Umm this one is difficult to review as I really struggled and found it so slow and a little muddled but towards the end it all of a sudden speeded up and then was over! An ok read but not one of my favourite books#AllYourLittleLies #NetGalley

A twisty thriller that kept me reading. This story is written in 2 timelines and is a harrowing and difficult read in places. Annie is not a likeable character and I think that adds to the suspense. This is a complicated, twisty story that deals with a lot of difficult issues.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This was an advance review copy of All Your Little Lies via NetGalley.

Annie is invisible. She's content enough, but she goes through life being ignored and rejected. She has very few friends, is socially awkward and always seems to make the wrong judgement, say the wrong thing or get herself into tricky situations. She longs for someone to pay her some attention, to appreciate her for who she is, but when she gets drunk at a works do and the man she thought was interested humiliates her, she finds herself acting irrationally, letting herself into his flat with the spare key she knows he leaves outside, before waking up with very little recollection of the night before.

Then when a young teenager Chloe goes missing - Annie discovers that the CCTV footage showing Chloe's last movements has her car in the background, and the headlights are on, making Annie one of the last known people to see her. Was she abducted? Did she run away? Why can't Annie remember? She can't tell the police because then she'd have to admit that she was in her boss's flat, and that she got in her car after drinking far too much alcohol! What if she was involved somehow? Is she a witness, or a suspect??

Suddenly Annie finds herself thrust into the limelight, linking up with the search party and speaking to the police about what she knows, but is she making it worse? The last things she needs is them to dig up some of the shocking secrets of her past!

I really enjoyed All Your Little Lies and although I found Annie very odd, I think she was perfectly written - this is her personality, and as the book progresses, we learn more about Annie's childhood and her constant need for acceptance which explains some of her unorthodox behaviour.. It's quite dark and distressing in parts.

For me the ending let this book down a little, as I ended up going from fast page turning on the edge of my seat moments to feeling somewhat disappointed and undewhelmed' however I may simply have been expecting another twist which didn't materialise. Overall however, I still enjoyed the book. 3.5/5 from me.

Lucy x

It took a while to grasp the character of Annie and where this story was heading but then there she was, in the car park, all her past, present and confusion catching up with her. Poor Annie trying to do what’s right and in the process doing so much wrong. A complex, sympathetic character getting herself deeper and deeper into the mystery of a missing child. The writing flows but does get a little entangled with the past which caused me to speed read a little towards the end, however, it is a sympathetic story told with much feeling showing just how tangled our web becomes when first we practice to deceive!

Annie is a total cringe. Just uncomfortable. I found her behavior a little unsettling and just could not connect with her.

This was just okay. Annie, as a character, was just unsettling.

This just wasn't for me I found it really slow going and I just couldn't get into it, I just felt that it needed more depth.

It took me a while to get into this book. I think the long, descriptive sentences detracted from a build up of suspense and pace, which spoiled it for me. I didn’t empathise or particularly like Annie. Other readers will probably like it more than I did, the style of writing just wasn’t for me.

I received this book as an ARC
Overall not a bad read. It did feel very much like a rehash of previous books I've read. Slow going and a bit padded. Annie is quite an annoying character and quite wearing. I understand about being invisible when you get to a certain age or don't look a certain way . Annie is the last person to see Chloe Hills , a missing girl and becomes involved with the investigation. She thinks she may have information but then things don't turn out the way she thought (to avoid spoilers). There is an historic thread throughout the book from Lottie and we do discover who Lottie is in the end and why the thread is there.
I felt the book just sort of fizzled out at the end. Everything is resolved but it's all a bit flat.
I did guess who Lottie was from her introduction-sorry- it did seem rather obvious
If you found this book in the bookcase at a hotel and wanted something to read by the pool then this will keep you entertained.

Let just say this book is not my cup of tea. It is not the bad book, it is good, but not my taste. I just didn't like Annie very much. And it is such a slow burn... I am happy I stuck with it till the end because the ending was great.

3 stars.

This was absolutely a slow burner for me. At the beginning the story seemed very disjointed and jumped around. However, the further into the book I got, the more it gripped me. It culminated beautifully into a completely realistic ending. I really enjoyed this from start to finish.

A Seemingly Peaceful Surface.....?
When Chloe Hills disappears Annie, who claims to live a very quiet and very contented life, becomes a prime suspect. What lies and secrets are being hidden beneath a seemingly peaceful surface? A tense and fast moving psychological suspense, tautly plotted with a well drawn cast.

