This book just did not resignate with me. I struggled from the first page. It’s not the author fault. It’s just not a type of book that appealed to me.

This was a bit cliche for my taste. While I appreciate the author's efforts and intent, it just wasn't for me. I enjoy faster paced reads.

This book started slowly but it built up a nice head of steam. At times I hated some of the characters but eventually Paul seemed so human in a very sad way. Although Alice had her reasons, I am glad to not know anyone quite like her. This book made me question my relationships to some people. How well do you know them? And would they have your back in a crisis? Overall, a very enjoyable book

There is a lot of hype about this book and I'm going to have to be in the minority with this and say it was really difficult to read. I hated the main character, Paul Morris, pretty much immediately and he never really improved. The other characters in the book were either shells or just as despicable as the main character. This book reminded me of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which many people loved but I just couldn't get into.

I find it hard to connect with a book when all the characters aren't likable. The other characters were manipulative, mean and shallow. I didn't care what happened to any of them and I had a hard time wrapping my head around Pauls love interest, Alice, who lost her husband it seems a while ago yet everyone in her circle keeps treating her like he died yesterday. It just seemed really off.

The last 1/3 of this book gave it a reprieve from a one star rating. There was intrigue, manipulation and some nasty well deserved retribution but it just was a little too late for me. If you liked Gone Girl or books like that you may love this but it wasn't for me.

I hate to give a bad review of a net galley free book but I just was not able to make a connection with this book. The characters were too unlikable. I didn't care about any of them. The book just didn't work for me.

It took me two days to devour LIE WITH ME and I stayed up late to finish it. The narrator, Paul Morris, immediately brought to mind Patricia Highsmith's invention "The Talented Mr. Ripley".

Originally published in Great Britain in 2016, LIE WITH ME has garnered rave reviews around the world being compared to GONE GIRL and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, both of which I read and loved.

FIRST SENTENCE: "It struck me in the night that it might have started earlier."

THE STORY: The opening, on a wet day in London, sets the dismal tone. Some twenty years earlier, Paul Morris wrote a much acclaimed book, but has never been able to build on that success. Instead he manipulates the world around him through his charm and small lies. Now at the age of 42 he finds himself broke and having to contemplate moving in with his mother. Then an unexpected opportunity to spend a fortnight in Greece presents itself.

WHAT I THOUGHT: Although Paul lies casually to those around him, he seems to let the reader in on the truth of his life. He rationalizes his behavior, "Plenty of friendships, I am sure, are based on lies."

I was fascinated with the structure the author used to tell this story celebrating all the small triumphs of a rather selfish person. Beautifully written, the language describing Greece is painterly. Although this is a character driven psychological thriller, it is also a page turner.

Don't read any more reviews so you can discover LIE WITH ME with no preconceptions.

BOTTOM LINE: I'm guessing this will be a widely read psychological thriller in 2018. You don't want to miss the experience. Highly Recommended.

Genre: Psychological thriller
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Mulholland (January 11, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1473608333
ISBN-13: 978-1473608337

Disclaimer: An electronic copy of this book was provided to me by NetGalley/Mullholand for a fair review.

Sabine Durrant's first psychological suspense novel, UNDER YOUR SKIN, was published by Hodder in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US in 2014. Her second, REMEMBER ME THIS WAY, was also published by Hodder in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US in 2015. Both novels have been translated into more than 15 languages. Her third novel, LIE WITH ME, will be pucblished in the US on January 11, 2018. Sabine has written for the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph. She lives in south London with her partner, the writer Giles Smith, and their three children.

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we.....LIE... and this is all full of them... those impulse little white lies that you say without thing all the way to the major ones...
Interesting concepts and ideas.

The more I read, the faster I read. This is one of those rare books that gets almost to the end and then comes around and smacks you right in the head, thinking “how did I not see that coming”? It’s the lies, the little things, that come back to bite you when you least expect them to. What’s a lay-about to do when he needs to impress? Why, lie of course. And when caught in that lie? Why, lie again. The beginning of the end, except she has him figured out and uses his lies against him to perpetrate not one, but two crimes, and guess who gets the blame? The liar of course. So who is worse? Just go read it already!

Paul meets Alice through Andrew, one of his old acquaintances. Paul decides Alice is his next meal ticket and starts to woo her. Alice invites Paul to go on holiday with her, her kids, and Andrew and his family. While in Greece 10 years earlier, a girl went missing, and that tragic event has adversely affected Alice. The memories of the girl's disappearance, along with new events, disrupt Paul's plan for romancing Alice.

This story is told from Paul's point of view. Paul is a scoundrel. He is a self-absorbed, worthless, unemployed womanizer who takes advantage of people to get his own way. So, basically, he's not a likable character. In fact, there aren't really any likable characters in this book.

The plot builds slowly, very slowly. Nothing exciting happens. Then, things start to pick up and it gets more interesting. It was pretty obvious where the story was headed, but still an entertaining read.

A clever, well-written psychological thriller. Good for fans of slow paced thrillers with unlikable narrators, like Girl on the Train.

