CG Drews is a master of horror in this beautifully wretched fairytale.

“The lake is haunting her.”

Wren Ott is hired as a live-in nanny at the magnificent Cresswell House. The mansion is smothered in darkness and secrets occupy every room, surrounded by a gloomy forest and a glass lake. And Wren is hiding, haunted by her husband and a broken marriage.

“she has lost pieces of herself in the greenhouse of his rib cage, and she will never get them back”

This Is How You Lie is visceral as the story unspools. I never knew what was going to happen next or how this tale would end. I had so many theories and none of them correct. Certain parts found me reading through my fingers, the descriptive body horror making me deliciously uncomfortable.

CG Drews is an auto-buy author for me. Their prose and vivid storytelling is unmatched from the very first sentence to the mind reeling end. And though I sped through the book, I savoured every word.

“In the stories, there is only one thing to be done about monsters.”

Thank you to CG Drews for sending me this eARC and to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley!!

Okay, this book had me questioning EVERYTHING. 👀

What starts out as Wren taking a nanny job to escape her own messy past quickly turns into something so much darker. The isolated mansion, the secrets, the strange behavior, the ghosts of their pasts… I was suspicious of literally everyone.

And then the twists started coming. 😳 Just when I thought I had figured out what was really happening, the story would flip everything on its head and make me question what I had just read.

I especially loved how each character is forced to deal with their own ghosts and the things they’ve been running from. Nobody is walking into that house without baggage, and those pasts end up colliding in some seriously messed-up ways.

The whole “two sides to the same story” aspect was SO good because hearing what happened from one person’s perspective doesn’t necessarily mean you’re hearing the truth. The same events can look completely different depending on who is telling them, and I was constantly trying to piece together what was actually happening.

The writing makes everything feel vivid and deeply uncomfortable. I liked how the tension comes through the characters and their histories as much as the gothic atmosphere. The exploration of trauma gives the disturbing moments weight. A good fit for readers who enjoy beautiful prose alongside horror that refuses to let them settle.

This is my second book by this author and it did not disappoint! I love the writing style and the imagery is so vivid I felt like I was inside the House with them. The whole book was creepy start to finish and I love me a morally gray character and this had plenty to choose from!

This Is How You Lie is the kind of gothic thriller that haunts you even when the sun is shining and the sky is clear.

Wren Ott takes a nanny job because she has no options. She needs money, housing, and distance from a marriage that has already left her deeply shaken, so the Cresswell mansion initially feels like a rescue. The pay is excellent, the house is enormous, and caring for a one-year-old should be manageable.

Cadence Cresswell seems detached from both her home and her child, while Lucien is controlling, unpredictable, and frequently absent. Wren quickly becomes convinced that something dangerous is happening inside the marriage and that both Cadence and the baby may need protection. The problem is that Wren carries plenty of damage and secrets of her own, and CG Drews keeps tightening the story around the question of whose version of events can be trusted.

The claustrophobia is excellent. Even though the mansion is huge, the novel feels increasingly confined as Wren becomes more entangled in the Cresswells’ lives. The isolation, the shifting moods inside the house, and Wren’s own uncertainty create the sense that every room contains another version of the truth.

What I liked most was the way the novel plays with assumptions. It encourages you to settle quickly into familiar roles: vulnerable wife, dangerous husband, protective nanny. Then the twists start coming!

This is tense, unsettling, and extremely readable, with a strong sense of menace from the beginning and enough gothic vibes to keep you rushing to the end.

#ThisIsHowYouLie #CGDrews #StMartinsPress #NetGalley

Publication date: March 16, 2027

✨Another CG Drews masterpiece!✨

Immediately as soon as I saw This is How You Lie announced I knew that I had to read it! I’m a huge fan of CG Drews books and this one is another favorite for me! I DEVOURED IT!!!

As usual with this authors writing style and descriptions, I was drawn in right away!!! I am so in love with the authors writing style!!! I can’t tell you how much it speaks to my gothic heart!! 🥹🖤 I don’t want to say much about the plot, just go into this one as blind as possible and enjoy!!

I was feeling the decay, the rot, and the dread from chapter 1. The writing is on point, the atmosphere is on point, the twists are on point… oh trust me the twists were TWISTING… I had no idea where anything was going!! I mean everything is absolute perfection! 👏 👩‍🍳 💋

Another incredible read solidifying (even more so) Drews’s spot as a TOP favorite author for me!!

Tropes:

⭐️Adult gothic horror/thriller
⭐️Forest rot
⭐️Haunted lake
⭐️F/F/M toxic love triangle
⭐️Nanny at a creepy isolated gothic estate
⭐️Unhinged spiraling

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review. This book is expected to be released March 16, 2027.

I was elated to be offered an advance copy of a new book by one of my absolute favorite authors.

I've said in another review that Drews excels at writing soft, damaged children who just want to be seen, loved, and accepted for the scared and confused creatures they are - teeth, claws, scars, and all" and I'm so excited to see them explore the other side of that coin - the vicious, macabre fae-like creatures who feed on that exact vulnerability.

This is How You Lie was such an intense and chilling exploration of the different ways we mistreat and misuse each other in the name of love, as well as the varied, sometimes unexpected, forms that addiction and toxicity can take.

While the character profiles differed quite a bit from previous books, our main characters still possess that multifaceted quality that left me struggling to know who to root for. Drews knows how to tease out some portion of every dark piece of the human soul, and I so look forward to what's next.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, it's always a joy.

