I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

"Mum, I've killed someone."

Sarah and Tom are entirely different people, yet end up married and parents to 15-year-old Freddy. When Freddy comes home and confesses he has done something terrible, they are put to the test... How far would you go to protect your child?

I'm a bit torn about this one. 'The Lies We Tell' started with a big bombshell, but then became a bit of a slow burner and a little too consistent, with no real twists and turns. I found myself losing interest at parts; there is a lot of back story, which I found a little boring. However, it then sped up around the 60% mark, before becoming gripping at the end.

I quite liked how Sarah's character played out but did not connect with Tom at all. He felt quite weak to me.

I sadly didn't enjoy it as much as Jane Corry's last book, though did find the last part compelling.

This had a strong premise, even though I have read a few similar books before, I was interested to see Jane Corry's take on the same idea.
I honestly was disappointed. The premise screamed thriller but was more of a domestic drama in its execution.
The introduction grabbed me quickly, when Freddie first arrived at home late and tells his parents that he killed someone. But then the pace dropped dramatically into a background biography of the parents' lives and whilst it built up at the end, there was little in the middle to engage me let alone keep me there!
The ending was pretty good but it was a struggle to get there.

The Lies we tell follows the life of a family Sarah, Tom and their son Freddie. They are forced to find out how far they will go for their son when he tells them he killed someone.

I enjoyed this book. We are taken on a journey to find put how Sarah and Tom ended up together and more importantly why Freddie is so previous to them. Its interesting as we go from Sarah's pov to Tom's. They both ser the world so differently but both sre holding secrets.

I found I was more sympathise towards Sarah's story she clearly is a troubled woman. Her pregnancy stories were heart wrenching and I understood her later struggle with Freddie's confession. Tom on the other hand although had a sad back story I just lost any sympathy towards him but his history is heartbreaking also.

We basically get a look into a relationship based on lies. But what happens when you've told one lie and another and another until you can't stop. It's interesting and I suppose the focus of the story wasn't as I expected but its better. I actually held of reading this book because it sounded to similar to another thriller I read last year, but this is so totally different and actually better

Freddie on the otherhand is a very interesting character. I suppose we don't get to learn to much about him until we get further into his story with Sarah's history. He's not a very nice guy and it's like the author write him as a bad character to make us as the readers question whether or not we would protect him. Honestly I do not know. He is arty and out going like his mum and so different to his dad . It's depicted so well.

All in all I enjoyed this book. I would recommend. It's not really really thriller but it's a great mystery what did she do He do they do, not going to lie there was a lot and a lot of guilt but worth a read. It's basically every parents worse nightmare. The author is very talented and makes some hard to read subjects bearable such as sexual abuse , drugs, suicide and death. Be prepared.
4 🌟

Thanks to netgalley, penguin publishers and the author Jane Corry for the digital advanced copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinions.

The story raises an interesting question: How far would you go to protect someone you love? I'm not sure I liked Sarah, but I really didn't like Tom from the start. It seemed like everything in the story was built on lies and I had serious trust issues regarding every one. Thought provoking read!

Although this story was built on a web of lies I was absolutely gripped from the very beginning!

I detested Tom & most of the time I didn't like Sarah either but I still could not put the book down. It certainly makes you question whether you would make the same decisions as Sarah or whether you would be in Tom's camp.

Would recommend

Jane Corry is an excellent storyteller and a proven talent in delivering engrossing and easily readable domestic dramas with strong characterisation, often centred around a moral dilemma or crime. My heart sunk, however, when I saw that The Lies We Tell was yet another variation on how far a mother would go to protect her child that begins when Tom and Sarah’s fifteen-year-old son, Freddie, returns home and confesses that he has killed someone. There is a hefty bit of backstory following Freddie’s confession with the novel winding back some thirty years to Sarah and Tom’s first meeting and charting their lies, half-truths and omissions right up until the night in question. This first part occupies sixty percent of the book and alternates between the first-person commentary of Sarah and Tom, interspersed with occasional snapshots to a courtroom scene. I found this part of the book and the close-up exploration of their relationship terrifically well done. Not only was it absorbing but in spanning their time together it provided the reader with an idea of the cumulative toll that their revelations and disclosures had taken on their marriage. Both from diametrically opposed background and with vastly different attitudes to life, their relationship begins as a classic case of opposites attract. Uptight, emotionally repressed and prudish Tom is an actuary who attends a community centre art class tutored by bohemian Sarah and in a bid to escape their separate worlds, they go on a first date together. When passion ignites and each offers the other respite from everything they know it leads to marriage and Sarah’s quest for a child but alongside this comes the steady drip of revelations with distrust becoming an integral part of their relationship. Things only get more difficult when Tom feels excluded by Sarah’s indulgent attitude to their new son, Freddie, and, as he starts to grow up they disagree on his to discipline him.

