Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read The Greatest Lie Of All. Jillian Cantor is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint! My favorite thing about this book is how Ms. Cantor switches points of view and years. You get all the perspectives and it still leaves you questions. This is a story of love and loss with lots of lies thrown in. The Greatest Lie Of All is a book you don't want to miss.

I really liked this book. I loved how it kept changing POVs and time periods! It was fast paced and I loved the ending!

Gloria said it best that you have to earn your happy ending and work hard in those actions that occur in the middle. For so long, she created what she thought her happy ending should have looked like and fictionalized her life story. Amelia was set to.play her as the successful romance novelist but as she dug deeper, she realized that like her pen name and supposed romance with George, Gloria lived behind a facade. She lost her great love in Max and therefore created a web of lies that she hoped would bring happiness to her readers when she herself had a total lack of. She pushed everyone away including her son, Will. Amelia in the loss of her mother couldn't find a new beginning as she felt surrounded by endings. This book was fascinating as the true story of Bess and Gloria unveiled and revealed itself as the true testament of love. Amelia found love in both herself and Will. Life truly is fleeting and it is so important to live for yourself and not what you hoped it would actually be.

I really enjoyed this book. It was so well done switching between the present day timeline with Amelia and Gloria and the past with Gloria. The scenes were cut perfectly so when something was really ramping up in the story it would switch so you couldn't help but keep going to get more details about what was going on! It was part Thriller/Mystery part Romance and also just highlighted how our assumptions can get in the way of living our lives. Would things have turned out different if Gloria hadn't assumed certain things about the circumstances of her life or the people in it? Aren't we all guilty of that? So while it may have been frustrating to walk through with her wishing she would have made different choices, it was real, and there was still happiness at the end even through the sadness and unfortunate turns. Such is life.

I like the premise of this story. You have an actress trying to method act about an author so living-in to get a feel for her. Only, the author runs a tight ship and won’t allow the actress to fully do her job.

I like our main girl here. You get a lot of her thoughts and motivations and I really appreciate that. Will and Tate are both great supporting characters as well!

Otherwise, the book didn’t hit it for me. Mare felt way more flat than I wanted her too. Flat is honestly just the word for her- yes, cold could be used too but more than that it’s just a big nothing for most of the book. (Pertaining to Mare).

There’s potential here, it just fell short for me. The writing was fine, the dual timelines were good.

I would still pick up other books by Jillian Cantor, even though this one wasn’t my preference!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the ARC.

Poignant romantic literature about an author who rewrites her own past to take control of her future and the lessons she teaches the younger woman who is playing her in her biographic film.
I enjoyed the character arc, the intertwined love stories and even the tragedies.
Thank you to Harlequin for the advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

The Greatest Lie of All is an emotional journey about love, loss, and the secrets that shape us.

If you were a fan of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, you will really enjoy this book. With similar themes of a young woman interviewing and learning from an older woman, uncovering secrets, and love stories that take place over decades - this book takes a really interesting journey of discovery for each character and has some exciting twists.

The pacing of the book was a bit slow to start, but the last 100 pages felt like a complete rollercoaster.

4/5

Thank you, Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC of this incredible book! This book has chapters that alternate between the present and past, from one main character to another. It's so easy to mess up this type of organization and jumble up the story, but I can say that it was captivating. I wish I had more words to describe how well this is genuinely written; all I can say is that to write the way Jillian Cantor did for this book is absolutely phenomenal. I give this a full five out of five stars for keeping me captivated from the first page to the last and still making me satisfied at the ending. I am genuinely excited for this book to come out so that I can get my hands on a copy for my library! I very much look forward to reading more of Jilian Cantor's work in the future.

I really enjoyed the romance element to this book, it had that Hollywood element that I was looking for. I thought the overall feel worked with what the author was going for and thought it was wonderfully done. Jillian Cantor has a great style for this type of story and left me wanting more. I thought Amelia was great and enjoyed getting to know Gloria they were both interesting people and had me engaged with their story.

This story shows that you don’t know a good thing until it’s gone and also that what may seem like a good thing isn’t always good. Look’s can be deceiving.

The story revolves around MC Amelia who is just really having a bad day, her life changes suddenly and she takes on a new role that will reveal hidden truths and possibly shoot her to stardom. That Role is of Gloria Diamond a romance novelist who isn’t what she seems, has a connection you won’t see coming and a secret romance that lasted until death and beyond.

It was very similar to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, though I do think the plot could have been more thought out here, there’s a connection at the very end that you don’t really emotionally connect to because you don’t see signs of it throughout the book so it just seems like a twist that wasn’t really needed and was added at the very end, other than that every other twist was good!

Thank you to Jillian Cantor, Harlequin Trade Publishing, NetGalley for my free early e-book copy of “The Greatest Lie of All”.

I received this advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Pub date: Dec, 03 2024.

The Greatest Lie of All was an interesting read giving insight into the many loves of a top selling romance author. What in her world was fact and what was fiction as she was about to have a bio pic go into production with Amelia playing the role of Gloria Diamond.
All the secrets come to life when Amelia is a guest at the author's home.
A little mystery, romance and self discovery made for a unique read.
Four stars from me with thanks to #NetGalley for the opportunity to early read this book.

loved this romance between will and Annie and also the romance of max and & George and mare and that triangle. I loved that this book was told in the different point of views. I loved seeing the past and that questions came up and thankfully solved with a test. Loved that Annie wanted to know more about mare/Gloria and she found that some of her story too.

A highly entertaining story of love, grief, and reinvention.

Amelia’s career isn’t taking off as she had hoped so when she has the opportunity to play a famous romance writer (and one of her mother’s favorite authors) in an upcoming biopic, she takes it. Unfortunately, the subject of the biopic, Gloria, seems to hate Amelia - making it very awkward for Amelia to prepare for the role. In her quest to understand Gloria, she stumbles upon some long-kept secrets that will change her life.

This was a page-turner for me - the chapters alternate between present day and Gloria’s past. I was so curious about Gloria’s heartbreaking backstory (and invested in Amelia’s developing relationship with Gloria’s son!).

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

This book is everything! It’s got a mystery, a love story and a fascinating twist. If you love a good Hollywood tale, this is definitely your kind of read!