A gripping read with secrets hidden in every book and crany. I was delighted at the way the Secrets were unfolded by the author.

After an accident that affected Claire and her father, Claire was left with amnesia, and everyone seemed hiding something.

My first book by Lana Newton I found that the writing engaged my senses and kept me hooked to the plot. There was a sense of imploded suspense and massive reveal as the main character soon started investigating.

The writing was smooth, seamless on its flow, I could feel bad for Claire as she traversed unknown territory. She remembered nothing and nobody. It was a slow descriptive read at times, I skipped those parts to get to the juicy bits.

The last 30%was extremely fun, though I suspected some things, it was still fun to be proved right.

This was a quick read that I finished in less than a day. It centers around Claire, who wakes up in the hospital after a car accident unable to remember anything about her life, including who everyone is. It alluded to being one of those "not nice person loses memory and ends up being nice person" but didn't really go that way, only hinting at what kind of person Claire was before the accident, but focusing heavily on what everyone around her is like. She hears different stories from everyone and has to figure out who she can trust. I figured out the twist pretty early but I did second guess myself a couple times as the story unfolded.

I had a hard time connecting with Claire- she seemed very naive for someone of her age, blindly trusting whatever she was told until she was told something that conflicted with it. The thing that bugged me the most, though, is that not once in the entire book did she research something on the internet. She went to the library, she made blind guesses (finding her aunt's house based on a vague reference she read), or she didn't follow up on her questions at all (like in the case of the phone calls from her mother). I just couldn't understand why she lacked the curiosity (or intelligence?) to do some research on all of this stuff. There were also heavy references to God and the Bible, especially as the story went on, which made me a bit uncomfortable, not being religious myself.

Overall, this is a pretty decent story but wasn't my favorite. It is a quick read with some surprises for those who enjoy the genre. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

(Also posted on my GR account!)

3 stars!

Her Perfect Lies should be retitled. But then, it would make it easier for us to guess what really happened.

Claire got into an accident, along with her father and left him paralyzed and her a temporary amnesia. Her husband picked her up, her best friend said her husband is abusive, her housekeeper said her husband is sweet, and she really didn't know who she should trust. Because everyone was suspicious once a murder was found.

Lana Newton gave a solid writing and I could read her book on and on and on. I love the cover too that gives a feeling of something happened behind closed door.
It took a while to know where the plot was going and it established itself around 70% mark, pretty far along in my opinion.
The characters and plot were nothing sort of remarkable, but truly made for a fun mystery reading. Perfect for any fans in the genre.

Claire has been in a car accident with her father that has left her with memory loss. She doesn’t remember anyone in her life or the person she is. All she knows is her husband seems controlling, her father loves her, her best friend is trying to be there for her and her mother is away helping an elderly sick aunt for the week. Trying to dig around and find who she is behind everyone’s back, Claire realizes she can’t trust anyone. Everyone has something to hide, some things much worse than others. And as Claire starts having nightmares of shadowy figure she starts to wonder if she really even WANTS to remember what happened that day? This book moved at a steady pace and kept me interested because I wanted to know what happened just as badly as Claire. I had a feeling but kept wavering just as Claire did. This was a quick enjoyable read!

Her Perfect Lies tells the story of Claire, a famous professional ballerina, who is leaving hospital and going home two weeks after she was involved in a car accident with her father, Tony. She has lost her memory and remembers nothing of the crash, which caused Tony serious injuries (his spine was severely damaged) and he’s rather confused about exactly what happened too, denying Claire was in the car at first.

When Claire looks in the mirror, she sees a stranger. She remembers nothing about anything. Things even taste different and there are hints that her personality changes. Such a frightening position to be in! I’d be terrified.

Claire’s husband, Paul, a doctor, seems rather controlling: he wants to watch her take medication, won’t eat with her, won’t let her go to her ballet studio and invites their friends over for a dinner party without even asking her. And he’s not very affectionate or caring – he only visits her twice in the two weeks she’s in hospital and they don’t even share a bedroom at home.

Claire’s mother, Angela, is absent, supposedly away looking after an elderly relative, Aunt Judy, but it seems rather bizarre that she hasn’t rushed back, with both her daughter and husband in a serious condition in hospital!

Everything is so unsettling for Claire; she’s disconnected from her past, present and future but trapped in the house as being outside is so frightening and overwhelming. She feels fragile and out of control as her mind struggles to make sense of everything and she begins to suffer from bad nightmares that never have a resolution – someone close is threatening and chasing her; an ominous presence but one which disappears before she can see the person’s face. Claire struggles to get any memories back and ends up going to a hypnotherapist, Dr Matilda Brown, to try and free her locked-up mind.

