Once there were two young girls, opposites in personality but perfectly matched in friendship. They became best friends and supported each other through all of life’s ups and downs. But somehow, along the way, those ups and downs became more provoking than anticipated, and their warm, loving friendship took a turn towards obsessional. Then, even more challenges emerged and under the weight of them their friendship nosedived into pathological.

This story about female friendship is eerily told in the first person. It’s clever. It’s intriguing. The distaste you will have for the protagonist is entirely intentional. One phrase is brought to mind:

With friends like Jane, who needs enemies?

Seven Lies

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of Elizabeth Kay’s Seven Lies. I was intrigued by a new twist to the lies/secrets comeback to haunt friends storyline and I loved the organization of the book into 7 sections / 7 lies. Kay has a lovely, lilting storytelling style; almost old-fashioned way of saying “here’s how it is, hope you can handle the truth”, and yes, we want to keep listening. She leads, we follow! Every character is described with love, hate and truth, details bared bright so we can’t miss them, and you won’t want to. But be careful! At one point the narrator confesses: “I’m trying very hard to be honest. And yet it doesn’t come very naturally to me...”; so be warned. She also states “we are not immune to our own lies” which will really get you on track to doubt. Kay drops a few pieces of wisdom like this throughout the novel, such as: “the truth is never evident in the moment”... Makes you wonder how she knows so much about lies. And there is a depressing element to this story; the narrator’s broken family, her lack of human connection, though I’m not sure she ever wanted it, except from Marnie, and that does not end well. She also poses a very thoughtful question: can you love someone so deeply but still commit an act that tears through their life?... wanting to be that person who’s there to help pick up the pieces? Can a person live with that? You’ll find out...

Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay is the most intriguing, raw and unique book I’ve read this year. I wasn’t sure I’d like the main character as the narrator but it worked. Boy did it work. This is at its heart a story about friendship but it’s also one of grief and loss. One light and one dark and shrunken. The main character feels she is nothing without out the basking light of her best friend and her husband. She feels as though the people she loves the most always leave her. This makes for some very disturbed behaviour. But so compulsive is she that you read well into the night, are annoyed when people interrupt you because you just want to see how it all ends!
Special thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this super ARC.

I was hooked into the story at the start and even though it meandered a bit too much, was only from one POV and not enough from the second main character I enjoyed the story. I would not characterize this as a story about women's friendship though. I don't think that Jane and Marnie had the same take on what their friendship really was....

I was one of the first 200 to respond to NetGalley's offer to read this book right away, and I finished it in 3 days.
It's the story of the best friendship between Marnie and Jane which started in high school and continued throughout their young adult years. They were inseparable through thick and thin until a tragedy prompted Jane to tell a lie to Marnie, and their friendship was never the same after that. The first lie begets 6 more, and Jane explains the reasons for each in her narrative as she ponders whether she should tell Marnie the whole truth. Meanwhile, an aggressive tabloid journalist suspects the truth and won't give up until she can prove her suspicion. I don't often read psychological thrillers, and I have to say that this one definitely kept me on my toes.. .

This book really caught my attention with a chilling description of the story. It is written in the voice of the main character, Jane, and I persnally love that style of writing. It makes the storyteller feel that much more real - I really felt like as I was reading, I was in the mind of Jane ane was very easily engrossed in her thought processes, her feelings, her desires and more. The book reads very easily, language is easy to understand and flows naturally. Overall this book does exactly what it is meant too - keeps you on your toes the entire time with a really unique story of friendship and the lenghts a person will go to when that friendship becomes obsession. The reason I kept it at 3 stars, and not more, is because I would have loved further character development outside of Jane - more info on her friend Marnie, and peripheral chracters could have drawn me in even further. I definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good thriller though!

First off, I really liked the way this story was told. It feels like Jane is talking to the reader and she is telling us about her relationship with her best friend Marnie by recounting the seven lies that she told Marnie.

With each lie that Jane reveals, we learn more about her own life and her relationship with Marnie. Early on, we hear about the day that Jane met Marnie and how Marnie changed her life just by being her friend. When Marnie falls in love, Jane can’t believe that she would fall for someone like Charlie. Jane doesn’t like him but can’t tell her friend, so the lies start.

