The tension in the first half of the book had me so stressed out. The lies kept growing, and multiplying and I found myself holding my breath at times.

Faiza is a stay-at-home mom happily married to Tom with two children. Faiza's cultural background, her darker skin and exotic look make her feel like she has to work twice as hard to fit in with the uppity, gossipy and extremely privileged neighborhood and school parent groups. When her husband loses his job, she is immediately hit with an extreme case of guilt - she has been secretly spending from their "emergency fund" for years to keep up with the Jones' and to not have to ever ask her husband for money. Once Tom's job search stretches on, the need to access the now invisible emergency fund becomes critical. Faiza's one lie turns into at least 4 lies that only become bigger and bigger. She confides in no one - she is ashamed and embarrassed about her actions (heck she should be!). I felt like her actions were slightly unbelievable as she came from a banking background. The fact that she never once looked at the balance of the emergency fund in the years she accessed it just didn't seem plausible. When the school fees and assorted weekly family expenses were discussed, I felt like there was no way they could have covered them without needing to touch the emergency fund.

I never felt sorry for Faiza or her situation. I mean she 100% put herself there and it was all in the vein of her appearance of "fitting in", proving her affluence and ensuring her children were able to be part of the "in" crowd. Luckily, I didn't feel like the author was trying to get sympathy for Faiza, rather, she was just portraying her as anyone who lives above their means and gets themselves into desperate situations by putting on other faces. I guarantee there are hundreds, if not thousands of women who have done something similar all in hopes of "looking the part." Faiza was part of two worlds that she wanted to keep separate. Her Indian side and then the side of her that just wanted to blend in and be accepted as just another one of the affluent, stylish and social ladder climbing school moms.

Once the story progresses, Faiza finds a way to contribute monetarily to the family. She becomes the bread winner and she seems to enjoy becoming part of the work force again, but this transition back into the workforce felt a little too easy. She didn't struggle with seeing her children so much less, when it felt like that would have been opposite of her nature. Tom certainly struggled throughout as he seemed lost without his job to define him. His disappointment in himself was palpable. Since he too was from a banking background and was very organized, I didn't fully buy that he would not have been quicker in wanting access to the emergency fund. But I do have to say, - Faiza was rather creative in her lies.

I thought the author did a good job with character development. Faiza based many of her decisions on her childhood. She tried to avoid problems that she saw her parents struggle with, and tried to prevent her children from struggling with the issues she did. Her cultural background definitely played into many of her decisions. She had a very strong relationship with her parents, so when she resorted to lying to them and accessing their savings, I cringed. She had a few close girl friends, but their relationships felt only lightly developed. I was very happy to see her development and growth surrounding her heritage throughout this story. She learned to embrace her cultural background and celebrate her differences.

Overall this book kept me turning the pages and was enjoyable. There was one part toward the very end when I held my breath to find out a piece of news. Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC to read and review. Pub date: 2.22.22

This story is a masterclass in tension. Faiza, the main character , it has a great transition from being an unsympathetic character to a very sympathetic character, and her journey has so many twists and turns, it has you glued. The world Afzal creates in in three-dimensions, and I couldn't recommend this book enough.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Grand Central Publishing and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Well-written, beautifully told story. Spellbinding from the very beginning. I didn’t want to put it down.

Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the copy of this book. Faiza was an interesting character. I understand her need to fit in, but really think she told too many lies, especially to her husband. They supposedly had a great relationship but that was not reflected in her actions. I would have liked more character development of her kids, especially her daughter, which would have made her resolution with Naila and Seema more believable.
I didn't love this book, but thought it was pretty good. The story was great, and makes this a perfect book for book clubs.

A definitely well-written read about a Muslim, although not one necessarily I would call Islamic.

