Have not read a great thriller like this in a while 🙌

I loved this book and devoured it in a day. Do you like Secret Lives of Mormon Wives? Read this book. Did you like Gone Girl? Read it. Do you find yourself fascinated by the influencers that are a little… out there🫣? Read it.

Pokes some fun at the philosophy of a “trad wife” influencer (hens anyone??), while also showing the power held by women in the influencer marketing space. Feminist, twisty, domestic thriller, a wild ending, and a one sitting read!!

Bed and Lizzie were super good friends then became estranged. Years later Vex is an influencer living a nomadic life with a bunch of kids and Lizzie is a journalist. Bed contacts Lizzie out of the blue and when Lizzie flies across the country, Bex’s husband is found murdered and Bex goes missing. Lots of suspense and twists here!

After listening to Jo mention this on her podcast several times, I could not have been more excited for this one- and it delivered exactly what I wanted it to. I don't think there is another author who could have done justice to this story in this way- Jo Piazza has delved deep into the worlds of influencers and of tradwives, and it paid off with a book that is both a compelling mystery and an incisive, informed look at the world of influencer culture and influencer as career.

4.25 stars
"The #tradwife murder mystery we’ve all been waiting for. From the bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance and the creator of the Under the Influence podcast comes an explosive thriller about two estranged friends, a grisly murder, a sudden disappearance, and the truly shocking revelation that everyone is lying to you about something . . ."

Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college. After graduation, Bex vanished, and Lizzie hasn't seen her for fifteen years. Bex is now Rebecca Sommers, a “trad wife" influencer with millions of followers who salivate over her perfect life on her ranch with her children and handsome husband. Lizzie is struggling as a remote magazine writer with two young children and an unemployed husband.

One night, Bex asks Lizzie for an exclusive interview with her about her multimillion-dollar business venture and an invitation to MomBomb, a high-profile influencer conference. At the conference, Bex goes missing, and her husband is found brutally murdered on their ranch. Lizzie finds herself plunged into the dark side of the cutthroat world of social media that includes not knowing what is real and what is staged for public consumption. Does she really know who Bex is, and will she be able to solve this and help her?
 
Piazza is a master storyteller with sharp wit and insight into the realities of influencers and human nature. It is also an examination of motherhood and marriage and how what we see on social media is often far from the truth of reality. I found this to be gripping from start to finish and a very well-written, entertaining read. It is one of the better thrillers I have read this year. I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Group Dutton, and Jo Piazza for an advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

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3.5 stars
Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college but 15 years ago Bex apruptly cut Lizzie out of her life and they haven't spoken since. Bex (now known as Rebecca) has transformed herself into a highly successful tradwife influencer who lives on a ranch with her husband, Gray, and five kids promoting her perfect life on Instagram to millions of followers. Out of the blue, Bex reaches out to Lizzie, a struggling magazine journalist, and invites her to a high-profile mom influencer conference on the west coast promising she'll give Lizzie an exclusive interview after making a big annoucement about a multimillion-dollar business venture.

Lizzie arrives at the exclusive resort where the conference is being held and catches up with Bex over drinks but Bex gives nothing away about her upcoming announcement. They call it a night early and make plans to meet for breakfast but the next morning the resort is crawling with police - Gray has been found brutally murdered at the ranch and Bex has gone missing making her the prime suspect. Lizzie is caught up in the middle of it and would like to go home but can't resist a good story or the chance to help an old friend who might be in danger.

A juicy murder mystery combined with an interesting look at the dark side of influencer culture and the tradwife phenomenon. Starts off slow but then takes off with the plot getting a bit unhinged toward the end. A binge read that kept me turning the pages well into the night to find out how it ended and whodunnit!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

What a thriller this book was! it had everything in it. The twists were coming so fast I couldn't see them all! First book by this author wont be the last!

Lizzie and Bex were the best of friends in college. After Bex ghosted Lizzie, their friendship evaporated; leaving Lizzie on the outside looking in. While no longer her friend, Lizzie became one of Bex's many followers... sort of. Bex became trad-wife momfluencer Rebecca Sommers; the kind of woman Lizzie's friends loved to hate on. When Bex reaches out to Lizzie with an offer she can't refuse, Lizzie immediately goes to her... and becomes her alibi. Now it's up to Lizzie to tell Bex's story... and find Bex and her children before something terrible happens.

