This was such an entertaining read! I loved the format of POV’s from the main female characters along with interviews from the detectives trying to get to the bottom of the murders. The setting is at an elite private high school, which I love, and with coaches/mothers/staff behaving badly, I was immediately hooked.

I flew through this one, I enjoyed the back stories as well as the lead up to the incident, and the resolution was extremely satisfying! I highly recommend this one, it will be great for your summer thriller reading list!

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row Books for the digital copy to review.

This started off slow for me and it was hard to keep track of all the characters - wives, children, spouses, teachers, coaches, school staff…. - and the chapters that kept changing between the three main characters. There are serious issues with the life’s of the characters in this book and a resolution comes finally at the end - while not a morally correct resolution it was the right one, justly deserved.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read. Anything by Annie Ward is actually. I highly recommend this book.

Natalie Bellman works at an elite private school with Nick Maguire, a beloved coach. Brooke Elliman's and Asha Wilson's daughters attend Falcon Academy and are on Nick's soccer team. They also receive private training sessions from Nick in hopes of being accepted into a Division I soccer program (and university). In this privileged town, money buys anything and everything, including silence and lies. When Coach Nick is found dead, it is Natalie the police come for; not the various parents and students who can buy their way out of (and into) anything they want. Is Natalie lying about what happened between her and Nick, or did she truly have nothing to do with him and his death? And if it wasn't Natalie, who killed Nick, and why?

Annie Ward builds a very suspenseful novel through her use of the unreliable narrator. The reader must piece together all of the events, lies, and characters' stories to figure out their version of the truth. Although the novel starts out slowly, it comes together for a fast-paced ending and "unveiling".

I give this novel a four instead of a five because I do not understand some of Ward's choices. Why is Asha pregnant (this didn't seem to be important in the grand scheme of things)? Why is there a massive snowstorm (again, this seemed to become background; the characters weren't stranded together anywhere; they were moving about just fine)? Why was Natalie attending all of Asha's open houses (was it just to look at the art; was she stealing; this is unresolved and bugs me)?

An elite private school, scheming, cheating parents, a terrible tangle of ambitions, secrets and lies, all the darkness hidden beneath the shimmer of glamour and privilege — what’s not to love? Annie Ward digs in deep to her richly drawn characters, revealing layer after layer with each twist and turn of this addictive, propulsive thriller. A deliciously juicy and unputdownable tale of revenge and all the twisted things we’ll do in the name of love. The Lying Club was the first book by Annie Ward that I have read but I will certainly be on the lookout for more. This was such a fun read, quite the page turner, full of unlikeable characters and toxic relationships. Definitely one I will find myself recommending.

I enjoyed this thriller as a pallet cleanser in between romance books. Would recommend to those who are easing into the genre.

Talk about a twisty gem!!! This is it. I thought I had the ending figured out but I was wrong. So wrong. Loved it!

This book is being compared to Big Little Lies and it definitely reminded me of that story!

The Lying Club follows three women in a wealthy suburb. Two whose children go to the same school, and one who works at that school. All three viewpoints are intertwined throughout the whole plot. We know SOMETHING is going on with the kids (and some teachers) at this school, but we just can't figure out what.

Each character's story kept my attention and I was eagerly awaiting to see what would happen in the end!

Was not super impressed m m with this story. It seemed more like a rough draft. The main characters all blended together. It pulled me out of the story trying to remember which woman’s POV I was reading.

The Lying Club by Annie Ward is a twisty and drama-filled read that gave me serious Pretty Guilty Women vibes. The story is told from multiple female viewpoints interspersed with police interviews which is a very similar format to LaManna's novel. I personally love this format, and I really liked it here because it kept me on my toes and kept me wondering who the 2 dead people were. The pace moves along fairly well, and I would say this is a medium paced thriller, although I don't even know what a thriller is anymore. The Lying Club honestly felt more like a drama filled mystery than a thriller, but it does have its tense and suspenseful moments as well. Almost everyone seems to be hiding something, and I quite enjoyed the slow unraveling of everyone's secrets.

The audiobook is really good as well and narrated by Teri Schnaubelt. She had a lot to do narrating so many viewpoints, and I thought she handled them all perfectly. I would definitely listen to The Lying Club again, and I highly recommend the audio if you are so inclined. I also loved that this is set in my current home state of Colorado, and it was fun that while some of the places are made up, there are still things I recognized as well. I do wish, however, that Ward wouldn't have put a gas station in this book that doesn't exist in this state and is in fact a real gas station. Casey's General is a place I know well being from MN and there are definitely none of them in CO. This is just a weird thing I noticed that bugged me, but I'm sure will bother basically no one else. The Lying Club is quite the ride, and I am being vague since I don't want to give anything away. If you like books filled with secrets and when things take a dark twist, then I recommend you give this one a go!

