Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆
I must start by saying that I don't usually mention potential triggers, as maybe I think they are of such a nature that it doesn't feel necessary, or they are mentioned enough in the blurb. But this book really does deal with some difficult issues, and there is little/no sugarcoating or off-screen moment. It is a cruel, harsh read, and it is difficult to find any positive points to a number of the significant characters.

Actually, more than anything, I found this a terribly sad and bleak book – and maybe because 2020 has been a bit of a year, I wasn't able to dissociate as well as I normally would, but I do read for pleasure, education, and entertainment, and I found it difficult to apply those here. It is well written, and sadly, I recognised the people in it as being drawn from the world in which we live. I was not convinced by all the twists, but did enjoy Lucy stepping up to be the reliable one.

This is one of those mystery/suspense novels you have to work for to get the payoff. The layers are complicated, which I appreciate, but there were times I couldn’t help but get frustrated with the characters and think, “If you would just tell the truth . . .” Of course, then there would be no novel. I understand why the characters didn’t want to speak out, but yeesh.

This is told from the alternating points of view of married couple Simon and Daisy. They tried for years and many expensive treatments and finally had Millie. Millie is six when Simon uncovers a lie that makes his drinking go from bad to truly terrible. Addiction is a thing that not many marriages can survive, but pile on top of that significant lies between the partners, and you’re going to have real trouble.

I liked these complex characters and their friendships.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES SEPTEMBER 5, 2020.

I actually liked the book, my devious heart enjoyed the thrill more when the lies kept mounting. My first experience with author Adele Parks was swift and gleeful.

Simon drank. A lot. Wife Daisy managed her marriage with the functioning alcoholic with compromise and patience until one catastrophe ripped them apart, and life stopped for them. But nothing could stop the repercussions of their spiraling lies.

There was a lot of family drama to begin with, the reveal of truth or two creating a teaser for the thrills to come. Suspense was slowly built up as the words created the life the two lived. Secrets soon found its way to the open, and some of them were shockers.

The author dealt with the social issues sensitively. I would have loved more of a workout for my heart. The flawed characters still managed to draw me into the story. Overall, the book delivered what the title suggested. Light, non-stressful read.

DNF at 45%

This was not for me.

I was really excited at the idea of this book and it seemed like Daisy was an unreliable narrator. She comes across as meek and settling in nearly every part of her life. Simon is a sloppy drunk for the entire section I read.

Plot wise, I don’t know...there wasn’t any tension and was quickly bored. After I made it to the point I did, I went to read the reviews and didn’t care for what I saw there. There was mention of rape scenes and death/mutilation of a kitten and those are things I don’t need to see on the page. I did read the last two chapters with epilogue and wasn’t intrigued enough to find out what I missed in the sections I skipped.

Overall, there are a lot of high reviews, so clearly loads of people saw something that I didn’t.

FYI: rape, alcoholism

**Huge thanks to MIRA for providing the arc free of charge**

A gripping story of the intricate , intimate details of a marriage. A domestic thriller. Daisy and Simon seem to have the perfect marriage, or do they? The story is riddled with deceit, deception, and of course LIES! A perfectly paced story with complex fleshed out characters. The author handles some very heavy topics such as alcoholism and the effects it can have on a marriage. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

A book with this title is a must read for me. Give me those lies, tell me those secrets, lead me on a journey full of surprises!
Lies, Lies, Lies by Adele Parks is my first book of hers but it’s not going to be my last.
This book is a delicious read. It’s one that moves along at a deceptive pace and hits hard in a lot of unexpected places.
From the very first page you are drawn into Daisy’s life – you can’t help yourself but feel for her, even though you’re not entirely sure why. The more you discover, the more invested you become at wanting to make sure she is safe, even if you have a hard time understanding some of her decisions.
The more you learn, the more twisted the story becomes. I fell in love with the writing, with how the author hid every single secret in plain sight and yet, I was still blind to them. I thought I understood this book, I thought I had the plot figured out…and I was wrong.
There are a few scenes that are tough to read but I found myself feeling so proud of the author for not shying away from the horrific truths, even when it left me squirrelling in my seat.
LIES LIES LIES is definitely a book I recommend reading.

