Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown is about two sisters, Maya and Naomi. While they do not always get along or agree, they do love and care about each other. When Naomi drowns, Maya must wrestle with her emotions. According to the police, drugs and alcohol were found in Naomi’s body. Maya cannot believe that Naomi used drugs. Was it an accident? Was it suicide? Through a series of flash backs, we get a glimpse into how decisions made by Maya while she was in college may have caused issues in her sister’s college life. This book is an interesting twist on how choices we make sometimes have repercussions down the road. And just how little we know about the people we know and sometimes trust. An interesting read.

Maya and Naomi are sisters who may are separated by a decade, but their experiences at Princeton intersect in ways Maya didn’t expect. Told in alternating timelines, follow along as the sisters explore life in secret societies.

This book consumed me from the very beginning. I found myself unable to put it down as the alternating chapters shed more and more light into what happened during Maya’s time at Princeton. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a thriller!!

Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Lauren Ling Brown’s Society of Lies is an utterly captivating thriller that grips you from the first page and doesn’t let go. The novel skillfully blends the intrigue of secret societies with a deeply personal quest for truth, making it a standout in the genre.

Maya’s return to Princeton for what should have been a nostalgic reunion is quickly overshadowed by her sister Naomi’s shocking death, and the tension mounts as Maya begins to peel back the layers of her sister’s life. Brown masterfully weaves a tale of suspense, where every revelation about Naomi brings Maya closer to the dark, unsettling truth she’s been running from for years. The setting of Princeton’s elite social clubs and secret societies is both glamorous and chilling.

Maya’s journey is both emotionally charged and dangerous, and Brown does an excellent job of portraying her grief, guilt, and determination. The plot twists are smart and satisfying, and the pacing is perfect, building to a jaw-dropping conclusion that left me reeling.

If you love dark academia with a side of secrets and suspense, Society of Lies is an absolute must-read.

Thank you Lauren Ling Brown, Random House Publishing, and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Society Of Lies by Laura Ling Browne, Maya is returning to Princeton not only to go to her reunion but to watch her sister Naomi graduate. They’re 10 years apart and because of Mia’s failed attempts to open up and be closer she feels like she’s didn’t do a good job being a big sister so when she learns her sister was found dead she takes all the guilt and love she has to solve her sisters murder even when the cops are calling it accidental. Mya knows all too well that even when you’re in the most elite club it can be dangerous despite warning Naomi away from that being rebellious she went headfirst into it and now Maya fears she already knows what happened to her poor sister Naomi. Princeton has traditions going back decades and they’re willing to kill to keep everyone of them. I really enjoyed this book not only because the MC was Asian/African American and we don’t always get that viewpoint but because she earn their way at the elite school and all that entails including the Sterling club and all the other dinner clubs most don’t hear about in every day life. Having said that once again it comes to people having a problem due to a lack of communication and in this case it ends in murder. I think the author did a great job putting the reader right where she wanted them to be and created an elite atmosphere dashed with secrets, fear and longing. What great job and a great book. #NetGalley,#Random house children’s, #LauraLingBrown, #SocietyOfLies,

I really enjoyed this story of a university secret society gone wrong. I thought both timelines were engaging and kept my interest equally. It was surprising to me how the women's time at Princeton were intertwined and that was really well done. There were plenty of characters to keep you guessing but there was obviously one main "suspect" throughout...

I also love when books make me check my privilege and this book did it a few times. It's so easy to forget that there are some people who still have to worry about cops attitudes towards them, even when they go to an Ivy League school.

With that said, I was also happy to hear the author's note at the end too.

Wow!! Great story!!

Maya Mason lost her father when she was just 9 years old and her Mom was 7 months pregnant with her little sister. Her Mom was Asian and her dad was African-American, growing up with a mixed background was hard. When their mom died when Maya was 18 and Naomi was just 9 years old, Maya sent her to live with an Aunt while she went off to Princeton University.

Maya felt like an outcast her first two years until she was initiated into the wealthy Sterling Club and eventually the ultra secret Greystone Club. There she finally felt like she belonged. She did everything so she and her sister, Naomi, could have better futures. But a manipulative professor was pulling the strings of both students, faculty, and rich donors. When a student is ready to out him, he makes sure that she's permanently silenced.

Fast forward 9 years and its Naomi's graduation from Princeton, but when her body is found, Maya knows that there's been foul play. Naomi joined both clubs without telling Maya and wanted to get justice for the student that was killed and finally out the scheming professor.

