I'm sure this only took me a few days to read. It's one of those books which keeps you wanting more to see what's going to happen - I actually stayed up late knowing I only had an hour and half left of it. I've read Lisa's other book The Guilty One which I loved and was so grateful to be asked to read this one in exchange for my honest opinion. This is very intense and deals with very sensitive subjects whilst also gripping you until you've either finished the book or been forced to take a break.

A fantastic read and so relevant in today’s world. A story where you are not sure who to believe. A subject all daughter’s mothers dread and pray that it will never happen to them. A quick read although quite an emotional one.

Compelling read, a real page turner, could not but it down until I discovered who was telling the truth! Kept me guessing until the very end, did not see that twist coming.

A very sensitive subject and one that is very relevant in today's climate.  Lisa Ballantyne deals with it very well. 

We hear from a young 12 year old, Angela, who accuses her married, father-of-two drama teacher, Nick, of sexual abuse. The story is written from both the two main characters perspectives and also the peripheral characters - Nick's family, Angela's family etc. 

I swung back and forth between Angela and Nick, and couldn't decide who was telling the truth and who was the Little Liar. However, I think that both of them can take that accolade for different reasons. We sympathise at first with Nick, as our first encounter with Angela is her beating another girl into a pulp and getting expelled from school. As the story progresses, we hear more and more about what has, or hasn't, happened and don't know what to believe. 

It made me feel sad, that an innocent person could be affected in this way. Both an innocent child or an innocent accused. One must remember that there are two sides to every story, and we should try not to judge until we hear both. I did see the twist at the end coming, quite a while before it happened, but it didn't detract from the story at all.

I was glad that although it is a sensitive subject matter, and Ballantyne could have described the actual abuse a lot more, she didn't. She didn't use that level of detail for sensationalism or shock value. Well done. Your writing alone did that for you.

Lot's of twists and turns, compelling, thought provoking. A good read.

This was a very interesting read!

You see several sides of the story which I found very interesting.

Angela, a 12 year old girl, accuses her drama teacher Nick Dean of sexually assaulting her. What follows is a whirlwind that affects several people involved.

I really felt sympathy for Nick, eventhough he at times was not a very likable person, especially when more things about him surfaced. Marina was a great character, very strong woman who tries to do the best for herself and her kids
Angela, I felt really bad for, This 12 year old girl had a lot of things happening and it seemed like she did not fully understand what was going on.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this but I wish the epilogue was a bit more in depth.

This book was compelling and full of twists and turns that kept me interested right until the last pages. Drama Teacher Nick Dean is happily living a quiet family life until an accusation of abuse from a student turns his life upside down. His wife and family don't know what to believe, and the repercussions of the accusation go even further than anyone could have imagined. The accuser, Angela, is a twelve year old girl. Is she lying? Or is she telling the truth about a teacher who has taken advantage? In a post-Savile era, this novel hits lots of buttons for me both as a parent who looks at each person who deals with my child in wider eyes, and as an adult who understands that while the victim should be believed, sometimes there are secrets that blur the lines between truth and lies...

Although I didn’t particularly like Angela I absolutely loved this book. I thought the use of the different characters in separate chapters was very clever and kept me guessing who was telling the truth and 2ho was lying. I found myself strangely empathetic in parts to the character who I thought was lying but that is the joy of this well plotted and very well written story.

Ooh who is lying? Terrifying read of one persons accusation against another. An attention seeking troubled teenager or a family man. Which one is it? Read and find out

Great book with thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

12 year old Angela is a terror, bullying children at her school, picking fights with her mum , who is separated from her dad. Angela is full of such rage that she takes an overdose and then the truth comes out, her drama teacher has sexually assaulted her.

Nick and his Spanish wife Marina, are worlds away in a well to do lifestyle with their children, Luca and Ava. Their life is good until the police arrest Nick for assaulting a minor. How can they move forward while this hangs over their head?

This was such a twisty tale and I thought I had worked it out but nope! Lisa Ballantyne worked her magic with this one. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book! It was a very emotive book as I felt rage with angela and her attitude towards her mother, I didn’t like Marina as she was quite sappy but towards the end i really felt for her and her turmoil. Brilliant!

This is one of those stories where you don't know who to believe making for a page turner of a read to find out the truth. 

I took to Nick's character straight away. I really liked him so the last thing I wanted was for what Angela was saying to be true. All the way through though, you just arn't sure. I was so frustrated as I was dying to know who was telling the truth. Through Nick we get to see what it's like for someone to be accused of something so awful. The hell that not only the accused has to go through but their loved ones also. You could feel the strain and the tension rising throughout the story. Don't get me wrong, I have no sympathy for anyone who is guilty of this crime but with so many times in the press of similar allegations and some proven to be unfounded, it does make you sit back and think about whether we should be so quick to judge and as with everything, there is two sides to every story which many don't take into consideration.

Angela, though only thirteen, I just didn't know whether to believe her accusations. She definitely has issues and I think because we first meet her when she is fighting with another girl for no apparent reason, it made me question what she was all about. She is certainly troubled but again, as we get to know her, I really didn't know what to think. Her mother Donna frustrated me but then being a mother of teens, I know how frustrating it can be to get anything out of a teenager and the constant battles over silly little things.

The story flicks between a few characters but mainly between Nick and Angela. I must have swapped my mind a hundred times as to who was lying and who was telling the truth. Even then, when all is revealed it still comes as a big shock. I certainly didn't see that coming! 

