I really enjoyed this book, I couldn’t put it down. It’s a story within a story but it weaves together brilliantly. There were times I forgot which story I was in but this didn’t matter. There were no big twists or anything I didn’t see coming, it was just a very well executed novel. I would certainly recommend it

This was a disturbing and puzzling story with creepy undertones.I cannot imagine being in the situation that the main character finds herself in and of course she wants to try and find out what really happened ,I had no idea where this was going.things become clearer when she finds 2 notebooks in her mother's writing, or do they? I'm not saying much more because I don't want to give the plot away and spoil it for other readers.I will say that this book will keep you guessing and as the story unravels you will if you are like me be page turning like mad to find out what is going on.Good book, bit different and well worth a read.Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC.

From the start this book grabs the reader. The death of her mother and the close death of her father starts Sophia trying to find out what really happened as she could not believe that her mother would harm her father nor kill herself. Sophie lives in London and has a bright future ahead of her while her parents have a run down garden centre.. The story evolves at a perfect pace to keep the reader guessing as to what really happened and while some parts become predictable there are still some twists towards the end.. I felt that a lot of research went into the main theme of cult worship which embellished the story in a bizarre enthralling manner. A sinister story that was to say the least captivating.

Sophia lives in London.Her parents, Nina and Jared, own a garden centre with a cafe in remote Suffolk. Nina is an anxious woman and often calls Sophia asking for her to visit them. One friday night she gets a call from Nina when she is out with friends in a night club. She doesn’t go immediately but drives to Suffolk next day to have the shock of her life finding Nina hanging from a tree and Jared is lying in a pool of blood. Nina dies, Jared survives. However he is too ill and kept in hospital.

Sophia refuses to believe this is a murder-suicide is her mother’s doing.Something must have happened.

As she starts investigating her childhood house for clues, she’ll discover a lot more than she have imagined.

I really, really disliked Sophia’s mum Nina. Sorry! Nothing can justify her back boneless actions in the past for me. Well, I should shut up for not revealing too much!

I would have loved this book if it was only Nina’s story, in the past. I think the sections about Morningstar were really good. However the present story line, with Sophia wasn’t really too convincing. Maybe because Sophia and her parent’s real relationship were never there in the plot, we take it for granted and the twist, although very predictable, felt a bit fabricated to me.

This was a quick read and it is indeed a page turner. So despite the flaws it will keep you entertained.

I would recommend this book to fans of psychological thrillers such as Bad Mother by Amanda Brook or Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin UK for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Net Galley & Penguin Uk - Michael Joseph Penguin for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
This book is packed full of secrets and lies. It’s quite a dramatic story from beginning to end, and no one is who they seem to be.
Sophia arrives at her parents following a phone call from her mother the previous evening, her mother is dead and her father has been stabbed and is critical.
Sophiia finds two notebooks in her mother’s small handwriting and they tell the story of her mothers life before Sophia.. Nina, her mother was part of a cult, she was enthralled by the cults leader Aaron Kessler, manipulated by him and the other members of the cult. Through reading the notebooks Sophia learns a lot about her mothers past.
The book is told in the past, by Nina, via the notebooks and in the present by Sophia.
Sophia is stressed by her mothers death, did her mother really take her own life? Sophia finds that hard to believe, her father is in hospital, she has mounting pressures at work and she is searching for the 3rd & final notebook which she hopes will help solve the mysteries from the past and the present.
A fast paced story full of suspense and manipulation.

Mystery, intrigue and secrets - Everything is Lies has all of these and more. A psychological thriller that will take you on a rollercoaster of twists and turns.

Sophia is a twenty something living the high life in London. She returns home to find her mother hanging from a tree and her father in a pool of blood. The police suspect attempted murder-suicide but Sophia knows her mother isn’t a killer and must set out to prove her innocence.

This book had me gripped from page one. Great plot and plenty to get your teeth into.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK Michael Joseph and the author for the chance to review.

No-one is who you think they are

Sophia's parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she's always believed. Everyone has secrets

Especially those closest to you

The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide.

What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

Everything Is Lies is the story of Sophia, a young architect living in London, who one evening while on a night out, gets yet another phone call from her needy mother, asking her to come home to their isolated home in rural Suffolk. Sophia, used to these calls, refuses but later feels guilty, and turns up early the next morning to make her peace.

To her horror, she discovers her mum hanging from a tree in the garden and her dad critically injured. Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn't a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother's name, and to do this she needs to delve deep into her family's past - a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .

Subsequently she discovers that her mum was writing a book telling the story of her youth, which is also the story of a strange group based in luxurious country house, a manipulative and controlling man and a decades-old murder, and before long her mother’s pursuers are now following Sophia…

4 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

I was given an advance copy of this book, and was very excited to get started after reading Dear Amy last year.

This didn't disappoint! For me, this was better than Dear Amy. I've read the whole story within 24 hours and it kept me gripped throughout. I've read other reviews saying there were slow parts but I didn't feel this.

I'd give it 4.5*, whilst it was a great book I had figured a few things out and therefore didn't quite get the "WOW" factor that others might get from it.

I would definitely recommend this one to friends.

