Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

The premise is a good one. A coma noir, if you like. Not an entirely new concept, but as far as setting up the unreliable narrator, it works well and kept me guessing (and reading) until the very end. It's easy to read, well put together, if a little convoluted in places - especially toward the end where the reveal(s) come thick and fast. I wasn't entirely convinced by the story as a whole. Lots of neat strands that didn't all come together, while the protagonist is both incredibly lucky/unlucky, in equal measures.

That said, the author does a great job keeping the characters believably flawed and interesting, and fans of the domestic noir genre will eat this up, I'm sure. The ending, however, was quite dark (and a little rushed) so I wasn't entirely convinced. An enjoyable read, none the less.

Premise 4*
Readability 4*
Story arc 3.5*

Twists and turns galore makes Sometimes I Lie a page turner. However towards the end I got a bit confused. I think the author was trying to be too clever and it lost its pact.

This book had me thinking about Amber Reynolds and her family for a few days after I had finished. She is an unreliable narrator due to the coma, and losing some of her memory, but also because she admits "Sometimes I Lie".

Amber is easy to relate to, her inner thoughts shared on the page as she is stuck in a hospital bed with no recollection of the accident that put her there. It is easy to rattle through the chapters which bounce from just before to just after Christmas (and the accident) with ease. There are also diary entries and memories from Amber's childhood to help give an understanding of her mindset before everything happened.

Amber can't remember what happened so it's obviously not going to be easy to figure out the truth while she's stuck in a hospital bed. She has to try and piece together her memories to uncover who is responsible and who she can trust. It's easy to dislike and distrust every character in the book for one reason or another. Amber doesn't know who she can trust, and as a result we don't either.

It is clear that Amber tells lies from page one, but revelation after revelation continues to shock and complicate the story further. At one point I needed to put the book down to think about everything before I carried on reading. I loved how the story became more complex with each revelation. Other unreliable narrator storylines can seem to pull information out of thin air to reveal the truth, but this book messes with your head whilst leaving clues to the truth scattered throughout. At one point I thought there was a continuity error, but later I realised it was a truth buried in lies.

Sometimes I Lie will leave you thinking about what really happened long after you put the book down. I loved it!

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:

1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.

This book begins with main protagonist Amber lying in a hospital bed, unsure of how she got there but undeniably in a coma. Relying on only her hearing and the snatched conversations she gleans from her visitors she starts to piece together exactly what led her to this point.

The story is divided into three narratives, each from Ambers point of view but from across different timelines. One whilst she is comatose, the second in the weeks leading up to her hospitalisation and the third in the form of childhood diaries.

It is made quite clear from the start that sometimes-Amber lies, and therefore throughout the book it is hard for the reader to take anything she says at face value. This only serves to make the book impeccably intriguing.

The characters aren’t extremely likeable but I found this mainly to be true to not knowing whom you could trust. I was suspicious of everyone and therefore didn’t find myself empathising with any individual.

As someone who, more often than not, guesses the plot twists ahead of time I can happily say this one had me stumped for the most part.

Feeney’s writing is brilliant, bordering on genius, she links and explains every twist flawlessly. For a debut novel, it is complex, intelligent and terrifying in equal measures. Certainly, not one to be missed!

Wow! Just WOW! I read lots of mysteries, suspense, thrillers, psychological thrillers and have become a bit jaded because many of them have been pretty similar and I've always seen where it was going even with a twist or two thrown in. So I've been looking for one for a long time that has revived my faith in the genre. I read one three months ago which was on it's way there which I rated a four out of five. But this one, WOW! This really did it for me.

Really well written (even if it didn't have so many surprises thrown in). I was hooked by the blurb but from the first page, it really fulfilled it's promise. I didn't do it in one sitting but when I say I read from 10pm to 3am then woke up at 6am thinking about it and finished it by 9am, that says something (and I'm not a fast reader)! I did find it gripping and a pageturner and very refreshing. More twists and turns than a maze!

I never give away the plot or repeat blurb in my reviews. I can only say genuinely, this lives up to the short blurb then some. All I can say is this is like peeling an onion .... layers and layers! Told in "then" and "now" chapters, building characters from who we see on the surface now, through flashbacks to present day and every chapter and flashback reveals more intricacies and how they came to be where they are now. And once that is brought back to present day ...... yet ANOTHER twist or two! And the ending .......... well ......

I can SO see a movie here.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy. It's been a pleasure to read and review. Now, I'm worried I'm back at the stage of finding the next book that will measure up!

