Right from the first chapter, it was evident that Rachel’s family had problems. The estrangement was clear from the start and I immediately became curious about the reasons behind it. The tension in the book escalated when Rachel’s mother died and the siblings had to go back home. The discovery of two bodies in the family home brought more questions and focus to this family.

What I liked most about this story were the secrets and lies. This provided an interesting read and I couldn’t wait to discover everything about this dysfunctional family. However, I did struggle with the narrative style. I usually don’t mind alternating POVs but in this case, I got a bit confused by the characters. I had trouble keeping up with them and this affected my enjoyment of the story. In the end, I didn’t connect with the story or any of the characters as much as I thought I would.

This is a twisted story of lies, betrayal, jealousy and hatred. It does have some heavy themes of incest and child abuse though not explicitly portrayed. If you enjoy books about family dynamics, then this one might be for you.

I found this a really confusing read. The first chapter sets the scene brilliantly but then it gets somewhat convoluted and I had to keep checking back and re-reading to make sure I'd really understood who/what/where/how events interrelated. This actually made it hard going and I ended up not finishing it twice. I've kept it on my kindle and will try again in case it was just me who was in the wrong frame of mind to enjoy escaping into this disturbing story! I think it will be one of those stories that you either love or get confused by and, at the moment, I'm sorry to say I'm definitely in the latter group!

I'm not going to say much about this book because this whole review would be a spoiler alert. I found this book so confusing. Who was whose parent, how they all were related, it all left my mind swirling. I still am not sure what really happened because so much happened I couldn't keep it straight. This was good for the first half and then in the second half it all fell apart. This was a disappointing read for me.

A dysfunctional family with so many secrets, lies, skeletons in the cupboards, this book certainly gives you so many twists and turns you don't know if your coming or going.
Totally compelling, with excellent writing .......... loved it
Will be reading the other books by this author.

Thank you netgalley, Ann Group and HQ Digital for allowing me to read and review this book.

EXCERPT: 'So Roy got killed and stuffed in a box in the shed. What about the other one, Rachel? Has your family found an even more effective way of disposing of their unwanted children? Rather than just abandon them without a word, kill them off and hide the bodies? Gruesome but efficient I must say. '

THE BLURB: Every family has its secrets…

From the author of The Lost Child, and The Forgotten Room. Perfect for fans of The Secret Mother and Linda Green.

Two dead bodies. A lifetime of secrets.

When Rachel Porter’s estranged mother dies, she returns to her family home filled with dread about having to face her past, and the people who populated it.

Little does she know that there are dead bodies waiting to be discovered, and a lifetime of secrets are about to untangle.

Secrets kept by her mother, the liar.

MY THOUGHTS: I loved the cover of My Mother the Liar by Ann Troup, and the premise of the story. Unfortunately, that was all. I abandoned this book at the 37% mark, finally unable to force, bribe or cajole myself to read one more page.

I didn't like the writing style. It was 'heavy handed' and riddled with cliches. Repetitive. Disjointed. I, personally, don't like to be 'told' what is happening. I want to feel like I am right there, in the midst of it all, the fly on the wall. I certainly didn't have that experience here.

I don't like to dnf books, because I appreciate all the effort, the emotion, the sacrifice that goes into writing one. But My Mother the Liar defeated me.

Just becauseI didn't enjoy this book, doesn't mean that you won't. If you enjoyed the excerpt and like the sound of the blurb, please go ahead and get a copy to read. You may well be one of the many who love My Mother the Liar. It just wasn't for me.


Thank you to HQ Digital via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of My Mother the Liar by Ann Troup for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

A complicated family story with a lot of characters. Confusing at times

Valerie Porter has died leaving three daughters. There has been no love lost among them. Valerie always had labels for them: Rachel is difficult. Frances is clever. Stella is useless.

Frances married and had stayed nearby her mother. She now awaits Rachel to come from London to help with the probate; and Stella is nowhere to be found. Frances is busy clearing out and burning everything she can from inside the house known as the Limes. It’s a large place that is decaying due to a lifetime of neglect.

When Frances takes a helper to clear out one of the outbuildings, they find a large, heavy trunk. When they open it, they find a dead body that had been mummified in sand. At the sight of it, Frances faints, hits her head, and is taken to the hospital.

