A unique plot with so much potential but didn't quite hit the bar for me. The writer describes everything in impeccable detail but the plot moved so slow for me for what is labeled as a thriller. I wasn't thrilled. The chapters all being told from a different perspective was a bit much for me. There was a lot of characters to remember and quite honestly, I forgot so many of them and so many details throughout the book. It made the ending less surprising. There was just too much for me to unpack in this one and I became lost quite a few times.

*Friends and Liars* is a tense, twisty thriller that unravels the dark secrets of a seemingly tight-knit friend group when one of their own goes missing. Kit Frick expertly blends past and present, trust and betrayal, in a story that asks how well we ever really know the people closest to us. It’s moody, suspenseful, and impossible to put down.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria and Emily Bestler Books for providing this book, with my honest review below.

Five friends vacation in Italy and only four can come back five years later to mourn their friend. Or at least appear to mourn her because these friends are keeping secrets that seem more important to them than happened to Clare, and those secrets are revealed as the book, Friends and Liars progresses. While I’d love to visit Italy it definitely wouldn’t be with this bunch (bar mainly one), but as fiction goes it made for a great setting for a highly engrossing thriller. Someone knows what they this group was up to when Clare drowned and they want to draw out the slow torture before they find out who it is. I kept having theories that didn’t work out and some of the twists went a little too deep, but I have to say I enjoyed every page!

This novel had twists and turns throughout, leaning into the familiarity of the horror drama of “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” with a bit more intrigue. Every time you think Frick is leading you down one path, it zigs a different way. A quite enjoyable ride!

Once-close college friends reunite for a memorial honoring one of their own, whose death five years ago, amid secrets and betrayal, still haunts them.

The description of this mystery set in Lake Como piqued my interest and I was not disappointed! What's the expression . . . With friends like these, who needs enemies? I would love a glimpse of what happens to this group of friends after the final page. Kit Frick is a new-to-me author and I'll definitely be reading more of her work.

"But beneath all that beauty lurked the ghost of what had happened here five years ago. Como was the deepest lake in Italy, and it had taken its fair share of inebriated tourists and revelers down to its depths. Clare’s had been the last of several lives the water had claimed that year. Yet her death— an heiress on holiday, lost to the frigid December water— had shocked more than just her family and friends."

"Now, Harper breathed in deep. Brine, a hint of algae. Yeast bread and the must of ancient stone. The weight of her friend’s absence settled in her lungs . What was haunting you, Clare? Why did you never tell me?"

I received an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for a review.

3.5⭐️ rounded up. This was a fun mystery that kept me engaged until the end. I had an inkling of the end, but I liked the way a few of my theories came together in a way I didn’t quite expect. It dragged a little in the middle, but overall good writing and I’d definitely read more from the author!

I really enjoyed this book. It was slightly slow to start for me, but eventually I could not put it down! There are a lot of characters, which confused me at multiple points throughout the book, but that may have been more of a me problem lol.
Although it was a little far-fetched, I loved the ending. If you're looking for a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat, I highly recommend this book!

An exciting twist and soapy thriller that is a bit like I Know What You Did Last Summer.

A group of college friends and invited back to the estate of a deceased friend for a memorial where secrets and lies come to light.

This book is well written with unlikable but understandable and relatable characters. The mystery is well executed and the twists both make sense and pay off well.

If you enjoy, dark reunion based thrillers with notes of dark academia, I highly recommend picking up Friends and Liars.

Overall a really fun 4 ⭐️ read, I look forward to reading more from Kit Frick.

Thanks to NetGalley and First Emily Bestler Books/Atria Books for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

It's been five years since the death of their close friend when Sirina, David, Luca and Harper receive invitations to a week-long memorial in celebration of her life, at a luxurious palazzo in Italy. The four friends are all nervous to attend because they are keeping secrets that they ultimately believe led to Clare taking her life, but they all attend anyway. When they are there, they begin to receive pointed "gifts" and threatening notes indicating that someone knows what happened to Clare, and that there may be more to her death than they thought.

This book was very reminiscent of an adult version of Pretty Little Liars, in an interesting way. I've never read anything of Frick's before, although I've had one of her books on my TBR, and I enjoyed this book enough that I think I'll be picking up some of her other books soon. The setting was beautiful, with interesting descriptions of the luxury that the characters found themselves immersed in, which was a definite plus.

I will say that I didn't really find any of the characters except for Harper sympathetic, which made them difficult to root for or feel fully immersed in their stories. Out of all the secrets they were hiding, Harper's secret really wasn't anything that she had been ultimately responsible for, whereas the other three had secrets that pretty significantly damaged their sympatheticness.

I also wish that the ending had tied things up more conclusively. It did a decent job of tying up most of what happened, but the final POV character presents some assumptions about how things are going to go now that everything is resolved that I'm not sure are realistic. This additionally damages my ability to sympathize with them.

Overall, though, the writing was strong and the author did a good job of keeping up the mystery and with pacing. I would recommend this book.

Friends and Liars had all the ingredients of a great thriller - secrets, scandals, and a group of friends brought back together to the Monroe family’s stunning Lake Como estate for a memorial, five years after their mutual friend Clare died. The premise hooked me, and there were definitely moments of suspense that kept me turning the pages.