I found this book intriguing and it kept be guessing right until the very last page. Thoroughly enjoyable psychological thriller. 3.5 stars

Make sure you clear your diary; once you start this book, you will not want to put it down. I love a book that I cannot predict and this one certainly had enough twists to keep me guessing right up until the end. The narrative was delivered in chunks (Then, Now, Later) which drip-fed the back story to keep you gripped. I will be looking out for the next novel!

Enjoyed the book. It tells the story of amber over 3 timelines and her relationshis with her family/friends/colleagues over this time. My feelings towards her changes a couple of times throughout.

Brilliant book that flips you on your head. Just when you think you.have it all sussed out

Oh I liked this one! In fact, I really REALLY liked this one. I read it in one sitting until 2 in the morning and then I found I couldn’t get to sleep afterwards as the plot twists, especially those final few pages, kept replaying themselves in my head! Even now I’m still thinking about it and that makes this one a standout psychological thriller in my opinion, managing to both surprise and delight me with its original and breathtakingly deceitful concept.

Right from the opening few paragraphs, I was hooked. Amber Reynolds is my favourite kind of protagonist, the unreliable narrator. She admits this herself on the first page so we know that we can’t trust her but as the plot develops, it appears that nearly every character has something to hide and we can’t trust anyone-this was shaping up to be my idea of a perfect psychological thriller! I had no idea where it was heading, thinking I would pick up hints along the way. But the further it delved into the “woman in peril” scenario, the less I managed to figure out who was lying and even more importantly-why?

The scenes I found the most chilling were when Amber was in her hospital bed, able to hear all that was going on around her but not able to see her carers or visitors let alone respond. Her visitors took on a more sinister persona when removed of their visual identity and it was made worse by the fact that Amber couldn’t remember what happened to put her in a coma in the first place. So she was also in the same position as the reader, gradually sifting through the evidence whilst trusting no one, hoping to solve the mystery of how she got there before it’s too late.

This is a superb debut novel from Alice Feeney. She is a gifted storyteller able to weave her deliciously dark and shockingly devious plotlines with her twisted imagination, tormenting her poor readers till the very last sentence. If it hadn’t been the wee small hours of the morning when I finished it, then I would have quickly scrolled back to page one and started to read the whole gripping and gratifying “mind mash” all over again!

Huge thanks to HQ digital and netgalley for my review copy of Sometimes I Lie which I have chosen to read and review.

No spoilers contained in this review - read at will!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers, Harlequin (UK) Ltd, for allowing me to read this advance copy in exchange for my honest review. And big, huge thanks to Alice Feeney for her work.

Normally I write my book reviews immediately after finishing a book... the day after if it's late evening when I finish. But it's been 4 days and I'm still unsure how I could possibly write a review that would do the book any justice whatsoever. This is absolutely outstanding and I have not been able to stop thinking about it. And I'm still piecing together what I read, 2 days later and I'm still finding parts of it that suddenly come to me and now make perfect sense. If this was a film it would be smashing the box office for weeks and weeks. As a book it deserves more.

I honestly don't know where to start so I guess... characters. Amazingly well written, fantastically complex and brutally honest. What more can you ask for? Sometimes when reading a book, the storyline is enough and the characters are one dimensional and very simple. That is not the case here, even when you think you understand them Alice Feeney shows you a little more of their inner workings and you are thrown into the abyss again.

The story line is engrossing from the very start until the very end. I couldn't put the book down and devoured it in one sitting. A long sitting I might add - this is not an hour long book. And like the characters, the storyline is full of twists and turns that will keep you on your toes. And it is inherently dark.

The fact that this is a debut shouldn't necessarily factor because I feel very strongly that you can either write, or you can't. And if you can, you'd better make sure your debut isn't something you'll later regret. Make it count. BUT, I absolutely HAVE to highlight that this is a debut novel because I didn't realise it until I came to write this review, and you would never know it from reading the book. It is absolutely flawless. Usually I can finish a book (or a film actually) and find things that I wish they'd done better, explained a bit better, developed further, ended it in a better way. But in this case it was absolutely spot on perfect in every sense. This felt like the work of someone who had written multiple best sellers and knew exactly how to write them.

I will be shocked and utterly furious if this isn't THE book of 2017.

Excellent book. Great characters. Twists and turns right up to the last page. Certainly holds your attention. I would definitely recommend this book

This deeply disturbing novel is told from dual character viewpoint, and is an astoundingly good read. This is going on to my 'to be read again' list.

I did enjoy the pace of this book and loved the surprise conclusions though I did get a little confused as to who was doing what to who! But it was very cleverly put together and I would certainly recommend it to a friend.

I went into this book completely open-minded, based on the opening lines of the book.
"My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me any more. 3. Sometimes I lie."

For the size of the book, I actually read it very quickly, I was in one of my immersive moods. This was a good book for escaping the world in, in that the main character is escaping to different places in her mind while trapped in a coma.

