When Emma was thirteen, she spent her first summer away from home at Camp Nightingale. That summer, three of her friends disappeared and were never found. Now, years later, the owner of Camp Nightingale invites Emma back as an art teacher for the camp’s reopening. Determined to find out what happened to her friends, Emma does her own investigating. But she can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching her, and she can’t let go of the lies she told and secrets she kept all those years ago.

Riley Sager is an undeniably good writer. His books are atmospheric and dark, and I really enjoyed Final Girls which is what attracted me to this book. As another psychological thriller, the storytelling and style is very similar to Final Girls, but I’m not sure that I enjoyed it quite as much. Although still very good and well thought out, Last Time I Lied felt slightly more forced and convoluted – it didn’t capture me as fully as I’d hoped.

There isn’t a whole lot I can say about this book without giving away spoilers, but what I can say is that it was never boring. The story is completely unpredictable and suspenseful. There are so many red-herrings and unexpected turns, making the shock of the reveal very effective.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I devoured Final Girls last year and fell in love with Riley Sagar’s writing style. This guy knows how to write a thriller and keep you hooked. I have to admit that when I started The Last Time I Lied, I wasn’t that sure about the storyline. It didn’t grab me from the start. However, the deeper I got, the more hooked I became. It really does keep you guessing about what happened all those years ago.

When Emma goes to Summer Camp she ends up bunking with 3 older girls. They while away the time by playing 2 truths and a lie and soon all become quite adept at lying. Then the 3 girls go off into the woods and never come back. They just seem to disappear.

15 years later, Emma is an obsessive painter and spends her whole life thinking about the 3 girls, especially Vivian. She paints their disappearance over and over and can’t seem to shake them. When she is asked to return to Camp Nightingale as an art tutor she reluctantly agrees to go. She says she’s going for closure but in reality, she’s going to solve a crime. However, is Emma as innocent as she makes out?

The story switches between the present and 15 years ago. Instead of being confusing the style of writing is enlightening. All the questions that come up in the present are answered by going back to the past in the next chapter. As the story evolves we get a better picture of what happened all those years ago. However, it is not until the very end that all is revealed and I wasn’t quite expecting the ending. I was suspicious but I definitely didn’t have all the answers. Once it had gathered speed I was hooked until the very end.

If you love a thriller but hate gore then I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Creepy, atmospheric and exhausting as I couldn’t put this down! Girls going missing in woods....even the blurb got me excited. Love vex this!
5/5 on goodreads

An excellent compelling read from this author - really enjoyed her first book, The Final Girls, and this was a great second book

This was a test: I’m not usually a fan of mystery/crime, but I have to say that I ploughed through the last half in one sitting despite the hour.
Emma, an obsessive painter, returns to the summer camp of 15 years ago to solve the mystery of her cabin mates that dissappeared back then. I’m not going to say much more, so as to not spoil the twists and leads, but there’s a big bad dark forest and a big bad mysterious lake featuring large.....be afraid!

A gri[[ing page turner-The plot, story, the mystery was brilliant. I am not surprised to learn that it has been picked up by Amazon Studios for a mini-series. Recommended definitely a must read.

Hot on the heels of a successful exhibition, artist Emma Davis should be on top of the world. Instead, Emma feels like a fraud, her paintings borne out of a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier. Emma resolves to move on with her life and her work – but she can’t let go. She can’t stop thinking about Vivian, Natalie and Allison – three girls who disappeared without a trace from their shared cabin at summer camp fifteen years ago. These girls dominate every aspect of Emma’s life – her work, her dreams – most of all her nightmares. Even now, all these years later, Emma can’t stop thinking about the missing girls of Camp Nightingale. She also can’t stop thinking about all the lies she told in the aftermath of their disappearance.

When Emma is presented with an opportunity to return to the newly opened Camp Nightingale as an art tutor, she knows she shouldn’t go – deep down she knows that re-visiting her past is a bad idea. But Emma also wants to move on with her life; she’s determined to resolve the mystery of the missing girls of Camp Nightingale, so that she might finally lay the ghosts of her past to rest.

