when do lies become the truth? for 17 years school friends Isa, Fatima, and Thea have been covering up a major lie to protect their friend Kate but now things are starting to unravel. A body has been discovered and Kate begs them to come. But is Kate telling them the truth and are their memories true or more lies? A story of family, friendship, loyalty, and finding the truth hidden in years of lies.

Another great mystery from Ruth Ware. Very readable-couldn't put it down!

Four school friends are brought back together after over a decade of silence when a secret from their past is threatened to come to light. While at Salten, the girls were known for playing the "lying game," where it became a competition between the four of them to come up with the best lie. The game had four stipulations, but the most important being: never lie to each other.

It's not that I didn't enjoy The Lying Game, because I truly was interested the entire way through and it definitely kept my attention. But, I came away feeling slightly, I don't know...underwhelmed? The conclusion is satisfying and makes sense in the plot—but I still was wanting something more by the end of the novel. This is how I felt after The Woman in Cabin 10, as well.

Overall, it was still a good read and I don't regret reading it, I'm just left with an overall feeling of "meh."

Thanks NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, and Pocket Books for letting me read early.

This wasn't my favorite, but it was still mesmerizing somehow. Full review coming soon for Shelf Awareness.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

The mystery had me flipping pages, but I didn't think this was as good as others I've read by Mary Kubica. I didn't like Maisie - she was too whiney and spoiled - and I didn't care for Clara, either. She seemed to leave her kids in the car all the time while she went around investigating. (I know she had heard of all those poor babies and kids dying of heatstroke in hot vehicles.) Poor Harriet (the dog) was left with the short end of the stick - being neglected; not being taken for a walk; and left to have accidents in the house.

I didn't like this novel because it seemed to me like there was something lacking. All the suspense and secrets were building up throughout... and by the time the ending came I was left feeling let down. However, Izzy was definitely a surprise.

No matter how disappointed I was in this, I will continue to keep Mary Kubica on my radar. Maybe I will like her next book better?

One night when they were teens, shapes the lives of four women forever joined by "The Lying Game." . This was a tremendous read, full of suspense and humanity. It speaks to the power of female friendships and the power of parenthood. The title says it's about lying, but I think it was about love, and what the characters will do for it.. Highly recommended.

I wasn't sure I wanted read about "little liars" who hurt others without caring of the consequences. I didn't believe that the friends would turn on each other but neither did I think grown women with families and jobs would drop everything at a text of "I need help". The author stretched credibility to the max with parts of the story but it is worthy to read for the parts that do seem very real and possible in deep friendships.

Whereas Ruth Ware's last novel, "The Woman in Cabin 10", had an Agatha Christie vibe, this novel has a Daphne du Maurier vibe.

The narrative, though, is essentially all handwringing until the last quarter of the book (and I solved the mystery before I reached that point).

Ware definitely has another hit on her hands — it just wasn't one with me, preferring her previous books to this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced reader copy.

The story moved too slow and not enough dialog- found myself skipping over the descriptions. The story was good and did keep my interest to keep reading.

After last year’s blockbuster The Woman in Cabin 10, British author Ruth Ware is back with her third thriller, The Lying Game. The online reviewers who blasted Cabin 10‘s protagonist, Lo, for not being sufficiently likable should be happier with new heroine Isa, a young mum whose main priority is her baby Freya:

“She is mine and my responsibility. Anything could happen—she could choke in her sleep, the house could burn down, a fox could slink into the open bathroom window and maul her. And so I sleep with one ear cocked, ready to leap up, heart pounding, at the least sign that something is wrong.”

As the book begins, Isa is summoned to the village of Salten by her old boarding-school friend Kate. Two other former classmates, Fatima and Thea, are also called. The four women have wound up in very different circumstances in the two decades since they were at school together. Fatima is a married doctor with two children, and she’s also become a practicing Muslim; Thea is a mess, anorexic and alcoholic; Isa is a civil servant living with her partner (and Freya’s dad) Owen. They are all Londoners, while Kate has remained in Salten, where her father once served on the faculty of the school. She is either unwilling or unable to move on with her life.

The book builds slowly, since the reader doesn’t know exactly what’s going on until almost halfway through. We know that Kate’s summons is a very big deal, important enough to make her three former besties drop everything and come running. Something big happened at the school to cause the quartet to get expelled. In the present day, we learn that a human bone recently turned up on Salten’s beach; that is presumably the reason for Kate wanting to get the gang back together, but it takes a while to learn whose bone it is and how and why it may affect the women.

