A bestseller in France I was glad to see it had been translated in English. It is a great book about regrets for the things you haven't done and lies. How those regrets can take over your mind and those lies can destroy your life. The end didn't disappoint either which is always hard to handle. Really liked it.

I had high hopes for this book, having read the blurb, describing “unputdownable” “a rare pearl” “intense and powerful novel”
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel any of those things. I finished it feeling disappointed.

It’s the story of an actor who, rushing for an audition, ignores some suspicious noises from the flat above...so far so good. Unfortunately, the story then takes a predictable turn into a strange relationship novel when the actor, Pax, falls for the victims mother, Emi.

There are good elements of the story, but, not enough.

I’m afraid I just couldn’t get into it at all.

1* did not like, although I’m very grateful to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

Thank You NetGalley/Publisher and Author for this ARC!
This review is my own!

This book was amazing.
I was hooked from the beginning.
The story was very well written,
The plot amazing.
The characters I loved.

Great book.

This book is not a thriller nor is it a twisty page turner.

All we got was a whole lot of telling and no showing whatsoever. We were told about events that took place but never got to read it as the reader. This made the book so darn boring.

The writing is stilted. I'm not sure if it's because it's been translated but it was not good. The change of perspectives within paragraphs made it really confusing to follow. Also so many random characters were mentioned at a drop of a hat expecting the reader to know who you're talking about. If you're going to do that then please show us what the characters are feeling, doing, thinking and saying. Don't tell us what they did, felt and thought.

And what the heck was the point of this story anyway?!?! This was quite abysmal.

I really struggled with this book. I'm not entirely convinced that the translation was completely right. There were some sections that had overly complicated adjectives or verbs that didn't fit with the style of the book. It has potential but it did not follow through that well.

I struggled to get through this one, which I feel like was due to the fact that it may have gotten lost in translation. It was confusing and lacked dialogue which made it seem as though it was dragging on.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this one.

This book was a struggle for me. I found it very jumbled & confusing. It promised to be thrilling but I found it very confusing & was really disappointed as I had so much hope for this book.

I just couldn’t read all of this book. I managed a third and it just didn’t hold any interest for me.

The cover hints at it being twisty and a real page turner but really, from what I read was just a lot of inner dialogue and no motion. In the third of the book that I read there was hardly any verbal interaction between characters. There was so much description and detail offered for individuals past and their families relationships that the author seems to have forgotten to provide a story to move forward with.

I’m not sure why this was listed under crime/mystery. Yes, there is a crime committed at the beginning, but really it felt more aligned with troubled romance.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review and apologies that I did not finish. Life’s too short to read books you don’t enjoy.

I struggled to read this book. I don’t know if something was lost in translation but it lacked cohesiveness. The last twenty percent of the book did hold my attention a little better but the ending was very disappointing.

Not for me I'm afraid.

When I see a blurb / description that uses words like, "Twisty" and "page turner" I kinda expect something that IS those things, not a book that gives me 12 pages (2% of the entire book ) of introspection in the middle of an already dull dialogue.

I gave up at 40%.

This was the first book from the author I have read so I was very excited to read it!
I really enjoyed this book right from the start to the end, I could not put this down, every chapter ended with you wanting more. It had many twists and turns, which I love, and it was not predicable at all which is wonderful as the recent books I have read have all been quite predicable.
It is a fast paced book but easy to follow. I really liked the writing style of how the characters were described. I liked how it shows that everyone has many sides and no one is perfect.
I would defiantly read more from this author and recommend this book to anyone!

This has been so intriguing and captivating, I haven’t wanted to put this one down.
I have been completely hooked and unable to put this one down.

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book!

I’ll be honest. When I started reading this book, I thought it very bumpy, mainly due to the narration. As it is a French translation, I was unsure if I would like it or not. However, since the book is relatively short, I continued reading. I am SO glad I did because I loved the story!

The story starts off bumpy but picked up once Pax meets Emi, and later when Alex enters the story. The author portrayed their emotions beautifully. Each character goes through a harrowing experience, because of which they suffer with inferiority, guilt, trauma or fear. They all fight their own inner demons, but don’t realize that they are overcoming their burdens when they are with each other.

Pax is amazing and the highlight of the story. I loved how involved he becomes with Emi and Alex’s lives. You can see him slowly start to change, and try to overcome being a coward to do what is right. Alex is also a wonderful character who you immediately love and root for. The author has written his emotions accurately, and I can only imagine survivors in real life being brave to live each day fighting their battles.

The story is short and simple, but yet so compelling. After reading this book, I feel like watching the movie “Dallas Buyers Club” since the author mentions it multiple times. Overall, The Lies I Never Told You is a beautiful contemporary tale of fighting your battles.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton, for the arc of The Lies I Never Told you by Valerie Tong Cuong.

