A Lovely Lie
Written By Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Published By Penzier Publishers
Release Date May 28, 2024


Hendricks has done it again! This is probably my favorite though with dual POV’s and great character development that includes a perfect narcissist that makes this story one to remember.

Flashback: A car accident on the night of their senior picnic…..Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were in the car with two other classmates who were killed as a result of the accident……..or was it an accident? Then the two girls lied to the police so that no one would ever know the truth. Pepper moved away and Scarlett thought she would never hear from her again.

Forward 22 years: Scarlett seems to have forgotten all about that fateful night and is married with a teenager herself when she gets a visit from Zoey who is Pepper’s daughter. Pepper has passed away and Zoey has a letter for Scarlett. Zoey just happens 21 yrs old which is something to remember when reading. The letter talks about Peppers pregnancy and how she intended to get an abortion and eludes to the events of that night 22 years ago. Zoey is an investigative journalist and wants information about her mother’s past and who her father is.

Can Scarlett help her figure things out or is there something that she needs to keep hidden? This book shows how amazing Hendricks is as an author. Her ability to take the reader on a ride of they will not forget is something that a lot of authors just can’t do. The author leaves a few breadcrumbs for the reader to keep the twists coming. Immersive and continual thrills as you try to figure out what the plot twist is….yet it is not predictable at all. This is one book that has everything needed for the best mystery book. If you love a great book that takes you on a roller coaster of a ride, this one is a must. Hendricks will keep you on the edge of your seat from page one till the very last page.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

🚗Book Review 🚗
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Summary; Is it better to believe a lovely lie or to know the horrible truth?
1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences. Then Pepper left town and Scarlett never heard from her again…
Now: Twenty-two years later, Scarlett has buried that deadly incident deep in her mind and built a comfortable life for herself, working in a hotel on the west coast of Florida and raising her teenage son with her husband Vince. Her peace is disrupted, however, when Pepper’s daughter shows up with news of Pepper’s death. Zoey is twenty-one and studying to be an investigative journalist. She has a cryptic letter from Pepper addressed to Scarlett that alludes to the events of that fateful night and Pepper’s initial intentions to get an abortion. Now Zoey wants answers about her mother’s past. Who is Zoey’s father? And what really happened after the senior picnic? As Zoey continues to dig into the past, all of Scarlett’s buried secrets threaten to rise to the surface.
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Rating; ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My thoughts- I loved this thriller! I’m a big fan of Jaime Lynn Hendricks writing style! This is my second favorite of hers, the first is her debut. This was a read that I just couldn’t put down. I was obsessed with the way this was told. The Audiobook was fantastic! I really enjoyed learning the truth about Scarlett and Pepper. I continued to be surprised by each reveal, overall this was a very solid thriller! Definitely recommend checking this out this summer !
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QOTD- do you read thrillers ?! What do you look for in a good thriller?! I love mystery/ thrillers they are definitely my genre of choice !
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Insufferable. Every last one of these characters. If you like lifetime movies, you may be in for a treat. I hated every person in this book. The inner thoughts of these terrible characters were annoying too.

This was such a clever storyline. I found myself drawn into this book almost instantly and turning the pages at a furious pace. It wasn't like it was the twistiest book I've ever read but it definitely had some good surprises. The character development was strong and I liked how the reader saw some of the characters change and become more aware of their situations during the course of the book.

The main character, Scarlett Russo has been carrying a secret for over twenty years about what happened the night of senior picnic. Now her old friend Pepper's daughter, Zoey has shown up with a letter to Scarlett that may blow up her life. And just who is Zoey's father? These people in this small town have many secrets and they aren't necessarily the nicest people either. It's hard to know who to trust and just when you think you might have figured out who the "nice guys" are, you might second guess yourself. This book keeps you guessing.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The narration of the audio was done really well and kept me immersed in the story. I enjoyed being able to toggle between the ebook and audiobook . 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook.

A Lovely Lie tells the story of a group of teenagers, now adults, and a tragic incident that took place the night of their graduation. The tragedy is dredged up when the daughter of one of the teens shows up at the home of her mother’s once best friend, looking for answers to what happened that night…and the identity of her father.