3.5 stars
This is a great example of a domestic thriller. There isn't a mystery to solve here, but it's solidly written domestic drama.
I really felt for Daisy and her exasperation with Simon's alcoholism. I appreciated the author's accurate portrayal of his downward spiral and how Daisy and all of their friends both contributed to it, covered it up, and tried to stop it to no avail. Having experienced this myself, I could definitely relate to their co-dependent actions, but also their utter defeat in trying to convince Simon that he needed help.
The suspicion surrounding their daughter's parentage is the driving factor of the book, and that part was the biggest surprise when all was said and done at the end. I liked their friend group and their interplay in the story. I didn't like the animal abuse and thought it could have been a completely effective story portraying the bad guy without it. Graded the book down for that. This is a very fast-paced book, I read it in less than a day.

All I can say about this book is Wow! Wow! Wow! Obviously the title clearly implied that at least someone was lying in this book. The question remains: who and why? While reading this story it was rather difficult not to dislike the husband, after all, he was a functioning alcoholic. That is the crux of the story. What happens in this story becomes quite layered. In fact, I was so busy reading the book and not paying attention to where I was with it, so when something pivotal happened, I assumed it was drawing to a close. I was rather shocked to learn that I still had 50% to go!

That proved to me how well-developed this book was. As mentioned, things were layered in this book. This book gave readers time to draw conclusions about the primary protagonists. Never before while reading a book did I want to hate a character. Thanks to Adele Parks, she took that choice right out of my hands. I love it when an author grabs me as a reader to confuse my feeling towards characters.

Readers get to know Simon, his past and his obsession with alcohol. He had a lot of misses, not only when it came to Daisy, but also (sadly) concerning their daughter Millie. Simon begins to want more when it comes to his family. Then we have Daisy, long-suffering and patient when it came to Simon, and a wonderful mother to six-year-old Millie. Even the perfect friend. However, Daisy had painful secrets that broke my heart, secrets that led to lies upon lies. Lies, Lies, Lies could not have been better titled.

Needless to say, this amazing story is full of twists and turns. What is more is that it deals with the very sensitive issue of alcoholism and its long-reaching effects. But, it doesn't stop there. This incredible story also deals with other deeply painful issues, that of infertility, domestic abuse and postpartum depression. Also, the bonds of friendship in this story are tested. Then we have one of the most jaw-dropping conclusions I have read in a while. Needless to say, Adele Parks has written a winner when it comes to this book. She certainly wasn't afraid to poke her finger in my eye, so to speak.

Many thanks to MIRA and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

This is the story of Daisy, Simon and their very much-loved daughter, Millie. All goes well for this happy little family until Simon’s drinking gets totally out of control. He loses his job, upsets all of their long-time friends and then he gains some earth-shattering news, and their life goes into freefall.

After a party with many good friends at which Simon is outrageously drunk, a major disaster occurs on the drive home. Simon is arrested and spends three years in jail.

Meantime, an old friend of Daisy’s appears on the scene, making threatening and atrocious demands on Daisy and her daughter.

We learn of Simon’s time in jail through his eyes. We learn of what Daisy is experiencing through hers. It’s an interesting way to tell a story.

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed this tale. All the characters were believable, and the scenes are recognisable to most of us. Many of us have that kind of friends and share that kind of activities.

My only negative thought is the way the story wrapped up. It was a quick rush to the end, and we are left with one or two unanswered questions.

But would I recommend this book? Certainly, it’s fast-paced and at no time did I want to quickly turn the pages. I was hooked almost from the beginning.



Note – I was given a copy of this book by the publishers Harlequin Trade Publishing in return for joining their book blog tour.

