Member Reviews
Jane Corry is a go to author for me - My Husband's Wife and Blood Sisters were particularly great. Whilst I enjoyed The Lies We Tell I don't feel it was one of her strongest books, 3.5 stars. |
I am a huge fan of Jane Corry’s books. She is my go to author, as I know I will be completely hooked from the first page and this book did not disappoint!! When Tom and Sarah’s fifteen year old son Freddie comes home late and upset, they are distraught when he tells them he has done something terrible. This will put his parents in a quandary as Sarah wants to protect her son whilst Tom is all for calling the police. The couple will soon find out, how far they will go to protect their only child!! We then rewind the story back to when Tom and Sarah first met, a very unlikely couple who come from different backgrounds. Can they make their relationship work when they are both hiding skeletons from their past!! The story goes back to the present time and is told from Sarah’s point of view. A book with a great moral dilemma that made me wonder what I would do if I was in Sarah’s shoes. A must read author!! Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review. |
Douglas O, Reviewer
This is a perceptively written book with the basic theme that parents, well some of them, will do anything for their children even risking their own wellbeing. There are several dysfunctional relationships in this book. The main one is between Tom and Sarah who marry before they know much about each other and only later reveal gradually the hidden secrets of their pasts. Thus the title of the book as they lie to cover up what they have done. They have various friends whose problems add to the book’s depth. Then they have a son whose relationship with his mother is stronger than with Tom. Whether what Freddie gets up to is his fault or triggered by their issues is an unanswered question. The story has many unexpected twists and does hold the reader’s attention to an unexpected conclusion. The eventual resolution of the problems lets the book end gently. It is an unusual story but well conceived and delivered. |
Fantastic book. Really enjoyed the storyline. It kept me engaged for hours. Definitely recommend to thriller fans. |
JACKIE R, Reviewer
Another great read from Jane Corry that holds you to the very end. Sympathetically portrayed characters take you with them as they navigate what it is to love and to need to be loved, and a poignant insight to the strength of a mother's love for their child and the lengths they'll go to and the sacrifices they make along the way. |
Karen L, Reviewer
Sarah is a mother with a dark past who marries Tom who also has his own secrets to hide. Freddie, their son makes a mistake and this tests Sarah and questions how far she is willing to go to protect her son. A gripping read. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book. |
anne k, Reviewer
Fabulous as always ,i loved this jane corry book full of drama and the lengths a mother will go to protect her son .highly recommend . |
Found it hard to click with the stroppy teenager/angst mother/uninterested father trio. Not badly written but a well trodden plot that I have read before. I really enjoyed I Made A Mistake and this was rather disappointing. I will try more from this author as the first book I read was so good |
I really enjoyed this book. I’ve always loved Jane Corry and this book certainly didn’t disappoint. Plenty of twists and turns but also very engaging and unique characters. I would definitely recommend it. |
Having read all of Jane Corry's previous books, I went into this one with high expectations and am pleased to say that I wasn't disappointed. This book speaks to our instincts as a parent - what would we do to protect our children? How long can you conceal the truth and live the life you always dreamed of? Seemingly ordinary people, living ordinary lives and waiting for their pasts to catch up with them - page by page, layer by layer, the lies are stripped away and everyone is laid bare to the world. I did find myself getting a little frustrated towards the end, I felt that it dawdled a little in its conclusion and I would have liked things to pick up the pace but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the novel as a whole. |
Michelle H, Reviewer
WOW!WOW!WOW!WOW!.
This is by far the best book that JC has written. I bloody well loved it. Draws you in from the first page and doesn't let up until the ending. It's gritty, dark and full of unexpected twist that blew me away. The characters are brilliant especially Sarah the main character, she's ballsy, brave and a good Mum to her son Freddie, her devotion to Freddie never wavers, especially in the circumstances he found himself in. This book has so many twists and turns I was holding my breath reading it. Half way through I was asking myself "how much more can JC cram into this book" because so much happens the first half then the second half was just mind blowing. The plot is really consistent and the book is totally unputdownable. If life didn't get in the way I would of read it in one sitting, that's how good the book is. JC has smashed it with this book and I can't wait to see what she writes next.