This book was incredible! The writing was simple but insightful. The character development was perfect. The reader knew just enough at just the right moment. The characters felt familiar yet mysterious. I hungered to learn more about them throughout the book, but by the end, I felt like I knew everything I needed to know. This book flew by. I didn't want to put it down. I needed to know what came next. Each twist was masterfully executed and by the end, my jaw was just settled on the floor. I haven't felt this way about a book in a very long time. This is a book I will return to again and again. It's 1000% a Read It! It's also without a doubt the best book I've read this year!

Note: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and am leaving this honest review voluntarily.

This book is the definition of a juicy, wildly entertaining page-turner—I flew through it in a day! Jo Piazza delivers an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the business of being an influencer, a world she’s known for studying and exposing with sharp insight on her podcast. The glimpse into the sponsorships, branded content, and the role of an agent was fascinating and kept me hooked from start to finish.

At its heart, though, this is a story about women taking charge of their circumstances and doing whatever it takes to protect the people they love. The action unfolds quickly, and just when I thought I had it all figured out… the ending threw me for a loop in the best way. The women in the book - Rebecca, Lizzie, Victoria, and Olivia - all have different roles and motivations in the way the story plays out, and the ways they work with and against each other for their own gain is what keeps the pace of this story moving.

If I had one complaint, it’s that I was really hoping for an epilogue from Olivia’s perspective to wrap things up. I kept flipping pages, half-convinced there was one more chapter hidden somewhere!

Overall, a smart, addictive read that will keep you up past your bedtime—highly recommend for anyone who loves messy drama, powerful women, lots of action, and an ending that will surprise you.

Everyone is Lying to You is the newest novel by Jo Piazza. Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college but haven't seen each other in almost 15 years. When Lizzie gets an invite to a women's conference from Bex with a proposal for an exclusive interview about her upcoming business ventures, she decides to go and see if she can understand what happened to their friendship over a decade ago. When Bex's husband is murdered and Bex is the prime suspect who is missing, Lizzie works to find her friend and unravel the killer.

This was an interesting premise and along a different theme than Piazza's earlier books, but I enjoyed it. Fast paced and several unexpected twists made for a fun summer read.

This was an unputdownable thriller focusing on the trad wives influencer habits. When reporter Lizzie gets an invited to an influencer convention by her old college friend, Bex, she is intrigued, despite how their friendship ended years ago. Shortly after arriving at the convention, Bex's husband is found dead. I promise you won't be able to put this one down as you unravel everything and it's full of twists I did not see coming. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for a chance to read this one early in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Jo Piazza, and Penguin Group Dutton for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

I am so here for the new wave of books about influencers, especially thrillers!! This was a fun, juicy read. I don't think for me it was personally groundbreaking, and I did predict a few of the twists, but I sure had a lot of fun reading this. I truly couldn't put it down, and even when I wasn't surprised by what was happening on the page, Piazza still found clever to subvert my expectations. This is my first read of hers but won't be the last, as The Sicilian Inheritance came highly recommended to me last summer, and I'm even more interested now. I think Piazza's writing truly shone though this, and the entire crafting of Bex/Rebecca's platform was fascinating. I enjoyed the multiple POV throughout and personally enjoyed Lizzie as the protagonist. I have friends that are microinfluencers, so I've heard about some of the industry, but reading about more "tradwife" space influencers through this book was both gripping and horrifying. I think Piazza did a great job of critiquing this subset and how there can be harmful elements for women, both as the creator and as the viewer. It definitely made me want to be more conscious about who I am following and supporting.

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵. 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵.”

Whether you're obsessed with Ballerina Farm and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘞𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 or have no idea what either of those two things are, trust me when I tell you that 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗟𝗬𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 needs to be on your TBR. This juicy, twisty thriller is the perfect summer read!

The story revolves around an Instagram influencer famous for her "tradwife" lifestyle. Her millions of followers eat up every post of her homeschooling her her five kids, showing off their beautiful ranch, tending to their animals and making sourdough in prairie dresses, and each click means more money in the family's bank account. But when her husband is brutally murdered, all the secrets of their seemingly perfect world come spilling out.

You can tell Jo Piazza has done her research into the world of tradwives (if you follow her IG, you'll see what I mean) - this book gives so much more depth into influencer characters than I've seen before. And the writing is SO clever. I found myself laughing out loud at some of her observations ("When did people start naming their children the things you would normally call beagles?"), loved the behind-the-scenes revelations about influencers, and really appreciated the exploration of feminism and women claiming their power. Best of all, the plot kept surprising me until the very end.

If you enjoy audiobooks, this one is terrific with a full-cast narration.

Thanks to PRH Audio and Dutton Books for the copies to review.

And PS - if you’re not subscribed to the author’s Substack, you’re missing out.

