It gave me Pretty little liars vibes - if they involved the parents earlier they might have gotten their answers without getting hurt. ( this might be the 30y old talking though, maybe as a YA I would have enjoyed it more ).

as many other mentioned the start with the text conversations didn't mix with the beginning but as soon as we met the present characters the story started to evolve.

Some characters were unlikeable, some where great. all in one a pretty solid read.

This was great. I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review

"It All Started With A Lie" is a real page-turner, pulling reader into a story that dismantles Pearl's idyllic family image. The bombshell drops when she stumbles upon a newspaper clipping featuring her father cradling an abandoned baby, kicking off a rollercoaster of betrayal, obsession, and murder, all woven around a central lie.

The narrative is infused with tension, suspense, and unexpected plot twists that skillfully kept on the edge of my seat. Brown's talent for immersing readers in the story is evident, making it easy to forget that you are reading a book. The vivid imagery and engaging writing style contribute to an immersive experience, allowing readers to envision the scenes effortlessly.

What sets this book apart is Brown's ability to draw readers into the heart of the story, creating an irresistible, fast-paced narrative that is impossible to put down. The central mystery unfolds with multiple layers and intricate plot points, keeping the reader engaged from start to finish. The constant sense of urgency and the need to piece together the unfolding events contribute to the addictive nature of the story.

A noteworthy feature that caught my attention was the use of past dialogues through text messages. It's like eavesdropping on characters' thoughts from the past without giving away too much about their present selves. This clever touch adds an extra layer of intrigue, making the storytelling feel dynamic and fresh.

Denise Brown's "It All Started With A Lie" is a brilliantly crafted thriller that seamlessly blends an intense central mystery with a writing style that keeps you hooked. Loaded with suspense, unexpected turns, and inventive storytelling, it's a must-read for anyone who loves a good psychological drama.

Wow! As a seasoned mystery reader this one kept me guessing to the last page. It read authentically British and modern with great characters and side plots to the main mystery. The mystery itself was multilayered with each new clue yielding more questions or options. Definitely a must for fans of Karen Mcmanus, Maureen Johnson and Holly Jackson

Review posted to Goodreads on 30/1/24; Linked below.

Thank you to Hashtag Press and NetGalley for sending me an advanced readers copy. All opinions are my own.

To be honest, my first impressions of this book was not great. At 30% I wanted to DNF but continued on a little longer. If Pearl was curious about a newspaper clipping she found about her dad, why not ask him? I know that the character had her "reasons" for not wanting to; but surely it is better doing that than trying to get family drama from everyone in the town? It just seemed like a plot for no reason. However, I checked other Goodsreads reviews and it had been said previously that the first part of the book is really slow, and then it picks up, so I continued on.

After this point, it did pick up and the focus of the plot changed slight, however, it did just feel extremely flat! There wasn't much depth in the story, and points seemed to jump around a lot. I just didn't feel very immersed reading this book. I usually love a YA whodunnit and become very emotionally invested, but I just couldn't get into this one unfortunately.

I do like a dual timeline and text messages however so points for that.

Pearl is playing hide and seek with her younger twin brothers when she finds a newspaper cutting about her dad finding an abandoned baby outside a hospital. Pearl is really close to her dad so the fact that he has never mentioned finding a baby sets her on a quest to find out more. She doesn’t think she has much in common with her brothers – could she be the abandoned baby? When Pearl and her friends set out to find out more, coincidences keeping popping up as well as tales of other random events that may or may not be connected. Is Pearl right in thinking this is somehow all connected to her family?
I really liked this book. I would sum it up as “cold case meets mystery that’s right up to date” with a dollop of jeopardy thrown in for good measure. The friendship between Pearl, Danny, Leon and new girl Samantha added another layer of interest as they all contributed to find a way to unravel the mystery.

Pearl discovers a newspaper clipping with a picture of her dad holding a baby that apparently, he found, and rescued. Having never heard of this it peaks Pearls interest and leads her down a path of wild discoveries, finding much more than she intended.

This story takes place mostly in the present with Pearl, with a little insight into the past, which is told entirely through text messages. It takes a while for the story to pick up, but when it does it becomes very hard to put the book down. I pretty much read the last 60% of this book in one go.

I’m more likely to recommend this to people newer to the YA- Thriller/Mystery genre, as more seasoned readers might find the story a bit lacking. That being said there are a lot of great twists that can catch the most seasoned readers off guard.

Big thanks to Netgalley, Hashtag Press, and the author Denise Brown for allowing me to read an E-Arc of this novel!

I loved this book! It was captivating, clever, and weaved an intricate mystery for the reader to unravel.

One of the things that I think is most important in a YA novel is that the author doesn't assume that the reader is not able to follow a detailed plot. That is not the case with this novel. The author gives the reader an intricate, detailed plot with characters that are flawed, relatable, and often mysterious.

The story opens when Pearl finds a picture in her dad's office of him holding a baby that was born he found around the same time she was. Pearl immediately goes through every scenario in which it could be her, and she turns to her friends to help unravel the mystery.

As the mystery unravels and more and more domino pieces fall together, Pearl and her friends uncover a giant mystery that deserves more attention. They form a squad to investigate the pieces they keep uncovering and it turns into quite an adventure.

I was really captivated by the dialogue from the past that was in the form of text messages. It really felt like reading someone else's thought to get an idea of what was happening without revealing too much about who those characters are in the present.

The last chapter had me in the best tears I get when I read a book.

While it did take me awhile to get invested in this book, it does have a pretty unique concept. The premise of the story is that the main character, Pearl, finds a newspaper clipping about her father finding a baby outside of a hospital right around the time she was born, prompting her and her friends to launch an investigation into the events of their town around that time. Additionally, it has an interesting dual-timeline, alternating between present day and 2007, leaving readers to try to piece together the connection as the story progresses.

I will say I personally didn't quite connect with this story, it took about 30% of the book for my interest to build up, and it dropped a few times throughout; however, I would consider that more a me problem than a problem with the book. It was also difficult for me to keep up with past events as they were revealed, especially at the ending, although I've not found any other reviews with this problem.

Trigger Warnings for this book as I've not seen them mentioned anywhere: Implied SA of a minor, several mentions and implications of pedophilia, and one instance of one teenager forcibly kissing another teenager.

Thank you Hashtag Press and Netgalley for this eARC, these opinions are my own. Very compelling! Pearl, while playing a game with her twin brothers and her best friend Danny, discovers a Newspaper clipping of her dad rescuing a baby. He’s never told her this and she wonders why? The date on the article is close to her birthday day. Could she be that baby? With the help of Danny, her crush Leon, and the new girl Samantha she’ll set out to find out who she is. But when they begin discovering more and more secrets will they like what they find? And small coincidences keep happening, but are they really coincidences? I honestly don’t think I’ve had a mystery that kept me in the dark more then this one! I had absolutely no clue what was going on and it kept me hooked till the very end trying to figure it out! Lots of twists and turns and just the right amount of information to have readers wondering what is going on but not enough to have it all figured out! I highly recommend checking this one out!

I was a little unsure of this book, but. I am glad I finished it. There were so many twist and turns (and crimes), I think some readers's will get whiplash. I lived the female leads, they seemed to play off each other, and the hint of romance was perfect for tweens and teens. I will say as an adult the final twist, I saw coming but I think a lot of readers would be surprised.

I love reading YA books so I was instantly drawn into this book, the twists and turns definitely kept me invested overall.

It All Started With A Lie by Denise Brown fell a bit flat for me.

When Pearl discovers a newspaper clipping showing a picture of her dad holding the baby he found abandoned outside a hospital, it sets off a chain of events of betrayal, obsession, and murder. And it all started with a lie.

I felt that there was too much extra info that, to me, was not needed and pulled me from the story's main action. For example, pages and pages of info about this one character possibly getting lucky later that night.

As much as I wanted to be, I was not the audience for this book.

#ItAllStartedWithALie #NetGalley @literallypr

Synopsis:
Pearl has always lived a pretty normal life, but when she discovers a newspaper clipping hidden in her dad's study, her entire world is flipped upside down. She wants answers. Who is that baby her father is holding? Why is it dated right around her birth date? Why didn't she know about this before?And why are so many of the towns people refusing to talk about the towns history? after she finds this picture it sets off a full fledged investigation with Pearl and her friends. Next comes a chain of events starting with betrayal, then obsession and murder to finish it off. All pearl knows is that it all started with a lie.

Review:
When I was approved this on net galley I had forgotten what it was about, all I know is I was intrigued by the cover. Instead of searching it I decided to go in blind. I definitely think this made the experience of reading it that much more entertaining. I had no idea whether it was going to be a normal murder mystery or have supernatural elements. This kept me guessing right until the very end.

It was a relatively short book so it was easy to read. There were a lot of characters involved so it was slightly hard to keep up with who was who. I really liked pearl herself, as well as the other three friends she investigated with. The author wrote friendship very beautifully and it was so lovely to see.

I liked that the chapters flashed from texts at the time of the murder and present day. It forced you to try and place whoever these testers were, which added another mystery. The plot itself was well thought out, I felt that all questions I had were answered by the end with nothing missing. There was a lot of suspense you could feel radiating off the pages, the scenes were extremely easy to picture right in front of you. The story definitely proved just how much secrets can ruin people and put them right back together again. I really enjoyed this one, I would highly recommend this to fans of Cynthia Murphy and Sue Wallman.

Thank you to net galley for letting me read in exchange of an honest review.

Is a really great YA thriller despite the slow start! Thanks for the arc. Ashley was a fun char. Would rec this thingy

Book:
IT ALL STARTED WITH A LIE by Denise Brown (thanks Netgalley and Literary PR Ltd---Feb 29)

Review:
4⭐
When I first started reading  IT ALL STARTED WITH A LIE, I was a tad confused. I didn't realize it was dual timeline, but I also didn't know how what happened with Bex and Boo and Ty and the teacher would line up with Pearl and Danny and Samantha and Leon. But the further I delved into the story, the more intrigued I was and the more I had to know what happened---there was a time when I thought it would be predictable, but the ending was a shock. Especially the very end.
IT ALL STARTED WITH A LIE was twisty and filled with so much crazy stuff---fire, murder, mysterious baby---it just all-out packed a punch. IT ALL STARTED WITH A LIE is a must read for anyone wanting a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

What I Liked About It:
*the friendship between Pearl and Danny
*the crazy things that happened
*the ending that I would have never guessed

I'm not gonna lie; the opening did not grab me. However, I did get into the story once we got to know the present-day characters. This is a pretty quick read, and Pearl's character is very well-written. If you want to know how someone might feel if his/her parents might be lying, this is a great depiction of all of those emotions.

I do feel like the climax and reveals were a bit too sudden. We still don't have a lot of information three quarters of the way through, and then all of a sudden we're getting a one-two punch of HERE ARE ALL OF THE ANSWERS. I would've liked to see more of a gradual path leading up to the big climax.

With all that said, I enjoyed the novel and would read another book by this author.

3.75 stars, rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hashtag Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you Netgalley and Hashtag Press for the copy of It All Started With A Lie by Denise Brown. I loved the description, so I was excited to read this book. I love YA mysteries and thrillers and this sounded like a great one. I’m not sure why the writing didn’t engage me but the story started off so slowly it was hard to stay with it at first. Yes, there was the requisite YA teen angst, but it wasn’t enough to define Pearl or her friends enough to really get to know them. The reveal was really great, but I think I was hindered because I wasn’t familiar enough with the characters to get the full impact of the conclusion. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
#ItAllStartedWithALie #NetGalley

Well paced book that went from past to present time. I was a little lost at first with the dialogue from the past to present, but was able to catch on quickly. I liked that there were tiny clues about what the big secret was without actually giving away too much. I would recommend this book for those that like a fast paced suspense filled story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing a ARC copy!

One thing about me is I love a good YA mystery, and this easily is one of my favorites as of late.

Pearl’s life takes a turn as she finds an old newspaper clipping showing a picture of her father holding a newborn baby he found outside a hospital.

I found myself completely immersed into the story from the very first chapter. I loved the twists and turns it took, every time I thought I figured it all out, something popped up to prove me just how wrong I was. It was truly impossible to put down, I was constantly on the edge of my seat trying to piece it all together.

I loved Pearl’s journey throughout the book; it’s probably because it wasn’t that long ago I was sixteen myself and I perfectly remember how easy it is for one small thing to completely unravel you and turn your entire world upside down. And then the one small thing turns into two, then three, and then it keeps going and going until you are drowning under small things that could be easily solved, but you are sixteen and everything is like the end of the world. And, at the end of the day, everything she knew was being taken away from her with every new piece of information, so why can’t a girl be a little dramatic!

Seeing the friendships form through the book made the characters so easy to root for; I just wanted the situation to be solved so they could be back to being just kids and enjoying their days.

I did feel like there was a lack of urgency throughout, even though it was fairly fast paced, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book nor made me want to put it down once. I also really loved the ending: I did figure out part of it, but the rest really surprised me. For a moment I was scared some things were gonna be left hanging, but I was very happy to be proven wrong as everything came together very nicely. Truly an incredible read overall, and I had a great time with it!

Many thanks to LiterallyPR, Hashtag Press & Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!