This book has everything I want in a dark read. It’s unsettling and beautifully written with consistent pacing and enough gore to make me stop reading while eating.

This story starts out strong and just keeps going. The tension builds organically, a steady drip of dread that never feels like it’s stalling just to keep me guessing.

Then halfway through, the timeline and POV shift, and I was completely sold. It’s such an original way to tell this story, giving you an entirely different lens without losing the atmosphere or momentum.

There are characters here I hated to love and loved to hate, and a story that manages to be both poetic and deeply disturbing.

I’m definitely picking up more books by Drew.

Grateful to NetGalley for the ARC and for their ongoing courage in letting The Hateful Reader judge things. Thank you to St. Martins Press for giving me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Pub date: Mar 16 2027

Wow. My first book by C.G. Drews and definitely won’t be my last. I actually have no other words for this review.

I’ve been thinking that this reminds me a lot of Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which I haven’t stopped thinking about since I read it over 15 years ago. I suspect it’ll be the same for this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Saint Martin’s press for the ARC.

As we follow Wren throughout this story we slowly uncover the family’s dark history and how the nearby lake ties it all together in a haunting way

This book is described as the haunting of Bly Manor meets The Housemaid and I couldn’t agree more.

Anytime a CG Drews book hits my netgalley, I drop everything to read it because I know without fail it’s going to hit. Like every Drews book, this was stunningly written. You’ll never have to sacrifice prose for a good storyline either with their work. The twists were well placed and smart, the characters were layered - at times you’ll hate them but other times you’ll empathize with them. This was compulsively readable and just an absolutely unsettling, explosive, and haunting experience 5 stars and I think it very well might be my new favorite of their books

Deeply unreliable narrators, a toxic and dangerous love, and messy, broken characters. C.G. Drews knocks it out of the park once again but who is surprised?

This book is everything Verity and The Housemaid wish they could be. A nanny is hired to work for a rich and mysterious couple, and you know something is wrong from the very beginning. You feel the angst as you slowly peel back the layers, trying to understand exactly what’s off. Piece by piece, you start putting the puzzle together only to be left with even more questions and concerns to uncover.

And that ending? Ambiguous in the best possible way. It may answer some of the questions you had from the beginning, but somehow leaves you with just as many new ones to ponder. It’s the kind of ending that makes you sit there afterward, replaying everything you just read and wondering what you might have missed.

Drews writes broken and messy people like no one else. You despise them, love them, and fear them all at once. You hope they meet the fate they deserve, but at the same time, you desperately want them to get their happy ending. Not only are they a master of toxic characters you love and hate, but they also write toxic, consuming, hungry love in a way no one else can.

There is nothing warm or comforting about this book. Nothing soft, nothing safe. It is anxious and pulsing from beginning to end, with this constant undercurrent of dread that keeps you turning the pages. It gets under your skin and never really lets you breathe.

This book is everything you could want in a thriller.

“She eats and he is eaten.”

“The storyteller will always favour themselves as the hero.
The storyteller lies.”

This book was an absolutely wild ride. It follows Wren as she takes a nannying job with a wealthy family, but it quickly becomes clear that things are not quite what they seem. From the very first sentence, I was completely immersed in C.G. Drews’ beautiful prose and immediately drawn to Wren. She is witty, intriguing, and clearly hiding something, which made me want to keep reading just to figure out what had happened to her.

Throughout the first half, we’re given little crumbs about Wren’s past and how she ended up in this position, leaving just enough unanswered questions to keep me hooked. And when the truth finally begins to come together, I was absolutely reeling. The plot twist was something I probably should have expected, yet I still did not see it coming.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, the second half is where this book truly shines. I was completely gripped and, much like Lucien, found myself becoming increasingly obsessed with Elizabeth. The body horror is wonderfully gross, and the imagery surrounding decay and rotting nature added such an unsettling atmosphere to the story.

Creepy, strange, beautifully written, and completely unhinged in the best way. I loved getting lost in this story, and I’m already thinking about it long after finishing.

This Is How You Lie was SO creepy, and I loved it!! I kept wanting to read a little more because I needed to know what was going on in that house. A nanny job with great pay sounds nice, but I would have been ready to leave almost immediately. The characters were my favorite part. I wasn’t expecting to get so invested in their relationships, but there was so much to unpack! Sometimes I felt bad for them, sometimes they frustrated me, and sometimes I just wanted to know why they were acting like THAT. C.G. Drews made it so easy to picture everything, which was honestly a little unfortunate for me during the more disturbing scenes. That house made me uncomfortable just reading about it. I loved how even a simple conversation could have me nervous about what someone would say next. I really enjoyed trying to figure this one out. I wanted answers, but I also didn’t want to rush through and miss anything. Such a good read, and now I need someone else to pick it up so we can talk about it!!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the early copy!

A fast-paced, twisty thriller that kept me guessing! This Is How You Lie had plenty of secrets, tension, and surprises, and I flew through it. Just when I thought I had it figured out, another twist pulled me in. Such an addictive read!

Whoa!! This was a twisty one that had me questioning everything! I loved the backdrop of the mansion. Author creates such vivid imagery you almost feel like you're there! An excellent psychological puzzle of a novel! 4 solid stars!

This is my first Drews novel, but it won’t be my last. A crumbling castle, a woman desperate for a new start, a brooding and morally questionable male and a vulnerable child and mother. Or at least that’s what this seems to be at the beginning, but prepare to have everything you thought you know about these characters be completely wrong.