I recommend this page-turner to fans of psychological thrillers. The journey reveals Jane’s jealousy and obsession and left me on the edge of my seat more than once. This is a great debut novel by Elizabeth Kay.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House Canada for a copy of this book. #SevenLies #NetGalley

"There are no blank slates, no fresh starts, no clean cuts. There is only the messy aftermath of every decision you ever make. Because - and this is one of my greatest frustrations - life moves in only one direction. Every decision that you ever make will be written in stone permanent, never to be undone. They are all entirely irrevocable. Even if you find a way to unwind a specific division, to unpick those threads, that decision will always have been made."


A suspenseful novel about friendship, jealousy and the ties that bind. Unfortunately, the editors seem to be building this up as a really unique thriller and this affected my expectations going into the book. Having read a lot in this genre over the last couple of years, I didn't feel it was that different from other recently published books. Don't get me wrong, it's still a very enjoyable page-turner and I think people who like authors like B.A. Paris or Jessica Knoll will get a kick out of this one.

3.5 stars
Thanks #NetGalley and #PenguinRandomHouseCanada for an advance copy.
Yes, this book did hook me, who could ignore the promise of seven lies that drive two friends' lives forward? The book proved to be dark, spoken in the voice of a compulsive liar and just a tad scary too.
I found myself, saying out loud, 'no, Jane, don't do it!"
There are a lot of crazy people in this book, so if 'unusual' characters are your jam, you will like it.
It speaks well to betrayal, and one-sided friendship, oh and will keep you on the edge of your seat right to the end.

Unique storyline. Well developed characters. Twists and turns with every chapter. Quick read but very entertaining. Never read a book like it. Would definitely recommend it to friends.

Different insight on friendship vs obsession.

This is a 3.5 star for me.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. I was excited to read it. It reminded me a bit of Gone Girl, which I didn’t like but couldn’t stop reading.

This is a page turner. The narrator is a bit frantic and it really pulls you in. The story gets interesting and then diverges somewhere and becomes sinister. I enjoyed reading it.

The problem for me, and why I didn’t give it five stars, is that it doesn’t really seem to have a good point. The women’s friendship features prominently and is beautifully detailed and described but that’s about it. There is no takeaway just a disturbing story with a bit of an obvious plot climax, except that it’s not really a climax at all. It’s just a continuation of what we already know.

It’s tragic but not sad. I feel like a different ending would have been more satisfying; maybe then there would have been a bit more guessing. It felt as if the narrator already told you everything and there was no need to guess or find out. The draw was in the seven lies but even those are less than thrilling.

Worth a quick read for good writing and there is a story but not one I found compelling.

SEVEN LIES by Elizabeth Kay is a thrilling debut novel about Jane and the lies and secrets she keeps from her best friend Marnie. This novel was interesting right away since Jane is telling her own story in first person and so there are many flashbacks. This one is definitely a page turner and I finished it quite quickly. I was so curious to learn all about the seven lies and even though some parts were slow in the middle I was satisfied in the end.

The description of this book certainly piqued my curiosity. It reminded me of Ruth Rendell, who wrote detective fiction of the whodunnit kind and also psychological "thrillers" as Barbara Vine which were written from the point of view of the killer. And on the whole I preferred the Vine books to the Rendells. And the publishers "blurb" above does give you the understanding that this book is written in the first person as though you were reading a confession.

The book is set in a familiar part the world. I used to commute to Waterloo Station from the suburbs, so that feels like familiar territory. Though it did seem a bit odd when on one page the narrator refers to "the sidewalk" and elsewhere "the pavement". But maybe that is just an error that slipped through in the galleys that will be picked up. Just like all the rather odd formatting that was in the ebook I read but will also be cleaned up before publication.

The book does catch hold early on - even when part of my brain was thinking that it was probably aimed at a female audience. But then when you are reading a book written from an unfamiliar point of view there is also the appeal of eavesdropping. And the narrator of the story keeps referring to the intended reader as "you", and I quickly caught on that this is intended to be one of the characters in the novel, not readers in general. No, I am not going to tell you who. Because the direction of the narrative is one of the attactractions. The plot is very satisfactorily twisted and not exactly chronological either. So throughout the eventual outcome does remain unknown and trying to second guess that is one of the hooks that keeps you reading. How is this going to be resolved - if it is resolved.

It is also something that is intriguing - that some people seem to be far better than I, and others, at maintaining contact with a friend - or friends - from the early part of life. It is also the case that just like everything else, this can also be labelled as a pathology "co-dependence". In fact at times the narrator does seem to be rather adept at labelling the behaviour of others - obsessive compulsive is one. But throughout she has to deal with other people who have anorexia or senile dementia. There are indeed stalkers. And people who really ought to be sued for libel who seem to get away scot free with their confabulations.

