Typical thriller for me. Doesnt stand out. I did appreciate the “unknowning” of whats real and whats not. Reminds me of Sometimes I Lie. Lacking in depth for me

This is apparently a GMA Book Club pick, and I can see why. It has a vague Gone-Girl-esque feel to it; not so much in specific plot points but in a vibe and the way that the book is divided into different POVs.

Sloane Caraway, as noted in the blurb, lies. A lot. I didn’t think that would bother me, but I was wrong. The impulsive (and honestly compulsive) nature of Sloane’s lies ended up making me anxious. I understood that her life was boring and drab and she felt compelled to make it somehow seem more interesting, but it was like watching someone walking a tightrope over a deep canyon.

As Sloane’s backstory is revealed, it becomes clear that she’s repeating history with Jay and Violet; her previous situation ended in a restraining order against Sloane. I became frustrated with her, or perhaps more specifically by her repeated insistence that this situation was different. I don’t do well with delusional people. Also, a note on her lying: in my limited experience with compulsive liars, I will say that people absolutely know that you’re lying. Which adds a whole extra layer of cringe to the situation.

So, Sloane falls into the nannying job for Jay and Violet and is able to quit her manicurist job (she’d previously had a position at a Montessori preschool, but that ended in a spectacular flameout). She is first drawn to Jay, who seems like the perfect man – breathtakingly handsome, rich, an attentive husband and father. But when she starts working for Violet and Jay, she doesn’t see much of him (he works a lot), and so she is instead drawn (more platonically) to the charming and also-seemingly-perfect-but-somehow-more-accessible Violet. Violet and Sloane (oh, wait, she’s told them her name is Caitlin, an impulsive lie that seems dumb at the time but does end up making her harder to trace) become friends – it seems like Sloane Caitlin spends more time with Violet than with her adorable daughter Harper.

I can’t talk about the second half of the book without revealing huge spoilers. When the POV changed I actually liked it because it was nice to get a break from Sloane (I’m just going to call her Sloane rather than Caitlin because that after all is her name, even if she is called Caitlin through much of the book). As mentioned, she made me anxious. And while the facts revealed in the shifted perspective weren’t exactly surprising – the blurb says more than it should, maybe – I was surprised by how much is revealed far before the end. There were still some aspects that weren’t entirely clear, and of course the end has a couple of twists, but again, the structure was very Gone-Girl-esque to me. Which isn’t a bad thing – I can’t be the only current suspense reader for whom GG was a gateway drug.

So far, pretty good. But about those twists at the end – one of them made sense even though I didn’t entirely anticipate it. But the other…

I talk pretty often in my suspense reviews about “batshit” twists and plot points that don’t bear close scrutiny. By and large, I accept such things if the book keeps my attention well enough. This book did, and so I accepted the fact that the machinations of one character, while often clever, also depended on a lot of little things falling their way: people showing up or not showing up when expected to, people acting and reacting in specific ways, etc. That’s all fine. But the actual end of this book featured some elements that were just too far-fetched to be acceptable. Like, my limit was reached. This could not possibly have played out this way in the real world or anything approaching the real world.

And so it kind of…ruined the book for me? Ruined is too strong of a word, but it definitely overshadowed the rest of the story. All I keep thinking about is how unbelievable it was.

I will spoil it for the curious below (warning: spoiler is vague but also not that vague?):

Spoiler: Hide

I don’t care how corrupt a police force is, how much of an alcoholic the coroner is, how much help you have from friends on the inside – it’s just not credible to pretend someone died by murder, to the point where the accused murderer is imprisoned, when you can’t produce a body and there has been no apparent investigation. Like, the absence of a body would be a huge factor. If the defendant has a lawyer – and they would have to – how can someone possibly be convicted when the putative deceased has supposedly been cremated without any examination and you only have the word of one witness to the supposed shooting and one witness who can testify to the death of the supposed victim (a witness who happens to have a previous connection to the victim).
Also, it doesn’t make sense for a character to decide on a dime to team up with the person who just tried to kill them, but that one is more of a “not really human nature” thing, so I can let it go. The other is a “how the real world works” and I can’t, sadly, let it go.

If a book is dumb and has dumb plot twists, I probably judge it less harshly. But Count My Lies wasn’t a dumb book, until the unbelievable ending, and that annoys me.

I’m not sure what to rate this one. It would have been a B+ before the end, and initially I dropped it down to a B, but I think the ending was so stupid I’ll go with a B-. I would still try the author again, though.