Emma might want to let go of her past, but there’s just one problem: Emma’s past is very much not done with her yet.

Inspired by Picnic at Hanging Rock, Sager’s follow up to the excellent Final Girls is slow moving at times, but its killer denouement and delicious final twist make Last Time I Lied a mystery that is definitely worth checking out.

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Have you ever played two truths and a lie?

Emma has. Her first summer away from home, she learned how to play the game. And she learned how to lie.

Then three of her new friends went into the woods and never returned . . .

Now, years later, Emma has been asked to go back to the newly re-opened Camp Nightingale. She thinks she’s laying old ghosts to rest but really she’s returning to the scene of a crime.

Because Emma’s innocence might be the biggest lie of all…

I really enjoyed everything about this book, the setting was eerie and perfect, the characters interesting and the plot full of suspense, what better place for a story such as this then in a camp surrounded by mysterious woods and a lake?
I found that I had to keep reading as the answer to the mystery of Emma’s past lay just around the corner but the author didn’t reveal the finale until the very end.
Emma was a strong and realistic character whose guilt caused her to keep things that she didn’t understand to herself but slowly began to unravel as certain things came to light.
Finishing the novel was a satisfying culmination to all that had gone before, the pace was fast, the writing descriptive and engaging and the plot had me on the edge of my seat all the way through.
I will read more from Riley Sager, highly recommended.

This book was a wild ride! Mysterious and adventurous this book had me constantly on the edge of my seat. This book follows a 28-year-old painter who is invited back to the summer camp from her childhood where 15 years earlier something terrible happened that cut everyones' summer short.
Between chapters we swapped between 15 years ago at camp and camp in the present. Slowly but surely we found out more about the past, the characters both now and then and what happened here 15 years ago all the while the story in the present is progressing until the stories eventually crossed over. Leading up to that I really liked the correlations between Sasha, Krystal, Miranda and Vivian, Allison and Natalie.
I loved that both the first and last chapter were written differently to the rest of the book, putting you in Emma's shoes, I was immediately engaged and in the same way I think it was a nice way to tie off the book. Something was constantly happening and I was always wanting to read more. There were so many twists and turns, none of which I could have possibly predicted.
I liked the setting a lot and summer is the perfect time to read it. Especially in the last few chapters I feel like the setting makes it even harder to look away as her determination grows to find out what is going on at this camp and it feels like the world (including the land she walks on) is against her, and you have no idea who to trust.
This book was brilliant from the first to the very last sentence and I am so excited to read Final Girls and other books from this author.
Everyone needs to read this fantastic book!!

THIS BOOK BLEW ME AWAY. I read it in one day because I just couldn't put it down. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, another curveball was thrown and I was just shocked at every turn. It was truly an amazing book and wonderfully written.

Every time I thought I had it figured out there was another twist. Not too sure about the ending but a great read thanks.

Wow.....speechless
Absolutely loved this book. The plot and storyline was awesome the characters were brilliant....brilliant!
Emma is trying to work out what happened all those years ago at camp when her friends disappeared and it takes us on a maze of unanswered questions lies and some really creepy truths.
The ending absolutely left me shocked and I had to give my head a wobble but it left me with a sense of loss....what happens after I need to know arghhhh.
5 stars from me I adore Riley Sager his work is utter brilliance can5 wait for the next.

Having read Final Girls I couldn't wait to start The Last Time I Lied. I had this on my shelf for a long time and when I got around to reading it I was not disappointed.

2 truths and a lie... 1. This book is fast paced 2. The characters all feel like suspects 3. I could not put this book down once I started.

Ok I admit it, those were all truths. I couldn't lie as I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Riley knows all the ingredients to write the perfect mystery. I felt like I was right there with Emma and I felt just as confused, hurt, scared and misled as her. I love how we are made to doubt so much in this book and also loved how I didn't work it out! Especially that last chapter. Riley, that was the perfect cherry on the top of this cake!

