Cover Image: After The Lie

After The Lie

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This book for me was just an ok read, nothing brilliant but I stuck with it and found the second half better.

Was this review helpful?

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

How much damage can a lie do? We find out in "After The Lie" by Kerry Fisher. Even a lie when you're barely a teenager can follow you around well into adulthood and the aftermath plays out in this book. I really enjoyed this book!!

Was this review helpful?

I am so trying to redeem myself and catch up with the books I've read over lockdown. The books I know I should have read years ago that disappear in the ether of your kindle.

This book was a fantastic read. I'm gutted It took me so long, but glad I finally read it. It didn't take me long to get stuck in to this book, an interesting and engaging story line. One of those book you think you have all the answers.
There are characters that you find your self supporting and characters that you find yourself hating. I think when an author can stir up emotions in you as you are read then it's a job well done.
Sometimes you just can not leave the past behind.

Was this review helpful?

This book was very well written

I enjoyed the storyline and found it engaging and the characters drew you in

I really enjoyed this book and will look out for more by the same author

Was this review helpful?

I must confess, I read this book awhile ago and I'm struggling to remember much about the story, which reminds me why I gave this book only 3 stars. In the beginning, I thought the story had a lot of potential, but as time went on, I really disliked Lydia. I just found her character to be annoying. She just made terrible decisions, over and over. Then the "lie" was exposed and the book just never recovered for me after that. Without saying too much, while I understand her hurt and frustration, I didn't think the secret justified the victim part that Lydia chose to play for the rest of her life. I appreciated the message of the story, but I just thought it could have been so much better if Lydia felt like how I believe an actual person would respond.

Was this review helpful?

I just realized that I never read or reviewed this book. I am sorry.

Was this review helpful?

Trying to clear my shelfs, sorry that I haven't read and reviewed this one yet but my reading habits have changed. Although I may review at a later date when I'm looking for a different read

Was this review helpful?

This is my first read by this author and I absolutely loved it. When I read the blurb I was intrigued. The author didn’t disappoint me, from start to finish this was perfect.

When Lydia was thirteen a lie turned into a secret with her and her parents. Over the years it wasn’t talked about except for her mum to mention it sneakily to her. Even Lydia’s husband doesn’t know about it.
Lydia now in her forties is very happy with her life, that is until the secret could be revealed.

I found this to be a brilliant story. I pretty much inhaled it. I loved the characters who were portrayed realistically.

If your looking for a well written family drama read then I highly recommend you read this. I’m off to see what else this author has written.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to receive a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I loved the premise of this book; it sounded really promising. I was desperate to know what the 'lie' was and once this was revealed, I was mildly disappointed. I was expecting something much juicier. Perhaps it was for this reason that I also found the characters to be more than a little annoying. Lydia's actions within the story just don't seem to be justified by anything that came before. I was hoping that something gripping would happen, but it all fell a little flat.

Was this review helpful?

This is the first book I have read by Kerry Fisher but it won't be my last. The story revolves around Lydia and an event that happened in 1982. Forward to present day and Lydia is happily settled as a wife and mum until she bumps into a familiar face at the school gates....

I really enjoyed this book and loves reminiscing over the 1980s. Highly recommended.

Was this review helpful?

Lydia is a happily married woman in her early forties with two seemingly wonderful kids. She runs a flourishing wedding planner business and her husband Mark runs his own business remodeling houses. The only problem Lydia has is her overbearing, judgmental mother and her dog Mabel who even though she tries refuses to be trained. But Lydia’s life is based on a big lie that her husband Mark knows nothing about. When Mark lands up a project with the newly moved McAllister’s Lydia’s lie she built her whole life on may finally be exposed.

I really enjoyed this book and the humorous dialogue Lydia has with herself. It was a very fast, well written entertaining read with well-developed but flawed characters. I highly recommend it and will look forward to reading more by Kerry Fisher.

Many thanks to Bookouture & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed the book, it has everything I love in a novel from start to finish. I can’t wait to read what the author has planned next!

Was this review helpful?

A riveting page-turner! A timely warning to teens of how what you capture on film or phone can always come back to haunt you.

Was this review helpful?

This is one of those stories where one lie, or omission to tell the truth, leads to even bigger lies until eventually the whole can of worms explodes. I was desperate to know what had happened that was so awful and have to admit to being a little underwhelmed when it was revealed. Compared to what can happen today, I didn’t actually think the ‘secret’ was that bad but Lydia had convinced herself that if the truth was exposed her perfect life and marriage would be ruined.

This was the first book I had read by Kerry Fisher but I would certainly love to read more. She writes with humour and warmth and even though I found Lydia a frustrating character at times, she was easy to engage with and I was hoping that all would work out for her. All the main characters are well drawn and realistic, Lydia’s awful mother scarily so and even Mabel, the dog had a personality of her own.

Even though some of Lydia’s actions will make you want to read between your fingers because you just KNOW that by doing that it will not end well for her you can’t help but be drawn in to her world. The threads to the story are complex with intertwining strands that once unpicked, will just keep unravelling.