The first time I have read a book by this author.
I read this book over 2/3 days ...... I didn’t want to put it down ..... I needed to know what happens next and what happened in Annie’s past. Fantastic gripping story - everything I love about a good book!

Thanks Netgalley & Agora Books for allowing me to read this advance copy !!

#netgalley #Agorabooks #allyourlittlelies


Book Description -
Annie lives a quiet, contained, content life. She goes to work. She meets her friend. She’s kind of in a relationship. She’s happy. Not lonely at all.

If only more people could see how friendly she is — how eager to help and please. Then she could tick “Full Happy Life” off her list.

But no one sees that side of Annie and she can’t understand why. That all changes the night Chloe Hills disappears. And Annie is the last person to see her.

This is her chance to prove to everybody that she’s worth something. That is, until she becomes a suspect.

Publish Date - 22nd October 2020

I found this very dull and struggled to read to the end. The author's writing style is quite off-putting and needlessly wordy at the beginning. I didn't like the main character, and found the whole thing very unrealistic. Very disappointing.

This book was an OK read. Annie the main character is a very strange, odd and awkward woman, who wants to be included in everything, even though at the same time she's hiding who she really is. I thought the story kept repeating itself in what Annie was thinking and wanting to do. It was a slow tedious read and some of the paragraphs just dragged on and on. It could also be quite confusing until you get to the end and you realise what's happening. The last 30% of the book was brilliant but it dragged up to that point, hence the reason I'm only giving it three stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Agora Books for the ARC of this book.
Not an enjoyable read I’m afraid. Annie is a very flat character with nothing about her to like. I appreciate that was part of the storyline but someone or something needs to draw you into the book and nothing did. The intertwining of the two stories was also a bit forced and uncomfortable. The ending was also incomplete. There is nowhere else to go with the character so it should have been finished fully not so ubruptly.

My Review:
I love Marianne Holmes' writing, she has a wonderfully poetic and descriptive way of telling a story that makes reading it both gripping and insightful. This book was beautifully written and one I'm glad I chose because of the remarkably sensitive writing style. This was a haunting tale with a mesmerizing, obsessive love story at its heart.

The sorrow from the events will stay with me for a long time I think, showing what flawed characters we humans are. Things could have been so different if only. The author's writing is exquisitely constructed and the story-line is wholly engrossing. I suggest you immerse yourself in this story of possessive love, it will be time well spent. I loved this book as well as A Little Bird Told Me by the same author.

What are Annie’s lies? What does she know about Chloe’s disappearance? Can anything she says be trusted?

For the first 40% of this book I hated Annie, she wasn’t a character I warmed too. She was weird, awkward and a loner. I couldn’t understand why she did the things she did, and couldn’t see how I was going to get through this book with a main character that kept doing odd things.

As the story develops and you get to know more about Annie’s past you slowly start to understand why she is the way she is. I can’t say I ever really liked Annie until last 20% of the book and I wish in some way we knew Annie’s background at the beginning of the book so all her actions made more sense.

In the end it wasn’t really a book about a child disappearing but more about Annie coming to terms with her past.

When socially awkward Annie, who is struggling to find a place in the world, finds herself a key witness in a missing person case, she begins to dig herself into a hole. A hole full of tangles and lies that may just swallow her up.

This just wasn’t for me. The storyline wasn’t all that original, I had absolutely no connection to the characters and I just wasn’t invested. I thought the writing was fine and I wouldn’t be averse to reading something else by this author, but this one missed the mark.

I initially found this book a bit hard to get into. There are two main threads running through; Annie's current life where she struggles to fit in socially and the snippets of information about a young girl and her obsession with 'piskeys'. which didn't seem connected. However it gradually becomes clear that the two threads are linked and the pace begins to pick up when Annie believes she may be a witness to an abduction. Although full of good intentions, her efforts to become involved and help solve the mystery land her in difficult and threatening situations.

This author is a first for me, but hopefully it will not be the last time I read a book of hers. The story was intriguing; at times I was really annoyed with Annie, then at others I was full of compassion for her, great writing to get that reaction. The two stories were intertwined well, and as you discovered more of what had happened to Lottie, the reasons for why Annie behaved as she did, and all her trust issues became clearer. The characters were a real mix, some good, some bad and one or two totally crazy! They all added real interest and depth. The story got a little bumpy in places, but on the whole it was well put together and was a very good storyline. Thank you NetGalley!