Favorite Quotes:

… she’s had bouts of terrible hallucinations and intense paranoia. She threw things at me when I went into her room, she thought I was an undertaker and had come to measure her up.

Born in a different era, Connie would most likely have been one of the women knitting by the guillotines during the French revolution, she had the stomach for it. She always put curiosity before sentimentality. She collected experiences.

The cell smelt stale. Simon had always had a keen sense of smell. It was one of the least useful… He wore glasses, his hearing was average, and he couldn’t remember anyone ever saying he was a total king in the sack. So, out of smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch, it was his luck to get an A* in smell. Leon had been openly farting all evening… Simon longed for fresh air and a breeze.

Not blackouts Daisy, time travel. I’m like Doctor Who. My Tardis is a whisky bottle. I punch through the mundane rules of time and space that you mere mortals must live with.

I don’t need to worry about identity theft. No one wants to be me.


My Review:

This author is a wily minx! I adored and despised her as I read and adored and despised her tragic and tensely emotive and prickly storylines, which were populated with curiously compelling characters who were rather awful human beings. I thought they were appallingly weak and horrible people until about 80% into the book and it broke my heart when I realized how wrong I had been. The tale was steeped in angst, which is one of my least favorite things in the world, yet my brain was itching to know every little thing. I couldn’t put it down and wanted to hiss at every interruption to my perusal.

I was on edge, tense, nibbling my cuticles, biting my lips, my shoulders up in my ears, the knots in my neck and shoulders had additional knots of their own. I was confounded by my investment and attraction to these devastating storylines full of woe. The writing was haunting, insightfully observant, cunningly evocative, and poignant with oddly alluring intrigue and bewitching word voodoo that kept me tethered to my Kindle as I navigated this maddeningly paced, taut, and complex tale with a level of tension that continued to build exponentially. Even during those unavoidable periods when I was forced to put my Kindle down, also known as adulting and sleep, I found myself ruminating about the characters. I had five pages of marked quotes. There were multiple layers to this tale as well as to the complicated cast, in addition to a series of heart-clenching and unexpected twists. It was tragic, heartbreaking, and in the end - rather brilliant.

Whoa. This was really a book in three parts. The first part pretty much introduced us to the players. Then there's a life-altering event that changes the main family (Simon, Daisy, and their daughter Millie). Then that part drags on for a bit until another critical event is actually just revealed, although it really occurred almost a decade earlier. My favorite part was all the lies revealed at the end.

Simon and Daisy really just start out annoying. They're both pretty pitiful and unlikable. We just feel so bad for darling Millie being put through it all. But then as the truths start being told, some of the annoyance is more understandable and justifies some of their earlier crap decisions. Without giving away any spoilers, just know that the twists and turns changed my opinion of the characters more than once.

Only a few hours ago, I would have given this book a lower rating. The end was so much more satisfying than the mid-way point. Overall, I'd give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. The plot was so intricate, and the revelations of the truth were sometimes very unexpected.

This is my first Adele Parks book (I know, I'm late to the game), but it certainly won't be my last! First, we meet Simon, Daisy and their daughter Millie. Then, we learn that Daisy has been keeping a secret from Simon since before Millie was born. Then, we learn that Simon knows the secret. And one night at a party, things spin horribly out of control for their little family.

I really enjoyed the character development in Lies, Lies, Lies -- specifically the dynamic between Daisy and Simon and their friends. The plot was very well written, with a few twist and turns along the way. A great read!

After reading Lies, Lies, Lies you’ll almost be grateful that Covid has put an end to parties. Almost.

Daisy thinks three is the best number. It’s:

 “the first number that forms a geometrical figure . . . it’s the number most often associated with time past, present and future; beginning, middle, end; birth, death, life.”

It’s the number of her perfect little family - mommy, daddy and baby Millie. It had taken years of fertility treatments, years filled with tears and stress, but Millie is perfect and all they need. At least for Daisy.

