Member Reviews
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
Why with me is one of those not very spoken about hidden gems of a book. Perfect for thriller fans who love the unreliable characters. The character development in this one was so strong that you could hate the unreliable character, yet,
feel so bad for him at the same time. And there was a constant feeling of what is going on, in a good way! This book had me engaged from the very beginning, and was so pleasantly surprised!
I discovered that this book was not going to sit well with me after a couple of chapters. I attempted several times to keep reading it, but fell flat each time. The characters were not sticking with me. Sadly, I will be putting this one in my "Did Not Finish" category.
Unfortunately, I realized this was not the book for me within just a chapter or two. I absolutely cannot stand Paul as a human, he’s smarmy and arrogant and just gross. The narrative style was so overblown that I could not face a whole book of it and the main character.
Paul wants what he does not have: beautiful women, money, and a certain amount of clout. Will one slip of the tongue get Paul everything he has always wanted? In a world started with deception, will Paul's lie have a catastrophic effect?
Lie With Me was neither gripping nor mesmerizing. None of the characters were all that likable, which contributed to my lack of enthusiasm for the story itself. Lie With Me was definitely not a page turner, as the little side plots did nothing to move the story along. With so much manipulation and deception, there was no room for character development. Overall, I was not a fan of the story or any of the characters, so I would not recommend Lie With Me to other readers.
Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Lie With Me via NetGalley and the publisher, Mulholland Books. The choice to review this book was my own.
This was a pretty good thriller. I didn't like the main character, and it started out slow, but it picked up and became really interesting!
This book was a little bit of a slow start for me as I found Paul, the protagonist, very unlikable. However, as the story unfolds, the pace picked up and found myself really enjoying the thriller, excited to find out how it all unfolds.
Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview Lie With Me by Sabine Durrant. I appologize for the late review - I read this one, and didn't get to get it done. That said - Lie with me starts with something we all do - exaggerate a bit, make you life more interesting for those you haven't seen in a while - we all do it. But when Paul runs into some college friends, he really needs to make his life appear to be better than it really is. But that lie keeps growing, and before you know he can't stop. This plot is mixed with the disappearance of a girl years ago, and is centered in the Greece islands.
I really hated the lead character, but that emotional response is good - gets you invested in the plot and keeps you reading.
3 stars.
I noticed someone compared this to The Girl On The Train and that was definitely a great comparison. I love a good psychological thriller and was not disappointed in this book. Twists and turns galore that made it almost impossible to put this one down. I’m definitely going to check out other books by this author!
Psychological mind games, manipulation, hubris, Lie with Me is an invitation to the unbelievable and a nice holiday. Lie with Me doesn't deliver clear answers, but when you find yourself wailing against the characters out loud (Ugh, Alice, why is Andrew such a knob, Sheesh Paul don't be such a wanker, you know Amarat is up to no good!!!) you know that it did something right. The ending was the only slight misstep, it doesn't so much come to a logical conclusion, but more of a "to be continued," without the continued part. It is unfinished, but the off-kilter vibe matches the unpredictability of the narrative.
LIE WITH ME is a slow burn of a psychological thriller that kept me guessing until the end! The main character isn’t what you’d call your typical MC—an unemployed, middle-aged man caught up in his own web of lies—but he does have an interesting arc. I can’t say I’ve ever read anything quite like this before. Thank you Net Galley for the advanced reader copy!
DNF
There are so many thrillers that have a plot based on a lie or about a lie, that I think I've met my fill. Lie With Me starts out slow and I just couldn't get into it. After picking it up and setting it down repeatedly over the past few months, I'm going to set it permanently on the shelf.
I never could get invested in this, as a story or in any of the characters.. I would have liked to, however I could not finish the book.
While I enjoyed this book (I got through it very quickly) I found some of the scenes downright silly and entirely implausible. I loved the setting and overall premise. Who doesn't love seeing inside the life of a powerful banker and washington lobbyist family - seeing their warts and idiosyncrasies. But somehow the narrative lost momentum and left me feeling a bit like I had wasted my time.
Unfortunately as hard as I tried, I couldn't finish this book. It dragged on and on with nothing to get me excited about continuing. Characters were not likable for me at all.
I am a bit torn on my opinion of this book... I originally wasn't sure I would be able to get to the end, I was so aggravated with so many of the characters, but I persisted... and was pretty impressed with how it all wrapped up.
Even though this is a short book it’s very slow paced. It’s not until the final 25% that the plot finally drew me in. I kept reading because I really wanted to know what the heck was going on!
Toward the 3/4 mark, I started to understand why all the "fluff" was necessary. Thinking back, I saw lots of clues that I thought were just back story. I was a bit shocked at the outcome, I saw part of it coming and part of it was totally out of left field.
You aren't going to like the MC of the story, Paul Morris. But, you're not supposed to. He's self-absorbed, arrogant, and a bit of a snob. He's also financially broke, lonely and a bit pathetic. The book blurb is a bit vague, but that is because this is Paul's story to tell.....
**Received from NetGalley for my honest review.**
A slow, manipulative read that turned me off from the title alone, and went downhill from there, I should never have requested it. Thanks NetGalley though for the copy.
This book was extremely slow moving for the first three-fourths of the book. It was a dreary look at a very boring dating life of Paul and Alice. I am not sure I would have finished it if I hadn’t committed to doing a review. This defiantly wasn’t a romantic love story. There was no intrigue or redeeming factor I could find to keep me reading other than the guilt of a task left undone.
The story was told from Paul’s perspective. Paul is not the most likable character. In my opinion, the story might have been more interesting from the beginning if alternating opinions were given by Alice and Andrew in addition to Pauls view.
I didn’t find any of the characters likable or well developed. I didn’t feel I knew Andrew or Alice well throughout the book.
The last quarter of the book picked up. I was glad I stuck with it until the end. I just wish the first half could have been as exciting. They could have shortened the begging and left the clues necessary for the ending to work. The last portion could be compared to “Gone Girl”.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me engaged the entire time. I couldn't wait to see how it ended. I would highly recommend to all my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!