Sophie Stava’s Count My Lies is a dazzling debut that had me hooked from the first page. Sloane Caraway, a compulsive liar, lands a nanny job with the seemingly perfect Lockhart family after a small fib. But beneath their polished facade lies a web of secrets more dangerous than her own. The narrative twists and turns, revealing the dark underbelly of privilege and deception. Stava’s sharp prose and complex characters make this a must-read thriller. I also saw it is going to be a show - so excited.

This well done excursion in the unreliable narrator (or is it, since Sloane is up front with readers about her deceptions?) subgenre is particularly effective in challenging readers' expectations and sympathies for the main characters. A strong debut!

I loved this one! It had the best twist since Gone Girl for me. I did guess the ending before I got there, but I still loved it. The story developed in a way that felt engaging and both of the female characters were so well created that they were easy to connect with. I will be recommending this to everyone who loves a twisty story!

Sloane is a liar. Her latest lie, one day in the park that she’s a nurse named Caitlin, ingratiates her into the life of the Lockhart family, parents Violet and Jay and young daughter, Harper. Soon, “Caitlin,” and Violet are the best of friends and she’s nannying full-time for Harper. But Sloane’s hiding more than just her real name and profession. But soon, she begins to suspect that Violet and Jay may be as well…

This book is divided into four parts, each narrated by a different character, making it easy to follow along.

Wow. This book is crazy twisted, in that you really never know what is going to happen next! It’s really best to go in without knowing anything, but it’s safe to say that you never know what’s around the corner in this book. And just when you think you have a handle on things, they switch up on you.

And it’s hard to describe the characters in the book, because while they are all liars and somewhat “bad people,” I can’t say that I hated everyone. No spoilers here, but there’s plenty of nuance to the story as well that the author works in.

Thus is a great mystery that you’ll definitely want to pick up!

Give me a book full of lies where you don't know the truth AT ALL and a quick, fun read. This was it! I couldn't even keep up with all the lies and honesty it makes you question literally thing you read! But this was so fun and felt so crazy and wild.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc! 4 stars!

Count My Lies is billed as fast paced thriller with an unreliable narrator. Both couldn’t be further from the truth. It was slow paced and Sloan was reliably uninteresting and frustrating. There was a bit of drama as the POV changed about 75% through but it was way too late to save the silly plot.

I liked this book and you will too if you are a Frieda McFadden reader. It was warped and twisted. I enjoyed reading it even though this has been done so many times before.

An amazing cross between "The Last Mrs. Parrish" and the 1980s movie Body Heat. It takes a lot for a book to stand out in the crowded "nanny" space, and this one does it. The nanny is a confessed pathological liar, and yet the reader sympathizes with her. While some of the plot points were predictable, the ending was not. Fabulous debut from an exciting new voice in domestic suspense.

Boy meets girl. Girls meets boy… and boy’s daughter and wife. Wife invites girl over for dinner. Girl gets offered a job as a nanny for their daughter.
How many lies can girl keep up until she cracks? unless she is not the only one telling lies…

"Count My Lies" is a gripping and suspenseful novel that explores the dark side of human nature and the consequences of deception.

This book has taken the internet by storm and has left us all gawking in its wake and let me tell you, it's well deserved. Sophia Stava delves into the complexities of deception, identity and allure of having the perfect life.

Sloane, a habitual liar, is a compelling and complex protagonist, creating a sense of unease. I constantly questioned what I was able to believe.

So many twists I swore I suffered from whiplash by the time I concluded

Check out this teaser :

Sloane Caraway is a liar.

Harmless lies, mostly, to make her self-proclaimed sad, little life a bit more interesting.

So when Sloane sees a young girl in tears at a park one afternoon, she can’t help herself—she tells the girl’s (very attractive) dad she’s a nurse and helps him pull a bee stinger from the girl’s foot.

With this lie, and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for the wealthy, and privileged Jay and Violet Lockhart. The perfect New York couple, with a brownstone, a daughter in private school, and summers on Block Island.

But maybe Sloane isn’t the only one lying, and all that’s picture-perfect harbors a much more dangerous truth. To say anything more is to spoil the most exciting, twisty, and bitingly smart suspense novel to come out in years.

The thing about lies is that they add up, form their own truth and a twisted prison of a world. And in Count My Lies, Sophie Stava spins a breakneck, unputdownable thriller about the secrets we keep, and the terrifying dangers that lurk just under the images we spend so much time trying to maintain.

