mystery. This is exactly what Sarah Clutton gives us when she stirs the lives of a group of friends with the realization that they just maybe did not know each other as well as they thought.

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The best thing about this novel is the free-spirited character of Clementine. I would read a book just about her and her wacky adventure. Unfortunately, that’s not what this book is about. Nor does it hit the page-turning excitement that the marketing promised.

The first problem I had with Good Little Liars is that more than half of it has nothing to do with the promised mystery/thriller in question. Instead, readers are tasked with spending way too long with a large cast of characters who are dealing with problems such as divorce, infidelity, unwise hookups, workplace drama, etc. There was so much of this going around that the characters started to blur together in my mind.

By the time we finally get to the promised secrets and death, I barely cared anymore. Even worse, there were a few maddening inconsistencies. Oh, and the big reveal of how their friend died decades ago was so anti-climactic that it made me sorry I hadn’t DNFed the book early on.

Spoiler Alert...
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Okay, so it was said that Jonathan had jumped into the construction pit after Tessa and needed to be helped out by firefighters. Yet later on, when the whole story comes out, Jonathan was nowhere near the scene of the incident by the time help came. He also didn’t jump in the pit. Hell, he didn’t even go beyond the fence. This major inconsistency really bothered me.

Also, the so-called guilty party kept going on and on about how she pushed Tessa and was a murderer. That’s not at all what happened, though. Instinctively reaching for something that blew into the air isn’t the same thing as pushing someone. It sounds like what really happened is Tessa lost her footing and the “murderer” lost her grip on Tessa’s sleeve. Nowhere in the big reveal is there anything to indicate that Tessa was pushed, whether accidentally or on purpose.

Finally, the sudden change in Harriet’s personality made zero sense for her character. Because of all of these frustrating plot holes, I had a difficult time enjoying this book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

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It's been twenty-five years and the only thing any of them know for sure is that Tessa died that day. But reunions have a way of digging up old memories. Emma hardly even thinks about it anymore. However, when her marriage suddenly ends, she moves and discovers a graphic picture of Tessa that changes everything. Maybe her death wasn’t an accident. Her former classmates Marlee and Clementine are hardly different—they’ve tried putting that horrible day out of their minds as well. As Emma probes the case, though, stories start to slip, and she soon realizes some of her classmates would rather their secrets remain forgotten.

Author Sarah Clutton opens with Emma responding to a class reunion email by using the ‘reply all’ function rather than addressing her best friend, Marlee, directly. It’s a simple mistake, but it spirals into a series of complications. Clutton carefully maneuvers this opening, dropping tantalizing bits that all might not be as it seems. Emma, in outwardly questioning such a traumatic moment, opens wounds in her classmates. And yet, with even the most minimum of probing, it’s obvious that something is amiss in the original story of Tessa’s death. But what? Well, it’s deliciously complicated.

While the mystery and the investigation are compelling, what makes everything click is Clutton’s attention to character. These are multidimensional women, each with their own complicated lives, and Clutton expertly explores these avenues. Emma navigates the break-up of her marriage. Marlee juggles a new architecture job with a new relationship. Clementine, a now famous artist, is thrust back into life with her mother. Perhaps above them all looms Harriet, Clementine’s mother and the woman always tasked with holding everything together. Their relationships with each other are sometimes tenuous in the way that former classmates often are, but Clutton weaves them together as real people dependent on each other because of a past they’d rather avoid.

With the alternating viewpoints of the four women, Clutton teases out clues as to the real truth before settling on an explosive finish. She combines tight dialogue with some beautiful prose and the result is a fully-realized world—one that just happens to have a mysterious death at the center of it. Somehow both quiet and pulse-pounding, Clutton has tapped into the perfect formula for a page-turner.

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Great cover, that's what drew me in in the first place. I loved this book. I highly recommend it to anyone. Great characters which I connected to .

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Good Little Liars by Sarah Clutton was a book I was looking forward to read as I love to read books by new authors. I found this a good page turner throughout as I love family drama's that's full of lies with deep secrets we all try to keep hidden to protects from those who we love.

Twenty-five years ago Emma lost her good friend called Tess in a tragic accident. Emma is happy and settled in her life and rarely thinks about her friend Tess and that day Tess fell to her death or the secret she made Emma swear to keep just hours before it happened!

Emma holds an explicit image of Tess, looking directly at the camera and stares at the face within the photo for a long time. She drops it and lets out a silent cry.
When Emma's marriage collapses, Emma and her daughter moves into the headmasters former cottage on the grounds of her old school called Denham House School. This is where Emma finds the old photo of Tess.
Emma catches up with some old school friends Marlee and Clementine, and Emma has plenty to distract her….........but she can’t shake the image of the photograph of her friend Tess. The thought that it’s proof of something she had long suspected: Dr Brownley, now headmaster, was involved with Tessa.

Was it a mistake to keep quiet about what she knew?

Should Emma say something about Dr Brownley, who was involved with Tess all those years ago? or is it too late?


Big Thank you for to Bookouture and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

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Good Little Liars is women’s literature in the purest form. Clutton brings us a whole class of women who are gathering for a reunion. They each have secrets and betrayals, but the author brings them all together in an interesting way.

I had a hard time with this novel. I found it interesting, but not that entertaining. The synopsis is fantastic, and that is what drew me in, but I was completely unsatisfied. The death of their classmate is supposed to be the big mystery of the book. However, when the reveal did come, I was underwhelmed.

The author describes the setting well. I saw all the buildings, houses, offices, etc., as if I were right there. I felt as if I could run my hand over the chipped mantle to the fireplace in the cottage on campus, and I saw these characters. The author built a beautiful world for me to enjoy.

Unfortunately, this was not enough to redeem the book entirely in my eyes. The storyline had so much potential, but it fell flat for me. For these reasons, I award Good Little Liars 3 stars out of 5. I still recommend this novel to those who love chick lit. Take a walk through the campus grounds with the girls. I hope you enjoy it.

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Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Good Little Liars
By: Sarah Clutton

*REVIEW* 🌟🌟🌟
Did you have any big secrets with your schoolmates that you swore to never tell? I didn't, but I know I would completely freak out if someone told. In Good Little Liars, a school reunion plus the revelation of some dark secrets equals a lot of trouble for some characters. Who and what can be trusted? I enjoyed the story, but it's not very unique. It's interesting, engaging and well written, but it's also predictable. As a thriller, it's an average read. The story kept my interest, but it was slow going at times, and I nearly put it down. Overall, it's okay but not remarkable.

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Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved the narrative description for this book. Clutton is a great picture painter when it came to the scenery.

The basis of the book is a School Reunion where some of the attendees share a dark secret. A secret that they thought was buried but when one of them mentions the secret in an accidental "Reply All" email, crap hits the fan.

The reunion itself doesn't actually take place till the end, but the book focuses on the build up to the reunion and establishes the characters and the secret itself.

Many reasons why I enjoyed this book. First, its actually my age genre (My 25th reunion is coming up) so its actually pretty fun reading a book that I can relate to more than I can relate to some of the other books. That being said though, there were some points were the book seemed to be dragging just a little bit and I was getting bored and easily distracted. This isn't a mystery...there really isn't any big reveal or anything like that. Its a good dramatic read.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

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Intense and chilling thriller with shocking secrets ! A delicious and twisty page turner ! A must read ! Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this book ! #Netgalley #Bookouture #GoodLittleLiars

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I absolutely enjoyed reading this book from the beginning to the end. The secrets and lies throughout kept me guessing. This was my first book by this author but will not be my last !!! \

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