This is very late but I unfortunately wasn't able to get to it back when it released and being in the mood for a thriller, this seemed like the perfect read for this weekend. It was my first read by Gilly Macmillan but definitely won't be my last!
To Tell You the Truth is a psychological thriller following bestselling author Lucy Harper who has just finished the next installment in her DS Eliza Grey series. Her fans love Eliza but what they don’t know is that Eliza was Lucy’s imaginary friend as a child and that she still sees and speaks to her to this day. When Lucy decides to kill off Eliza, her publisher and husband are less than thrilled. Especially since her husband just went behind her back and purchased a house in the last place she’d want to live. Being back in her hometown brings back dark memories she’d rather forget and when her husband suddenly goes missing, her past and present start to collide.

Lucy is an unreliable narrator which I really enjoyed. She’s a skilled storyteller prone to embellishing the truth and has had moments where Eliza "takes control" in distressing situations. The fact that Lucy sometimes questions her own innocence makes it hard to tell if she’s truly innocent or guilty.
This is told through dual timelines with the present day focusing on the disappearance of Lucy’s husband and the past centered around her little brothers disappearance thirty years ago. I immediately disliked her husband and he only got worse as the story went on.

There are some good twists and overall, I was satisfied with the way the present day mystery turned out but I wish we’d had a resolution for Teddy. His storyline broke my heart.

I thought the mystery was really interesting, but I struggled with disliking Lucy. She's this awesome writer that is making tons of money, but she's putting up with her husband Dan's mistreatment. He spends her money while putting down her talent that got them the money. And she makes so many dumb decisions! I actually liked her "imaginary friend" though - it made her a more interesting character. I also liked the twists. I'll check out more from this author!

This book was just ok; it didn’t particularly stand out for me. Gilly feels like one of those authors where you always know you’ll get at least a decent story, this one just didn’t go the extra mile for me.

To Tell You the Truth by Gilly Macmillan introduces us to Lucy Harper, bestselling author and creator of beloved the beloved DC Eliza Grey series. Her husband Dan, who is an aspiring writer, is so confused when Lucy decides to remove Eliza from her latest book. Lucy's editors are not very happy with that decision either. But neither Lucy's husband or her editors know the truth about the character Eliza. Eliza's voice is always in Lucy's ear, and has been with her since Lucy was young and her little brother Teddy disappeared. Eliza has been constantly whispering clues about Teddy's disappearance to Lucy - but maybe they aren't clues - maybe they're memories! Now, when Lucy's husband Dan goes missing, Lucy must confront what really happened in her past.

This book started off strong with a definite unreliable narrator, which I kind of love. But the story soon became repetitive and Lucy's behavior became increasingly irrational. I also thought that the ending was quite rushed and completely crazy and I didn't connect with what was happening - it definitely wasn't an ending I could see coming!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I love all Gilly MacMillian's books! To Tell the Truth has excellent character development! It is fast paced. Highly recommend going in blindly and planning to read in one sitting.

Amazing! I just loved this one so much. The ending seemed a little bit rushed, but that's okay. It answered most (not all) of the questions.

From the outside, Lucy Harper has the perfect life. Her mysteries, starring a female detective, sell like hotcakes and her husband, Dan, has had to quit work just to manage their money and property. Dan is the first man she ever loved and she loves him still. Rich, famous, in love, what a life.

But under the surface, things aren't so good. What no one except Dan knows is that when Lucy was a little girl her brother, Teddy, disappeared one night when she took him into the woods and then left him sleeping to go watch a bonfire. Teddy was never found and the family ended up moving away to escape the notoriety. Her books are selling but she is trapped into writing nothing but mysteries and she is tired of her main character. Dan is getting more and more remote; when they met he thought he would be the one to break into publishing and that never happened to him.

Now Dan has gone out and bought a house without asking Lucy. She is appalled to see that it abuts on the woods where Teddy had gone missing. Dan is doing lots of things without telling Lucy. She suspects that includes having an affair with their gorgeous neighbor. Then Dan disappears and Lucy knows her perfect life is about to come down in tatters. Can she survive another disappearance?

Gilly Macmillan is a British writer who specializes in female characters who have encountered a disaster in their lives. Lucy is a good example. While the reader may want to just shake Lucy and tell her to stand up for herself, Macmillan does a good job of making her life and decisions seem inevitable. The writing is fast paced and there are surprises along the way. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

To Tell You The Truth by Gilly MacMillan was a lot of fun to read, so much so that I read it in one sitting!

There was a lot to like about To Tell You The Truth.  Lucy, a successful mystery writer, has been bending the truth and making up stories since she was a child. She's become very adept at blending enough truth with her fictions, so it's hard to tell if what she's saying might be false. I especially loved that even she was losing track of what was real and what wasn't. By doing this, MacMillan does a great job creating a lot of tension throughout the story, which kept me wanting to read it. I was constantly wondering what was the truth, who was good, and who I could trust. In a story where everyone has a reason to lie, it certainly kept me on my toes!

But while I really enjoyed reading this book, I will say that it was nothing earth-shattering, especially in light of the slew of unreliable female main character thrillers that have gained popularity in the past few years. Because of the unreliable narrator, there were a lot of ways I could see the book ending. I was ultimately very surprised by the direction it went in, which can be frustrating to me, as I typically like to look back and see the breadcrumbs that set up the big reveal.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading To Tell You The Truth by Gilly MacMillan, and will definitely be picking up additional books from MacMillian.

