Cover Image: An Honest Lie

An Honest Lie

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Another smash hit for Tarryn Fisher! Psychological thriller at its best. Get swept up in the fast, exciting read.

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Omg this book was amazing!!! I couldn’t put it down. I never seen the ending coming either. A home run!!!

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Huh. I was super excited to see a new book by Tarryn Fisher. I couldn't wait to dive right into it. Sadly, this one fell a little flat for me.
The story was good, but it just felt a little too contrived.
The story focuses on Rainey and her checked past that she had attempted to hide. A girls weekend with "friends" to Vegas unravels Rainey's past. When her friend goes missing, Rainey of course is the one that needs to find her.
While Rainey's backstory gave her some tools to handle the situation, I think it also made everything a little too convenient and unbelievable.
I think The Wives is a much Tarryn Fisher book, while good...this one just misses the mark slightly.

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Starting off another year with Tarryn Fisher! This one took a little while to get into. A bit of a slow burn start but when it picked up, I really enjoyed the twists and surprises. Thank you for the advance copy!

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While I’ve never read a Tarryn Fisher book before, I’ve heard rave reviews. So when I was given the opportunity to read an ARC of her upcoming book I jumped at the chance. Now that it’s done I’m a bit conflicted on what to say. The story hooks you fairly quickly and the narrator’s experiences are told in a dual timeline format which allows the reader to learn about her past before her peers do. But then the when something happens to her friend the story just takes off in a whole new direction that seems very unrealistic and somewhat irrational. I still kept reading because I did want to know what happened, but I was so what disappointed with the final outcome. Three stars - and thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this one early!

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My first finish of the year. I am glad I started with a book by Tarryn Fisher. Ever since The Wives I make sure that her books get added to my TBR pile as soon as they become available. Was this my favorite book of hers? Sadly, it was not. Of the 3 that I have read this would come in third. Does that mean it was a bad book? Absolutely not. It just didn't offer me the thrills of the last two.

Rainy and her mother go through a tough time and her mother takes her to meet Taured, a friend from years ago who has converted an abandoned prison into a community of people who have what he believes is a common goal. After a bunch of drama and trauma, Rainy tries to start a new life and eventually moves to live with her boyfriend across the country. Here she meets a group of girls...to call them all friends would be a stretch but she does have a connection with a few of them.

When they invite her to a trip to Vegas, she reluctantly decides to go. This is where the story really picks up. Vegas is not too far from Taureds 'compund' and she thinks she may have some unfinished business with him. But Taured is the least of her problems - she has someone from her past who is hell bent on seeking revenge, and when one of the girls from the trip ends up in trouble, even though it isn't one of Rainy's besties, she feels she has no choice but to help.

To be honest I did feel that the current storyline was a little thrown together as this story really relied so heavily on the past and what happened to Rainy and her mom. Still a solid read but just not my favorite.

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"Satisfyingly chilling in a way only Tarryn Fisher can capture through carefully crafted words and an unflinching exposé of the human psyche." - Sarah Robinson, bestseller author and RWA Vivian Finalist of Every Last Drop

(Feel free to share/repost as an editorial review)

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An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher
A suspenseful psychological thriller that is nothing short of stunning. With equal parts harrowing and frightful, and a deep psychological dive into a metamorphosis of a survivor.
As it is a difficult premise a reviewer can find themselves in. When they feel so deeply for a book they just finished. I will do my best to explain the artistry that is Tarryn Fisher’s An Honest Lie.

In the beginning there were a group of gals landing in sunny Las Vegas…
Rainy is set to go on a trip with what one might call the Real House Wives of Tiger Mountain. A group of woman she has had to play nice with for over a year now. Rainy has relocated from New York to live with her current boyfriend Grant in Tiger Mountain. Because this group has known each other for years, Rainy understands she must play nice, keep her head low, while the prying eyes of the gal group analyze her every word and actions.

After great hesitation on Rainy’s end she agrees to go on the trip to Vegas with the bunch. Her attempt to truly show that she wants to anchor in what her and Grant are developing, and become a permanent fixture in this future they are building together. But what originally caused Rainy to hesitate and initially reject the girls trip invite was a deep rooted and gruesome past that she ran from in the very city of Las Vegas a lifetime ago.

A thriller that insights an inward glance at religion and control.
As the synopsis explains, Rainy finds herself on a mission that took over the fun girls trip. She must save one of the women in the trip, Braithe. In exchanging her own life for Braithe’s, Rainy must take full control of her past trauma. Push through the debilitating and haunting mindsets many survivors face and win. Especially cult survivors that endured years of mental abuse.

Penning a feminist letter for all survivors.
An Honest Lie carries a burden that can be shocking and horrific to most. Tarryn Fisher has never shied away from guttural stories that insight self reflection. Once one can get past the twist and turns that honestly made me keep some lights on at night. The heaviness that is trauma, in all shapes and sizes that it comes in. That weight is carried by Rainy in this book. In a way I can see the allegory in this. Tarryn tipping her hat to the many woman who have gone through, are dealing with, past abuse. These woman in stories have always been Fisher’s muse. That perseverance ignites her and she spilled all that inspiration sublimely in An Honest Lie.

An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher is a true suspenseful psychological thriller. The enumerated details and complex plot made for a vivid scene in my mind. This is for thriller fans that like an intense plot and like the exploration of complicated female relationship.

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This book was NOT what I was expecting at all. To be honest, I wish there was a trigger warning of what was to come because it was difficult to read, at times, and I had a lot of anxiety as I turned the pages. The last 1/3 of the book was the most thrilling, but also, I wasn't sure what I hoped would happen since it was also a little anticlimactic? Without giving away spoilers, it's hard to explain, but it was still a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for this book in exchange for my honest review!