Daisy’s husband Simon adores Millie but he longs for another miracle. Both he and Daisy have siblings and he wants that for his little girl as well. They are in their forties and if they don’t act soon, it will be too late. He makes a reluctant Daisy agree to a visit with  a fertility specialist - but a mixup with the sitter finds him seeing the doctor alone. What he learns there has him questioning everything about his perfect life and his lovely wife.

Simon’s drinking has always been a problem but after that visit he goes from being a functional alcoholic to just an alcoholic. Daisy is still trying to figure out what, exactly, to do about that when the annual anniversary party comes around. She and Simon had met at a friend’s anniversary party years ago and the two couples have almost always celebrated their unions together. Daisy had planned to skip - she’d been making her excuses the last few years - but Simon is determined to go and show everyone how perfectly happy they are. It doesn’t work out quite as he’d planned.

One of the things I loved about this story was the author’s ability to surprise me. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, something occurred that was completely shocking. Ms. Parks does a wonderful job of subtly dropping clues while simultaneously convincing you to look elsewhere, so that when the big reveal comes you have the pleasure of putting all the clues together and realizing you should have expected what you in fact found unexpected. I absolutely loved that.

The author also does an amazing job of creating completely ordinary people who find themselves facing extraordinary circumstances.  Daisy is a mother, a teacher, a woman with wonderful friends and family who lives a very typical middle-class existence. The horrors that enter her life from a simple party seem unbelievable.  Simon is achingly familiar to anyone who has experience with alcoholism; an average guy who would have had a regular existence if he hadn’t lost himself to the bottle. The story of how that happened and how those events continue to inform his life is told with simplicity and clarity, making him a surprisingly sympathetic character. I loved how the author let us see glimpses of the past, when he was sober, rather than just the drunk he is now. It lent poignancy to someone who could have simply been a villain.

But while the story was amazing in many ways two things kept if from DIK status. The first is that some aspects of the tale were simply unbelievable. Most thrillers stretch our suspension of disbelief but after finishing this book I found myself thinking about all the really simple things the characters could have done to avoid the mess they were in. Fortunately, while I was reading I was completely engaged and this flaw didn’t manifest until I sat down to write my review.

The second was that I grew frustrated with the helpless nature of our ingénue heroine. I empathized with the trauma and confusion Daisy felt as she faced unanticipated, irregular circumstances in her life but I slowly became irked as she took few, if any steps, to deal with her troubles.  I could certainly understand her being overwhelmed at the beginning but she stays in that state far too long.

The wonderful prose and excellent pacing of the story ensure that these issues aren’t noticeable until after you set the book down. Lovers of domestic thrillers will find plenty to enjoy in  Lies, Lies, Lies and fans of the author will doubtless love this latest offering.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
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Simon and Daisy have struggled for years with both his alcoholism and their infidelity. The latter was solved with the birth of Millie, their wonderful little girl who is now six, Simon wants another child so they visit a fertility clinic and, well, no spoilers. The meeting sends Simon hurtling down into drink again and then, after a party, there's a horrible accident. No spoilers from me on that either. This is told in the first person by Daisy and in the third person for Simon. It basically encompasses three years of this family's life. There are, indeed, a lot of lies, not just lies told to one another but also to oneself. It's hard to be especially sympathetic to anyone here (except Millie) but Parks has done a good job with crafting characters you might recognize from real life. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Parks' storytelling skills make this a real page turner.

Love this author, and this work was a good read. The characters were not the most likable, but the story was engaging and full,of twists and turns.

