Many thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in return for an independent and honest review.
I had previously read Dear Amy. And while I didn’t love it, it was a good enough read for me to give the author a second go. And I’m so glad I did. What a great book “Everything is Lies” is. So many secrets. The story is told by two main characters, Sophia in the present, and her mother Nina - tells the story of her youth. Excellent characters and an interesting ‘cult’ vibe, as well as an “I never saw that coming” ending make this a really good read. Highly recommend.

A very well written, accessible thriller. Following the format of other psychological thrillers with a good twist and easy to read, would definitely recommend. I chose to read this due to enjoying the author’s previous book.

This book was absolutely fantastic, I was drawn in from the beginning and could not put it down. I shall recommend it to my friends and to the bookclub. The twist at the end I had not expected and I was pleased that it was not 'the same old story' rehashed.

An unusual book, which starts in the style of a contemporary girl making her way in a London design firm, but then develops into an absorbing thriller in a more rural setting through circumstances she could not have anticipated. She discovers a whole new world from the past, which eventually meets her present with startling consequences. Much of the pace and tension of the book depends on finding out the details - some highly improbable and coincidental - with the narrator, Sophia, and so cannot be given here, but they provide a gripping and satisfying read, if you give yourself to the moment and enjoy!

3.5*
A good read but some bits dragged a little bit and some was unbelievable. This is my first book by this author and I will read more.

A psychological thriller with an insightful twist. The story is intriguing from the start and is told in two time frames, through Sophia as she discovers her Mum has taken her own life and her dad injured, and then through Nina, Sophia’s mother, I really enjoyed how the story switched from one to another . Nina’s story was told in three parts and with each revelation, I could feel the suspense building.

I found delving into Nina’s story more interesting, I don’t want to give too much of the storyline away but the historical part is what really hooked me into the story. However, as I got further into the book and Sophia starts to experience the consequences of what she has found out I couldn’t put the book down and really wanted to find out what had happened to Nina and what was going to happen to Sophia.

The characters were believable , very realistic, and I could feel the pull from them off the page. There is a large cast of them and I won’t go into detail here but their development and the clash of personalities was spot on. The story is complex and gripping and I think readers will have a hard time putting it down.

A psychological twister. It asks the question doe we really know people?

When Sophia discovers that her parents had been burglarised and murdered she doesn't understand anything. Why? Her parents were good people and never did any harm. But then, she discovered some notebooks her mother wrote and learnt that everything was a lie... Ready?

"Something was wrong in the grove at the back. Something was there that shouldn't be there.
I leaned against the window, peering hard through the grass. There was a shape amongst the trees -a human shape, barely visible through the leafy branches.
A shape with extended, dangling feet."

As we start reading this book we don't know what to expect, there are a lot of secrets hidden in the past of Sophia's parents, but enough to kill for something that happened a long time ago? Page after page we discover all that Sophia's parents hide from her; with an absorbing diary full of unexpected stories, but again, enough to kill someone?
This is an intense and atmospheric read, that everything points to an amazing discovery, but what starts with frightening the read is if after Sophia discovers the truth, will she be the next victim? Because after reading the notebooks, the paranoia seems to start hunting Sophia... or is the grieve talking? I've read a lot of books where the main character thinks is being followed but no one believes them, let me say that if it ever happens this to me, I hope my loved ones at least will try to discover the truth instead of ignoring me, because you never know who could be following you... or in this case Sophia... Who could be following her? So many questions...
Ready for a book full of drama, mystery and twists?

I liked this book from the first page.
It gently draws you in with a little humour to become an easy to read thriller which keeps you guessing which way it will turn.
The subject matter is unusual but believable and it's the sort of book to cuddle up on the sofa to on a Sunday afternoon.

I thought this was a wonderful book. There are two strands to it: Sophie, in the present day, and the mother's story (Nina). I felt empathy for Nina even though she made some questionable decisions. I strongly recommend it.

This book started well and I was initially intrigued as it snapped back in time, however this was short lived for me and I ended up really struggling to finish the book.

Firstly, thanks to NetGalley, PenguinRandomHouse publishing and the author for the opportunity to preview Everything is Lies.

This is an unusual book of obsession, lies and secrets and I enjoyed it. I don't want to say too much about the detail as part of my enjoyment came from knowing nothing before I started.

It's an atmospheric tale about a young woman and her discovery, through notebooks, of her mother's life before she was born.

I particularly enjoyed the 2 voices in the book; that of Sophia, the daughter and her mother, Nina and the threads that wove throughout the book, all coming together nicely at the end.
A really good read.

This book started quite slowly but soon picked up pace and held my attention.
Sophie thinks her mum is needy and need to give her space. After she discovers her mums body everything she thought she knew changes. The story picks up pace and keeps you guessing right till the end. Nina (Sophie's mum) had lived a more exciting life that she could ever have imagined. So much so it leaves Sophie in grave danger.
A great read and would recommend.