As she starts to discover more about her past and uncovers traumatic events, Claire feels even more lost and alone. She is being accused of awful things but can’t even defend herself as she doesn’t know what has happened.

This was a tense, uneasy read and I could really feel Claire’s fear. She didn’t know who she was, she’s learning about everything for the first time and she doesn’t know or trust her husband, Paul, her father, Tony, her best friend, Gaby, or even the housekeeper, Nina. Everyone seems to have ulterior motives and be hiding secrets and not telling Claire the truth about her life, whether to protect her or themselves is unclear. The only one she can trust is their labrador, Molokai!

Claire is such an unreliable narrator, understandably, that I really didn’t know which direction this one was going to go in. There were a few twists and turns, as well as red herrings, and my guesses of how it was all going to be resolved were a bit wide of the mark!

Overall, I enjoyed this one, it was such a intense and claustrophobic read and I finished it after a couple of days. I think I need something a bit lighter now to recover!

I thought that when I started reading this book it would be a repeat of S.J. Watson’s Before I Go To Sleep but it ended up going in a different direction. I was happy about that. It was a fast read and I was guessing about who was telling the truth and who was lying. It didn’t have earth shattering revelations but it tied up nicely in the end and I enjoyed it.

I want to thank Netgalley and HQ for the advanced reading copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Claire wakes up from an accident that has caused her to completely lose her memory. She is in the hospital with her father who was also in the accident. As she starts to try to piece together her life, she realizes she can’t trust some of the people in her life but she’s not sure who.

This was a good quick read. I was second guessing all of the characters unsure of who was telling the truth. It liked it.

This could have been a great thriller, but it just wasn’t for me, apparently. This premise was so promising, but it just read really slow and the writing style didn’t vibe with me. Some descriptions were just so on the nose and cheesy, and a lot of it was explained too much to a point where I just found it frustrating.

I just couldn’t connect with the characters. I didn’t feel the tension, because I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Also, a me-thing: references to how someone couldn’t believe in god, because “look at all the beauty around you”. (A bit jarring for an atheist, but yeah, just something that took me out of the story, personally.)

There were some issues I had with the timeline and how a person could react or wait for a day (or even weeks) before investigating further. It just didn’t make sense to me a lot of the times.

I also enjoy a mystery thriller a lot less if I can guess the ending. I guessed everything when I was about halfway into the story. That didn’t make it very fun for me. And the ending was just too sugar-coated for me.

In short: for me this was not believable, I felt lukewarm about the characters and where the story went. It was just too boring to me. I needed more character development and a more interesting and shocking plot, thank you!

This is one of those books that sucks you in from the very first page! Claire wakes up in a hospital bed with absolutely no idea how she got there, not just that she also doesn't recognize this moody, cold eyed man claiming to be her husband either. I fact she has no memories whatsoever.

Then follows a long journey to recover her past and her memories and all may not be as it, or who they seem.

Little by little Claire makes sense of her life, but who is the shadowy monster who inhabits her dreams? She visits a hypnotherapist who helps her to slowly unravel her dreams and her memories.

The book is full of red herrings and twists and turns, I only managed to guess one right! The characters are well described, I could picture Pal, Nina, Gaby and her Dad perfectly.

Great read, look forward to reading more by Lana Newton.

Thanks to Netgalley, HQ Digital and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

#HerPerfectLies #LanaNewton #NetGalley #HQDigital

Oh you will enjoy this one...
If you are looking for a psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, then look no further than Lana's new one out now....
This is my first time reading one of this authors books, most definitely won't be my last..
Imagine waking up in a hospital bed not knowing who you are or where you come from, crazy right...
A man telling you he is your husband but you not knowing who he is or recognising anything about him. What would you do? Pretty frightening too I would imagine.
This is what happens to Claire Wright. She has been told she was in a car accident. The doctors have said she has lost her memory. It might come back at some point but it will take time.
She needs to rest but how can she when she doesn't recognise anything or anyone in her life. She wonders how she even lived this life. It's her worst nightmare..
And what has her father to do with the accident? Why can't she remember?
Can she trust anyone in her life?
You will certainly feel all the chills in this one...
It's a gripping read, you will wonder many times where it is all going but you won't be able put it down..
Well worth your time...

Claire has been in an accident. She was supposedly with her father who has also been hurt but in Claire's case she has no recall of the accident or what happened prior to that at all. She wakes up with a blank slate.