I found this read much like a YA/New adult thriller, there was minimal sexual conduct, the language was mild and it was not offensive at all. I would allow my older daughters to read this (Late teens). But for those who do enjoy a more mature book, I feel they also would benefit and enjoy reading The Last Time I Lied.

Highly recommended, I cannot wait to see what Riley releases next. I was gifted this book via NetGalley, but I will be purchasing a hard copy just like I did Final Girls for my own personal book shelf. 4 stars, a very GOODread.

What a book! I was hooked from the very first page courtesy of an intriguing prologue that sets the scene for what happened previously. From the moment that Emma sets foot inside the camp again, it is obvious that she is carrying a secret about what happened and there are hints that she knows something big about it. As the book unfolds, I couldn't wait to find out more. This is helped by the narrative flicking between the past and the present, building up to the truth. We see things entirely from Emma's perspective, which does lend some doubts as to how reliable a narrator she is and this adds to the tension. The twist at the end was great and I didn't see it coming. Thoroughly recommend this book!

When Emma was a teenager she stayed at Camp Nightingale. She is invited back by the owner 15 years later, as a tutor, for the first time the camp has been opened since the summer Emma last stayed. What exactly happened that fateful summer to close Camp Nightingale and make Emma in two minds as to whether to return or not?
I loved how the story unfolded and the artful way in which Riley Sager delivers to the reader what happened 15 years ago, whilst keeping us on our toes with a storyline with what is happening in the present day. Emma is clearly an unreliable narrator but is this through choice or by memory lapse?
A really great read. Highly recommend.
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A tightly wound thriller that blends the last and present seamlessly. The characters are likeable and relateable, and the book explores how what we see may not always be what happened. The end reveal of this book was done flawlessly

When Emma was a teenager, a summer at Camp Nightingale turned into a nightmare when the other three girls in her cabin vanished without a trace. Now twenty-eight, she's returned as a resident artist with three new teenage girls to supervise. Haunted by the unsolved mystery in her past and the lies she told, she determines to find out what happened to her former acquaintances - especially when it seems that somebody may be out to get her in the present day.

This formulaic psychological thriller is somewhat uplifted by its summer camp setting. I have never actually been to summer camp, but this took me right back to all the ghostly children's and YA books and TV set at summer camp that I loved when I was younger - especially the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, 'The Tale of Watcher's Woods', and the Sweet Valley Twins Super Chiller The Secret of the Magic Pen. Riley Sager's previous novel, Final Girls, started off well and got increasingly sillier as it went along, and to an extent, the same is true of The Last Time I Lied, which also sags in the middle, though the climax is satisfyingly atmospheric.

Recommended for light summer reading.

This is a five star brilliant modern thriller. I read it in a day which is always a good sign. It's the story about three teenage girls who go missing from a summer camp. Our main character is Emma, age 13, she shared a cabin with the girls. We jump to fifteen years later when Emma is 28 and an artist.. The summer camp reopens and Emma returns as an art teacher, in order to find out more about her missing friends, whom she has never forgotten. Emma starts to be aware of someone watching her as she looks for clues. Is she in danger? Read on!

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review. Three girls vanish from a summer camp 15 years ago. Emma, who had shared a cabin with the missing girls is to return to the camp this summer to teach art classes to the campers, she is apprehensive as she has not laid the ghosts of the past to rest. She has spent her career as an artist painting the missing girls.
The story goes between the past and the present, Emma is forced to face the past and her part in what happened to her friends.
There are a lot of twists to the story and Emma finds herself a suspect when once again three girls from her cabin go missing, Will history repeat itself or will the girls turn up safely?
The story for me was unbelievable 3.5 stars.

This book was enjoyable and had a good few twists and turns. I really liked how it ended. The only reason I am not giving it 4 stars is I found it far too long with unnecessary details that I don’t think added to the story.