Genre: Adult
Ages: 18 plus
Available: Amazon

Screening: several instances of intimate relations between the main character and her husband, many kisses, alcohol is drunk, attempted sexual assault, cheating, suicide, money laundering

Faiza is a housewife with three beautiful kids, a banker husband, and a whirlwind social life with the elite circle at Wimbledon. She struggles to prove how posh/classy she can be to her circle, always feeling a racist undertone from some because of her Pakistani Muslim heritage. The problem is…in struggling to belong, she spent all of her husband’s emergency fund. And when he loses his job, she struggles to figure out how to replace all fifty thousand pounds before he finds out.

I don’t want to spoil the story at all, but wow, the twists, turns, and turmoil that Faiza goes through was genuinely page turning and intense. She is very much a likeable character, and the reader roots for her to succeed, and cringes with her when she makes mistakes.

Issues are explored in the story, such as being a stay at home wife vs being a working wife, trying to “keep up” with the posh private school circle, peer pressure, racism and micro-aggressions, and the difficulties financial issues can cause to a marriage. The book is definitely well written and the issues explored well.

Faiza does identify as Muslim. She celebrates Eid, does not eat pork, at some point mentions she doesn’t drink due to religious beliefs(but then towards the end, says that she has a one glass limit??). Her husband is white and does not appear to have converted and she does not really seem to practice Islam much, but being Pakistani and being Muslim are both very much who she is and she is not ashamed of being either.

I don’t necessarily feel the book preaches Islam or attacks practicing it, its just a story about a young Muslim women trying to figure out her life. I did appreciate the way Faiza points out racism and Islamaphobia throughout the story to the reader and felt it was insightful.

Again, please do notice the flags, as the content is def very much an adult read.

Would I Lie to You? took me a while to get in to. I found the story slow, but it built up well. I just don't think this was my type of book and couldn't get into the characters.

It’s an interesting premise but the whole plot was so far-fetched I couldn’t really take it seriously.

The book is about a woman named Faiza whose husband Tom has just lost his job. No worries right? They have an emergency fund.

Except Faiza has dipped into that money for miscellaneous expenses.

The side characters were more like caricatures than actual personalities. I cringed and skimmed pages every time Faiza’s “friends” appeared.

Faiza used to work as a private banker before marrying Tom, and for someone with financial experience, her decisions made no sense.

She as a character was incredibly inconsistent as the plot went on, which I think seemed to be the point considering how many lies she tells. At one point she even lies about how many children she has.

Overall this was a quick read but not one that would be a re-read.

✨BOOK REVIEW

Thank you to @hbgcanada for the gifted electronic ARC of Would I Lie to You? by Aliya Ali-Afzal.

PUB DATE: FEB 22 2022

SYNOPSIS: When Faiza’s husband Tom looses his job in finance he is surprisingly calm, ensuring her they can just live off their 75K emergency fund until he finds something else. The trouble is, over the past 15 years Faiza has secretly spent the majority of that fund trying to keep up and fit in with the snobbish white mothers at her children’s ritzy private schools who regularly mistook her for their nanny. Instead of being honest, Faiza begins to weave an elaborate web of lies giving herself six weeks to miraculously come up with the money.

This book was a pleasant surprise. I went into this book expecting a domestic thriller, and while it was definitely suspenseful and anxiety inducing, it was not that. This book expertly tackled the complexities of family and friendship, the realities of raising mixed race / multicultural children in the present day, and the exhausting nature of the constant code switching that goes into being a Pakistani Brit.

I will say, I struggled a bit with the believability of some of the key moments (it is hard to believe anyone with a background in finance would make as many money mistakes as Fazia did in the first 1/3 of the book) and the pacing in the middle lagged a bit, but overall I really enjoyed the characters (there were some laugh out loud moments) and getting a peak into the wealthy community of Wimbledon and the cutthroat world of finance, as well as Pakistani culture. Congratulations on a strong and enjoyable debut by @aliyaaliafzalauthor .

As a former banker turned wife and mother living in an affluent suburb, Would I Lie To You by Aliya Al-Afzal was a particularly relatable read while also including many aspects I found intriguing precisely because they were so different than my own frame of reference. I truly enjoyed this book and raced through the pages, unable to put it down until I learned how everything turned out. Highly recommend.