Read this in a day
OMG - I am still taking it all in
What a story, fastpaced, unpredictable
Edge of your seat twists and turns
Highly recommended read for 2023

Thank you netgalley, Lisa Jewell and Random House

I love Lisa Jewell and went into this book with high hopes and I wasn't disappointed! It was a really unique premise, although the podcast setting seems to be the current in thing for thrillers, but I loved the premise around the reason for the podcast and that the book was written in a really readable format rather than spliced with "script" type dialogue for the podcast parts as I've seen in a few other books. It doesn't feel disjointed or veer into chat rooms and such, it's a book.... its written as a book, it's not all over the place with interviews, reviews, chat rooms etc which I appreciated.

The characters were so original, I loved that you didn't quite know who to believe and were second guessing absolutely everything. As per usual, you wont see the ending coming and you'll love every second of not knowing. The suspense just builds and builds and its such an enjoyable journey. I loved every second of this book

Wow! This is the best book I've read in a very long time and I read it in a day. I thought I had worked out quite a lot but there was always a new twist and unexpected turn in the story.

I don't think I can rate this Lisa Jewell book, "None of this is True" highly enough. This is perhaps one of the best I have read to date, being on par or if not better than "The Family Upstairs". This book is full of awful but addictive characters. I couldn't believe what was coming next; the revelations that Josie was revealing to Alix in her new Birthday Twin podcast. These stories just kept on coming but be wary of the title... who would you believe?

I am on such a hot streak of books so far in 2023 - although with Lisa Jewell you can never really go wrong.

I have read quite a few books which involve podcasts recently, it seems to be the 'in' thing right now in crime fiction. However, this one was slightly different. Most of the books I have read involving podcasts are generally true crime podcasts looking to solve cold cases....However, here Alix is a well known podcaster famous for raising the profile of successful women. On a night out for her 45th birthday she meets Josie, her 'birthday twin' also celebrating the same birthday.

Josie quickly tries to make a bond with Alix and convinces her to make a podcast about her and the changes she is looking to make in her life. Whilst Alix is wart, Josie's life is certainly interesting and what harm can come from it? Well, plenty!

This book is told between dual timelines, in the current day we know that there have been deaths and serious consequences from the podcast which has been undertaken. However, Jewell cleverly and skillfully holds it back from us as she takes us through the story teasing it out bit by bit until we are hit with a stunning ending.

Really impressive novel from a very consistent author.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone, Century, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alix Summer has a successful podcast that features women who have overcome extreme difficulties and hardship, to lead happy and successful lives.

Alix herself has a pretty good life too - a smart ultra modern home in London, two beautiful children, a husband that she loves - you get the picture, life’s pretty good in the main, although her husband Nathan does have a tendency to go on benders from time to time, which Alix finds worrying.

Whilst celebrating her 45th birthday at the local pub with family and friends, Alix is approached by a woman in the restroom who introduces herself as Josie Fair and tells her that they’re ‘birthday twins’ as it’s her 45th birthday too.

A few days later Josie approaches Alix as she’s waiting to pick her children up outside school, and says she’s been listening to her podcasts, and wants to know if Alix will feature her, not as a successful woman, but as a woman who has some dark secrets but is about to change her life completely.

After much debating, Alix thinks she would make an interesting subject so she decides to give it a go. Bad choice! As Josie slowly integrates herself into Alix’s life, into her very home, she’ll discover that Josie isn’t exactly who she portrays herself to be.

As the podcast continues, some very disturbing facts begin to reveal themselves, and Alix realises that she’s made a big mistake!
There’s lots of tension, some great twists, together with some very dark and complex characters, as Ms Jewell expertly peels back the layers with consummate skill to reveal an intricate and twisted tale that’s such a worthy read.

My Review:

Disclaimer: I bloody love Lisa Jewell as a person - she's so nice and generous and supportive to readers and authors alike. She's literary Royalty but one of the most approachable and lovely people I know. She also writes quite well (LOL). I will admit to not reading her earlier books, but once she started writing her darker domestic thrillers in 2014 I haven't missed one book yet.

When I saw her talking about her new book NONE OF THIS IS TRUE on twitter and Facebook I knew I had to read it and thankfully I was able to get an ARC copy from Netgalley as this book isn't out until July 2023.

Now I realise many of you won't be able to read this book until July but I felt I had to review it now and hope that you pop it on your wishlist or pre-order it now because it's bloody brilliant.

None of This Is True is about two completely different women who coincidentally meet at their local pub and discover they share the same birthdays and were born in the same hospital at the same time.

Alix Summer is a well known podcaster who is looking for a change in direction for her podcast. She's happily married, has a supportive and close family and appears to have it all.

Josie Fair is a housewife and mother. A quiet and mousey woman who doesn't have any friends, a domineering husband and a fractured relationship with her two grown-up daughters.

When Josie asks Alix to feature her on her podcast and examine her life it seems a really good idea. Titled "Hi, I'm Your Birthday Twin" the two women start to meet regularly and slowly Josie begins to reveal her disturbing and dysfunctional past.

Upon closer investigation it appears Josie's version of the truth may be very different and in someone else's words "recollections may vary!" which now puts Alix and her family in grave danger.

Finally Lisa has taken the leap to the darkest side of domestic noir and this book ticks all my requirements for a 5 star read.

Firstly we have an unreliable narrator ✔, then we have a dysfunctional family ✔, a couple of batsh*t crazy characters ✔, an uncomfortable storyline ✔, a couple of dead bodies ✔, mental and physical abuse ✔, toxic friendships ✔, chapters you can't stop reading ✔, twists and turns ✔.

★★★★★

Lisa Jewell has done it AGAIN. Impossible to put this down - I devoured it in the span of a single day! A deliciously twisty mystery with reveals and revelations that will make you gasp. This is guaranteed to be a huge hit - and with good reason!

Lisa Jewell has done it again! What a rollercoaster!!!

Josie and Alix meet on their birthday, born on the same day and the same year how strange! … What comes next is a story of lies, deceit and obsession… Cleverly written in the way only Lisa Jewell can, you will be hooked from the first page.

Highly recommended by me!

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to release in July 2023

‘None of this is True’ is likely to be a massive hit this summer. Once again, Lisa Jewell has given her readers a compulsive drama acted out by an eclectic cast. The theatrical metaphor seems apt; so vividly does she portray her people and places, it’s almost as if every scene is being played out in front of us.
Wealthy podcaster, Alix, has a very comfortable life. It’s true that her husband is a binge drinker par excellence but she can just about put up with this. When she meets her ‘birthday twin’, Josie Fair, who suggests that Alix makes a podcast of an ordinary woman like her who has decided to change her life, Alix is tempted. This is different from what she has produced before; it will be a challenge to make it successful.
First poor decision – and, from then on, Alix becomes more and more involved in the life of this woman who appears to be the victim of a controlling husband. Her daughters avoid her (one has run away) and her work is dull. Can her discussions with Alix be the motivating force needed to make some serious changes?
However, as Alix is pulled further and further into Josie’s life, she begins to appreciate that perhaps it is Josie who is controlling everyone. How can she extricate herself? And what damage will be done when she tries to?
Another compelling read for Lisa Jewell devotees, ‘None of this is True’ is sure to extend her fan base.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Blonde podcaster Alix has the perfect life. Josie really doesn't. When they meet in an aspirational gastropub on their shared birthday (Alix with a crowd of upper-class friends, Josie with her elderly, stuck-in-his-ways husband) a chain of events starts off that ends in a storm of chaos and death.

Like Then She Was Gone, her first real breakout and triumph in the genre despite the graphic retconning of her sort-of-thriller books between the real thrillers and her very fine earlier romance and family stories, this story has a simple concept and is all the better for it. I literally couldn't put it down. There aren't loads of characters (a bit of a problem with the Family books, though I liked the recent one with the focus on Lucy, Rachel and the obsessive gay brother). There aren't any precocious, privileged teenagers (good). There aren't any male perspectives (Jewell is, and has always been, good at these - just think of Dig and Vince in her romance stories - but I didn't miss them). This is a female story, like Then She Was Gone, and it absolutely slaps.

The only thing I'd say is, as a podcaster, I'd never let a dog in my studio. Even a little one. But well done Lisa, sometimes fast and furious is the way to go.

A compulsive read that literally gave me motion sickness from reading it so quickly!

What a book!! What a story!! Written in a matter of months and read in a matter of hours … I honestly couldn’t put this book down.

I’m not going to regurgitate the copy on the back cover and I’m certainly not going to tell you what happens or what it is about because you will NEED to read this story for yourself. And to be perfectly honest I wouldn’t have the faintest clue where to start anyway!

Told in present time and interspersed with Alix’s podcast recordings and the 4 part Netflix dramatisation. This book has a ultra modern feel and the addition of these two narrative really fleshes out the story and it’s characters adding layers and layers of intrigue and mystery.

The whole plot is masterfully written and peppered with all of this detail and insight. Ultimately as a reader you know the book is headed towards an almighty ‘car crash’ and it’s going to be devastating and ugly. You don’t know what’s going to happen or how it’s going to play out but in a perverse way you won’t be able to turn away either!

Josie is an unreliable narrator. The title tells you that ‘None of This is True’ and yet… I still don’t understand why I got sucked in and believed everything! Lisa you are so clever and so brilliant that even when you told me not to believe you, I did hahaha and oh my word, I’m so glad I did.

Now I’m not one to use the line ‘the next gone girl’ because nothing I’ve read has ever been the next gone girl. But with this book I genuinely feel there is a change in the tide. Lisa is expert in misdirection and (as mentioned prior) unreliable narrators. But this book weaves its own special kind of magical hell and you’ll want to be there for the action!

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy and to Lisa Jewel for my advance copy and entertaining me so thoroughly. My next book has some big boots to fill!

Alix and Josie come across each other as they both celebrate their 45th birthdays at the local pub and realise they are birthday twins! When they bump into each other again, Josie suggests that Alix do her next podcast about Josie's life and Alix agrees, looking for her next project. At first it seems like Josie's life isn't that interesting, but as time goes on Alix finds out that Josie is hiding some dark secrets. Has Alix made a mistake letting this woman into her life and her family home?

Another brilliant thriller from Lisa Jewell. The plot was exciting and tense and I was constantly wondering what was really going on. Brilliant!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of the book in return for my honest feedback.

This was another compulsive read by Lisa Jewell, told in a great way with excerpts from a Netflix true crime series. Featuring Josie and Alix who were both born on the same day at the same hospital and come to meet when they’re both celebrating their 45th birthdays. Alix is a popular blogger who seems to be doing well with her life with her husband and their children whereas Josie is married to a man many years her senior and her relationship with her grown up daughters is clearly broken. When Josie approaches Alix about being the subject of a blog on upcoming changes she wants to make on her life Alix is intrigued by the opportunity to do something different but has no idea how things will unfold. Alix is a good everyday character whose marriage isn’t quite as solid as it appears but otherwise her life is steady away, Josie was a fantastic character as something about her just feels off kilter and it leaves you constantly questioning her honesty and motives and as her story unfolds you don’t know whether to be horrified or feel sorry for her but she’s certainly telling a tale of a complex past. I really didn’t want to put this down to go to bed as I was totally engrossed in the twists and turns and desperate to find out what actually was true and even now it’s hard to say just what was real and what wasn’t but it was an absorbing read.