Little Liar is a story I raced through for the discovery of the truth. When it comes, it certainly does not disappoint. It will have you second guessing and doubting everything. An absolute must read for fans of psychological thrillers. I would have liked a little more from the epilogue, of which is down to personal preference, but otherwise this was a great read. 

My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advanced readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.

Lies abound in this twisted tale of families in crisis. On one hand, we have struggling actor Nick, who earns a meagre living teaching drama at schools while his adoring wife brings home the bacon. On the other, we have angry and disenchanted pre-teen Angela who hates pretty much everything in her life, particularly her mother. When Angela makes a shocking allegation, Nick's world crashes around his ears. So, is the 12-year-old girl telling the truth? And is Nick as squeaky-clean as he appears to be?
I thoroughly enjoyed this story with its multiple layers and ability to make the reader constantly question what will transpire next. My sympathies swung back and forth, at times wanting to scream at the belligerent Angela or shake Nick hard, then feeling heartsick for the young girl and understanding Nick's frustrations.
The ending didn't entirely surprise me, but the build-up was both tense and effective. A satisfying if not always comfortable read.

This is a REALLY hard book to read, due to the harrowing nature of the subject matter of child sexual abuse and the fact that you have no idea who to empathise with because the blurb tells us that we won't know who to believe. This made it hard for me to connect with either of the potential liars, because I was constantly aware that one of them was lying. I wonder if the novel would have been more effective if that hadn't been the premise right from the start, but admit I can't see how that could have happened.
Certainly food for thought here and it's well-written but it's not a pleasant read.

I really enjoyed this story - I was able to work out the twist about a third from the end but it didn't matter - I still enjoyed it. I found the characters believable and relateable - particularly the younger ones.

I have to begin by saying thankyou to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK and Lisa Ballantyne for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of Little Liar.
I hadn't had the opportunity to read a novel from Ms Ballantyne before now, so I did not know what to expect. I have to say, I was enthralled. Not only to you get the main storyline of the novel, but Ms Ballantyne has also written about the impact on the lives of the central characters
I will most definitely look forward to reading more from this author.

A decent read is Little Liar, a classic he said/She said involving a drama teacher accused of the sexual assault of one of his pupils. Both of their lives begin to spiral out of control but who is telling the truth? 

It's a sensitive subject treated cleverly by the author here, we see the points of view of the girl, Angela and the teacher plus his family and hers as the police investigate and lines are drawn in the sand.

It is a multi layered tale that doesn't take the path of least resistance but actually bothers to explore the issues and the affects. Until the truth is revealed you see how each party deals with the emotional trauma and it is in no way clear cut as is true of life.

Overall an intriguing and emotional read.

When twelve-year-old Angela gets into a fight at school and the other girl comes off worse, Angela is suspended from school. With her parents recently divorced, Angela blames everything on her mother, Donna. With issues of her own, Donna isn’t the most natural mother in the world: when Angela tells her she hates her, Donna tells her daughter she hates her too – charming! After an unsuccessful suicide attempt Angela opens up to her mother that she ‘just wants him to stop’, and points the finger at her drama teacher.

With her drama teacher, Nick Dean, being a minor acting celebrity, this contemporary storyline is both heart-breaking and thought-provoking. It’s not just Nick’s own life that is affected by the accusation, but his whole family. His wife might believe his side of the story, but can she still stand by him when investigations dig up more dirt on him?

With an overall omniscient third-person narrative, the novel is structured around limited third-person chapters for the main characters. This is very much an ‘are they/aren’t they’ guilty story but I will leave you guessing as to who the Little Liar is. It might not be who you expect it to be!

Under Literature Love’s rating scheme this book has been awarded 4 out of 5 stars.

4 stars means: I really enjoyed this book. This book is highly recommended.

A well-structured narrative with three-dimensional characters (not necessarily likeable). Plot is intriguing with twisty hooks.

An excellent read where the reader doesn't know who is telling the truth in a He Said/She Said drama. Two families lives are turned upside down when 12 year old Angela accuses drama teacher Nick of abusing her.

The story is told from the point of view of both families and secrets are uncovered throughout. Sympathy swings from the angry young girl to the young husband and father who has everything he wants from life and looks to losing it all. Who is the liar here? I read this in one sitting wanting to know. Thanks to NetGalley and Piatkus for the opportunity to read and review Little Liar.

A book similar to 'He said, She Said' but this time about Angela, a 12 year old girl who is troubled and accuses her drama teacher of abusing her. I find books like this really hard to read and even harder to review. The writing was good and it does put a light on the very serious issues of child abuse and what happens when a teacher is accused of something like this - whether he did it or not - what the repercussions are for everyone involved. It just wasn't for me

A gritty and very current account. Fiction yes, but so true to what happens in our society today with the increased use of media and social media influencing our lives and how people see us. Disturbing and graphic at times. It is when reading such books that I wish we had ratings for literature or at least warnings on some books as I would not want to expose under 16s to such details as portrayed here despite the novel having a significant character as a girl of 12. This is not a relaxing, leisurely read but one which challenges and disturbs, especially if like me, you and your family work in education. 3-4 star rating.

Angela is a twelve year old girl who accuses her drama teacher of sexual assault. The novel flips between Angela's story and Mr Dean who has been accused. Little Liar is a fresh and exciting novel and I read it in just under a day because I couldn't put it down. The characters draw you in and it has some unexpected twists.