If I could type a scream, I would. Once again, great story by Lisa Hall with lots of twists ... some you see coming; some are quite shocking. But that ENDING!!!! Ugh!!!! ( )

This review is from: Tell Me No Lies (Paperback)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine Programme

I am reviewing the book, Tell Me No Lies, by Lisa Hall. Here are my thoughts:

^^ Starting afresh, Steph and Mark have decided to give their rocky marriage another go; not an easy task for anyone after an affair has wrecked the stability of their love, and it's especially difficult to avoid the elephant in the room when someone is hell bent on ruining Steph's life. But who?

^^ Written in first person from Steph's point of view is a great ch
oice for this story, as author, Lisa Hall, can really delve into Steph's character allowing us to read her thoughts and feelings about what is happening to her.

^^ Whilst reading, my heart went out to Steph several times. I found some parts of this story made me hold my breath, my heart race, and I just couldn't put the book down for needing the 'big reveal' at the end. Oh, the tension. I love it when a book does that to me!

^^ Who is sending Steph dead posies? Why are her friends giving up on her? Where can she turn for help if no one seems to believe her? Is there anyone she can actually trust? All questions that piqued my interest further.

^^ Without giving away spoilers I will try to offer some cryptic suggestions for improvement; I did, unfortunately, find the coat saga too obvious for words, and thought more could have been done to reduce the 'coat hints' (am I too picky?). Plus, towards the end one character reveals a bit too much, and I thi
nk this could have been a little more subtle leaving the monster who was responsible an even bigger 'reveal' scene.

Overall: Despite my suggestions offered for improvement (and I hope it's seen as constructive criticism), I really did enjoy reading 'Tell Me No Lies' , and as I raced towards the conclusion I suddenly felt like I was hit in the face by a brick with a delightful, shocking ending that I loved. Terrific! Can't wait to read more of Lisa Hall's work. ( )

I have to admit that even though I enjoy many different genres of books, I always tend to gravitate towards women's fiction and psychological thrillers. I saw Tell Me No Lies on NetGalley and after reading the summary, I submitted my request with my fingers crossed. I had heard a little bit about the author, Lisa Hall, on Goodreads because of her book Between You and Me. One of my "friends" had read it and gave it five stars. So, when I saw that I got approved for a review copy of this one I was pretty stoked. By the way, I purchased Between You and Me on Amazon right before I wrote this review.

I have to tell you that I started this book shortly after I received it and finished it pretty quickly as well. The only problem was that I read it late one night after everybody else went to sleep and my menopausal insomnia chose to keep me up. Yep, you can always count on me for a little TMI! Anyway, being a slightly paranoid person anyway, ( I mean how many times can you check to see if a door is locked??) I started reading and all was good. Well about a third of the way into it, I started getting that creepy vibe and every pop and crack of the house suddenly became somebody coming to get me! Not cool! So, fyi, if you get spooked easy, read this one during the day.

I really did enjoy this book. It was intense read and kept me powering through it because I was determined to finish it before I went to bed. As you read this book you might get that feeling that maybe you read it before, but you probably just watched a movie that was very much like it. I pretty much had it figured out by the last couple of chapters, but I still had to read on as you never know if the author is going to switch it up on you or not! But I have to tell you....I don't really know how I feel about the ending. I mean I'm not sure if it was so unexpected that I am just freaked out by it or if I hated it. To me it was like driving 85 down the highway and slamming on your brakes! I'm sure Lisa Hall did that on purpose and that it was her intention to leave us all going "WHAT????". At least I HOPE that was her intention.....

I thought this was a great book. It had everything that a really good psychological thriller should have. Well....except that ending. But I will leave that up to you to decide for yourself. I am still on the fence about it. Great book - bizarre ending. Not gonna lie.

I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in return for my honest review. I enjoyed it and think that if the summary sounds interesting you should give it a try. It's a relatively quick read and only took a couple of hours from start to finish. ( )

Review to follow! ( )