That said, there was a lot going on. Between the dual timelines, the multiple characters with complicated backstories, and the layers of secrets being revealed, it sometimes felt like too much to keep track of. The stakes are high and the twists are many, but I found myself wishing the story had a bit more breathing room to let characters and central revelations land more powerfully .

Overall, it's a fast-paced and drama-filled read that will appeal to fans of intense thrillers but I personally felt a little overwhelmed by all the moving parts. I give it 3 twisty but a little too tangled for me stars!

Thanks to NetGalley & publisher for the ARC!

i love a light thriller and this was perfect. a great summer read and all fans will enjoy the details.

Five years ago, their friend Clare died. Now, they are all back together to celebrate her memorial. Each of them interacted with her on the night of her death (ruled a suicide), and someone knows each of their secrets…

In a nutshell, that is all you need to know going in. This is a college friend group who have gone their separate ways after tragedy, only to reunite when the past comes back to haunt them. This is a great fresh face on a formulaic trope. Friends and Liars is my first read from this author and I am excited to read earlier novels.

I really enjoyed the story, the characters and their messiness, and the moments I didn’t see coming, because there were quite a few. I recommend this fun, sun soaked, mysterious thriller.

This is a solid, fast paced, thriller. I loved the atmospheric setting of lake Como. If you like a rich family dysfunctional story, you will enjoy this. With that, the characters aren’t that developed. There are also too many characters, many that aren’t significant to the story which makes it hard to keep people straight when you first start reading.

Overall, it is an easy and entertaining read.

Netgalley ARC

I enjoyed this thriller. It was very easy to read - I followed along and easily predicted all the twists even medicated after surgery. It's slated as an adult fiction, but I thought it read very YA despite the characters being high school seniors / five years out from college graduation.

This would be a perfect read when you're on vacation and don't want to have to do too much deep thinking. The characters were compelling and their stories were interesting. The contrast between the rich and Despite predicting all the twists nearly from the beginning, I had fun reading this and I didn't mind too much about the predictability.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Friends and Liars is about a group of friends who while Celebrating New Years Eve in Italy, while there they experience the tragic death of their friend Clare. 5 years later the friend group is mysteriously invited back to Italy for a celebration of life in remembrance of Clare.
But not everything is as it seems on the surface, everyone has something that they are hiding.
Is someone out to get them and expose their dark secrets?

This story bounces between the present and 5 years in the past and multiple POVs.
There are a lot of characters can get a little confusing, and it's a bit slow at times, but stick with it, it is totally worth all the twists and everything piecing together at the end. This is my favorite murder mystery book that I have read all year.

Secrets
Whodunnit
Island Setting
Murder Mystery
Group of Friends

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for this ARC!

A mysterious invitation has four friends returning to the very place their friendship broke apart. The very place a fifth friend died. A threatening mysterious figure has gathered them to figure out the truth behind Claire’s death. Kit Frick’s writing was fast paced and easy to read. The perfect mystery thriller to enjoy this summer.

Pros -
Fast paced
Set in the beautifully visual Italy (lake Como)
Multiple POV
dual timeline
Mysterious death of the extreme wealthy
Synopsis has the potential to be great

Cons -
The twists were a little too obvious
The characters weren’t very well fleshed out, unlikeable in a way that makes the story unlikeable
Lacking the flare of drama despite great potential for it

Thank you for the gifted copy!

Publishes Dec 2nd

"Friends and Liars" by Kit Frick is an enthralling read that had me hooked from the very first page. The way Frick weaves together themes of friendship, betrayal, and self-discovery is nothing short of masterful. The characters are beautifully complex, each with their own motivations and secrets, making them feel incredibly real and relatable.

The pacing of the story kept me on the edge of my seat, with twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Frick's writing style is both lyrical and sharp, pulling me into the vivid world she created. I found myself invested in the characters' lives and their entwined fate, which made the climax all the more impactful.

This book delves into the intricacies of trust and the consequences of lies, provoking thoughtful reflection long after I turned the last page. If you’re looking for a gripping tale that explores the complexities of relationships and the choices we make, "Friends and Liars" is an absolute must-read! Highly recommend!

Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the advance copy of the ebook and opportunity to review. I really loved this book. It was so fun to read and kept me guessing. I would say it’s a 4.25 star read for me because I did guess some of the elements, however I didn’t see the ending coming!

A group of Clare’s best friends who were there that tragic night in 2019 were invited back 5 1/2 years later for a memorial week. Being back at the palazzo brings up a lot of emotions for everyone and we get to journey along a murder mystery through multiple POV’s and two different timeframes. Everyone is hiding something and as the story continues on, the group of friends desperately needs to get to the bottom of who’s threatening to expose their secrets. As they piece together what happened to Clare and survive the week without being exposed, they are all in for a shock as the story comes to an end.

2.75 Ok this book took forever for me to read, I don’t know why. I’m gonna have to say the twist that came in this book I actually did see that coming. The book was by no means a bad book but there was some unrealistic things that happened. I felt like they were making it up as they were going. This was a NetGalley ARC read thank you to the publisher.