A must read!

* I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I started and stopped this book more times than I want to admit. I even purchased the audio hoping that my experience would be better. It wasn't.

Unlikable characters doesn't bother me and I have enjoyed books where the main character was unlikeable. However, there are certain stories where you want, need, to root for the main character. I couldn't stand Maya. I wanylted satisfaction for Naomi and i could care less how Maya felt. Maya was such an entitled person who kept deluding herself regarding Naomi. I truly questioned if she really did love her sister.

It was the audio that helped me finish the book. The author is talented and had a story to tell. But doing that you have to make you main character worth rooting for.

#SOCIETYOFLIES
#NETGALLEY
#LAURENLINGBROWN

This book was entertaining the whole way. A sister trying to find the truth of what happened to her younger sister. Was it accident? Or was it murder? I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happened. When I tried to guess the twists, I was wrong which is unusual for me. I can not recommend this book enough. Please check trigger warnings if it sounds interesting to you.

While I thought this book had an interesting and intriguing premise I had a hard time becoming invested in the story itself or its characters.
Normally dual POV's don't bother me, but in this book I sometimes had a hard time distinguishing which sister we were reading,
I think for the most part the story was fine, if I had to put it down I wasn't really compelled to pick it back up, and once I was finished I was already forgetting what had happened.

I couldn't wait for Lauren Brown's Society of Lies! RBC never lets me down with a pick, and I knew this one would be no different. I will always love a mysterious dark academia novel, and I was hooked from the beginning as Maya returns to Princeton after 10 years, only to find out her sister has been killed. I flew through this, and I would recommend it for a quick, thrilling read!

I'm a sucker for a dark academic club thriller/mystery. I also love dual timeline and dual POV. This book was good, but not great. It had everything I hoped it would, but something just dragged a bit. It felt longer than it needed to be, even though it's not a particularly long book. The dark academic setting and twists kept me going, but I think I was left just wanting more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine Bantam for gifting me a digital ARC of this debut book by Lauren Ling Brown, this month's Reese's Book Club Selection. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion and the graduation of her sister, Naomi. But then Maya gets word that Naomi is dead, and she suspects that it's not an accident. She begins investigating and learns that Naomi hid so much from her, especially that Naomi joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus, and probably the secret society within it, just as Maya did in her college days. Every clue leads Maya back to the past and the secret she's kept for years.

Told from both Naomi's and Maya's viewpoints, in the present and the past, you need to pay close attention, but it's well worth the effort! I'm a fan of dark academic thrillers and this one has all that plus secret societies, mysteries and deaths in both timelines, and plenty of secrets and lies. This book was so atmospheric and covered so many topics, from sisterhood, to friendship, to loyalty, abuse, and just how important communication is. If you're like me, you'll be questioning the motives of so many different characters and the ending was a big surprise. Great read, especially in the fall!

💕📚ARC Review📚💕 Thank you @netgalley, @randomhouse, and @laurenlingbrown for an ARC of Society of Lies! This was such a great thriller with dark academia vibes.

This is a debut novel from the author and I already can’t wait to see what else she writes! This was also made the book club pick for @reesesbookclub this month so it has her stamp of approval for good reason.

This is the story of two sisters, Maya and her younger sister, Naomi. Maya has returned to Princeton for her reunion, where she graduated 10 years prior, and she is also attending Naomi’s graduation the same weekend. Tragedy strikes when Naomi is found dead in what is considered an “accidental” death, but Maya believes there is more going on. Naomi was a member of Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus that Maya was also a member of, and Maya suspects that Naomi was also tapped for a secret society within the Sterling Club, Greystone. In a past timeline, we get Naomi’s POV as she uncovers details about a death of another Sterling student 10 years ago and some of the dark practices in both Sterling and Greystone. In present day, knowing the dark inner workings of Sterling and Greystone, Maya seeks out the truth of what happened to her sister, but who can she actually trust?

I loved this one! I’m a fan of dark academia in a gothic setting and a secret society at an Ivy League university fits the bill. I always enjoy a thriller with multiple POVs and alternating timelines and I found myself hooked to the story and wanting to read it quickly. It is also more than a thriller and a look at the sisters’ biracial identities (Black father and Chinese mother) and how they intersected with the privilege that existed at not only Princeton, but a secret society and spaces that are primarily occupied by affluent white students. Highly recommend!