Many thanks to William Morrow, Gilly MacMillan, and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really good mystery had me going in different directions on the whodunit. Lucy Harper famous writer of female detective series with huge fan base is hiding a secret. Her husband is missing and his burned out truck is found, but not him. Is he hurt or dead? Lucy has reinvented her self with name change and new town after her little brother ended up missing when Lucy was nine and Teddy was six. Lucy took Teddy with her in the woods while sneaking out the house as he whined to do and to keep him quiet so their parents wouldn't hear she dragged him with her. Secretly watching the bonfire of gypsy like folks and pagans, Lucy is enthralled to quiet Teddy who is ready to go home, Lucy leaves him asleep in a bunker she secretly visits in the woods, but now Teddy is missing. As her husband's disappearance is in the news, Lucy past life comes up. Is Lucy mad and lost her mind years ago as her famous detective series featuring Eliza is actually someone she sees and talks to that no ones can see. Really really good mystery.

To Tell You The Truth has an unreliable narrator. From the beginning we know that Lucy has an imaginary friend, Eliza. Eliza is a featured character in her novels (Lucy is a crime writer), but Eliza is also the voice in her head. She "appeared" when Lucy was very young, and gave her advice even when she had the not-so-brilliant idea to bring her young brother into the woods on summer solstice. The brother disappeared and Lucy was never fully honest about what happened.

In the present day, Lucy is married to Dan (who seems to be kind of a jerk, in a lot of ways). She has no idea what is going on in her marriage or in life, it seems. She lives in a writing bubble and acts like a moron. Dan disappears and Lucy panics. That's about the gist of the entire book.

There are so many things that are brought up, never to be returned to again, chalked up to the unreliable narrator. People are introduced and then not mentiond again. I had questions throughout and they were never answered. I'm not sure what this book was suppoesd to be, but it wasn't it for me.

I really enjoyed this book! Highly recommend! I was disappointed that Lucy didn't find out what happened to her brother, but sometimes the missing stay missing. I liked the character interactions. The pace was good and kept me reading to find out what happened next.

I enjoyed reading this book and loved the plot. It was a great thrilling read that I brought on vacation!

There was definatly a unique premise for the book, weaving imaginary friends/stories into the real life that just added to the confusion of the story. The writer made it very obvious that this is intentional confustion, and I love that in a book. To Tell You the Truth is a very slow burn of a book, so be prepared.

I have come to the conclusion that this author is just not for me. After an argument, Lucy's husband goes missing. This book was honestly kind of confusing as there are two mysteries being told throughout. By the end I just didn't care about either one and was very unsatisfied.

I like thrillers just as much as the next person, but after a while, they really start to all feel the same. This was fine but just nothing exciting or stand-out!

This was my first reading of Gilly Macmillan, and wasn't disappointed. Took awhile to get going, but that worked. I liked the main character, and as we worked toward two mysteries, one years ago, and one today, the main character's state of mind kept me guessing how each story line would end. Will need to find other books by Gilly Macmillan. #ToTellYoutheTruth #NetGalley

I personally had no idea what was going on for most of the book. I was about 250 pages in and still had no clue what was going on. The ending was a let down, as nothing really happened. Nothing was wrapped up or concluded, the book just kind of ends.

Good read. I enjoyed the book. even though it seemed mediocre and somewhat repetitive in spots. Surprisingly I was about to complete the book and I liked the ending.

I couldn't deal with the annoyingly timid and passive main character and noped out pretty quickly. Maybe another time I'd have liked it better.

To Tell You The Truth was an interesting story line about a writer who was simultaneously facing and hiding from her own demons.

Lucy is the author of the best-selling Eliza series, but Eliza is more than just a character in a book for her. Eliza has also become a part of Lucy and at times takes over to get Lucy through difficult situations. Eliza has helped Lucy get through the memories of when her little brother Teddy disappeared when they were kids, and now, many years later as an adult, Eliza is helping Lucy deal with the disappearance of Lucy’s husband.

Is Eliza really a fictional character and imaginary friend to Lucy, or is there something more sinister about Eliza?

I had a hard time staying invested in this book. There were some very interesting parts, like when the backstory of Lucy and Teddy was explained. All of the moments leading up to Teddy’s disappearance were interesting and had me hooked on that part of the story.

I was less interested in Lucy’s life as an adult and her writing career. I get like adult Lucy was whiny and entitled. I thought her husband was very manipulative and mean. I can’t say I was surprised or upset when he disappeared, and frankly, I didn’t care why he disappeared. He was such an awful character that I was happy that he was gone. I also felt like that opened the story more because it made Lucy’s past and present collide in ways she hadn’t expected.

Eliza was a strange character for me. I couldn’t tell if Lucy was trying to turn her life into an Eliza story, or if Eliza was an alter ego that helped Lucy evade trouble. I thought throughout that Eliza was a sign of mental illness in Lucy but it didn’t seem like any other characters in the book noticed this.

I wasn’t thrilled with the ending. I don’t think it tied together very well and it felt rushed and incomplete. I don’t know that many of the questions I had throughout the book were answered.

Overall, this book had a lot of potential. As I said previously, I really enjoyed the story of Teddy and Lucy as kids and would have liked to see that developed more, or been the main focus of the story. There were some things I really liked, like the alternating timeline between past and present, but overall this book was kind of disappointing for me. Maybe I just didn’t connect with this story, but I will read more from this author in the future in hopes of finding a book that I love. Maybe I just wasn’t the right audience for this one.

3 stars, I would recommend this book to those who like alternating timelines and mild thrillers.