Lie With Me by Sabine Durant, will make you doubt your next boyfriend or girlfriend.
Are they telling you the true or are they lying to you.
This novel has a strong female lead with a less that dashing young new boyfriend.
With these people you can never believe what they.
But, you will never believe the unsatisfactory ending!
Definitely a FIVE star read!!
I can't wait to read the next one! I've enjoyed this one tremendously.

I read Lie With Me over Christmas break until I had to put it down before I hated everyone in my family as much as I hated everyone in this book. Lie With Me is full of unlikable characters, but the main character, Paul is downright offensive and nonredeemable. The first 2/3 of this novel is slow and plodding, with a pickup in the last one hundred pages that I suppose should make up for it, but I hated Paul so much that I didn't care what happened to him.

How one lie can turn into many lies. Paul thinks he is being impressive and clever when he start telling little lies one after the other, will those lies catch up to him? I liked this book, a vacation to Greece at his girlfriends vacation home, is the setting for this book, and a surprise ending.

I loved this book. I think we have all know someone like Paul Morris, a conceited, self-centered, moocher, sponger male who thinks he is "God's gift to women." He is the one who is always "short of cash" when it is time to pick up the tab. He is the one who is always there to eat and drink at everyone's expense. Paul meets Alice, a lawyer, and he decides that since he has lost his house sitting job and has to move back with his mother, he is going to move in with her. He is invited to go to Greece with her and a group of people that she knows, including Andrew another lawyer, who Paul knows remotely. Things really happen in Greece with lots of twists and turns and a great ending.

I don’t like to do this but I DNF.

Every author has a style. They may excel at character development, plot, dialog, etc.. Every reader has preferences. They may prefer plot over character, certain genres over others, or they may be open to just enjoying the act of reading. When an author and a reader connect it is a joy to read. When they don’t it can be painful. Lie With Me was a painful read for me. Sometimes the main character in a book is dislikeable. Paul started out as an ass. That’s okay. Bad people exist along with good. Having a difficult character can work quite well. But after a while Paul became annoying, then pathetic in his behaviour. I stopped caring what happened to him. The real downside for me was that there were no characters I cared for. Didn’t like, didn’t dislike, I just didn’t care. That’s when I knew I had to put this down.

One thing I did appreciate was Sabine Durrant’s choice of language for Paul. There is a prentiousness in word choice that fit his character well. Using words that have added depth when a simpler word would have sufficed fit Paul well. It took me 3 tries to read Ayn Rands”Atlas Shrugged”. If I revisit “Lie With Me” and change my opinion I will update my review.

My Thanks to Mulholland Books, Sabine Durrant, and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received what I believed to be an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in return for a fair review. However, upon completing the book, I see that it was actually published in 2016, so perhaps this is a second release from a different publisher?

In any event, I love psychological thrillers/suspense novels, but I did not like Lie With Me at all. Plot wise, it is about a thoroughly unlikeable character, Paul, who successfully sold a book when he was just out of university but who has done nothing worthwhile in the past 20 years. He has no money, few friends, and no home when he runs into a former classmate he hasn’t seen in the past ten years. What follows is an introduction into a small group of like-aged friends who have money and good jobs and who vacation every year in Greece. The suspense comes into play in the form of a ten year old murder of a young girl in Greece and a current day rape. To me, the plot was so contrived as to be completely unbelievable. Paul is the only primary character who is developed at all, and he appears to be developed only to make him despicable to the reader. The other characters — Alice (Paul’s love interest), Andrew (Paul’s former college classmate), Tina (Andrew’s wife), and all of their children — are never truly developed, only to the point that the reader won’t like any of them. Because of the lack of character development, the book’s climax is not at all believable. The timing of it all just didn’t ring true to me. Very disappointing. I would generously give it 1.5 stars.

I just could not get into the book! Sorry! The characters were not the type that I felt comfortable with.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC of this book. This book is true to its title description. The reader won't be disappointed when reading this book.

So happy I got this book to read from Net Gallery, When I started this book I expected a story about Mystery, but chapter after chapter it was long narratives. By chapter 16 I was still not all in the story, but shortly after the entire story starts to unravel in the last 2 chapters. Other than that, unfortunately it was slow and the framing story has been done so many times, it did not leave me in shock when it was starting to reveal. In the end, I did love how you realize the author is writhing a bibliography about what happened to him. And it shows that the little lies you tell, no matter how small, you never know how they can effect you in the long run.

Paul Mason is our narrator and a liar. Not only that, he is a drinker, a womanizer and a failure who, in his late thirties, is moving back home. His story is one that includes romance, travel, deceit, and death. The novel is difficult to put down with its interesting cast of characters who we recognize, empathize with, yet don't particularly like. The author provides detailed descriptions of both London and the Greek island of Pyros and shows the life on this Greek island including the interaction with tourists and natives. One could feel the summer heat of Greece and the soggy, cool weather of London. The author's writing style pulls the reader along, making us want to find out what happens next and wondering if Paul will figure out where he is being led. It is certainly worth the time.

Slow plot development at times. Mildly suspenseful. The "twist" was predictable.