Her husband is a stranger to her, her best friend is unknown to her, her house is unfamiliar, even the housekeeper or even her closet feels alien as if it belongs to someone else. It is only the little glimpses of music and ballet which is not strange to her. She has to work with what she has to try to claw back her memory because those around her are determined to keep their information to themselves (I did not understand why) and keep her blundering more and more to try to put the pieces of her life together.

Even her personality has changed, from being arrogant and distant to someone who does not want to be condescending and patronizing and she needs to find out what made her click.

Unravelling this with no help from her husband, whom she now begins to see as enemy No 1 is not easy especially since you feel you are under surveillance and inspection at every turn.

This is classified as a psychological thriller. It was but the ending was tame and more romantic than anything else.

Kate wakes up in the hospital after a car accident and she doesn't know anything. Who she is, her husband or the rest of her family. Her husband is not quite what he seems. She discovers divorce papers and she realizes they must've had some issues. She starts having nightmares and wonders if they are nightmares or memories! Not everyone is who they seem to be.

I absolutely love to discover new authors and Lana Newton is definitely a new author for me. I will definitely be reading more of her work in the future. I really enjoyed reading 'Her Perfect Lies' but more about that in a bit.
I really did feel for Claire. She has been through a devastating car accident, which has left her with no memory of her life before the accident. She doesn't know who or what to believe. She is surrounded by people who claim to be her family and friends but Claire doesn't remember them so they could be anybody. She doesn't recognise the person who is staring back at her when she looks in the mirror. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to not know who you are, to not know who or what to believe and to literally have to rebuild your life from scratch. As the story continues Claire unravels the mystery surrounding the accident and she discovers just who she was before her accident.
It didn't take me long at all to get into this book. In fact by the end of the first chapter I knew that I would find it extremely difficult to put this book to one side for any length of time. If I put the book down because life got in the way, then I would immediately look forward to being able to pick the book up again. I became quite obsessed with this book. I had to keep reading to find out the truth about Claire's accident and I needed to discover if everybody was who they said they were. It didn't take me long at all to get through this story as my desperation to find out the truth meant that the pages were turning increasingly quickly as I raced to the end of the book. This was one of those books that I found myself thinking about long after I had finished reading it.
'Her Perfect Lies' is well written. Lana really knows how to catch your interest and how to keep that interest throughout the book. I love the way in which she has created a story that kept me gripped, kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat at times. Lana writes so realistically and uses such vivid descriptions that I felt as though I was part of the story myself. I think that I kept imagining how I would feel if I was in Claire's position.
In short, I really did enjoy reading 'Her Perfect Lies' and I would recommend it to other readers. I will most definitely be reading more of Lana's work in the future. Here's hoping that we don't have too long to wait for her next book. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.

‘Often, when we love someone, we assume they love us back...’ - Her Perfect Lies - Lara Newton.

Firstly, there were a few inconsistencies with this book at the start that I don’t think made any sense and I wondered whether I’d enjoy the book at all, I stuck with it, although it was slow at times.

However, as the story started to unravel I found myself fully invested in Claire’s little world and finding out what was happening. Everytime I thought I knew who the ‘bad guy’ was something else happened that made me question that... but it turned out that towards the end my suspicions were correct - although just slightly off the mark.

I feel like the main part of this book and the ending where actually very anticlimactic and the build up was a lot better.

I did enjoy the book but would probably only recommend to somebody who wants to read a first thriller.

Three stars purely because at one point I was gripped and wasn’t sure which way the story was going to go.

This was a suspenseful and quick read! I enjoyed every moment of this! Claire's journey to discover the events of the accident that put her in the hospital captivated me.

I'm going to say that this was OK, an easy read that I found predictable, the beginning was better than the end found the story very slow, I kept hoping that it was going to get interesting but it never happened!

How are you supposed to carry on with your life after you are discharged from hospital if you have recollection of what your previous life consisted of? That's the situation our main protagonist Claire finds herself in after she suffers a traumatic brain injury resulting in total amnesia following a car accident with her father Tony. She has no memories of the accident or her life before... her family, her childhood or her marriage to husband Paul but yet she's expected to go home and carry on with her life even if she doesn't know what that entails.

What follows is a claustrophobic thriller as Claire's attempts to try and regain her memory by searching for anything that might help her remember events of her past but the more she discovers, the more she realises that not everything is as it seems. And that many of those closest to her are lying to her making it even harder for her to establish who she is and, more importantly, who she can really trust.

From the outset I, like Claire, was trying to work out what was going on as nothing seemed to make sense regarding the situation she was in. Why did Paul hardly visit her in the hospital and has a separate bedroom if they had a loving marriage? Why did Tony say that Claire wasn't in the car when she clearly was? Where is her mother and why has she not returned knowing her husband and daughter are seriously ill in hospital? And as for Gaby, Claire's best friend, just what is her story as there's definitely more than she is telling? So many questions that needed answering and it's only over time that the truth is slowly revealed and we, like Claire, get the answers.