The final forty percent of the book continues on from Freddie’s bombshell and the opposing attitudes of Sarah and Tom. Sarah, who has indulged and forgiven her son everything does not hesitate in wanting to protect him, but Tom has other ideas and Sarah’s attempt to protect him from the full force of the law plays out in this second part. For me the novel went slightly awry at this point and proved far less compelling with the narrative meandering all over the place, things not ringing true and the suspense dissipating. Whilst the reader gets to know Sarah and Tom as individual characters all we learn about Freddie are the opinions of his parents all of which are heavily biased towards Sarah’s views. Freddie feels more like a name than a conceivable character and I found it difficult to care about his fate or how it impacted upon Sarah. Whilst I felt that Tom was uptight to the point where it was hard to believe he was even living in the same generation as Sarah, let alone had married her, I found the story of their union and looking in objectively on their relationship fascinating. After this solid groundwork I was disappointed that the novel never fulfilled its potential and the moral dilemma element felt significantly watered down as the story unfolded.

The Lies We Tell is probably my favourite book by Jane Corry and I have been hugely impressed by her other books. Thought provoking, intense and gripping. This is an excellent read,

I'm sad to say that I just couldn't finish this book. I've read previous Jane Corry books and really enjoyed them but this one justbdidnt hit the mark for me.

Whilst the beginning really intrigued me as the story unfolded it felt quite clichèd and I found myself getting overly irritated so had to give in and stop reading.

Whilst I'd love to say I thoroughly enjoyed it I just cant lie. It wont put me off reading any more of the authors novels, this one just didnt work for me.

Thanks to netgalley and Penguin General UK for the ARC.

This was an absorbing story. Ups and downs of married life and ethical decisions regarding children. I felt very sympathetic to some of the characters because of the life choices they had to make. I do like happy endings!

An excellent read that quickly hooked me in. The characters and their relationships were well developed and the reader quickly finds themselves ‘siding’ with decisions that are made.

I did not finish this book. I have previously enjoyed JC books but this one just missed the mark for me. I found the beginning really intriguing; I was desperate to know what had happened and really expected and I think the book needed, a police investigation to go from there and was ready for an intense ride of a read. Instead it delved back in time for really extended periods of time, became bogged down with irrelevance and became a bore. Although, the book was split into two halves and perhaps the second held more promise, it just wasn’t enough to keep my interest to get there unfortunately.

The Lies We Tell by Jane Corry is a story of lives ruined by way too much dwelling on the past, and way too little openness about the causes of that reflection.

Opposites famously attract and when bohemian Sarah meets buttoned-up Tom, they're not an obvious 'fit'. But both have skeletons in their closets and both have disturbing childhoods hanging over them. Neither is big on the truth and, like onions being unpeeled, it takes a long time for them to come clean about their pasts.

I liked Sarah - especially in the second half of the book. I felt a bit sorry for Tom, understood his feeling of dislocation from his wife and son, but struggled to like him.

The apparent big reveal comes early. Tom and Sarah's son Freddie comes home late, distressed, and tells his parents he killed somebody. Tom want's to call the police. Sarah wants to run away and start over.

The to-and-fro of the disintegration of the marriage became a bit tedious and I really only came to 'care' about Sarah once she left London and started over. I found it hard to believe that people can disappear these days - but the book was set a while ago and perhaps before the 100% round the clock surveillance of today. Of course, you can only be tracked if somebody has reason to think they need to find you. I loved the Cornish community that Sarah and Freddie found themselves in and its population of caring and compassionate locals.

