Truth and Other Lies is rife with drama. Journalism, politics, and social media are all wrapped in truth and lies. Megan is a character that is easy to like – you'll pull for her to have things work out. Truth and Other Lies is the first novel I've read by this author, and it will not be my last.

This book had so much promise and I do think it's a strong debut and will definitely read more from Maggie Smith in the future. I didn't dislike it, there were just a few issues for me. First, I loved the plot and the strong female characters she developed, plus that it is almost entirely female driven - the male characters are just minor figures who support the story. However, I felt that the MC, Megan, was a bit naive, which didn't fit in with her other character traits - I just couldn't make the pieces of her fit and found myself frequently annoyed with her - it felt like on one hand she was written as this strong, powerful woman, but then she kept behaving like an unworldly, inexperienced, frankly just dumb, person. I wanted her to be more savvy - but I guess that wouldn't have worked out with the plot. I did enjoy the other characters and glimpse into the cut-throat world of making it as a woman in journalism. I think it's a good book and I'd still recommend it and would love to discuss it - it would make a great book club read! I think Maggie Smith is going to go far as she hones her talents.

Truth and Other Lies sucked me in from the first line of the synopsis when it says it's a cross between The Devil Wears Prada and All the President's Men. It focuses on the tumultuous careers of three women: Megan Barnes, a young reporter; her mother Helen who's running for US congress; and Jocelyn, a Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist. When Megan joins Jocelyn's PR team, she's thrown into an intoxicating world of fame and glamour, until a blackmail threat leads her back to her own mother.

Truth and Other Lies is a fantastic debut novel. It's filled with strong female characters, interesting plot twists and storylines that reflect important topical issues like abortion and sexual harassment. While I found the beginning to be slow, the pace definitely picked up in the middle as the number of secrets and surprises grew. I also like Smith's witty writing style and how she focused on the different types of female relationships, including between family, friends and co-workers.

Fans of Liane Moriarty will enjoy Truth and Other Lies.

Lots of great themes explored in this novel, with plenty of richness in the characters. I really enjoyed the book. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was so eager to read this one - politics, the media, mother daughter relationship, mentor mentee relationship, and the potential for a little thriller element of 'who done it', I wanted to read it now! Sadly I was left a little disappointed by this one.

The bones of the story were there but there was just far too much going on with too many different characters. At times it felt like the author was writing purely to make a point and not for the purpose of writing a book for people to enjoy.

There were so many of the moment issues tackled in this book and it would have been better if one or two of them had gotten the focus instead of all of them flitting in and out of the story to the point it sometimes felt like I was being overwhelmed with information and things happening. There was also enough going on without the need of a romantic side story. Also, that ending just peeved me off, we'd invested all this time in the story to be left with an open ended moment. Normally I don't mind if things are left to the reader's interpretation but I actually would have found it more interesting a read to see how this all panned out and what the fall out would have been for everyone involved.

Two other things that bugged me. First, the narrator is meant to be 25 but at times she spoke, both in dialogue and prose, as if she was at least 10 to 15 years older and that just made things feel clunky sometimes. Secondly, I HATE continuity errors. In books, movies, tv shows, I just hate it. When a character has their hair tucked behind their ear in one shot and then not in the shot and back and forth it goes? Drives me up the wall. The reason I mention this is that there is a huge error between Megan's age, her mother's age, when her mother met her dad, how long she said they'd been married for and when they got divorced. The times just don't add up and it annoyed me. As this is an ARC there is the potential that it was caught before it went to print but it was clearly a bug bear for me.

I would read another book by the author as I do think that the bones of good storytelling is there, I just think it needs to be a little more focused and pared back.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Full of intrigue, scandal and the unveiling of secrets it a well written book with good character development. A read looking at relationships and the secrets people can keep. Overall a pretty good debut!

Unable to download book. I will update with a review when I am able to borrow the book from the library.

This is a book with a multitude of complex layers, political scandal,lies and secrets. I really found this book engaging and quick paced.

Truth and Other Lies – Maggie Smith

Megan is looking for a fresh start after losing her job as a local reporter in New York and moving back to her hometown of Evanston, Illinois. While struggling to find a new job as a journalist, Megan stumbles across Jocelyn Jones, a famous national reporter who readers are supposed to assume is similar to Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric in stature. Jocelyn promises Megan that she will introduce her to journalism contacts in the Chicago area in return for a short-term gig working as her publicist to promote her new memoir. Shortly after taking the job, however, an anonymous Twitter account begins accusing Jocelyn of plagiarism, and it becomes Megan’s mission to figure out what’s going on and if the accusations have merit. Introduced as side-characters are Megan’s mother who is running for Congress on a conservative anti-abortion platform anathema to Megan’s beliefs, and her childhood best friend Becca who cheats on her husband and needs an abortion herself. These side-threads are completely separated from the main plot line until the point in the book when Smith needs to generate conflict, during which Megan’s mother and Becca are quickly thrown into the tumult before their issues are tidily resolved to Megan’s benefit. While the plot moves relatively quickly, I was not particularly impressed with Smith’s writing, especially how key elements of the mystery were always revealed at the most convenient moment. The way in which Smith wrote Megan’s character as a completely righteous person with an unimpeachable understanding of morals and ethics often made the dialogue and character development feel forced.

I thought I can read this in time for pub day last March 8. Just finished this one, nothing earth shattering but I really enjoyed the story.

