Review: He's Lying About Everything - Robin Mahle - June 2025 Robin Mahle's psychological thriller He's Lying about Everything delivers a compelling premise wrapped in marital deception and small-town secrets, though it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own ambitions. The story follows Derek, a tenured professor with a notorious reputation for infidelity, whose life unravels when one of his affairs ends in murder. Though cleared as a suspect, the scandal forces Derek, his wife Evie, and their four-year-old son Ben to relocate and start fresh in a new town. Derek secures a position at a local university, and for a moment, it seems the family might finally escape their past. However, their newfound peace shatters when Evie begins receiving threatening notes about Derek's history. The messages suggest that someone knows exactly who they are and what they're running from. Suspicion falls on various newcomers in their lives—suspicious neighbors and even Be...

Review: It All Started With A Lie - Denise Brown - February 2024 Pearl has always felt like the odd one out in her family, she is close to her Dad but her Mum is a different story. One night while playing hide and seek, Pearl discovers some newspaper clippings of her father finding a baby. It also happens to be around the same time she was born. Is her parents, not her real parents? Pearl along with her best friend Danny and a couple of others including Samantha decide to do some research about the unknown baby that was left behind. During the same month, they will discover that not only the murder of a teacher, a house caught fire, a teacher got fired as part of a student scandal, several students were pregnant and a male student was sentenced to prison for the murder. It was a time that the adults were trying to forget in the small town and it seems like the scandals are revolving around Pearl's family. What happened that summer and is Pearl ready to open a box of worms with her ...

Review: Girl Abroad - Elle Kennedy - February 2024 Something that I started to implement last year to make a dent and clear my ever-growing TBR physical pile was that during the week, I would take print copies with me to work to read on my breaks and then on the weekends, go for ebooks. I had been excited to read Girl Abroad as I do love Elle Kennedy's writing and also the idea of a student exchange in the UK sounded fun. The book starts with Abbey Bly who is 19 and the daughter of a rockstar Gunner Bly heading to the UK for a student exchange- a year programme. Gunner knows what the world can be like as he is a troublemaker and an overprotective parent. Abbey advises him she will be ok and safe and sound. When Abbey first arrives, she realizes her first mistake - the apartment she thought was an all-female is made up of three guys - one gay and the other two are sexy hunks. She then meets their friends and one is a musician Nate whom Abbey also develops a crush on. Another storyli...

The Last Minute First Lady Tinia Montford Publication date: December 22nd 2022 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance WHAT’S ONE ITSY, BITSY, LITTLE LIE? Cassian Anders will be the youngest governor in Illinois history… If he wins. That’s all everyone seems to talk about these days. Jolie Coldwell isn’t one of them. As a journalist, her priorities comprise digging up dirt on crooked politicians and local cover-ups. When her latest exposé on a congressman gets her into hot water, her days boil down to covering the senior center’s casino night. Then news breaks the on-air investigative segment is looking for a replacement. She needs this promotion to advance her career. She needs a breaking story. She needs it now. The road to office is ruthless compared to the courtroom. When Cassian Anders approval rating falls due to his inability to connect with working families, he will do whatever it means to secure votes. Now, not only is he engaged, but he’s getting married to his non...

Review: The Lying Club - Annie Ward - March 2022 This past week I have just felt so flat when it has come to my reading, after managing to read 9 books in the first 10 days of the year - I was excited that I was on a bit of a roll, and then out of nowhere - I felt myself in a bit of a slump as the next handful of books I tried since Monday were DNFs- I couldn't get into anything as nothing was grabbing me. Often when this happens, I find myself needing something gritty like a mystery. The Lying Club has been one I have been wanting to read as it sounded right up my alley. This book once finished it reminded me heavily of the story Big Little Lies as it seemed a conspiracy, an all-for-one pact around the murder of an individual. The book starts the day of the murder and Natalie wakes up in her school carpark. She goes to the gym and sees a dead crumpled body. The book then flashes back and leads up to this moment. During the flashbacks we meet the other main players of the book - A...

Review: Home Tears - Tijan - December 2016 One of the things that get me is by being a big reader is that you get fussy with what you read and often find yourself in slumps where everything you try is just not resonating with you. When this happens, I tend to try and go back and read some of my oldie books and certain authors that I know will always be able to pull me out of my reading slumps. Tijan is one of those authors as her books always pack a powerful punch and often contain that original feeling of the new adult genre filled with angst before it got a saturated genre. Home Tears was originally written as Home Torn and offered as a freebie, a few years later she decided to rewrite and add more to it and that final product was Home Tears. In-Home Tears, we meet Dani O'Hara who has come home for the first time in ten years. When she left and during the years she broke a lot of hearts and Dani has always seemed to leave a trail of destruction, not that she means to but it is...

Review: Somebody's Home - Kaira Rouda - January 2022 I have read a couple of this author's previous books and also lately have been on a bit of a thriller kick so was excited to read Somebody's Home by Kaira Rouda. Somebody's Home starts with Sandi and her husband Doug moving away and selling their house in Oceanside to Julie and her daughter Jess. We learn that Doug's son and Sandi's stepson Tom have been living in the carriage house and have been given two days to move out. I have to admit, I wasn't keen on the fact that he was given only a short timeframe and, in a way, I understood why he acted out in the book. Julie and her daughter Jess are looking for a fresh start and have brought the new house to Cherry Lane. Both Sandi and Julie's husbands are control freaks and it's their way all the highway. Julie has the guts to leave but Sandi hasn't quite hit the spot. Though by the end of this book both will finally be set free in an unexpected ...