{There is just one part in the book that was a bit weird and that is when Sarah went to visit Freddie in prison and they saw each other through the plastic barrier, the closest they could get to touching was putting their hands on the screen. Then this is what is written "I'm so sorry I've got you into this mess" he weeps, hugging me. "It's all right" I say hugging him back. How can they hug each other through a plastic barrier?. I don't know whether other readers have picked this up, I just thought I would mention it.}
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When Sarah and Tom's fifteen-year-old son Freddie comes home distraught, saying he's killed someone, Sarah has an impossible decision to make: hand him in to the police, or try to protect him? The book opens with this scenario; however, it's a long time before we find out what happens afterwards or any specifics about what Freddie actually did. First, we go back in time to see how Tom and Sarah met and the progress of their relationship - this takes up the first half of the book. It's clear that they are very different people and an unlikely couple (boarding-school educated Tom, an actuary, prefers life to be organised and predictable, while Sarah, from a very different background, is more chaotic and unconventional), though both have secrets in their past of which they are deeply ashamed. We see events in this part of the book from both Sarah and Tom's perspectives. Eventually the story picks up again from where we came in, and we follow - now from Sarah's viewpoint only - the consequences of Freddie's shocking revelation, with occasional forays into a future court case. The Lies We Tell is more of a family drama than a psychological thriller, and undoubtedly a good read, in which an awful lot happens. Not all the characters really convince, though. I can buy that Sarah and Tom were together despite having little in common, because that does happen, but I didn't find Tom's voice very convincing. He seemed a bit of a stereotype of someone "on the spectrum" crossed with a stick-up-his-backside posh boy. The "criminal element" part of the plot was also a bit unconvincing. "Knuckles"... seriously? It's not The Krays. A very enjoyable read nevertheless.... even if I did have to suspend disbelief a little bit at times. |
This book was another masterpiece from Corry. I read it in one siting. The book has excellent characters an exciting plot & has twists to keep you going. Thanks so much to Netgalley for this book |
Reviewer 301441
This was a very interesting and complex book starting in the present day and then going back to when Tom and Sarah meet and became romantically involved. They are very different people with polar opposite lives, Sarah is a free spirit and an artist whereas Tom is an actuary, happy when he is surrounded by numbers and a regular, quite strict routine. Yet they find each other by chance and quickly fall in love and marry. The arrival of their son, Freddie, a much wanted baby, leads to cracks in their marriage and several confessions about Tom and Sarah’s earlier lives. I found this an excellent book with believable characters and an insight into what might appear to the outside world as a happy or unhappy marriage, whereas the opposite is true in reality. This book also deals with difficult circumstances that can result from an extremely strong bond between mother and son, in Sarah and Freddie, and how ultimately that bond cannot be broken no matter the cost. I highly recommend this book, it made a refreshing change from murder mysteries or psychological thrillers, yet remained a real page turner. |
Gordon B, Reviewer
I found the first 3 quarters of this book very intriguing and tore through it at a pace. But towards the end , whilst there were one or 2 unexpected developments, it felt a tad too pat and implausible for me and that was a shame. I am not a parent and it's hard for me to understand the mother/son relationship (even allowing for the mother's apparently unsettled upbringing), but I wasn't convinced by Sarah's absolute conviction that she had to save Freddie, particularly as by going into seclusion she had no idea whether or not he was at risk of discovery. I also felt that Tom would have made more effort to find his family even though the marriage itself wasn't particularly worth saving. Nonetheless I did enjoy the book and would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. |
Manju B, Reviewer
#TheLiesWeTell #NetGalley Sarah always thought of herself and her husband, Tom, as good people. But that was before their son Freddy came home saying he'd done something terrible. Begging them not to tell the police. Soon Sarah and Tom must find out just how far they are willing to push themselves, and their marriage, to protect their only child . . . As the lies build up and Sarah is presented with the perfect opportunity to get Freddy off the hook, she is faced with a terrifying decision . . .Save her son . . . or save herself? I loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for giving me an arc of this book. |