The police are called in to investigate the case. At the same time, Rachel finds a hidden room with a trunk. Inside, she finds the body of a baby mummified in sand. Rachel has epilepsy and the discovery of the bodies sends her into a seizure.

We learn that a woman named Delia has been the so-called cleaner at the Limes for many years. Her son, Charlie, married Rachel and they had a daughter named Amy. Shortly after giving birth, Rachel received an inheritance and a large flat in London from her aunt so she left Amy with Charlie and moved there where she became a virtual hermit.

As the police dig around trying to discover who these bodies were and if they had been murdered, we meet the members of the Porter family all of whom are totally dysfunctional.

This is a very dark story about an vicious woman who treated her children cruelly. It weaves a web of intrigue, jealousy, hatred, and evil. At times, I had a difficult time keeping up with all of the characters and some of the events. I will give the author four stars for her efforts and creativity even though I didn’t really care a lot for the book.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

After the death of her mother, Rachel Porter reluctantly returns to the family home to assist in sorting out her belongings. After years of avoiding her family, Rachel’s worst fears are realised when two bodies are found hidden at the house. As a police investigation is launched, it soon becomes apparent that the deaths are not the only secrets to lurk at the house and soon the lives of all those involved are at risk.

My Mother the Liar is the fourth Ann Troup book that I have read (The Lost Child, The Silent Girls and The Forgotten Room are the others) and this one, again, deals with a dysfunctional family of the highest order. It is apparent from quite early on that there is no love lost between Rachel and her sisters and also their recently-deceased mother. In fact, it was hard to find two people in the family who actually seemed to like each other! It is no wonder, therefore, that Rachel felt the need to get away as soon as she could and why she was so reluctant to return. Because of the complicated nature of the family, I did find it, at times, hard to keep up with who was who in the early stages of the story. As it progressed, though, things became much clearer and I got more of a handle of the family tree.

The book may be called My Mother the Liar but this is a family where there are very few people actually telling the truth! Although many of the characters expressed a dislike of Rachel, I found myself warming to her and had complete sympathy for the situation she found herself in. Without revealing any spoilers, I could fully understand why she did what she did with regards to her family and was willing everything to turn out right for her in the end.

As the death toll rose, I did work out who the culprit was as there seemed to be only one person who it could be. By the end, I felt that all motives were fully explained and that the plot was tied up neatly.

This is a great read and had me hooked from the first few chapters.
Rachel is asked by her sister to go back home to clear the family house after their mother dies. It’s clear that Rachel despised her mother but her sister gives her no choice in the matter.
While clearing the bedroom Rachel finds the body of a baby, then hears screams and shouts from outside, where a man’s body has been found in a shed.
The Police start their investigations and it’s soon clear that this family had countless secrets and they are all slowly unravelled.
Rachel suffers from epilepsy and the stress of her discovery brings more and more epileptic fits so she has to return to London to get her medication sorted.
Someone she’s not seen for nearly twenty years is there to help her but their reunion has a shocking effect on someone close to them.
I can’t reallt say too much more as I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you but this is a really good book and I loved the ending.
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ Digital for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This book is centered around Rachel who's been estranged from her family for years . Her mother passes away and her sister calls for her to come home . Family drama and murder ! Ann Troup is a great suspense writer !! Thanks to Netgalley and HQ Digital for the e-book in exchange for my honest review !
#Netgalley #HQDigital #MyMotherTheLiar

My Mother, The Liar is a fast paced domestic thriller with plenty of twists and turns, and a collection of skeletons in closets.

This one is quite difficult for me to review as personally I didn't seem to get on with it. I really struggled in parts and felt I had to force myself to finish it. It was a great premise for a story, reminiscent of Flowers in the Attic which I absolutely adore, but it was poorly executed and fell way below the bar.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of, whilst that would not normally put me off, I found the POV changed too often, too quickly and I kept having to go back and check which character's thoughts I was reading. Instead of different threads and characters being woven together seamlessly I found it to be more like a tangled ball of string that was almost impossible to unknot.

The style in which the prose was written in kept changing, in parts the writing was very engaging and evocative that pulled me in, yet that would abruptly stop and suddenly switch to becoming rushed and manic. I don't know if this alternation was an attempt at increasing tension then decreasing in an anti-climax but it didn't seem to work for me.