The title of the book implies that no one can truly be trusted—it refers to a game the girls played in school, where they would try to lie convincingly and win points if outsiders fell for it. (They vowed never to lie to each other, though eventually the reader may suspect that perhaps Freya is the only character with nothing to hide.) Unlike Cabin 10, which kept me up late into the night furiously turning the pages, The Lying Game moves at a more leisurely pace; its biggest assets are its diverse, well-rounded quartet of main characters, and Ware’s vivid descriptions of the joys and terrors of motherhood.

Hmmm...not sure how I feel about this one. This is the first of her books that I have read...it was good, but it was almost too long. I feel like a good 50 pages could have been shaved off here and there and it would have been fine. After all those pages, I should have had a stronger feeling about the main character, Isa, and I didn't. There is suspense and an underlying mystery, and once I got close to the end I was really anxious to see how it turned out. This is British setting by the way, and the book will be available July 25. #bobbiereadsbooks

Four friends from boarding school share a common secret, but how long can something stay hidden in a small town, especially if that something is a body?

Fifteen years after their expected graduation date, Isa receives an urgent text from her friend Kate. When she and the others rush to Kate's side, they discover that their secret is in jeopardy. The past isn't the only thing that threatens the group, as threats begin to surface. Somebody knows something.

For Isa, the stakes to keep the secret are high and make her a compelling narrator. She's been forced to lie on her job forms. She's keeping secrets from her boyfriend. Besides all of that, she's a strong woman, caught in the fraught new-ness of motherhood. Can I just say that a leading lady in a thriller who is a nursing mother is one of my favorite aspects of this story? Bravo, Ruth Ware, for tackling the complicated and often antithetical worries of those early months of parenting, mixed up with a heart-racing plot.

I'm also a sucker for boarding school stories and rural England, and Ware paints all the trappings of both in bold. If you liked her other novels, you're sure to like this one. Another great mystery from Ware, with fascinating leading women and some heart-racing moments. Lots to love about this mystery.

Ruth Ware hit another home run with The Lying Game. As with her past books, this is a character driven, psychological thriller with significant twists and turns to keep you reading late into the night. Highly recommended.

So so so good! Even better than Woman in Cabin 10. Couldn't put it down. All the characters were so fleshed out and I truly wanted to know what happened in their story.

The Lying Game is a fun, summer beach read. Fans of The Woman in Cabin 10 won't be disappointed, though this reader found the foreshadowing and hidden "clues" to be a little forced and obvious leading me to deduce the ending a little earlier than I would have liked. Still, the premise is something new (a rarity in today's fiction) and provides an enjoyable, if slightly less than thrilling, read.

There is just something about Ruth Ware’s writing that makes her one of my favorite thriller writers today. She immediately hooks the reader from the very first page and doesn’t let go until the very last word with the book’s tension and quick pace. The Lying Game might not be as intense or thrilling as The Woman in Cabin 10 but instead, it is a much lighter suspense novel and more of a mystery. Yet, the entire time there is a deep feeling of cold, intense, menace permeating the atmosphere of the novel, which makes it classic, psychological Ware! I completely enjoyed the differences between The Lying Game and Ware’s previous books since it allows for much greater character development than Ware displayed in her previous books and as much as I enjoyed In a Dark Wood and The Woman In Cabin 10, I thought The Lying Game was a much more well-written book.

Where this novel excels is bringing four adult and very different friends back together after almost twenty years, and she does so in a way that is not only realistic but is an addictive, intense, and absorbing read! Kate, Fatima, Thea, and Isa were best friends during their teenage years when they attended a Sultan, a boarding school. During that time, they were bound by their conniving game, “The Lying Game” and the consequences of a devastating lie. All four friends have a secret to hide, a secret that only they are supposed to know…

Now it is present day, and their biggest lie has returned to haunt them with a vengeance as menacing threats proves that some unknown person knows their terrible secret. It’s fascinating to see how Ware has written about such a diverse and different group of women and how they each deal differently with the possibility of a secret they set in motion as teenagers coming to light. These are women who are mothers, professionals, and wives—one teenage lie being revealed to the world will have terrible consequences in different and awful ways for each woman.

As I said, the book is more of a mystery instead of a thriller, and Ware masterfully weaves it as such with the story unlocking the hidden secrets of the four friend’s past lives. I found the book to be intense, fast-paced and filled with tension! The ending is shocking, unexpected, and explosive! If you enjoyed Ware’s other books, then you won’t be disappointed in her latest offering!

Thank you, NetGalley, Gallery/Scout Press, and Ruth Ware for providing me with an ARC copy of The Lying Game to read in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I read this book in one weekend and I did find it alluring and well written. These are some jacked up characters but i actually cared for most of them....well SOME of them. This is the 3rd book I have read by Ruth Ware and I will continue to read this author but with of these 3 books the story just misses the mark. In my opinion somewhere in each of her stories it falls flat.