Wow! This is one heck of a good thriller with twists that surprised even this veteran fan of the genre. Lizzie and Bex were BFFs who met in college until they weren't, until a brutal email from Bex torched their friendship. Now, years later, Bex is Rebecca, the BarefootMama queen of the mom influencers and she's reached out to Lizzie, a magazine editor. They alternately tell the story of Rebecca/Bex, going back and forth in time but anchored in the brutal murder of Bex's husband Gray and her disappearance along with their six kids. Lizzie is sure Bex didn't do it but there's something weird about the whole thing especially after someone gives Lizzie the keys to Bex's home. Who can Lizzie trust? Olivia, Bex's manager, becomes an ally as Lizzie navigates the craziness of the situation. Piazza puts a firm finger on the mom influencer community (some of it might make you chuckle) right down to how Tripod the goat has his own well paid position in the universe. Know that domestic abuse looms large. This was a real page turner for me and it deserves to be experienced without any spoilers (just know that body part isn't what you think it is). Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Great vivid characters, terrific storytelling, and a very unexpected answer made this one I highly recommend.

As someone who is deeply fascinated by the way that the far right has been using tradwife content to propagandize and recruit young women, I knew that I NEEDED to read EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU. I thought that not only was it a solid mystery with a lot of well done reveals and surprises, I also really enjoyed the way that Piazza points out the massive hypocrisy and manipulation that this kind of content is and how the influencers who pump it out are hypocrites and scammers in many cases. I really enjoyed this one.

This was so fun! I was hooked from page 1 and flew through it. Not that deep, but a great summer read. Highly recommend if you like a mystery or if you love influencer culture.

I could not put this book down! Excellent writing, excellent plot, excellent narrators, excellent commentary on this influencer culture we live in (whether we like to engage in or not). I was absolutely drawn into the stories of trad wife Rebecca (aka Bex) and working mom/journalist Lizzie. Friends in college, then estranged for many years, Lizzie is drawn back into Bex's life via her social media and then an out-of-the-blue plea for Lizzie to help her break a big story. But while they're together, chaos ensues in the death of Bex's "perfect" husband and Lizzie gets more than she bargained for.

This book was so smart. We don't always like the characters, but we like to see the drama unfold...just like on social media! It's like a train wreck you can't look away from. It was a great social commentary on perceptions versus actuality. The behind-the-scenes things that influencers/companies don't want us to see reveal that their lives are actually not that different than ours. It's all a mirage. (And in this book, a very clever one, with lots of depth of influence... even on the influencers.)

The book had so many fun twists and turns. I liked the way strong women were emphasized and that their successes were celebrated. It was a fun mash up of themes from all the influencer and reality tv content I've ingested over the years. Some of this had some strong Sister Wives vibes to me for some reason. Excited for a friend to read it so we can talk about it!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

What does it take to end a friendship? How can a relationship be mended after the worst has happened? Friends Bex and Lizzie were inseparable at university; they did everything together. Then Bex meets Grayson and merges into a new #tradwife character, Rebecca. Lizzie is pushed out of the scene and makes a life for herself well away from influencers and social media.

When Bex reaches out with a proposal, Lizzie is sucked into her picture-perfect Prairie life. What is true and what is fake? Who can Lizzie trust as she tries to locate Bex and her missing children? This is the #tradwife thriller you must read this summer!

This was soo good! This is the #tradwife influencer thriller we’ve all been waiting for! Jo Piazza effortlessly blends truths (or lack of truth) of influencers we know all too well with a layered plot involving dangerous men, powerful women, a toxic patriarchal culture, and one journalist determined to to solve it all. The most interesting thread was Olivia, who was mysterious and also so interesting to watch work. This is definitely a binge-able and satisfying read and I loved it!

Lizzie and Bex were college best friends but now Lizzie doesn’t recognize her friend. Bex, now called Rebecca, has a perfect life as a tradwife influencer, living on a ranch with her husband and six children. When her husband is found murdered and Bex is missing, Lizzie is left to put the pieces together.

This was such a fun and thrilling read! I love social media thrillers and this one was about the new explosion with influencers, the #tradwife thriller. As the title implies though, not all is as it seems online; in fact, very little is! There are several characters, all with different roles, and you won’t know until the bitter end who plays an evil role.

“Marriage can be a wonderful thing and also a terrible thing. Much like parenting small children. Terrible and great. Terrible and great. You have no idea which it will be on any given day.”

Everyone is Lying to You comes out 7/15.

This one was different... Totally believable - kinda sad but fairytale ending for all (except the bad guys)! The dark/hidden side of influencers. I never thought they would last or have as much money and power as they do.