If you haven’t read this yet, read it! It’s such a powerful story and done so well. I listened to it on audible and Bahni Turpin is an amazing narrator. I’m looking forward to listening to more books she narrates.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review. I read The Furies after the book had been released so some of my concerns might have been fixed in the published copy.

The Furies tells the story of four young women, the fates they hold, and the furies they possess. The book starts with a girl found dead, posed on a swing at Elm Hollow Academy. Flashback to a year earlier, Violet is a new student at the prep school. She befriends three girls – Alex, Grace, and Robin. She finds herself in an advanced course with these girls where the teacher, Annabel, teaches them the school's long-buried history of the school founder's "academic" interest in the occult and witchcraft. Although Annabel tries to teach them that these are just stories, the girls decide to delve into some spells to gain things for themselves.

When I read the description of this book, I immediately thought it was going to be like the movie “The Craft” which I loved, but unfortunately it was nothing like it. Yes, there are four girls experimenting with witchcraft, but that’s about the only comparison. I felt that The Furies was a slow burn throughout the entire book. It moved at such a slow pace, and I wanted more to happen with the spells the girls were doing. There was very little action in a book about using witchcraft to get revenge for being wronged.

I also felt that the book was very disjointed at times. This may have been fixed prior to the book being published, but it was really choppy in places. The girls would be walking in town then all of a sudden at one of their houses with no description of them getting there. It made it confusing to keep up with what was going on at times.

Unfortunately, this just wasn’t a book for me.

I listened to the audio book which I thought was really good. Ruth Ware uses the same narrator, Imogen Church, and I thought she was excellent in this book. I thought this story was fantastic and very creepy, however, I felt like the ending left me wanting more. I don't want to post spoilers so that's all I'm going to say, but I just couldn't give 5 stars because of that.

Clara wakes up in her apartment to find out that her boyfriend, Luke didn’t come home the night before. His phone is in the apartment so he didn’t call her, but she got an email saying he was leaving work and heading home. Luke comes from the perfect family and seems to be the perfect boyfriend until Clara starts investigating to find out what happened to him. Flashback to Beth, who is telling the story of her daughter, Hannah, a sociopath who has done awful things to her parents and younger brother. Luke’s sister Emily left home when she was 18 never to be heard from again. When Emily contacts Clara about the investigation into Luke’s disappearance all of their lives will become entwined in ways none of them imagined, but is she really Emily?

The Lies We Told is a great thriller. There were twists throughout, and I didn’t see the big twists coming. I loved the chapters told from Beth’s perspective. Hannah was such a creepy, messed up character. I couldn’t believe the things she did. Mac, Luke’s best friend, was another character I really enjoyed however, I did see the twist at the end of the book involving him coming which is why I rated the book 4 out of 5 stars. I still highly recommend it though, and I’m really hoping for a sequel.

In this game, even winning can be deadly…

Imagine living such a normal live – married to a professor with a 15 year old step-daughter and an infant son. You even host the local book club with your best friend then one day a new neighbor shows up for said book club, and your life becomes anything but normal.

Amy Whey lives the perfect suburban life in Florida, married to a great man, Davis, with their two kids. Amy is a dive instructor and runs the local book club with her best friend Charlotte. What we don’t know is that Amy has a secret. A big one that their new neighbor, Roux, knows and wants to make everyone else know that is unless Amy pays her a large amount of money. Roux shows up at the book club one night and takes it over. Instead of discussing the book she wants to play a game. Her version of Never Have I Ever, but instead of drinking when you’ve done something that someone else says, in Roux’s version you have to be the one with the worst secret. What Roux is trying to do is to get Amy to tell her secret, but Amy won’t give in. Will she end up playing Roux’s game? You’ll have to read to find out.

This was my first book by Joshilyn Jackson. I won an advanced readers copy through a Goodreads giveaway and was very excited to read this book. It was my first Goodreads giveaway win, and I really enjoyed the book. I thought the twists and turns were great, and I didn’t want to put this book down. I highly recommend this especially if you are a fan of mysteries and psychological thrillers.

One complaint I had was that the chapters were really long, and I felt they needed some breaks within them. This could be because I had an advanced copy that they hadn’t been edited yet, but I like to be able to stop mid-chapter if needed, but there were no breaks in these chapters.

Thank you Goodreads and William Morrow for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.