Such a great premise! I love a good then/now mystery, and there were some good twists. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the writing style, and I found all of the characters unlikeable, so I didn’t really have anyone to root for. In addition, when the teenagers were being questioned by the cops, they were very flippant and rude. While teens may not be known for their respect of their elders, the way they responded to the cops was overly dismissive.

Actually, there was one character that I liked, who redeemed some of the other characters, but he was a bit player in the drama. This book was a solid three stars for me. I know others have rated it much higher, so some readers might like it more than I did.

“Can I get you a drink? Water, juice…*𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩*!?” 😂🤣😂

“Ugh. Being raised by a narcissist has rubbed off on me in the worst way.”

This is one of my favorite books of the year. A really fun domestic suspense mystery with tons of secrets.

The book was full of characters that were well developed. The book was full of flawed characters that you love to hate and protagonists that you’ll cheer for.

The story was so perfectly paced. There were twists & turns and they flowed so well. It felt like I was not reading at all, more like watching a movie play out in my head. It’s my fav thing when an author writes something where I’m THAT invested.

I did the audiobook of this one, it was very well done. However, I’m so glad that I pre-ordered a copy of this one for my shelf because the cover is gorgeous.

𝐉𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐋𝐘𝐍𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐒 has solidified her status on my #autobuyauthor list.

I enjoyed the twists and turns in A Lovely Lie, but also felt this was a very plot-driven book without much character development or worldbuilding.

Most of the action in the present takes place in a very short time period and the past is revealed through epistolary elements, so overall it felt a little underbaked to me.

Not the kind of immersive book I love, but a good pick for fans of quick and fun reads (like those by Freida McFadden) that are all about the twists!

Many thanks to the publisher for my copy - all opinions are my own.

This was a solid little domestic thriller. Great character development and some solid twists, my only issue was that it did feel like the story dragged just a tad throughout. The dangle of what happened the night of the senior party just lagged on a touch too long for me - I wanted to care about it more than I did.

In the end it was an enjoyable enough journey - great for those who love a slow burn domestic mystery.

This book was messy in the best way possible; not in writing, but in the way the characters acted! I had such a fun time on this messed up, fast-paced ride! I need to check out more from this author ASAP!!

This was such a good book. It kept my interest all the way thru and I couldn’t wait to keep reading. Lots of suspense.

I received an ARC copy of a Lovely Lie by Jaime Lynn Hendricks from Netgalley!

This was such a fantastic and fun read! I loved the dual timelines and alternating perspectives told throughout the book, with each chapter inching you closer to the truth. From the very first chapter, there were twists and turns, and had me thinking to myself.. this is really going to be a book that I am going to enjoy!

Overall, the characters were all highly unlikeable lol, but there was something in me that did enjoy reading in their perspectives because it got closer to the truth of what this lovely lie was!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and would definitely recommend it for anyone who loves these types of thrillers! It brough back nostalgia of what it felt like to be a senior in high school having just graduated and going to a big party where some type of drama always tended to happen lol. Very fun and fast paced read!

I received this for review from the publisher. Hendricks is on top of her game with this mystery/ thriller! This was a gripping account of love, lust, teenage angst and murder. In this story we follow Zoe, who is the daughter of Pepper. Pepper in high school was the captain of the cheerleaders, most popular girl at school and master manipulator. Zoe has never learned the identity of her Dad so she does back to her Moms hometown to try to uncover the truth after her Mother’s death. Sometimes knowing the truth is the higher price to pay. I really enjoyed this twisted tale, told in duel timelines.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler for the eARC.

This book is twisty in a way that many others try to do but fail at. I really enjoyed it and found it to be fast paced and kept trying to guess (to no avail) what was going to happen.

I'm not a fan of when nearly everyone in a book knows something that the reader doesn't. Little clues are dropped for quite a while until it's revealed what happened at the senior picnic 22 years before, and I couldn't quite figure out why the reader is kept in the dark for so long. It's obvious from the beginning that people lied about what happened, but I couldn't figure out why the original story that was told to the police was kept from the reader.