Yes, you really ought to read this book, and you probably will need to be a bit isolated when you do. Back in the days when we all took long plane trips, this would be good to have on your iPad. Now we are all working from home, there isn't the commute which is where I used to do much of my reading. But this book will be one where you want to find out what happens, and as one other reviewer has already pointed out, you won't be able to predict the ending.

This book will grip you from the beginning and it won’t let you go till the last page. I was enthralled with the characters, the manner the book was narrated and the storyline. It is a suspenseful physiological thriller that will have you reading into the wee hours, just so you can figure out what will happen next. The author did an amazing job of keeping the story interesting while weaving the tale of infatuation and love. I don’t want to let out any spoilers so I will simply say this is a story of two woman who met in elementary school and became inseparable, or at least that’s what one woman thought. My only issue was with the reporter as I think she wasn’t dealt with properly in the story. I thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this spellbinding book.

Wow! This book was not on my radar. I hadn't heard much about it but I stumbled across it in netgalley and it sounded like something I would enjoy. I was totally right! This is Elizabeth Kay's debut novel and I think we are going to have to watch out for her!

The book is told by the main character Jane. She is our narrator and it's like you are sitting on the couch having a chat with her. She had me hooked into her story right within the first few pages. She tells us a story that revolves around seven lies that she told her best friend Marnie. These seven lies would ultimately alter the course of their lives and their friendship.

Jane and Marnie had been friends for years. When Marnie marries a man that Jane cannot stand, that's when the lies begin. At first I really felt for Jane. She seemed to have a hard life and the way she told you her story made you want to reach out and help her. But as the book progressed Jane was no longer reliable and seemed to be headed on a crash course to disaster. The story is divided up into parts, each one focussing on the next lie which only seem to get bigger as the story goes on. As Jane spirals the story gets more twisted and unpredictable. For this reason, I couldn't put it down!

This was a really quick read full of suspense. I loved the writing and the character development was spot on. It came to a very interesting conclusion. It showed the darker side of friendship for sure. There isn't much else I can say without fully giving away the truth behind the lies! If you like unreliable, yet compelling narrators then I think you will really enjoy Jane! Her story or her truth, as she put it, was a page turner! This one publishes June 16th so domestic thriller fans, be on the lookout. Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada and Netgalley for the chance to read this awesome novel.

Cover could use some work - seems a little older than it is
I liked the taboo subject matter at the end

This is a rambling first person narrative where Jane reveals the seven big lies she told. While the premise was good and original, the book was plodding and the characters lacking definition. Too many loose ends and an unsatisfying ending.
I think this is one of those books that you either really liked or not at all.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Jane's smooth talking sucked me in right from the first paragraph and her world view seemed so reasonable. Until it wasn't. Great use of an unreliable narrator! I enjoyed this book very much and after I finished, I pondered about all the other things she may have been responsible ...

A great read for the beach! And if the beaches don't open, a great balcony/backyard read!

Thanks #netgalley for the e-review edition of this book!

Seven lies that Jane told to Marnie. Seven lies that altered the course of their lives. Jane and Marnie had been best friends since childhood but when Marnie marries a man Jane dislikes the lies begin. Smaller at first and life shattering as they progress. A psychological thriller driven by strong character development. You know what's coming but constantly tell yourself "Oh no, she couldn't!" A very enjoyable read.

What a great book! I could not put it down. I finished it in 2 days, even though I have two small children, aka not much spare time.

The narrator and main character Jane, starts off quite relatable but spirals as the book progresses. Even though she spirals, she's written so well that I still feel for her, until we get to the very end. Does this say more about me or the author, I'm not sure LOL

All of the character development is impeccable; each character is introduced separately in a deliberate and well thought out way. I felt like I knew every one of them and they each played an important role in the book.

The story was unpredictable and kept me wondering what was going to happen next. The title signifies the seven lies that Jane tells, and is written accordingly. So we start off hearing about the first lie and progress to the seventh. I loved that every part of this book was relevant to the overall story; sometimes you read books and are left wondering about certain parts of the storyline, or certain characters.

There's so much more I can say but I don't want to spoil the plot!! All I can say is, please read this book, you won't regret it! Highly recommend, and will be recommending it to all of my book loving friends! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.