The accounts of life in a female prison including the accusations of staff corruption and favouritism didn't sit well for me. My husband worked for the prison service for over 30 years, including time working with women and I felt this was a bit more based on too many episodes of Prison Cell Block H rather than actual real-world experience. It's a cheap shot to get your prison stories from the tabloids.

On the whole, I found this an enjoyable read and not what I expected on the basis of the blurb. I'd read Corry again.

The one thing I really love about Jane Corry is her character development. You really got a feel for the two main characters Sarah and Tom in this book. Also Sarah's never ending love for her son Freddie shone through.
The book did leave me in a dilemma. With a son the same age as Freddie, what would I have done in their shoes.? Made me shudder. A gripping read. Although the end did feel a tad rushed after the detailed build up of the characters.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC

This was an enjoyable read but I did find that it dragged a little in places, especially towards the end. I was completely drawn in right from the beginning as its a strong storyline. I loved the characters and really felt connected to them. I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you Netgalley.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great storyline with excellent characters. I would highly recommend this book as it was a great read.

The Lies We Tell is a gripping, thought-provoking book about the lengths we'd go to to protect someone close to us.

Sarah and Tom's son Freddy comes home one evening and says he's done something terrible. This instantly divides the two parents, who have very different views on how they should handle this - Tom wants to call the police whilst Sarah's first instinct is to protect her son at all costs.

Rewind to when Sarah and Tom first met, and we learn how their relationship developed despite being, ultimately, very different people. I really enjoyed this insight into their lives, and seeing it all play out as Freddy comes into their lives and being parents takes its toll on both of them. It also sheds some light on why they react so differently to the situation. My opinion of both Tom and Sarah definitely shifted considerably as I read more about their history together.

I assumed that The Lies We Tell was going to be a mystery-filled, tense thriller but it's definitely not - it focuses more on the characters, particular Sarah, and how their pasts all play a part in their reaction to Freddy's crime. To me, it felt much centred around the character development, and Freddy's confession is almost just the vehicle to bring this history from all of their pasts into the plot for a lot of the book, although it then becomes much more important as we go back to the present day and Sarah takes matter into her own hands.

I really enjoyed this novel. Sometimes, the way Sarah narrates got on my nerves a bit as there's a lot of her thoughts: "Oh no! But what will they say about that...? Perhaps he thinks this..." but I get that it was almost a stream of consciousness from her as we sit inside her head. The novel is a slow burning, intriguing read that I would recommend.

I've read a couple of the author's previous books and loved I Made a Mistake so was looking forward to reading this. It started well and I was intrigued by Sarah and Tom's son Freddie's confession and wanted to know more about the truth of what happened. I also felt emotionally invested initially and wondered how I would feel if this was my son. However once the novel moved to explore the relationship between Sarah and Tom I found that I lost interest, I wasn't convinced by the characters and so became less invested in the outcome.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I am still wiping the tears after finishing this wonderful book. The story is different, engrossing and utterly compelling. There are so many different elements combining to deliver an excellent tale of love, betrayal and life. I cared about all the characters and held my breath in several places until I knew what happened. Highly recommended!

The Lies We Tell is another gripping thriller from Jane Corey. The novel mainly focuses on Sarah and her husband Tom. After their teenage son, Freddy returns home in the early hours and makes a shocking confession, we move back in time to explore how Sarah and Tom met, and the traumatic events they both experienced in their childhoods. The narrative moves forwards in time (while exploring their joint lives) to the book’s starting point of Freddy’s confession, and then continues on from that point.

I found this book to be incredibly thought provoking, both in the hard choices the characters are forced to make, and how quickly we can judge someone without knowing or understanding them. Jane Corry has created interesting and flawed characters that are both relatable and sincere, while providing an intriguing storyline that can be considered a slow burn at times, but creates a need for the reader to discover the outcome.

As a mother, I felt all the feels of this story; no one understands what you would do for your child like a mother does. A wonderful story, with some great characters who brought depth to the twists and tales of this great book.