Thank you to the publishers for my advanced listening and reader copies of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

This was such a fun and juicy read. I’m always game for a book that gives me multiple POVs and murder and secrets and lies and when it’s set at an elite private high school - ahhhh such major buzzwords for me!

Set in Colorado when the book open we meet Natalie, an office assistant at Falcon Academy, who wakes up in her car outside the school, with no memory of what happened the night before. But now two bodies are being pulled out of the gym and Natalie has a sickening feeling that she had something to do with it.

We flash back six months and build towards what happened that fateful night. Who is dead? Who did it? And why?

We meet two of the moms who are both insanely wealthy and both harboring all sorts of secrets of their own - Brooke and Asha. Their daughters used to be the best of friends and now they have morphed into rivals on the soccer field. The story is laced with the teen’s stories though always from their parent’s point of view. And these moms will do anything for their children.

There are past secrets in the town. Lots of suspect people. Lots of fun twists and turns. The Lying Club is compared to Big Little Lies and while I understand the comp I would also say this lends more soapy (which I love) and maybe more of a Hunting Wives vibe. If you’re looking for a deliciously frothy story to dive into this is a great choice.

Issues of class, envy, protecting your family at any cost and finding support and friendship in places you didn’t expect fuel this story along with a dark undercurrent of the competition, the desire to fit in, drug abuse, sexual assault and unhealthy relationships. This goes dark and dramatic but it was also totally what I was looking for and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

THE LYING CLUB focuses on Natalie, a high school office assistant at an elite private school who finds herself at the center of a brutal attack on one of the school’s most beloved teachers. You know from the start that Natalie is central to this, but she has no idea what happened or why since she can’t remember much about the previous night. Flashing back to several months before the attack, we come to learn all about the rich students and their even more entitled parents–and Natalie’s relationship to all of them and the victim. And we don’t have to wait too long to find out who was attacked, but once the victims are out there, it’s more a matter of who attacked them and why.

Natalie had moved to this town in the Colorado mountains to take care of her brother, who is now healing and rehabilitating from an accident. Natalie and her brother lean on each other for support, and you get glimpses of what her life before Colorado was like. We’re shown right from the beginning that Natalie has a prescription drug problem, and things were portrayed pretty realistically as she spiraled further into addiction and dependency.

Everyone loves the gym teacher, Nick, but most of the parents’ wives as well as the female faculty think he is very attractive–but also great with the kids he trains and coaches. Natalie catches his eye, and the two have a clandestine relationship in secret. But some of the girls’ he trains are very troubled and he tries to intervene to correct their behavior.

The story also focuses on two mothers: Asha and Brooke. While their daughters have been best friends for years, they find themselves at odds with each other due to problems in each of their marriages. Asha is a hard working real estate agent raising her two children the best she can, but she’s having doubts about her husband’s fidelity. Brooke is super rich, uber entitled, and the bitchiest character in the book. Both Asha and Brooke are much more than the stereotypical kept wives, and I really enjoyed them throughout. Their daughters’ tension is also looked into, and it’s a bit more than just wanting to play soccer at the same college that is causing their distress.

I read the first 16 chapters, but switched to the audiobook for the rest. The story was definitely more enjoyable listening to it since it was a bit more fast paced. The narrator did a great job with the different characters and I was quite immersed in the twisted lives of the characters and unreliable narrators.

I give THE LYING CLUB a four out of five. The flash forwards and flashbacks gelled pretty well into a cohesive narrative, offering little glimpses of the truth until it was all finally revealed later in the book. While this was a bit of a slow burn, I really enjoyed watching as the characters did terrible things and ultimately found out the reasons behind their actions. Revenge was definitely dished out to several people in this book. It was surprising to see just who wanted the victim dead the most and were successful in the end. I recommend this for lovers of suspense, unreliable narrators, and revenge tails with a bit of scandal and intrigue.

The twist in this story was wholly unexpected and made for an interesting read. The author does a great job of having the reader see a character in one way and then portraying them in a different, unexpected light.

I had hoped to like this book, since it is set in a private school and I spent most of my working career in a (much different) private school. Falcon Academy, of the book, is set in Colorado, where I also spent much of my working career. Sometimes reading books set in a background I know well and with character types with which I am very familiar, can be a bit like coming home. Not so, with this book. The four main characters, Natalie (the school employee who is envious of the lifestyles of the parents), Asha and Brooke (wealthy parents), and Nick (the charismatic gym teacher), are all more caricatures than characters. The secondary characters actually have more depth as the author seems less intent to make a point with them.