The plot was an excellent idea but would have worked better with less characters and a slower pace and/or the POV changing less frequently.

Although this book had a decent storyline with quite a few twists and some good crime scenes, I just couldn’t bring myself to care much about the main characters.
I did want to unravel the mystery but it wasn’t a very unexpected end and I was left feeling a bit deflated.
That said it was quite well written, solid plot, steady pace with the odd unexpected happenings, making the characters more relatable would have gone a long way in my opinion.
Worth a look.

My Mother the Liar is the second book I’ve read by Ann Troup and unfortunately for me instead of an improvement in the positives I had for the first book this one seemed more towards my negatives. The story is a bit of a family drama with a bit of murder thrown into the mix that was only slightly suspenseful to me.

The book starts out following Rachel who has been estranged from her family for years but when her mother passes her sister summons her back to the family home. The sister had been having a huge clean out not leaving much for Rachel to do but when two bodies are found on the property the police get called in.

At that point of the story is really where it begins to fall apart for me. The biggest problem I believe is simply the style in which the author writes as I think for the most part I connect to first person narratives a lot easier and without that the story needs to be a lot more focused than this one is. After the early pages it begins to hop around from character to character and do a ton of just telling instead of showing which to me leads to a disconnect.

Also, while there are tons of secrets and lies buried within this family anywhere from incest to murder as the story went on it began to feel a bit repetitive running down the who did what to whom. Everything is a bit jumbled and hard to keep track of as it was but with so much to keep going through I just wanted to rush to the end. In the end I just found that this one isn’t my cup of tea leaving me to rate it at 2.5 stars although it did again have some interesting ideas within.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Thanks to netgalley and the HQ Digital team for the opportunity to preview this book.

This is a complex, uneasy read about tangled family secrets and the implications.

If you think you have a dysfunctional family, this one will blow your mind! I found it at times confusing, but, held on and I'm glad I did as it was all satisfactorily wrapped up by the last chapter.

Having enjoyed Ann's previous book, I was very keen to read this, her new one.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the book but come the second half of the book, I have to be honest and say that I got a bit overwhelmed by all of the characters, their links to each other and each of their individual backing stories. I got a little bit lost and did have to reread parts of the story. There was just so much happening, from past events to present events, it's a lot to take in and keep track of especially given the fast paceness of the story.

Despite that, I thought it was a well crafted story plot, very cleverly done. I do think I would have appreciated this book more if I'd had the chance to read it in one whole sitting (should have taken a day off work lol).  But I still thoroughly enjoyed it, loved getting to know each of the characters and was very much captivated by the story and eager to get to the finish to discover how it all ended.

Please don't be put off by some of my comments, little tip, perhaps just write down little notes of all the characters and how they relate/link to one another. I wished I done this myself now.

I am so sorry but I read until 55% and had to give up. It was extremely confusing, too many characters, ridiculous plots and twists and I really wasn’t enjoying this book at all.

I found this book to be kind of slow. The story didn't really pick up until about halfway through for me. Overall, I found it to be a good read, but not great. I had a hard time connecting with some of the characters so that was a bit of a drawback for me.

I found it hard to get into this book. It says it's a thriller not to be read with the lights on but I didn't get the creepy feeling that I wanted from it, and I couldn't take to any of the characters either so not for me, sorry.

This book follows Rachel Porter, who has to return to her childhood home after her estranged mother passes away. Upon returning, her dysfunctional family's secrets start coming out, and must be untangled.

This book was a mess and was full of unlikable characters. This book contained an elaborate web of lies that leave your head spinning trying to untangle this mess. When I finished reading this, all I had left to say was "what the hell did I just read?" It was difficult to get through, but I managed to finish it and was glad by the time it was over.

Good solid family drama featuring a very dysfunctional family, plenty of twists and a very odd and not that likable cast of characters.Always surprises me when authors make their characters unlikable but I am gradually getting my head around the fact it is quite possibly more realistic than making them sweet natured and nice, I guess if I wanted to read about John Boy and his family I would chose that book so this one is quite possibly more accurate. this was quite a busy book and it did make me work to concentrate at times but that is ok .this is not my favourite book but I wouldn't put anyone off reading it, it could have been a bit shorter for me but was worth a read. Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an ARC.