The title gives you the idea of a gruesome crime novel. Instead, this is a family drama where cities the key to everything the couple does and leads to an accident that changes their lives forever.
Simon and Daisy have an idyllic life with their daughter Millie. It wasn’t easy getting to that point as Daisy went through several trials of IVF. But then Millie was born and they tried to be happy with what they have. One day, Simon decides he wants another child and life starts to spiral out of control. The big climax happens after their friends' anniversary party where little Millie, a ballet prodigy, must pay for her parents' sins.
You spend the first third of the book despising the main characters. The husband, an alcoholic, is set up as the big bad, but as you read about the wife and her deceits and secrets, you don’t like her either. You don’t like them so much that when family tragedy strikes, you don’t care how it affects them. You only care for the poor daughter who only seems to be used as a pawn; there’s much about her past her ballet performance and birthday and spends most of the time in the background.
The best part of Lies Lies Lies is that the author uses twists and unreliable narrators o go past a basic start that you can see coming. Adele Parks uses these situations to help redeem the characters and while it didn’t work for me, it gave depth to charters that at first seem flat stereotypes. Parks turns the idea of a love triangle upside down with a violent gleam.
Overall I wanted to like this, but as I got to the ending, I was disgusted at the characters again. The book is cautionary reminding us, we can become the worst people we already imagine we might be.

This was a slow-paced suspense book that had several twists in it that I did not see coming. Daisy is a primary school teacher, Simon is an interior designer and Millie is a happy little ballerina who enjoys her friends at primary school and her dance lessons. They seem like the perfectly blissful unit, but as the title suggests, there are lots of secrets. Simon’s love for a drink after work has turned into alcoholism, a secret that is hardly hidden but Daisy chooses not to address it. Millie, their beloved daughter, becomes a victim of their secrets and lies one night when there is a horrible accident. This is where lots of twists and turns begin in the book and this train raced to the surprising and stunning conclusion. The author did a masterful job of dealing with some really dark topics in the context of the plot, including post-natal depression, sexual violence and addiction. None of the characters were particularly likable, so I didn’t really relate to any of them, but I did sympathize with their plight. At times, I felt like just screaming at the pages of the book, “Talk to each other for heaven’s sake!” That makes lack of communication the theme that ran throughout the book and is the reason for the title. Fans of mystery and suspense will enjoy this book.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I purchased a copy of this book from The Book Depository. I also received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

I loved the idea of this book and went into it assuming I would love it. Unfortunately we all know what they say about assuming.

This novel started off on the wrong foot for me and it just went downhill from there. It started off incredibly slow for me and I just could not get into it whatsoever.

We hear from differing points of view - Daisy, the doting wife that just wants to have a happy family, and Simon, the husband who is quickly spiraling down into alcoholism. I assumed that this novel would focus on the disintegration of their marriage, and while it did the out of control nature of it was a bit too much for me.

Add to the fact that I very much disliked Daisy and we had a recipe for disaster. She's judgmental and does not make the best choices, and while I wanted to feel bad for her I just couldn't must up any emotions at all. I found her whiny and, as one of her own friends put it, boring.

I felt terrible for Simon. Alcoholism is a horrible disease and one that can unfortunately have dire consequences. Despite that even when Simon is able to dry out I still felt incredibly frustrated at him and the choices he continues to make.

The kicker, though, was the end. It almost asked me to suspend my beliefs and I found it a little bit too ridiculous. I felt as if the author let the entire story get out of control and then instead of pulling it back in she just let it explode.

This is my first novel by Adele Parks and unfortunately it will have to be my last. I don't want to waste my time again.

Before I commenced reading, I expected, possibly, "another domestic thriller." I was agreeably surprised to find instead of ho-hum: engrossing. The alternating viewpoints of too very unreliable (and not always self-aware) narrators at cross-purposes; the tragedies; the coping and grief and grudge-holding; especially the way that the author balances the narrative viewpoints, so that each rather "sees through a glass darkly," nor can ever approach actual Truth; all combine into a fictional gumbo that is quite intriguing, and indeed, thrilling. I'm glad I chose to read LIES LIES LIES.

I really enjoyed the twists in this story. This was a slow burn with more happening in the second half. My opinion of both main characters continually shifted while reading. The ending was very explosive and exciting! I would definitely read more books by this author!