This follows when Pax, whom is a middle-aged second-rate actor so B-List actor whom ends up, scoring an audition for a big blockbuster move..., he is seriously convinced in thst fate has taken pity and empathy on him and that is why he will finally get to spend some time in the limelight. He ends up leaving his own flat while ignoring the alarming sounds coming from the apartment above his... He is really beside himself when he finds out and learns what devastating consequences his decision actually had and not only was his neighbour Alex whom has been assaulted and left for dead... It is his girlfriend's Emi's son. He is then faced with an impossible decision in which should he continue to deceive and lie to Emi in which she is the one person who always believed and supported him, or tell her truth and will it destroy their relationship....

This was a short book of a mere 160 pages but it was 160 pages full of suspense and mystery and twists this made me wanting more!

4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cleverly done, somehow atmospheric and clinical at once, which - neat trick. Though the book is brief, every word counts.

When Pax, a middle-aged second-rate actor, scores an audition for a blockbuster, he is convinced fate has taken pity on him and he will finally get to spend some time in the limelight. He leaves his flat in a hurry, ignoring the alarming sounds coming from the apartment above.

He is beside himself when he learns what devastating consequences his decision had: not only was his neighbour Alex assaulted and left for dead, he is also his girlfriend Emi's son.

Pax is faced with an impossible choice: should he continue to deceive Emi, the one person who always believed in him, or tell the truth and destroy their relationship?

This was a quick read for me and an enjoyable one too!

The narration of this plot wasn't that good but it was a very thought provoking book. Sometimes we take selfish decisions in our life without realising the consequences it might create and how it might come back to haunt us later in life.

I wish the ending would have been a little better and more elaborate but this book is definitely worth a read !!

Thank You to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this ARC!!

Pax is an aspiring actor, who hears a violent assault take place in the flat above him. He chooses to ignore it! A year later and he has to deal with the guilt and consequences of that day as the boy who was assaulted is his new girlfriends son!

This was a short book at only 160 pages and I did find it quite difficult to read to begin with. It felt a bit all over the place. It’s definitely not my usual genre (it was classed as Mystery/Thriller) but I didn’t quite feel it was a mystery as there wasn’t anything to find out!

It’s a story about guilt and the lies we tell ourselves and others to justify the things we do. Pax is in turmoil over whether what he did that day was right and whether to come clean to his girlfriend Emi.

An abrupt ending but it definitely got me thinking and raised more questions!

A very good read. Most importantly a lovely depiction of scenery and background in a compelling drama of two
unlikely souls who meet and enter into a relationship.

Pax, an aging B level actor, lands a small role in an upcoming feature film. And Emi, a company head who has had to struggle all of her life to maintain her values and hold on to her career. Yet, there is more to both central characters than meets the eye at first...

A very good story!

Many Thanks to Hachette Company, UK and NetGalley for a fast, interesting read!

Really good read. Would recommend to friends and family. I could sympathise with characters (important for any fiction novel!) and looked forward to picking it up and reading the next few chapters! Interesting plot line and a good ending. Will look out for more novels by the author. Thank you.

When Pax Monnier hears strange noises in the apartment above, he dismisses them. He is rushing to prepare for the audition which could reignite his acting career. He later learns that what he heard was a violent assault. The Lies I Never Told You takes a look at what happens when we're too preoccupied with our own lives; what do we miss and how can we justify our actions after the fact? These are the consequences of Pax choosing not to intervene.
The immediacy of the writing style is fantastic at capturing anticipation and mood in the characters, and a testament to both the author and translator. There are some really clever and subtle touches that put me right inside each character's mind, and I couldn't help but care how things would work out for them. It could be as simple as leaving a spoon in a teacup while drinking it, instead of removing the spoon first. Those moments told me as much about these people as the story itself, and it draws an incredibly rich picture.
The timing throughout the novel is a little jumpy (soon after the incident we have moved forward a year). The blanks are always filled in later on, but it took me a while not to wonder why I was missing some information.The changes in time seem to reflect the chaotic and uncontrollable nature of the book, but it seemed a little disjointed at times, and took me out of the story rather than engaging me in it.
Similarly, the characters' histories (particularly Pax and Emi's family backgrounds) are fully realised and show how well they have been created. But these descriptive moments were thrown at me all at once, just as I had thought the story was lacking in background. I could argue that they came at exactly the right time, but I might have preferred having snippets of information revealed over time, rather than all in one central section. These histories are so well developed and Emi's story in particular is lovely, but because they are thrust on you altogether it removed the emotion a little.
I really enjoyed this story, but I felt a lot of it could have benefited from being more drawn out. There are sub-plots that are thrown away as an afterthought, or that begin to develop but could have so much more added to them. In that sense it felt a little abrupt, but it is still a really clever and moving analysis of what motivates us and how fragile our lives can be.