This made me dislike the first part of the book, until we finally learn what happened and the characters begin to reveal what really happened that night. Basically, best friends Scarlet and Pepper covered up what happened during a car accident at the senior picnic that left two of their classmates dead. Pepper disappeared off to New York, and Scarlet eventually met and married Vince, who used to be Pepper's high school boyfriend. They have a now teenage son and a horrible marriage. But who should show up on the doorstep but 21-year-old Zoey, daughter of the recently deceased Pepper, who has some questions about the identity of her father and about what exactly happened at the senior picnic.

I know we are supposed to be shocked about what happened, but overall I was underwhelmed. I pretty much saw everything coming. I listened to this as an audiobook and if anything, it made the characters seem more annoying. Scarlet calls her son "my boy" every few pages and it was annoying and then just got weird. I felt like an editor should have cut a few of those out. Maybe I wouldn't have noticed it as much had I read the book on the page, but it was silly in the audio.

Overall I found the book predictable and kind of forgettable. There are lots of people who loved this one so read their reviews to balance mine as I'm a bit of an outlier here.

I was genuinely stunned by how terrific this mystery thriller is! A large part of that is due not only to the wonderfully relentless pacing that leaves readers with no time to recover before the next startling twist hits, but also to the excellent depictions of the interior lives of the main characters. Perhaps most important was the relationship arc between arguably the two main protagonists of this book. Without giving away any spoilers, it was genuinely everything I’d hoped for, as both a feminist and a believer in healthy growth and self-awareness.

A Lovely Lie opens with two panicking teenagers fleeing the scene of an accident after their high school’s senior picnic in 1999. The action swings back and forth between that pivotal period and 2021, as we learn that one of those teenagers, Scarlett Kane, grew up to become a hotel concierge in her hometown of St Petersburg, Florida. She’s married with a 17 year-old son, Luke, whom she adores. But when a young woman walks up to her desk one day, Scarlett knows instantly that her perfect life is about to fall apart.

For the startlingly beautiful Zoey Wilson looks just like her mother Pepper, who’d been the other person with Scarlett as they’d run away from the accident instead of calling the cops. Pepper had soon left Florida for the bright lights of New York City, but Zoey has come back to town looking for answers that could explode everything Scarlett has worked so hard to build for herself in the ensuing years.

To Scarlett’s chagrin, Zoey isn’t just Pepper’s replica in appearance. Like her mother, she’s incredibly good at wearing an increasingly frustrated Scarlett down. As Scarlett narrates:

QUOTE
I have no idea why I’m letting a child intimidate me. The way she’s staring me down and ripping insults reminds me of–well, of Pepper. Zoey looks exactly like her. I feel like a middle school student all over again, with Pepper pointing a finger in my face and demanding that I do this or do that…or else.

Zoey doesn’t miss a beat with her tactics, just like her mother. “So, like, should I come to your house tonight, or do you want to call him now and tell him to come here, or…” Zoey lets the sentence trail off, and I decide I hate her. I fucking hate her.
END QUOTE

It’s bad enough that Zoey wants to know the truth about who her father might be. Worse, she wants to know everything about the accident that her mother had alluded to in a letter addressed to Scarlett, that Zoe unearthed while going through Pepper’s effects. Like her mother, Zoe refuses to take no for an answer. She’s going to be an investigative journalist, after all, and relentlessness is a key trait for anyone successful in her chosen profession.

But could that very trait be the same thing that leads to her downfall? Scarlett isn’t the only one who doesn’t want the secrets of that deadly night uncovered. What lengths will some of her family and friends go to in order to stop Zoey from revealing what really happened twenty-two years ago?

In addition to moving back and forth through time, the narrative shifts between multiple viewpoints, giving readers insight into why so many of these people make the (occasionally poor) choices that they do. Jamie Lynn Hendricks writes with an astonishing empathy as she shows us the all too understandable reasoning for some less than stellar behavior. Scarlett, for example, knows that her marriage is a sham, no matter how hard she fights to protect it:

QUOTE
All the excuses I made[.] What a punching bag I must have sounded like. Of course, Pepper groomed me to be that way–to take shit from people who tell me they love me, even if their actions say otherwise.