Having been disappointed by the last book I read by the author I was hoping for something better this time round, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The book took a turn I wasn’t expecting, but it was one I enjoyed. It is told using two different timelines, those of Sophia in the present day and Nina, her mother, in the past. It is only on reading Nina’s past that you get an idea of where the author is going with the storyline as a whole.

I did get a little bit bored with the initial part of Nina’s story but once it got going it gripped me totally. The characters are all well written, the story goes at a good pace, and overall this was a good read for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy.

This was a great book. Sophia wAs a young woman who wanted to find out about her parents. Everything she was told was a lie. Her father not her father, and her grandparents who she never knew, were bitter people. Her mother got into the cult and could not get away, it ruined her life but the one good thing was her daughter. Well done great book.

This book started off really well and kept me fully engaged until I got about half way through then It just seemed to drift nowhere. Such a shame but that is just my personal opinion.

Yet another book that draws you in right from the opening chapter. Sophia is on a night out with her work when she receives a phone call from her Mother, there is something off about it but Sophia can’t put her finger on it and it gets lost in the moment as she is desperate to get back to the man she has been flirting with.

Next morning Sophia drives out to see her parents and is met with a horrific sight. Her Mother is hanging from a tree and her Father lies nearby barely alive with life threatening stab wounds. The police think it is an open and shut case - her Mother having stabbed her Father as he tried to stop her from killing herself. Sophia is not so sure and when she finds her Mother’s notebooks she realises that there was more to her Mother than she ever knew.

This was an excellent well- written book that keeps you engaged throughout. It’s full of so many twists and turns and you will be left doubting many of the characters you meet along the way. It is also highly emotional in parts you will not want to put it down.

Thanks to Netgalley and Michael Joseph for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest unbiased review.

Sophie arrives home to find her mother dead and her father lying in a pool of blood. The police are convinced that her mother attempted to murder her father and then committed suicide. Sophie’s mother has written an account of her teenage years and as Sophie unravels it she finds some shocking secrets along the way. She is adamant her mother is not a killer and sets out to prove this to everyone.
The book draws you into the world of a cult and how easy it is to be drawn into it. This book is very dark and compelling read with plenty of twists and turns and a brilliant ending. Well recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was gripped by this novel, and along with Sophia, who is one of the two central characters, wanted to know what really happened in the hours before Sophia found her mother hanging from a tree and her father close to death, having been stabbed.

Sophia's terrible discovery had been made that much worse by the fact that on the evening before her mother had died, her mother had phoned Sophia, sounding strange, and had urged her to go back home. But her childhood home was some distance away, and Sophia had refused and had eventually hung up on her mother. The following day, she'd gone home, and made the gruesome find in the garden.

To the police it was a simple case of suicide and murder, but to Sophia, such an idea was impossible, given the nature of her parents. Flatly refusing to accept that it was a murder and suicide, she was detemined to find out what had really happened, a determination fuelled by her remorse at having refused her mother's request to come home the day before, and by her guilt at finding, when she had come home, how shabby her parents' home and business had become. In order to discover the truth, Sophia decided to take a break from her job and stay in her parents' home, from which she'd try to run her parents' garden centre, helped by her father's assistant, Rowan, who in the later years had known her parents better than she had. While doing this, she'd try to discover the truth behind what had happened.

Not long after she'd moved back into the house, Sophia was astounded when she received a telephone call from a publisher, who told her about the book that her mother, Nina, the second central character in the story, had been writing. Sophia had had no idea that her mother had finally been doing something that she'd long talked about doing, and full of curiosity, she promptly set out to find her mother's notebooks. When she finally discovered them in the workshop of her father, Jared, and started reading them, she saw that her mother had been recording her life from the time when she'd started university, and showing how she'd been drawn into a sect that revolved around the charismatic Aaron Kessler, who was based with his followers in a house called Morningstar.

The novel, which is full of intrigue, tells the story of Sophia, who is looking for the truth, and the story of Nina, who was slowly being drawn in to a strange sect. The two stories comfortably co-exist - the modern-day story of Sophia and her struggle to learn the truth, and the compelling story of how Nina was drawn all those years before into the heart of a sinister sect.

Gradually, fragments of the truth are revealed along the way, until the ultimate truth is revealed in the final denouement. By that time, the reader knows, as does Sophia, that nothing was as it had seemed.

I've often figured out what happened long before the end of the book, but this time I didn't, which is another plus point for the novel. The twists and turns kept me turning the pages as fast as possible, rapidly jumping from one suspicion to another. It's a novel that certainly keeps readers on their toes.

My thanks go to Penguin and to Netgalley for a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

I raced through this book and was fascinated by the notion of a book within a book as Sophia's mother told her own story via a series of notebooks. It was tense and suspenseful at times. The main characters, Sophia and Nina were credible and likeable if rather gullible. I guessed one or two of the twists but still enjoyed continuing to the end. I'd read another by Helen Callaghan.