Despite the serious undercurrent of the story, I loved the humour throughout – it was not flippant or silly, but the witty one liners made the characters believable and real. Kerry Fisher is clearly very talented and now an author whose books I will definitely look out for.

Was this review helpful?

This was a wonderful book. It was well paced by the author, who is clearly very talented. I really enjoyed her writing style and the manner in which she constructed the narrative and revealed the big secret. It was certainly an interesting story. This actually reminded me of Liane Moriarty's books, as she too tends to explore the with family dynamic and relationships in her novels. You've got to love a family that's more screwed up than your own to make yours feel normal!

Was this review helpful?

Sadly I just couldn't get into this book. The main character came across as whiny to me & turned me off.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Was this review helpful?

What a great book by Kerry a Fisher, 1st I've read by this author but it won't be my last, I loved it.
After the lie is a story about Lydia, Lydia has a secret, her husband and kids have no idea.
It happened years ago when she was a teenager and her parents moved the family away from the small village to start over but is the secret about to catch up with her.......
A great book that sweeps you up from the first few pages and you struggle to put it down.

Was this review helpful?

Lydia Rushford’s normal, some would say idyllic, life is overshadowed by an event from her past. She has moved from Norfolk to Surrey and is now married with two teenage children. She is a loving and somewhat overprotective mother to her own children and can barely tolerate her own mother at times.

She regrets never telling her husband about it, and now it has festered and grown in her mind. “The lie“. A youthful indiscretion coupled with her mother’s resulting shame have exacerbated the event until it has seeped into every portion of Lydia’s life. The secret, the lie, is revealed to the reader rather early on in the book. It was a distressing event, but in my opinion was not so life-shattering as Lydia perceives it to be. Her mother’s reaction to the event has a profound effect on Lydia’s psyche. She has changed her home county, her name, and created a life where no one will suspect her shameful past.

Now Sean McAllister, her boyfriend from back then, has moved into her Surrey neighbourhood and Lydia feels as though her world could implode at any minute. The tension she feels ruins her burgeoning relationship with Sean’s wife Katya, and threatens her relationship with her beloved son Jamie – because Jamie is attracted to Sean’s daughter, Eleanor. What a quagmire!

Lydia’s long suffering husband Mark is a ‘reliable guy’. He seems steady, dependable, and a great Dad. He designs and installs custom kitchens. His new and biggest client is… of course…. Sean. Sean’s business is essential to the family’s finances and will have an effect upon whether the children remain at private school.

Lydia is an event planner. Weddings mostly. She is becoming more and more successful in her career and wins a prestigious award for her efforts. At the award gala she meets an intriguing Italian named Tomaso. When she is hired to plan a wedding in Florence, Italy she yearns for the escape from her stress-filled life this will afford her.

Lydia’s mother, Dorothy, is ‘old-school’. Her longing to be perceived well by society has skewed her vision and actions for so long that she is now somewhat dour, shallow, and snobbish. Unfortunately, Lydia is still deeply under her influence, much to her chagrin. In her early forties, and still Lydia is trying to appease her mother.

“My mother was so negative, it was astonishing she didn’t show up as a silhouette in photos”.

The family dog, Mabel, is incorrigible and badly behaved. She does offer some added levity to the plot, as she doesn’t understand about living life in moderation.

“My mother gave Mabel a sharp belt on her bottom. I saw Mabel’s lip curl. For a dog who would happily share a pack of custard creams with a burglar before leading him to my jewelry box, it was proof positive that my mother pushed everyone to their limits.”

This is a domestic drama, some would say thriller. Although packed with tension, I would not really term it a thriller. The tension was entirely of Lydia’s making in my opinion. I was increasingly impatient with her throughout the novel. If only she would ‘come clean’ with her family. It was as though she was her own worst enemy. This is compounded by the fact that her current indiscretions far outweigh her past ones.

There are many things I liked about this novel. The humor for one. The author relays Lydia’s thoughts with a sarcastic wit that I really enjoyed. The story moved along at a steady pace and kept my interest throughout. I was invested in finding out what would happen to the family when the ‘lie’ was eventually exposed, as I was sure it would. While reading, I wished Lydia would realize just how lucky she was, instead of wanting the unobtainable. I got my wish.

“After the lie” is a domestic novel of an imperfect family in the modern age. A time when parents and grandparents often have VERY different approaches to parenting. Of social media and how it has impacted parenting, and, of regret at not cherishing ‘the little things’ when you had the chance…

Most of all, it is about how, ironically, we can damage those we love the most by thinking we are shielding our loved ones from damage.

This domestic drama will be enjoyed by readers who enjoy believable, relate-able, and well fleshed-out characters as they cope with life’s sometimes unexpected challenges. It explores how futile it is to try to protect your children from everything. How unwise choices can have far-reaching repercussions. How honesty really IS the best policy.

An appealing and easy read. Recommended.

Was this review helpful?