Careful what you lie for.

The ending of this one makes all the difference. Sloan Caraway is a know liar who enjoys adopting other women's life style. What happens when she meets her match in Violet Lockhart, a woman who is looking for an escape from her daughter Harper. It's a classic, be careful what you wish for.

Positives:
Written from three POVs: Sloane, Violet, and Jay (the husband)
Twisty!!! Just when you think you have it figured out, there was another twist thrown in
Fast paced
Wrapped up nicely at the end with some suspension of disbelief

Negatives:
I wish we could have heard back from Caitlin/Sloane right after Violet's part to see if she was catching on to anything. I know we heard from her at the end.

This book was a wild ride. I thought so many times I knew what was happening, and I was never right! I loved this. It was like Single White Female meets A Simple Favor.

3.5⭐️ When compulsive liar, Sloane Caraway, works her way into the acquaintance of the wealthy Jay and Violet Lockhart, and subsequently becomes a nanny to their young daughter, she has no idea that this family has quite a few secrets of their own.

Overall, I would say I liked this one. It reads very fast, is easy to follow, has pitch-perfect pacing, and has a fun cast of characters who I was endlessly curious about as the story opened. Because of the entertainment factor (it is the epitome of the popcorn thriller), this book is perfect for rainy-day reading or as a palate cleanser when you have read a few denser, emotionally heavy reads.

While there are quite a few positives to Sophie Stava’s debut, I didn’t love that it’s yet another take on a book that keeps being recycled. I won’t name the book because of the spoiler factor, but it is clearly the inspiration here. However, there were a few twists that made it different enough for me to enjoy it even still. However, my biggest criticism is how over-the-top the conclusion is, a Swiss cheese of plot holes if you will, and yet everything ends tied up in the most pristine bow ever.

I would give this book two ratings: one for the first half (4.5⭐️) and one for the second (2.5⭐️), which ultimately gets me to the 3.5 stars I have rated it. If you have not read the book this one is inspired by, you will love it, at least until the final chapters (DM me for the title if you’d like to know).

Read if you like:
▪️debut novels
▪️psychological thrillers
▪️domestic suspense
▪️twisty books
▪️multiple POVs

Thank you Gallery Books for the advanced copies.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really liked this book, but there’s are two things that took it down that 💫 level. The first is that I thought it read slowly, and I love thrillers that read quickly and your, like, yes! So satisfying. This was satisfying, but without the Yes! That leads into number 2. I figured out the direction of the book about halfway through. There were a few twists, but since I knew where it was going, some of the fun was taken away.

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This book's pace was great, with just the right amount of twists to keep me engaged. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and this was my first read from this author, but I am very interested in more of their work. It was suspenseful, well written and was very hard to put down.

I only got about 25 percent in before deciding to abandon it. I might not be in the mood for this type of book at the moment so I am open to picking it up again in a few weeks to see if I feel differently.

Loved this book! I thought I knew where the ending was going but the author gave a twist I wasn't expecting!

This book was meh. It is told in dual POV. The first chunk of hte book is told from Sloane (aka Caitlin’s) POV. I did NOT like her. I found all her lies annoying and redundant and really didn’t care about her as a character. Once we got to Violet’s POV chapters, I found myself more engaged. It has a few twits and is definitely a slow burn. The books main trope is unreliable narrators, so if that frustrates you, I’d steer clear. If you like female protagonists, lying, and con women than this may be for you.

Sloane has been a compulsive liar since she was young. All she wanted was to fit in and by telling elaborate lies (i.e her dad was a rockstar, she had a mansion with a pool etc) was her way to connect with people. Fast forward 20 plus years and she still cannot help but lie to EVERYONE around her. One day, she finds herself reading in the park, and helps a father and his daughter with a bee sting. She tells him she is a nurse and that her name is Caitlin. She continues to see this family and eventually weasels her way into becoming their nanny (despite her checkered past as a teacher where she got fired). She keeps up her fake persona as she becomes closwer with the family. Especially, the wife Violet. She finds herself wanting to be as close to her as possible. Constantly checking her phone for when Violet will text, dying her hair to look like hers, and even starting to wear clothes that are similar. Violet loves the attention and is constantly flattered by “Caitlins” love of her, but Violet also isn’t who she seems. Behind closed doors, Violet has a secret plan. The plan will destroy everyone in her way and no one is safe from their lies.

Thank you Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC!