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.

I can’t put into words what I want to say… a Lisa Jewell novel practically sells itself. I didn’t even look at the blurb before I requested, I just knew that I had to read it. Lisa never lets down her reader and this time she has gone in a slightly different direction to what is considered her norm and it has certainly paid off. It’s sure to be another summer bestseller!

She's done it again - another edge of your seat, slow build up masterpiece!

I've been an avid Lisa Jewell fan since her first release and I've anticipated each book and devoured it within hours and this was no exception.

Josie and Alex meet at a restaurant on their 45th birthday - Josie seems to want more out of life, whereas Alix seems to have it all.
Josie approaches Alix and it's this event that sets the wheels in motion for a story with a twist that you never see coming. Alix interviews Josie for her podcast and over a days, her story unfolds, how she met her husband when he was in his 40's and she was a young teen, how one of her daughters has ran away and the other stays in her room all day.
Alix meanwhile is dealing with the fall out of her husbands drinking benders and when Josie turns up, bloody and battered on her doorstep, Alix feels she haas no option to take her in.
Each chapter leaves the reader wanting more and before you know it, its 1 am and you are still reading - that is the sign of a good book!!!

The sense of dread NEVER let up in this book. It was to be fair quite nerve shredding.
Even when the most mundane things were happening, knowing the author I was imaging all sorts.
It has some great twists , and the sense of unreliability that I never felt safe that I knew exactly what was happening.
I've been reading Lisa Jewell right from her first book, I know she always brings a guaranteed good read.
This one feels s bit above the rest.

I've read a couple of books by this author, and this one was among the better ones I've read. I really liked the formatting, the mix of interview and film sequences really made this a quick and easy read and it was something new that I haven't seen from her before.
Storywise this was okay, it wasn't particularly suspenseful or exciting but it managed to keep my attention. I think the ending should have been a little more shocking or explosive, I expected more of a showdown or at least something big to happen but it never really came.
Overall this was an okay read, if you like other books by this author I'm sure you will like this one as well.

I devoured this book in one sitting could not put it down. Lisa Jewell did not to disappoint. I was so invested in the book it keeps you on the edge until the final twist.

Josie meets Ali’s at a bar one night, when they're both celebrating their 45th birthday's and coincidentally discover they were born at the same hospital. Josie takes this as a sign that she was meant to meet Alix and seeing as Alix has a successful podcast, she feels like Alix is the person that needs to tell her story and that story has so many twists and turns fantastic book. Will definitely be recommending this to everyone.

I devoured this book in pretty much one sitting, Lisa Jewell continues not to disappoint, she has a talent for bringing the reader along, making them invest in the story

Compulsive is an understatement. Picked it up at 11pm one night and had finished by lunchtime the next day - not a whole lot of sleep but I will forgive that for this brilliantly creepy, addictive and twisty novel which I can't recommend highly enough.

What a compulsive book this turned out to be. I tried to read it in one sitting but Christmas got in the way!
Alix Summer meets Josie Fair in a pub where both of them happen to be celebrating their 45th birthdays. After Josie jokes they are birthday twins, Alix thinks nothing more about it. They bump into each other a few days later and Josie tells Alix she has been listening to her podcasts and thinks she would make a good subject. It could be called Hi I’m your Birthday Twin, as Josie starts telling Alix about her dark almost secretive life, Alix thinks that this indeed would make an interesting podcast. But as Josie slowly integrates herself into Alix’s world, Alix realises too late that Josie perhaps isn’t who she seems. As things start to unravel, more disturbing facts come to life. But who is telling the truth and who can Alix believe. It’s a wonderful psychological thriller with twists right to the last page.

#NoneOfThisIsTrue #NetGalley

Alix randomly meets Josie at a bar one night, when they're both celebrating their 45th birthday's and coincidentally discover they were born at the same hospital. Josie takes this as a sign that she was meant to meet Alix and seeing as Alix has a successful podcast, she feels like Alix is the person that needs to tell her story....and what a story she has.

What I enjoyed most about this book is the format and how it was written. It's told in the present time, but includes interview snippets from the podcast in the chapters too, along with a description of the scene for the Netflix adaptation. I know that makes no sense, but once you read it you'll understand. The first scene I encountered like this, I found confusing, because I assumed it was once off. Once I got the gist of it, I really enjoyed this format.

None of this is true had an interesting plot and was deliciously twisted. The book didn't drag and I found it was fast paced and in turn, quite the page turner. I enjoyed the story and writing and just trying to figure out what Josie's story and plan was.