This beautiful novel gave me everything that I hope for in an outstanding read.

The story involves four teenaged girls who are students at a boarding school, Salten House, on an estuary of the English Channel known as the Reach. Two of the girls, Kate and Thea, are established students there, and the other two, Fatima and Isabel, are new.

Ms. Ware’s descriptions of the school, the village, the Reach and the Mill are so complete that it was easy to visualize being there. The reader gets a real sense of the isolation of Kate’s and her father’s home, the Mill, on the Reach and the encapsulated environment of the village and boarding school.

The story transitions smoothly from the girls’ present adult life to events from their years at Salten. It’s the recounting of their Salten experiences that clarifies the nerve-wracking situation that the girls find themselves in seven years later.

As the story progresses we get a good sense of each girl’s personality as well as each girl’s role in the group. Generally speaking, they become far too entranced with their ability to lie and the power that comes with embarrassing others and occasionally causing serious problems. There’s strength in numbers and the girls develop a strong sense of loyalty to each other, loyalty that extends even into adulthood. When one of the four is in need, the others travel to help even before they know what that need is.

Pivotal in the story is Kate’s father, Ambrose, the art teacher at Salten. Ms. Ware explains Ambrose to the reader in a manner that makes us both love and criticize him for his free-spirited choices. The blessing for the girls was that as adults they could look back and see why Ambrose’s choices, while tantalizing to their younger selves, weren’t the best.

The points of view of the four girls as teens compared to their views as adults are carefully described. The girls reluctantly accept and understand how the past affects their present and each moves on in her own way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it very difficult to put down. I very much recommend it. It’s a well-written mystery with some juicy twists and turns and very well-developed and interesting characters.

Many, many thanks to Ms. Ware, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read and review The Lying Game.

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Booktalk

Isa, Thea, and Fatima receive a text from their friend and old schoolmate, Kate, that simply reads, "I need you." They haven't seen each other for years, but just like that, they all go to Kate, to The Reach. The Reach is Kate's house. It's in a marshy area not far from Salten House, the school where the girls did their fifth year together. That was seventeen years ago.

Isa and Fatima, the new girls boarding at Salten House, fell in easily with Kate and Thea and a little game that they played: The Lying Game.

The game has rules:
• Rule One: Tell a Lie
• Rule Two: Stick to Your Story
• Rule Three: Don't Get Caught
• Rule Four: Never Lie to Each Other
• Rule Five: Know When to Stop Lying

That year together was mostly a happy one. The mischievous girls would sneak out of school to spend time at The Reach. It became their sanctuary, and their friendship was a buffer against the personal problems that brought them to Salten House. They had each other. They had The Reach. They had the game.

Kate sends her text after a human bone is found in the marsh. They all know who that bone belongs to. After all, they were the ones who buried the body seventeen years ago. There will be questions from the police, but they have the rules to guide them. Rules One and Two: Tell a Lie and Stick to Your Story. They know nothing; they saw nothing. But Rule Three: Don't Get Caught, is becoming increasingly difficult. Someone else knows, and they're harassing Kate. As the women try to figure out who might know their secret, they begin to wonder if one of them is breaking Rule Four: Never Lie to Each Other. As for Rule Five: Know When to Stop Lying? Never.

Analysis and Criticism

Although sometimes bogged by repetition, this dark and disturbing mystery doesn't disappoint. It is told through Isa's point of view, and the plot flips between the present and school memories. The intensifying, plot-driven story has all the necessary tropes of a classic tragedy: foreshadowing, a mistake that can't be undone, a misunderstanding, an impulsive act, a fatal flaw, star-crossed romance, calamity and suffering, and a plot twist you won't see coming.

The call for diversity in literature is gaining momentum, and The Lying Game delivers Fatima, a Muslim, whose parents spend a year volunteering in Pakistan. (One assumes that the other characters are white and Christian.) Fatima's religion is not mere mention plopped in for the sake of heading the call for diversity, as some authors seem to do. Far from it. It forms Fatima's identity and her response to the problem.

Salten House, The Reach, and the marsh work together to provide a gothic setting. They create a forbidding and dangerous atmosphere that works metaphorically for the women's relationship and their ability to find a way through their problem. They spend their fifth year of school together at Salten House, a shabby, castle-like building. Presently, Kate's home, The Reach, has fallen into disrepair, and it is sinking because it is not built on solid bedrock. The shifting marsh makes it difficult to navigate for sometimes it's hard to know if one's foot placement will set them on stable ground or oozing, slippery mud. Finally, it's hard to see the path when trekking through the daytime fog and nighttime darkness.

This dark and intensifying mystery will keep the pages turning.

Smart mystery
Interesting characters
Emotionally compelling
Fast paced
Good read!