Wow! Just when you think Lisa Jewel has peaked, she blows you away with this book.
Josie Fair is a plain, content 45 year old, celebrating her birthday with her (much older) husband. She sees another birthday celebration in the same restaurant, also celebrating her 45 birthday, Josie introduces herself to Alix and proclaims them birthday twins! After bumping into each other, Josie and Alix strike up a conversation and Alix agrees to do a podcast on Josie who says she has a story to tell.
It turns out Josie’s life is less than ordinary and her family situation is quite complex. The pair grow closer and Josie starts to demonstrate some strange, stalkerish behaviour, some doubt starts to make Alix think not is all as it seems. Then Alix’s husband disappears…
A real page turner, trying to determine what the truth actually is. You will not be disappointed.

I absolutely demolished this book in one day. I couldn't put it down even though I was on a sightseeing holiday at the time and had to stop to do other things during the day! It starts off in a very regular way, middle aged housewife is bored with her life, empty nest, wants something more exciting to happen...she meets a new friend whom she admires and gets a bit of a crush on. I really didn't see the next bit coming though! I can't give too many spoilers, but Lisa Jewell is so good at this sort of book - you think you know where you're going, but then the book ends up disturbing and unsettling in the most peculiar ways. In the end I'm not even sure what really happened or who was telling the truth. Jewell writes about ordinary places and seemingly ordinary people, then if you aren't paying attention you have to go back and check what you've just read because the jump to the extraordinary is subtle and shocking. Clear your day and enjoy this book.

If like me you read "The Family Upstairs" and were so overwhelmed with the plot, characters and action of the story , immediately went and accessed Jewells' entire history of books, this book is going to devour you as much as you will devour it.
Opening up with entirely the type ominous opening you would expect from Lisa Jewell you are immediately enamored BY WHAT DOES IT MEAN? and intrigued into the story.
Lisa Jewell has the ability to get her readers to be sitting puzzling over what is going on. Who? What? When? Why? and double guessing themselves at every point.
Consistently ending chapters with questions being asked. QUEEN OF 'JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER' and before you know it, it's 3 am and you have to get the kids up for school at 7 am. WORTH IT EVERY TIME,
Unputdownable ( is that even a word because it's how I read this book)
Exhilarating - With elements of thriller and drama this kept me on my toes and there were many inward breaths of shock and bewilderment.
The ONLY psychological thriller you will be reading in July 2023.

Josie is celebrating her 45th birthday in a posh restaurant with her much older husband, Walter, when another woman comes in, also obviously celebrating a birthday. Josie is immediately envious - this woman has friends, a young husband, she looks cool - so when she goes to the bathroom, Josie follows her. The woman, Alix, has exactly the same birthday as her and was born in the same hospital. Alix also does podcasts and Josie sets out to convince her that she has a story worth telling.

This is a deliciously twisted book and I loved it. Josie insinuates herself into Alix's life by being highly manipulative. Alix is sympathetic but at the same time she has concerns about Josie, about the fact that she has two daughters but rarely speaks of them. I daren't say any more about the plot in case I spoil it for anyone.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC.

I'm a huge fan of Lisa Jewell and this is up there as one of her best! Different in style to her others but I loved it, the suspense and continual sense of dread throughout meant I could barely put it down. I had no idea who would come out alive the other side but am glad that Fred the dog is OK.

If I know one thing as a book blogger, it's that you can always count on a Lisa Jewell book to pack a punch.

None of This is True is super fast-paced, extremely compelling, deeply disturbing but above all, it is believable. The premise is totally plausible. A lonely, vulnerable woman who feela trapped befriends a glamorous podcast presenter who happens to share her birthday. They begin to bond but things aren't all they appear to be. It happens in real life. It's scary shit.

Josie and Alix aren't very alike at all, and that's what made me want them to become friends. In many ways, Josie appears to be the underdog and Alix is someone she can look up to. But as Josie begins to share her story with Alix, it becomes clear that there is a much darker side to things.

This story flies at lightening speed and it will leave you breathless. There's a lot going on and it mashed my tiny brain trying to unravel the threads. I love it when that happens! My suspicions were incorrect, and I'm not mad about it.

This is the first book I have finished in 2023 and I'm pretty sure it will be hard to beat for Book of the Year.