Jane Corry is a fantastic author and without question one of my favourites so I was absolutely thrilled to be given an advanced copy of this book to read and review. Hugely grateful to the publisher and author thank you. You always know you need to clear the decks when you pick up one of Jane’s books and that I did. I have devoured this book in 2 sittings and it was absolutely brilliant. Addictive and enticing, it is impossible to put this book down. So much depth to the characters and so many themes dealt with. Everyone has a past but can we ever really love on and do we ever really know the truth about someone ? The bond between popmother and son is unquestionable but also the bond between family and friends. Community. How people come together, support each other, some without actually questioning or needing to know the full truth. How we learn, often the hard way from our mistakes but how we can overcome difficulties and live a happy life. Sometimes a life very different to what it was but we learn from what life throws at us and build a better stronger life with better relationships and a brighter future. I loved the twists of this book and the depth of the characters. The revelations kept coming until the end and changed our view of past events. I adored this book and am only sorry it is over so quickly but I simply cannot make a Jane Corry book last it is always an unputdownable, addictive read. Hugely grateful for this copy thank you so much to the punchier and author. Highly recommend this and all Jane’s books. Thank you and please keep writing .... |
At the heart of ‘The Lies We Tell’ by Jane Corry, is an interesting moral dilemma: just how far would you go to protect your child from being prosecuted for murder? However, unlike her previous novel ‘I Made a Mistake’ which also explores family relationships and poor decisions, Corry’s latest tale is not nearly so convincing. Tom and Sarah are an extremely unlikely married couple. Whilst the cliché, ‘Opposites attract’ could be used as a starting point, there is nothing about their relationship that suggests there is any reason for them to stay together, and this feeling strengthens after their son, Freddie, is born. This is a very unhappy family! When Freddie commits a crime, it is inevitable that his mother will support him and his father will not. However, it is not the implausibility of this couple’s relationship that is the real bugbear here. I’m more disappointed by the crude ways in which the author portrays her characters’ differences. Tom appears to be a stereotype of someone on the spectrum whilst Sarah is a caricature of hopeless hippy, and their wealthy friends are little better. And whilst I appreciate that Corry has decided to write a novel which allows for hope, the final chapters are a little too good to be true. Not for me, I’m afraid – a shame as the central premise is interesting. My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review. |
Angela L, Educator
So grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this title. This book questions how far you would go to protect your children, even if they are in the wrong? Also, how far would you go to protect your own secrets from your spouse? The story opens with teenage Freddie tearfully telling his parents that he has killed someone before retrospectively telling the story of his parents up until this point in their lives, then beyond. I couldn’t put this book down and read it a day. I felt that I could relate at times to both Sarah and Tom as dual narrators, whilst also questioning the choices they made along the way. I really enjoy Jane’s books and think this is her best yet. |
#TheLiesWeTell #NetGalley Jane Corry is a force to be reckoned with. The story started with Sarah wondering why her son, Freddie didn't come home at the right time? She's a good mother who loves her child very much like all the mothers do. Freddie is a teenager who's behaviour make his father, Tom angry. Tom is a disciplined person who likes to talk in terms of quality and quantity. He and Sarah met at an art class years ago when they both were young. After their first meeting, they both wanted to sleep with each other. Although they both knew that they weren't each other's types but despite of that, they pursued their relationship with each other and got married in the presence of Tom's friends Olivia and Hugo and their two daughters, Clemmie and Molly. Their earlier years were filled with happiness but life doesn't remain the same, does it? And as Freddie was born, Tom discovered Sarah's terrible past that she went to prison. When he asked her to tell him the story, she told him, half of her story and he went from the hospital leaving his wife and their child on their own by giving the reason that he wanted some time to think about what he wanted in his life, whether he wanted them or not. Sarah went to Olivia's for two weeks until Tom begged her to come back. Their distance grew along with their child. Freddie was closer to his mom and seemed not to like his dad. Tom found a woman named Hilary who worked in his office to be confidential and hence he went closer to her. Sarah developed a friendship with Olivia and the two women together shared evrything, their husband's behaviour too. Freddie came to the house later and told his mom that he's killed someone and pleaded her to save him while his father wanted to give him away to the police. Sarah denied. They ran away from Tom's house. Tom and Sarah couldn't give their child to the police because they had secrets of their own. What happened next were a chain of events that left me speechless and forced me to think what could I do in such a situation. I loved the characters of Tom, Hilary, Olivia, Hugo, Flick, Mattie. Although Sarah and Steve were good but i felt more connected with Tom. Sarah gave him love in every situation and Tom was a strict father which in my opinion was correct. Although Jane Corry left it in discreet for the readers to understand it on their own that who was correct or who wasn't. Narration of the story was buttery smooth. I always loved Jane Corry's books and this is her best work. I literally cried many times. The emotions were that much perfect. I would highly recommend this masterpiece to everyone. Go and give it a read. It's worth it. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for giving me an advanced copy of this masterpiece psychological thriller. |