I’ll never regret [marrying him] because I have Luke, but if I had any kind of spine and left him after [his affair], maybe I’d be in a different loving relationship right now. Maybe even married to someone else. My relationship, my marriage, has never been filled with warmth or the kind of love you read about. The only time I’ve ever felt real love in seventeen years is every time I look at Luke.
END QUOTE

As its title suggests, this superlative novel asks readers whether choosing to perpetuate a lovely lie is better than dealing with a difficult truth. Those of you who, like myself, will concede that the latter is nearly always preferable in the long run will find much to adore here. The levels of realistic self-awareness all around, as the characters fight to rise above their own fears and weaknesses, really elevate this book from your typical psychological thriller. Smart, generous and often moving and hilarious in turn, this is one of my favorite mysteries and character studies of the year so far.

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish.

Scarlett has been keeping her best friend Pepper's secret for more than 20 years. Just after graduation, something terrible happened, and one lovely little lie was told. Pepper left for New York, and no one back home heard from her again. When Pepper's daughter shows up claiming her mother is dead and she is looking for her father, buried secrets begin to resurface.

If you are a thriller book reader, you should be able to predict the plot twist and where this book was going. However, the twist was not what made it so great, it was the character development and watching everything unfold. You know the girls told a lie after an accident, you have a general idea of what happened, but the depths of the lie are worse than you'd think.

I started out hating most characters and liking a couple. They were the kind of characters that you loved to hate and still wanted to read about. As the book progressed, all of my opinions flipped on almost every single character. As we began to see more depth, my opinion changed and by the end, I was left so unsettled by the whole thing.

This was not my first book by this author, but it has been my favorite so far. I highly recommend it to thriller readers.

Quick Take:
This was a fun, fast read with some twists and turns - one that actually made me gasp cause I didn't see it coming!

I read a LOT of thrillers - and unless they do something unique or different or shocking - they start to blend together sometimes and I think this will be the case with this one over time. But that's not to say I didn't enjoy reading it and want to keep turning the pages to see what would happen next.

At times it was repetitive and a bit pedantic with its writing - and most of the characters were not super layered or developed - but again, it didn't stop me from enjoying this fast, fun popcorn thriller.

Read This If You Like:
Dual Timelines
Past Secrets Coming Back to Haunt You
High School Dynamics
Family Drama
Twists & Turns
Mixed Media (Police Transcripts)

Overall - a fun, easy to read thriller that is great when you need just a quick, entertaining, page-turning read!

Thank you to @netgalley & @penzlerpub for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

A Lovely Lie follows the story of Scarlett and Pepper as they play some sort of role in an accident that happened the night of their senior picnic. Fast forward 20 years and secrets start to surface. Will everything be exposed and the truth revealed?

As always, the author had me on a wild ride the whole time. I did not see the ending coming that did. The dual timelines and police interviews were a great storytelling model and it helped the story unfold perfectly. I was invested from the very beginning and was cheering on the Scarlett character. I'm proud of where the character ended. Somehow, Jaime Lynn Hendricks writes a mystery/ suspense novel that makes me hug it when I'm done like it is the highest literary fiction. Her characters are raw and real and, in this book in particular, reflections of the worst parts of ourselves and society. I'm so glad I read this book and can't wait for her next one!

Read this now if you're looking for the first really excellent mystery of summer! This well paced mystery has interesting characters with long, complicated relationships and goes back in time and between characters to reveal the lies, secrets, and stories kept over two decades that bring them to the moment of the story. This is a quick read that I didn't want to put down.

This book was really good! It was fast-paced with lots of twists and turns. The back story did well of building the anticipation without giving so much away up front. The characters were so good and I found myself going back and forth on who I was actually rooting for.
It was suspenseful, thrilling, thought invoking and surprising. I read it in one sitting.

Highly recommend.