The plot unfolds via flashbacks, diary entries and 'here and now' happenings. Sometimes Amber lies, but you cannot necessarily tell! Her sister, Claire, and Amber's husband, Paul, are regular visitors at her bedside, sometimes at the same time. There are lots of undercurrents between the two of them, and it is hard to work out whether there is something going on or not, particularly as Amber doesn't always tell the truth.
I admit to being tripped up between the two main female characters a time or two, so that meant I had to do a little backtracking, but it was worth it.
Alice Feeney manages to pack a lot of detail into her telling, which really helps you engage with the story, I could see it in my mind's eye so vividly.
There are lots of plot twists cleverly woven into the tapestry of the story, the way they are revealed keeps you continually turning the pages as the different elements of the story come together and then something else comes to the fore as Amber's mind whisks her down another tunnel.
I will of course have to read the entire book again to get the most from the twists and turns and tiny little bits that are there but you don't notice and then think, Oh!
Even though I know how it ends and it ends really well let me tell you, it is definitely one to read twice and to recommend. So go read it, won't you.

This is an original plot,well written and with characters who are believable when they shouldn't be! They are all dysfunctional in one way or another but that makes the book a riveting read. There are twists to the story which are unexpected but credible. This is a good read when you have time to keep going.

A very cleverly written thriller which kept me guessing almost until the end. This is a debut novel for the author and I am impressed with the way in which this psychological thriller reads. Not too complicated but enough of a heart thumping plot to make me keep reading to the end. I thoroughly recommend.

Amazing! It's only March but I already think this Is going to be the best thriller I read all year. Lots of thrillers claim to be the best one of the year, however this definitely could be. The shocks and surprises just keep on coming and take your breath away leaving you flabbergasted.

Amber Reynolds is 35 and married to Paul. She works as a radio presenter. She longs to tell this information to the people - doctors, nurses, police - who visit her while she's lying in bed in hospital, but she can't because she's in a coma and can't do anything. What she wouldn't tell them, even if she could talk, was that sometimes she lies.

Unable to blink, speak, or even move her little finger, Amber is totally closed in inside her head, yet fully aware of her surroundings. She's not even sure what happened to her so that she ended up in hospital, her memories are all cloudy and she finds it hard to focus. She starts to pick up tidbits of information off the doctors, nurses and few visitors she has. Although what she's discovering doesn't make sense. Was it an accident or was what happened to her done purposefully?

Sometimes I Lie is a fantastic twisty and gripping psychological thriller. Like many psychological thrillers lately, the book flips between the present day and the week before. Although to add another element to Amber's story, it also goes back to 1991 when she was still at school. Amber's life and past is unravelled bit by bit; the big picture starts to reveal itself and the mystery that led to Amber being in a coma starts to unravel, as we get to know and understand Amber more than anybody else has ever done.

We discover that Amber's job, life and marriage may not have been perfect or simple. Amber clashes with a co worker, her husband Paul stays up late most nights trying to write. Is her sister Claire trying to make a move on her husband? What happened to Amber to make her have some OCD habits and be so insecure? Is Amber as innocent as we initially think, or is it not quite so black and white...

Brilliant! So many twists and turns you become dizzy. Initially I had some reservations and thought, not another time leap, but this has another angle to it meaning we get to know Amber on a deeper level and my reservations soon disappeared. Tense and gripping the book uncoils like a snake with plenty of startling revelations peppered throughout. There were quite a few occasions where my mouth literally dropped open, particularly the moments where we get to know Amber more as a person.

It would be all too easy to spoil this book by going into the story in too much detail. Just know that the more you read of this book, the more you want to know, until you realise you've been reading for hours. Be warned: it is very addictive. There are plenty of "didn't see that coming moments" and the pace moves jauntily along. It really is the perfect addictive, twisty book for anybody who played loves psychologist thrillers chock full of bombshells that leave you bewildered.

Thanks very much to NetGalley, Harlequin (UK) Limited, and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

This novel opens with Amber lying in hospital, not knowing how she ended up there and in a coma. So far so usual in a psychological thriller. But Sometimes I lie is rather better than your average story in this genre. Exactly who is telling the truth here and who is lying? There are plenty of twists and turns and the story is made more tense by an unreliable narrator (Amber) who admits from the beginning that 'sometimes I lie.' A definite for fans of Girl on The Train and Before I Go to Sleep. Many thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin (UK) for the opportunity to read and review this gripping book.

I would not want to give away too much to a would be reader. This book keeps you guessing to the very last line. Told in three time stages, the life stories unfold to bring surprising twists to what becomes a rather disturbing tale. Once past the first half, I just had to keep reading until the end. ......