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📖An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mystery • Secrets • Thriller

A new Tarryn Fisher novel? Yes, please. I was thrilled to get to read An Honest Lie. In my mind I’ve created this sub genre of “soapy mysteries,” and Fisher’s novels fit perfectly. Want some messy back story or complicated family and friend dynamics? This book has it covered. It’s twisty and thrilling and just the perfect “veg out and read” book.

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This is a decent thriller. I wasn’t a fan of the different timeline though. I usually dont mind but I struggled with how it all came together. It felt like 2 different stories trying to be the same. Overall a good read just not one of my favorites by Tarryn Fisher.
3.5 rounded up.

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Wow, another really good and fast paced book of thrills.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Tarryn Fisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rainy moves from busy New York City to remote Tiger Mountain in rainy Washington State. It's quite the adjustment, but she needs to be where her fiancée is. A group of local girls have welcomed her into their tight little group. The girls invite Rainy on a getaway weekend in Las Vegas. Rainy against her better judgement, reluctantly agrees. After a dramatic final night of carousing and much alcohol, they learn, one of their group, Braithe, hasn’t returned to the hotel. Then, Rainy receives a disturbing text message from Braithe's phone, and she realizes someone has taken her.

Why was Rainy, the newcomer to this clique, the one contacted? Rainy quickly learns she's the one the kidnapper really wants. And it has everything to do with her troubled past.

Reader be careful, as the story is told in alternating timelines… :past and present.

With Rainy as our sole narrator. I found the "then" storyline way more intriguing where Rainy and her mother are in the Taurudia Cult Compound. The story, while all interesting, tends to plod along until a little over halfway through when the aha moments happen and the drama races.

The nine months afterward is fairly satisfying as in a lifetime movie when the story climaxes and suddenly drops and neatly wraps up life

I’ll certainly read more novels by Tarryn Fisher .

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Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest review.

This was SUCH an enjoyable read for me right up until the big reveal. I love the cult-y vibes, and the storyline set in the past was my favorite by far. The present day storyline with the group of rich girlfriends was less interesting to me. A good read with a few shocking twists and turns BUT I just didn’t buy the ending and who the villain ended up being.. I still give it 4 stars!

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As a big fan of The Wives and The Wrong Family, I loved An Honest Lie. Fisher is a domestic suspense/thriller superstar and this book kept me hooked from the first to last page.

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I've been a huge Tarryn fan for ages but this one missed the mark for me. The story has dual timelines, you have Rainey as an adult reluctantly agreeing to go on a girls trip to Vegas to appease her boyfriend and Rainey as a child growing up in a cult. The cult timeline was the more interesting to me, the current was just boring. It felt like I was reading two completely different books. The converging of the timelines did not work at all and led to a disjointed and unbelievable climax and conclusion in my opinion. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

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Thank you Netgalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for an eARC of An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for Goodreads.

I absolutely loved The Wives, so when I saw that Tarryn Fisher was coming out with a new thriller I had to drop everything else to read it. MC Rainy lives at the top of Tiger Mountain, hiding from her disturbing past with her boyfriend Grant. Rainy reluctantly agrees to a girls weekend in Vegas, anticipating slot machines and tequila shots. The trip goes awry after a couple of days, when Rainy receives a text message sent from her friend's phone. Someone has Braithe, but they really want Rainy, and they'll kill Braithe if she doesn't follow their instructions. While on a quest for closure, Rainy is forced to confront her past - Whether she's ready or not.

An Honest Lie is a wild ride of a thriller that is absolutely unique and not what I was expecting whatsoever. I read a LOT of thrillers, and the concept of this book was just so different. I was pleasantly surprised by this, and the dual timelines were tied together perfectly to paint a picture of Rainy's past that brought her to her present. This book kept me guessing throughout, and the ending was executed masterfully and vividly in detail. Tarryn managed to connect so many seemingly small details in the story to weave in her creativity - the complexity of the book is astounding, and the writing is phenomenal.

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Not very good. The two story lines had nothing to do with each other. The part with the cult was interesting but lost steam about halfway through for me. It was also extremely far fetched the way the linked the two story lines.

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Even though I wasn’t a fan of The Wrong Family, I loved The Wives, so I was excited when I heard Tarryn Fisher had a new one coming out. Especially since it was focused around a cult setting and I’m all for that. But after finishing An Honest Lie, it left me somewhere in between I liked it and it was just ok.

This one alternates timelines between Rainy’s life in the past and present. I felt like most of the book was a build up to the ending, which had me saying “well that escalated quickly”. It was a good ending, but very rushed. I enjoyed reading about Rainy’s present life & her struggles trying to fit in, but her past was a lot to take in and at times too weird. I’m still not sure exactly how to feel about this one other than to say it was just ok. 3 ⭐️s

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I enjoy this author's work, so I did not read the description prior to diving in head-first. Holy moly! The main character is a strong woman who escaped horrific circumstances as a child, orphaned and emotionally scarred. Fisher weaves the story so that her readers have no idea who to trust or what anyone's intentions are. Gold star, truly.

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I am struggling between a 3 and 3.5-star review for this book. While I enjoyed the overall plot, I really disliked the characters. I found them to be pretentious, predictable and somewhat annoying with their thoughts and actions.

I felt the ending was predictable and feel most readers will enjoy the flashbacks better than the present story.

I liked this novel, but I didn’t love it. There was something lacking in the concept and character development that didn’t give me the reader’s high I typically expect, though there was a enough action to keep me from abandoning it altogether.

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