This is the first book I’ve read by author Helen Callaghan, I will definitely be looking out for her work.
Following Sophia through the challenges of working out what happen to her mother makes for gripping reading.
It reminds you that your parents had lives of their own before you were born and Nina wasn’t afraid to document everything that had happened to her. Great book one that I couldn’t put down.
Highly recommend

I really enjoyed this book and managed to finish it in a couple of sittings.
The idea that our parents had a life, and identity, before our birth is one that has interested me much more since having children of my own. Add into that, an exploration of cults,and their grooming process, and the results are compelling.

A really great book with some unexpected elements to it. Helen Callaghan has really excelled with this story and the book is well written and keeps you gripped in.

“Everything is lies, and nobody is who they seem.”

Helen Callaghan’s second novel sets its stall out early on, and how true it is. I liked her first book, Dear Amy, a lot, but she’s surpassed an already high bar with Everything is Lies, which has the reader questioning throughout what is real and who can be trusted.

I don’t want to give away too much, but the setup of the story is shocking - architect Sophia is called home by her mother Nina (a bit anxious, a bit needy) and makes a horrific discovery - her mother dead, apparently by her own hand, and her father stabbed and close to death.

From there the story is told alternately by Sophia and through Nina’s notebooks, which recount astonishing details of a past her daughter knew nothing about. Seeking the truth about what happened to her parents - and to her mother long ago - Sophia is also facing both challenges in her professional life and some frightening personal dangers. There are some intriguing parallels between past and present.

Everything is Lies is an absolutely brilliant read with a genuine corker of a twist which I didn’t see coming at all - or at least, not until mere seconds before it was revealed. Like all the best twists it seems if not obvious, at least guessable, in retrospect -but I didn’t suspect at all, and I bet most other readers don’t either.

Fast-moving, thought-provoking and highly recommended.

Sophia lives in London with a good job and friends. She finds excuses not to go home to her parents, who live in Suffolk running a garden centre. One night she receives a call from her Mum asking her to come home straight away, but Sophia has a hot date and is a little drunk. The next day she feels guilty and drives home to horrifying scenes. Her Mum is dead and her Father in a coma.
This story is really about her mother Nina and her past and how it can come back or does it ever leave us. Sophia is determined to find out the truth but will she like what she finds and what will be the consequences for everyone involved.

Sophia is an Architect is a high profile firm. She is out enjoying herself after work when she gets another call from her mother asking her if she can come home, this time it’s an emergency. She reluctantly agrees to go home the following day.
When she arrives at the family home she finds her mother dead hanging from a tree in the garden and her dad is unconscious after being stabbed, on the ground.
The police are called and they believe that Sophia’s mother killed herself and tried to kill her father too. But, she doesn’t believe it as she finds out that they have been victims of several burglaries. She also hers that her mother has finally written her memoir. She goes in search on the notebooks that it has been written.
The story then goes back to Sophia’s mother’s college years when she meets Aaron Kessler and the cult at Morningstar. Sophia find out that her mother is not the person she knew.
I was looking forward to reading this as I have read Helen Callaghan’s previous novel Dear Amy which I really enjoyed. But this story wasn’t what I was expecting. Although there was a lot of twists and turns and mystery to this book. I thought that the middle of the story was quite slow. But as for the ending, I didn’t see that coming.
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin books for a copy of this book.

When I first got into this book, my heart sank - not another cult story - but actually, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I thought it was well written and had a very satisfying end. Highly recommended.

I found this book to be original and riveting. I couldn’t wait to read the diary at the centre of the mystery, and it really kep me guessing. Looking forward to any future books by this author.

I love dual time line books, where each thread slowly uncovers and reveals new insights into the other time line.
I did like Sophia’s time line a lot. It’s so typical to know so little or be less inquisitive about our parents history, when we are wrapped so completely in our own lives. So the premise is excellent.

I was initially enthralled with the Nina timeline, a young lady in study at Cambridge, but as it became obvious it was a cult based story, with cliche entanglement and without the twists of the Sophia story, I lost some interest. The ‘mysterious event’ in the Nina story was unremarkably introduced and handled. The major outcome of her story was equally predictable from early in the book, with the secondary outcome also highly suspected, but clarified early in the third notebook section. This could and should have been more surprising to the reader.

I’d like to read other things from this author in case it was simply the subject matter that turned me off as there were aspects I found really intriguing.

Full of guilt having not gone home following a phone call from her mother the previous evening Sophia arrives back the next day. She never will find out what was troubling her mother as she has apparently committed suicide and her Father is badly injured. Sophia cannot believe that her mother would do such a thing. The police don’t think there is anything to investigate but Sophia is determined to establish what really happened. She discovers some journals her mother has written and learns she has a publisher. The journals reveal a very different side to her mother, and if they are to be believed are very disturbing. In her quest for the truth Sophia finds that her mother was involved with a cult in her youth, everything she had thought was true of her mother seems to be a lie.
A good read with some surprises along the way.

Loved this book. It held my attention from the first page. The plot was brilliant with loads of twists and turns. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Helen Callaghan for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Absolutely loved this book I had sleepless nights needing to find out what's happening didn't figure it out till nearly the end would def recommend this book....