For the first half of the book at least, not much happens besides infidelity, suspicions, and queen bee sorts of behaviors from the adults, and drugs and sexting from the teenagers. This inauspicious beginning leads into a scandal that results in a bloody altercation ending with two people being taken from the school on stretchers. Once this plot development takes place, the story rushes to a resolution the clarifies underlying motivations and brings the three female main characters together in what, I assume, is meant by the title. The final sentences of the book provide one of those open-ended twists that is either exciting or frustrating, depending upon the reader’s perspective.

The descriptions of the mansions occupied by the parents are extensive and well-written, as are the antics of the wealthy characters who live in them. No adult in the book is really likeable, so it was hard to care what happened to any of them. However, the resolution in which the villain gets their comeuppance is quite gratifying and, if a few laws were broken in the process, that was okay by me. While the teenagers were mostly unlikeable as well, as children none of them deserve what happened to them, and this makes the punishment of the villain even sweeter.

The book kept my interest after the midway point, but I did not find enough depth in it to draw me to read others by this author.

Every now and then, I'll come across a cover that just screams 'read me!' This time around, it was The Lying Club by Annie Ward. Though I'll confess the pitch (being perfect for fans of Little Fires Everywhere) was enough to get me really excited for this read.

You know that say, nothing is ever what it seems? One lovely tiny town home to an elite private school is about to learn that lesson the hard way. On the surface, everything about this school looks perfect, especially to Natalie, an office assistant within the school. She wishes she could be like the mothers she sees day in and day out.

Up until two bodies are found on the school grounds, that changes those daydreams pretty quickly, as Natalie and the rest of the school are thrown into a net of suspicion and worse.

“Here's to getting away with it.”

The Lying Club is certainly a twisting and turning thriller if ever I've seen one! The title is likewise entirely accurate – though I was expecting that much (obviously). I did love the whole core concept: soccer moms who are far different from the image they present to the world.

At first, it seems like all of the conflicts in this book will be catty: lying, cheating, bad friends, etc. But once the story gets going, it quickly becomes apparent that there's a hidden depth (and darkness) to the story. Again, I quite liked that twist.

Unfortunately, I do think this book lacked a certain amount of pull. I think it might have been the characters – Annie Ward did too good of a job with them, making them impossible to like. Therefore, it was pretty difficult to read from their perspectives without wanting to scream.

Overall, I'd say that The Lying Club was an interesting read. Not my favorite thriller out there, but certainly not one I regretted reading.

With the setting of a private school, the book was slow to start with a large number of unlikable characters. The parents were willing to do anything to further the academic lives of their kids. Some of them went into hyperbole. The secrets and lies that the author revealed at timely intervals made me stick with the book. I loved how the writing managed to redeem itself and give me a proper thriller. A fun read.

I enjoyed the book. There were moments where I was looking at my phone with wide eyes as I read certain parts. The characters are no where near perfect, but that makes them real. I have enjoyed both of Annie Ward's books so far and I am interested in seeing what she comes out with next.

This is a great thriller that kept me guessing. The story takes place in an upper class neighborhood in Colorado and centers on three families at an elite high school. Brooke, Asha, and Natalie want what's best for their children, and this story explores how far people are willing to go to get what they want.
I did have part of the story figured out early on, but that didn't make the twists along the way to an explosive ending any less engaging!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Lying Club by Annie Ward.

Holy cow! Talk about a spider's web of intrigue! This book hooks you immediately, and keeps you guessing all the way to the end.

Natalie is a young administrative assistant at a private school in Colorado. From afar she pines over the beautiful and glamourous lives of the moms of the school. But all of the glitter fades after walking into a crime scene at the school. Not only that, but now she finds herself as a suspect of the crime...

The way this book works is that you're immediately smacked in the face with a great hook, and then on the edge of your seat the entire rest of the way. I loved all of the different women, including the teen students. I loved their unique stories, personalities and struggles. I thought the story came together very well and was thoughtfully pieced together.

👠 BOOK / REVIEW 👠

So, I am struggling a bit with my review of #thelyingclub. I listened to this on #audiobook thanks to @hoopladigital and while it kept my interest, this one wasn't a showstopper for me unfortunately. Lots of privileged white families and children getting away with everything because of money. A creepy athletic coach who essentially slept or intended to sleep with all of the females in this book. And lots of disjointed characters or storylines that werent needed to make or break the plot.

It was definitely fast paced and required no effort to dive right in, but this one is landing at a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 for me.