After losing her job as a reporter and catches her boyfriend with their neighbor in the same day, Megan Barnes moves back to Chicago and stays with her over protective mother, Helen, until she finds a job and a place for herself. Megan and Helen are always clashing and have different stand from pro-choice and #MeToo. With her mother running for US Congress, her career as reporter is put on hold after the election. An incident brings her working in a PR company for Pulitzer-prize journal Jocelyn Jones for the launch of her memoir. While all seems fine, an anonymous tweet accuses Jocelyn that will ruin her reputation, Megan tries to locate the sender and expose the lies. But by doing so, Megan realizes that pursuing this, it will not only ruin her relationship with Jocelyn but will destroy her mother’s career as well.


This is a fast-paced read and will get you hook from the start. I like all three women characters, even if Helen has less exposure, the authors deals with them with equally good character development. The author covers some sensitive topics on politics, journalism, social media and abortion and I think she handles it very well. This is also about the complexities of our relationship with our families and friendships, the secrets and lies we keep with each other and the truth will test how we value of relationships. Although the ending is something of a cliff hanger, something that I did not like but I think it is realistic given the pace of the story. Overall, this is a good debut novel and looking forward to Smith’s future works.

Thank you Netgalley, Ten16 Press for e-ARC in exchange for honest review.

This is a quick paced, multilayered story full of political scandal, lies, secrets and intrigue. Thank you Netgalley, Ten16 Press and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This debut by Maggie Smith was interesting kept me guessing.. Part mystery, part drama, this one examines choices that shape our lives. Additionally it looks at the impact of role models. As Megan comes home to recover from a difficult breakup we see her struggle with her relationship with her mom. A journalist searching for a job Megan finds herself working for a seasoned journalist she admires. Many twists to the plot will keep you turning the pages. Thank you to NetGalley and Ten16Press for the egalley copy. Al thoughts and opinions are my own.

Truth and Other Lies tells the story of a journalist that is back in town after a "mysterious" break up and a "mysterious" employment termination (both of these things are revealed super early and are not at all as mysterious as the author initially leads you to believe). It's also the story of a tumultuous mother/daughter relationship (but their problems are also really not as big of a deal as the author would initially have you believe, in fact there's barely any drama there, to be honest). It's mostly the story of how our lead journalist has to save her journalism idol's reputation from an online troll (except the tweet that sparks this doesn't happen until about 30-40% into the book). As you can see, this book is both too full and absolutely empty at the exact same time.

I found it extremely difficult to get into the book and to stay invested as there's no hook, no real mystery, nothing truly captivating to keep me reading (until about more than halfway through, tbh). The main drama in the book happens towards the end and is resolved in a very simplistic manner. There's just so much build-up for things that are non-issues as mentioned above and an extreme over-abundance of useless details such as this:

"I’d never taken on an assignment and not given it my best. Scrounging the bottom of my purse, I found an old Tic Tac covered in lint and popped it in my mouth to mask any lingering odor from the onion bagel I’d wolfed down for breakfast."

There's so much filler that you need to sift through to get to the core story which is the most interesting aspect of it all but ... I just feel this type of "hard-hitting journalism" story doesn't fit in the simple format chosen to write it in. Overall, I was a bit let down by this.

The synopsis of this novel sounded so promising, but unfortunately, it wasn’t quite a hit for me.

The good: the setup was interesting and I liked the writing style well enough.

The bad: The main character was awful (and not in a fun way), it was pretty far-fetched, and there was a major plot point/issue that really bothered me and I hated the way it was handled.

Overall, this book was just ok. Decent enough contemporary fiction but I think there was more that bothered me than that I liked. Oh well, they can’t all be hits.

This debut by Maggie Smith grabbed my attention right from the start and didn’t let go. This is a timely book about truth in journalism and fully vetting the story before seeking publication. The mother who is running for a seat in Congress is totally opposite of her daughter, the investigative reporter. I found the story compelling as secrets and lies are revealed. A strong cast of female characters quickly moved the story along. Congrats on an interesting and thought provoking debut! #TruthAndOtherLies #MaggieSmith #NetGalley

Thank you to the author, Ten16 Press and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Truth is oftentimes complicated, and this multi-layered book about relationships, trust and integrity brings that to life with multi-faceted female characters from different generations. I love the way the author portrays her central characters, each fiercely defending her identity and achievements. The story flows well and the voices are authentic - a fantastic effort for a debut novelist. And as in life, the resolution is a bit messy - much more true-to-life than having everything tied up in a neat bow at the end. I look forward to reading more from this author.

this was SUCH an impressive debut novel!!

after losing her job and going through a bad breakup, Megan Barnes heads back to her hometown of Chicago to start over with a clearer head. with little savings and no job, she moves in with her mother Helen, who is in the process of running for Congress. (and we all see where this is going right?) Since Megan and Helen do not see eye to eye politically, Megan goes out of her way to find another PR job for Jocelyn Jones, a novelist about to publish her memoir. little does Megan realize how intertwined all of her connections are, and only she must race to find the truth about her idol.

there are so many impressive issues that are brought up in this novel: ethics, female relationships, sexism in the workplace, political divide between family. I related to the latter the most, personally. however, I felt that they only started to scratch the surface and that there was a deeper story ready to be told.

the supporting characters made the story for me. it was such a nice dimensional contrasting feel from the engagement of Jocelyn and Megan’s story.

I sure hope there’s another one in the works because I FLEW through this one so quickly!!!

rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: virginia chardonnay

I was drawn into this novel from the first pages .The characters their relationships so well written so much emotion.Even after I read the last page the characters stayed with me.#netgalley #truthandotherlies,

This book defies classification as it offers a lot to readers of all different genres. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of relationships between women and how the expectation of sisterhood is not always realistic, let alone the expectation of strong familial supports. There is mystery, humour, contemporary commentary and more here.

The cover of "Truth and Other Lies" tells the whole premise: Three women, two secrets, one lie. As a reader, though, it was fairly predictable, but still a quick read that delved into journalism, politics, women's issues and more.