I really felt for Claire as she struggled with her feeling of helplessness at her situation. She seemed to be a prisoner in her own home as Paul was controlling her medication, her activities and who she could see for her own protection. But all it did is make her feel even more out of control and the bad nightmares, that don't make sense to her, are not helping the situation which prompts her to take matters into her own hands to try and regain the lost memories. But maybe sometimes it's best to leave some memories in the past as it might make you realise that your life wasn't so perfect after all.

Claire really was the perfect unreliable narrator as you didn't know what was fact from fiction as everything unfolded. She was a character that had you feeling sorry for her one minute, but then not liking her the next as we discovered more about her, and then back to feeling empathy for her again.

Her Perfect Lies was an intense read from start to finish. One minute I thought I had it all worked out and then when everything came to a head I realised I was totally wrong. Well played Lana Newton, I can't wait to see what you have in store for us readers next.

The premise of this book is great: woman wakes up in hospital after and accident with no memory of who she is. a promise to be thrilling. And twisty and turny. But no. It was clear what was going to happen and I did not enjoy the writing style of this at all.
Not for me, although someone looking for a tamer and more predictable thriller would enjoy it!

Claire Wright wakes up in the same hospital as her father after they are in an apparent accident together.. but Claire remembers nothing about it, nor anything about herself or her life.

Her father and her have different versions of the accident, and she can't remember the last time she's seen her mother. Her husband, Paul, takes her "home" to their huge mansion where he and her best friend Gaby, begin to tell her about her happy marriage and life.. and then she finds evidence that that is not the case.. She feels that her parents can be her only saviors, but even they are sketchy characters.

I found this book to be a very fast, very intriguing read! Every character may or may not be hiding something and/or lying to Claire about her life. It will keep you guessing until the end!

Thank you to NetGalley, Lana Newton and HQ Digital for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to HQ Stories for sending me a copy of the book and allowing me to take part in the blog tour. All views and opinions discussed here are my own.

I do like a good amnesia thriller because it always starts with an intense pace; when a character can't remember most or aspects of their life you know there are going to be a number of twists and turns presented throughout the book to shock and move the character. This book was not without its turns and plot twists; some of which i'd guessed early on, others not quite so much.

I did fly through this book; it's a real easy reader and is one I managed to read in one sitting so I definitely give praise to the author for that.

Unfortunately for me I just didn't gel with this book; I don't know if it's because i've read too many thrillers lately or whether authors are just going along similar plotlines but I found the pacing of the book quite odd and some chapters felt very choppy. I honestly don't feel like the book flowed that well for the reader and it just all seemed a bit over the place. Not only that but the character motivations and character developments were just confusing; Claire goes from being someone who hasn't spoken to her housekeeper for 3 years to the kindest woman ever. I don't believe that a bout of amnesia would change your personality so drastically. And with Paul; one minute he's some heartless bastard who doesn't seem to care about his wife and next he's desperate for their marriage to work. There just seemed to be no development to cause these changes in personality.

Sadly I did also guess the major plot twists; Paul <spoiler>was painted very quickly to be an abusive husband so clearly he wasn't going to be one. I'd figured out pretty quickly that it was the dad that was actually the monster here because he repeatedly gave Claire half-truths and only told her things when confronted with it by the police, and even then it was never the full story. It felt like this story dragged on in some ways but also went very quickly; it took Claire so long to realise something was off with her dad. For someone who has amnesia she sure did trust him quickly for no reason other than him being her father. Again, Gaby and Paul having an affair seemed obvious because Gaby kept trying to convince Claire how awful he was. </spoiler>

Honestly one of the things I found most ridiculous was the police who just kept turning up and telling Claire to star remembering soon... clearly they would have spoke with the hospital to know she wasn't faking and they just seemed like idiots. Also Claire talks repeatedly about how she's following her mother's lead (in trusting her father) yet Claire cannot remember anything about her mother at this point so how on earth does she know what her view would be. It just felt a bit silly and felt like the author hadn't really thought out the full impact of amnesia on a person.

Ooo and that ending... well for me that was a total disappointment and didn't wrap anything up. It was like everything was just brushed under the carpet so the author didn't really have to deal with it. I think maybe i'm at the point where I need to take a break from thrillers because they're all just blurring into one for me and it means that I might not give books the right chance. I honestly don't think that's the case here but would recommend you give it your own go and go in with your own view...