Wow what a thriller! This book felt like watching a tv series, if that makes sense. This story follows the lives of sisters Maya and Naomi. The book counts down to Naomi's inevitable murder and also goes back in time to Maya's Princeton life and ahead following Naomi's murder while Maya is trying frantically to find out who killed her sister. I love the setting of this thriller - Princeton, NYC, and Greenwich, CT (love to read about places I've lived). This book not only discusses Ivy life but "dinner clubs" as well as secret societies. I really loved this book and was engrossed right away. I will say there were so many side stories and scenes that it really felt like it was "filling in time" for a tv series or movie. That being said, I still enjoyed them, but just kind of felt like they were slightly unnecessary. I really enjoyed this read though! Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this eARC.

thank you netgalley for the e-arc. i think this may have been overhyped because of reese's bookclub but i still enjoyed it. i usually like campus thrillers and this was definitely well done.

Two sisters, ten years apart, are both involved in Princeton's "eating clubs" aka secret societies. Death seems to follow.

Maya is with family and friends gathered for Naomi's graduation when news arrives that Naomi's body was found dead in the lake. Maya starts her own investigation because she knows her sister would not have killed herself. This takes her back to her time at Greystone and a death when she was there. What happened in both cases? Maya makes it her mission to find out. Lots of twists and betrayals ensue.

At times, it moved a little too slow for me but the climax and ending were worth the wait. I really didn't see it coming.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine for a copy for review.

impressively dramatic thriller wtih lots of twists, some of which were more logical than others, but stilll good

Thank you to NetGalley, PRH Audio and Ballantine Books
for providing me with an advanced copy of this book and audiobook for free in exchange for my review! @prhaudio #PRHAudio #PRHAudioInfluencer
All opinions are my own.

I will admit when I first tried this book, I couldn't get into it. However, a little while later I was able to listen to the audiobook from PRH Audio and I found the story to pull me in more. I should also clarify that because of the heavy subject matter, this book is a bit hard to read. Therefore I encourage you to check the trigger warnings before reading this book. I will also say that the book seems a bit similar to the new book by Amber and Danielle Brown, Zetas Till We Die, so I find it pretty cool that these books were released a few weeks apart from one another. I think Reese Witherspoon did a pretty good job in chosing this book for her October 2024 book, and once I got ahold of the audiobook, I enjoyed the story. So my advice is that if you are struggling reading this book check out the audiobook. The audiobook is narrated by Brie Carter and Chandler Gregoire, both of which I listened to for the first time narrating a book.

Overall I would rate this book 4/5.



Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

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The blurb drew me in, as did the first half of the book. Then something seemed to change with the pace of the story. I didn't like the second half of the book as much. While I don't mind multiple POV's being used to tell the story, this book seemed to have some repetition with using that feature. The story was told from the POV of Maya and Naomi. It also jumped back and forth between past and present. At times it made it a little more difficult to put all the pieces together. The characters were fairly well developed, although none were overly likable for me. A little predictable with an ending that wrapped up all the parts to the story. It was a decent story but not one that kept me on the edge of my seat or determined to finish quickly.

At the outset, I'll say that if I got nothing else out of this book, it was confirmation of my decades-ago decision when I started college that "going Greek" just wasn't for me. Whew!

Maya Banks, though, didn't get the memo. In fact, when she was a student at Princeton a decade or so ago, she jumped into the social club thing with both feet - participating in all of what I'd have called "Rush Week" activities at her desired Sterling Club and hoping for acceptance into the ultra-secret Greystone Society imbedded in the club as well. She was, she said, trying to pave the way for her younger sister, Naomi, who would (hopefully) follow in her footsteps. And for the most part, all that went as planned; now, Maya is back for her 10-year college reunion - when she also expects to see Naomi's graduation.

Alas, that's not to be; before the big event, Maya - now married with a 5-year-old daughter Dani - gets word that Naomi won't be graduating; no, she didn't fail her last class - she's dead. And while it's initially ruled accidental, some things just don't add up - like the drugs in her system and no logical reason for her to be found covered in snow far from the lodge at which she was staying. Maya, understandably, is frantic; but very soon she begins to wonder if some things that happened and people she knew back when she was a student had some impact on the reason for Naomi's death.

Chapters, which flip back and forth among time frames and the perspectives of Maya and Naomi almost fast enough to give me whiplash, provide readers with a look at what went on in the worlds of both young women - all coming together, of course, to make a complete and attention-holding story. Definitely worth a read, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy.