A cracking, all-consuming psychological thriller!

The Perfect Lie was a chilling tale, told from alternate timelines of present day and the late 1980's.  An extremely well thought-out dual plot-line had me guessing until the very end, The story unfolded slowly but Karen Osman's writing was so fluid and full of detail. This was beautifully structured, entirely believable and really gripping. It was book I really lost myself in - and the ending was just perfect! An awesome story, worth much more than the five stars I can give it. 

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Aria via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Nothing has felt right since she told the lie...
Claire Carmichael leads a charmed life. She has two beautiful sons, Jamie and Joshua, and a handsome and successful husband who loves her. She has been taught well by her mother – the most important thing Claire has is her good reputation.
He said, she said...
Even when she was in school, Claire had it all. She was clever, likable, and after passing the initiation tests, she was welcomed into the society of popular girls – The Queen Bees. So when a scandal threatened to ruin Claire's reputation, the Queen Bees closed rank to protect her, no matter who else got hurt.
Never forgotten, never forgiven...
Claire may have moved on from her school days, but for one person who she hurt irreparably, those memories are as fresh as blood. And all it takes to reap their revenge, is ONE PERFECT LIE. 

This was a great thriller that had me gripped from the start and once I started reading I couldn't stop.
Full of twists and turns that keep you turning those pages.
Well written plot and story line that is engrossing.
The characters have been fleshed out well and were interesting.
Recommned reading.

I voluntarily reviewed this complimentary digital book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my very own!

Huh, that was something. 

I like this author and the way she writes. She creates interesting characters and stories. 

This story really isn’t a mystery or thriller. There are some red herrings thrown in but they don’t really amount to anything (or anything too dramatic for me anyway). I thought one character was going to end up being big trouble but really didn’t have much presence after the intro so kudos to that. 

It was a sad and depressing story and I didn’t really see anyone winning as things concluded. I guess in a way that makes it more realistic to the actual storyline. It was definitely a quick and entertaining read but not a light one. 

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Aria Publishing for a copy in exchange for a review.

I have been a fan of Karen's work for a little while now.  I love the way in which she writes psychological thrillers that don't exactly end how you thought that they would.  I guess you could say that she messes with your head a bit.  That's how I feel anyway.  I read the synopsis for 'The Perfect Lie' and I just had to dive straight into the book because I couldn't wait to start reading any longer.  Oh boy, 'The Perfect Lie' was one hell of a read, which I thoroughly enjoyed but more about that in a bit.
Claire Carmichael is an interesting character.  When we first meet her, she is a successful lawyer who is on maternity leave following the birth of her second child.  She is allegedly happily married but I get the impression that it's anything but.  Claire decides that she needs to go back to work full time to help bring extra income into the family.  The decision is taken to hire a nanny, which Claire sees to.  She seems to find a young lass, who sounds like an absolute gem, although appearances could be deceptive I suppose.  Claire is a woman of two halves.  On the one hand we have Work Claire, who is diligent, tenacious, stubborn, determined, headstrong, alert, hardworking and at times ruthless.  On the other hand we have Home Claire, who seems fun to be around, fair, kind, compassionate, sensitive, caring and a good mother although her work/ life balance seems a bit skew whiff at times.  Something happened in her past, which still affects her mentally to this day and when a case similar to her own, is put on her desk, she tries everything she can do to avoid having to take the case on.  She doesn't exactly get her way but her work life soon impinges on her home life and it's then that even more cracks start to appear in her perfect family life.
It didn't take me long at all to get into this story.  As soon as I began to read, I knew that it would be pointless doing anything other than read this book for the rest of the day.  I just couldn't the book down.  It wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it came everywhere with me.  The book seemed to have developed a hold over me and I feared breaking that hold if I had to put the book down.  I became so wrapped up in the story that I didn't notice just how quickly the time was passing nor how quickly the pages were turning.  The first time I checked to see how much I had read, I was stunned to realise that I had read well over a third of the book and I had been reading solidly for about two hours.  I wouldn't care but I had only picked the book up only intending to read a couple of chapters to fill in 5 minutes.  
'The Perfect Lie' is very well written.  The author has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with.  Karen certainly knows how to grab your attention from the start and keeps the attention all the way through the story by keeping the characters fresh, the storylines interesting and by keeping the twists and turns  coming throughout the book.  Karen has a way of writing that makes you feel as though you are part of the story yourself.  That's how I felt at any rate.
In short, I must say that 'The Perfect Lie' is a fantastic read, which had me gripped and on the edge of my seat throughout the book.  I would definitely recommend this author and this book to other readers.  I can't wait to read what Karen comes up with next.  Here's hoping that we don't have too long to wait.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

★★★★ 4.5 stars

Having thought I had read Karen Osman before - but I'd actually confused two different authors with books of the same name - I delved into THE PERFECT LIE with eagerness. Of course, it turns out that it was actually Amy Bird's "The Good Mother" I had read and not the one by this author, so therefore she is knew to me. Still that did not deter me as plundered through the pages.

It begins with Claire who is happily married to high school sweetheart Chris with two sons Josh 17 and Jamie 5. Now with her youngest child starting school, she decides to return to work as a lawyer with the firm she co-set up with her good friend Julia. However Jamie is a more challenging child than Josh, who had been her perfect child, had ever been and therein lies the perennial problem of juggling her demanding job with being a good mum to her children and meeting their daily needs. When the offer of a neighbour's daughter as a childminder comes up, the solution becomes ideal with everything yet again falling into place. Her life once again seems perfect.

But just as soon as she is back at work, Julia hands her a case that will bring her past back to haunt her - in more ways than one. A rape case, in the victim accuses two men of the offence means long hours and long days with Claire going over testimony and statements in preparation for her day in court. Claire wants to pass the case on to someone else but the client had been specific - they wanted Claire. Why? What did they know about her past that would warrant her being the ideal voice for the victim?

When Claire starts bringing her work home, it seems she can no longer keep her professional and her personal life separate, as Chris shows little understanding for her needs or predicament. Even his promises to help out with the children more were empty as he continued to work late night after night despite Claire having her own meetings and late nights to contend with. The childminder may have been ideal for their situation but even she couldn't stay half the night. But Chris refused to see beyond his own needs and his own job to bear any empathy or understanding for Claire's. In his opinion, she should give up the idea of working altogether and remain at home. 

The fact that she was working on this rape case only fuelled his cause, remembering full well what had happened to Claire back when they were in high school. She didn't need the reminders; she didn't need this case; she didn't need to work.

When the narrative backtracks some three decades to the late 80s, we meet the teenage Claire who appeared, in some ways, very different from the woman she became. As a teenager, whilst faced with the usual fickle demands of her peers, she also longed to be part of a popular clique - The Queen Bees - but at what cost? Having been dared to kiss the most unpopular guy in school, Paul Jones, on a date that she must instigate, Claire found she actually enjoyed his company. But what was to be her first dare as the initial initiation into the clique turned out to be an attraction she couldn't understand - and which would not be acceptable to the others - Claire found she could not keep away from Paul, meeting up in the library whenever they could. So they embarked on a secret relationship which would cost her, if revealed, her reputation and her place in the group as a Queen Bee she had worked so hard for.

After months of secret meetings, it seemed only natural that their relationship should progress to the next level. Or should it? But when one day, the door suddenly opens to the unused drama room and Charlotte, the head Queen Bee, is shocked by what she sees. Pants round his ankles with Claire's knickers on the floor, Paul is wrenched off her and Claire is taken away in tears and the arms of her friends. 

Then news travelled. Stories told. Opinions made. What had been a beautiful thing, albeit secret, was now made into a sordid atrocity. Such was the shame that Paul and his family had to move away, as the school turned him into a pariah. Then abandoning school altogether as well as his dreams of becoming a doctor, Paul grew a chip that became so embedded on his shoulder...unable to escape the shame of what had been done to him. He trusted her; he loved her; and she had betrayed him.

As an adult, with her reputation still held in the highest regard, Claire finds herself faced with a terrifying prospect. Her son Josh is accused of accused of a crime of the most abhorrent nature and suddenly she finds herself under attack and everything she tried to forget in her past is back to destroy her in a final retribution.

And now, the perfect life is coming undone with the perfect lie...

Narrated in both the past and the present, mainly by Claire, we do get to hear the whispers of another more sinister voice sprinkled throughout - so malevolent in its creepiness - with the final word set to turn everything on its head. As soon we learn more about the event from the past is not what it seems. The final twist is just brilliant and ultimately heartbreaking.

I enjoyed watching how the characters interacted with one another, despite disliking several of them. They were well written and each played their parts well. I'm not sure which Claire I preferred - teenage or adult - as both were a little self absorbed at times though her ability to look beyond what others see as a teenager and accept the unpopular boy at school as he was was a little overshadowed by her fickleness to remain with the "in" crowd. I would have preferred her to stand up for him, but having been a teenage girl myself, I know how improbable that concept could be to someone of that age...when acceptance is everything. And then, the lie.

I really liked Josh. He was nothing like most teenage boys portrayed - he really was a perfect child. Jamie may have been cute but I find the demands of small children annoying, and he could be at times. Chris was an obtuse self-absorbed prick, in my opinion. Whatever did Claire see in him? Despite Charlotte's claim of "imagine the perfect babies you would make!" in her fickle teenage brain. I didn't like any of the Queen Bees, least of all Charlotte. I hated those kinds of people when I was that age, I hate them even more now. They were basically bullies. And had they not been, and could accept what was, then maybe none of what happened would have happened. In the end, while the responsibility was ultimately Claire's doing, I still think those girls had a lot to answer for as well.

While THE PERFECT LIE does begin as a slow burn, don't give up because when it picks up it REALLY picks up...and you won't want to put it down until the very last page.

Although I did predict much of what took place - both past and present - I didn't foresee the outcome of this highly addictive read. It certainly didn't ruin the story for me as I love to try and piece the clues together myself whilst devouring an intriguing read such as this.

It does leave you questioning, what could have happened had there not been that perfect lie? Would the past have then directed the future in what became THE perfect lie? You really are left with pondering the reality of how so many lives can change on the basis of a lie. 

With secrets, lies, deception and the most unimaginable betrayal, THE PERFECT LIE is simply brilliant in its execution and its ending.

I would like to thank #KarenOsman, #NetGalley and #Aria for an ARC of #ThePerfectLie in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly loved The Good Mother and settled down to read this new novel.  I’m all in for a good revenge thriller.  I was fascinated with Claire’s narrative in the present.  With a back story of sexual assault, there is a parallel  story from high school told by Claire and her first almost-boyfriend.  While it’s obvious how the story will evolve, I was unsure how it would be resolved as a lie told in school is the catalyst for this story.  The plot is great, the high school story was a little longer than I wanted as I wanted to stay in the present with Claire to see how she would handle the scandal in the present due to her lie years ago.  I appreciated the ending and overall enjoyed it.

An excellent thriller that proves once again that every decision has consequences, whether immediate or delayed, fate will catch up with you.  Karen Osman has written an excellent story line of how our actions of today will affect our tomorrows.  The backstory will leave you trying to figure out exactly which character is "good" and which "bad".  Skillful writing leaves no room for breaks in the reading of this story.  The story builds at such a speed that the ending almost comes as a shock.  A great reading experience that I'm recommending to my reading circle.

I’ve read previous by this author and loved them so of course I was so excited to read this one. In fact this blew my expectations out of the water. It was so so good. 

Claire had it all. A Perfect life that anyone would envy. 

She has moved on from a blip in her younger years.. until it comes back to haunt her. 

This is a well written psychological thriller that gripped me from start to finish. I absolutely loved it.

As part of an initiation process to join the "Queen Bees", teenager, Claire, has to ask the nerd of the school for a date, go out with him and kiss him.  It was one of Claire's dreams to be apart of the exclusive girl group of the school.  When she approached the nerd, Paul, in the library she was amazed by his quiet gentleness and intelligence.  As they talked she invited him to the movies and he agreed to meet her there.  When they met at the theater it was obvious that members of the Queen Bees were also present.  As Claire and Paul talked she realized that she genuinely liked him and enjoyed his company, despite the taunting of the club members that sat behind them.  Before the movie ended, Claire leaned over and kissed Paul.  At the next club meeting, Claire became a full member of the Queen Bees.  Unbeknownst to the other Bees, Claire continued to meet Paul and their relationship grew.  Paul agreed to Claire's request to keep their relationship secret.  Paul had a difficult home life and despite his intelligence and kindness he was brutally bullied by his classmates.  He centered his thoughts on graduating and attending medical school and sharing his life with Claire.  One afternoon when they thought the school was deserted, Claire and Paul relationship was discovered.  The Bees immediately protected Claire and Paul was blamed.  It drastically changed the course of his entire life.  Paul continued to monitor Claire's life as she finished her degrees, became a lawyer, married a fantastic man, co-owned a business and had two sons.  It appeared that Claire was living a perfect life.  When her oldest son is charged with a crime, her past decisions come back to haunt her.  Sometimes the past comes back to get its revenge.  Definitely thought provoking, and hard to put down.  Hats off to Karen Osman, great, entertaining and riveting book!  Thank-you to Netgalley, Head of Zeus and Karen Osman for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.  Review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon and Kobo.

A perfect lie is aspretty much near to a perfect read you can get to be honest
Claire is happy, she has everything she wants, of course there are a few minor things she would like to change but on the whole life is as good as it gets
She is even going back to her old
career as a lawyer
Yes, Claire can breathe a deep sigh of contented relief

Until things change

Suddenly everything she knows is under fire and everything she tried to forget in her past is back, and back with a vengeance not to just harm her but to destroy all she has

If ever a tale was told to warn you never to think your past has been forgotten then this is it!

I want to say more but to give even a hint will give some of the story away and that would ruin what is a really suspenfully ( is that a word?) told family drama

Narrated in the past and the present with a good cast and a winning writing style this book was just a really really good read, interesting, quite shocking at times and ultimately a look into how one persons life can be ruined by something they did years before

10/10
5 Stars

Claire has a perfect life. With a perfect husband and a perfect child - she's a hard working and accomplished attorney. 

And then her world is turned upside down.

The Perfect Lie belong on the shelf with Gone Girl, The Girl in the Train and all of the other popular women driven thrillers of the last few years. Karen Osman knows how to up the creep factor at the perfect time. 

This is sure to be a hit and I'm sure, a movie is already in the works. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

Scarily good suspense does not get any better than Karen Osman’s latest nail-biting and nerve-twisting page-turner, The Perfect Lie. A must-read for fans of Big Little Lies and Pretty Little Liars, strap yourself in and get ready for a hair-raising chiller that will leave you breathless.

Claire Carmichael leads a life most people would give their right arm for. Happy, secure and content, she has two beautiful sons, a gorgeous husband who worships the ground she walks on, a busy social life and an impeccable reputation. Claire has never forgotten the lessons her mother had drummed into her head from the moment she was knee high to a grasshopper: reputation is everything and one must do whatever it takes to ensure that there is not a single blemish on one’s good name and character. Claire has taken these lessons to heart and ensured that nobody would ever have anything negative to say about her. But just how perfect has Claire been throughout her life? Did she ever once let down her guard and done something that could destroy all of her good work. Claire certainly doesn’t think so, but she will soon realize that as a forgotten figure from her past has been just waiting for the right moment to strike and destroy Claire Carmichael’s perfect life.

At school, Claire was one of the most popular girls. She was was clever, intelligent, likable and a member of the Queen Bees – a society of the school’s most popular girls. When scandal had threatened, the Queen Bees had closed ranks and protected Claire at all costs. Everyone – including Claire – thought that the past was dead and buried, but the past has a habit of rearing its head when one least expects it and when one person who had been hurt badly during those halcyon school days comes back into Claire’s life, they have only thing on their minds: revenge…

All it takes is one perfect lie to destroy everything that Claire has worked so hard for. As Claire’s life begins to shatter all around her, can she ever reclaim control and vanquish old ghosts? Or is it simply too late?

A nail-biting thriller that will chill you to the bone, The Perfect Lie is a captivating tale with more twists and turns than a roller coaster, tension that will keep you on a knife’s edge, brilliantly nuanced characters and heart-pounding suspense. Karen Osman’s The Perfect Lie is a top notch thriller that grips, unsettles, terrifies and is sure to leave you hungry for more.

A first class read that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, miss Karen Osman’s The Perfect Lie at your peril!

I loved loved loved this book! Karen has created a gripping and thrilling read that I could not get enough of. After reading the heart pounding prologue, I knew that I was going to be completely absorbed in the story, which I was until the very early hours of the morning! I was torn wanting to savour it, but at the same time wanting to know what was going to happen and how it was going to end.

The plot of the story ticked all the boxes for me in what I love in a thriller. It definitely has it all. It is a tale of revenge, secrets, lies and the most unimaginable betrayal, that changes the course of one persons life forever. A life where there was such promise of a bright future, only for it to come crashing down in one split second due to the most unforgivable lie.

The characters in the book are all extremely well written in the parts that they each play in the story, good and bad. The main character of Claire had me feeling mixed emotions. As a teenager, she is faced with the age old tale of wanting to be a part of the popular clique, but it does come at the cost and at the detriment of the person she is the closest to. A secret relationship with an “unpopular “ boy that if revealed will cost her, her reputation and the place in the group that she has work hard to be a part of.

As an adult, Claire continues to hold her reputation in the highest regard above everything else, but when her own son is accused of a crime, the same crime that she accused her boyfriend of back in high school, she must take responsibility for her actions and comes to terms with how she destroyed his life.

I really enjoyed the dual narrative of the story from the present day back to the past, where Karen gives the reader a great insight into the events that lead Claire to make the most careless decision of her life. Karen also uses the technique of just giving the reader enough suspense which she gives off in little waves to a satisfying finale. Although I did predict the outcome, this did not ruin the story it for me. This is an addictive read which I highly recommend.

Thank-you to NetGalley, Aria Fiction and Karen Osman for allowing me to read an advanced copy of The Perfect Lie which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

This was an interesting read, a revenge is best served cold thriller. The story was well told and kept me reading however I found many of the characters to be unlikable (even the ones I think we were meant to like) and it was quite obvious where the story was going once I'd read the big flashback scene - the introduction to the book made complete sense then.

A fab read however I wasn't as thrilled as I think I should possibly have been.

What a great read! A totally different plot - I loved every bit of it!

Claire Carmichael has a perfect life; clever at school, she went onto university and a successful legal career, a perfect marriage with her husband Chris and their two gorgeous children. There was one 'incident' in her school days, but that's all behind her and completely forgotten ... isn't it?

Beginning in the present day, we then discover all about Claire's earlier life by travelling back to a couple of different times. The story unfolds slowly but the writing is so fluid and full of detail that I actually forgot about the bit at the start! This is a beautifully structured tale; well-plotted, entirely believable and really gripping! A book I really lost myself in - and the ending! Wow, just perfect!

My initial reaction was to jump at the chance to read and review The Perfect Lie as, with Karen Osman as the author, I knew it would be a good read, but it's way beyond that .. it's a cracking thriller and one which consumed me. The characterisation is fabulous, the story even more awesome and the whole package is worth so much more than the five stars I can give it. Would I recommend it? You bet! If you're the kind of reader who loves a psychological thriller, then this is a must read!

My thanks to publisher Aria for my copy via NetGalley, and in particular to Vicky Joss for including me in this Blog Tour. All stated opinions are completely honest and entirely my own.

The Perfect Lie by Karen Osman 
Thanks @netgalley @karenosmanauthor for my ARC
Publication date 8th August 2019
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Another amazing psychological thriller from the brilliant Karen Osman. If you haven’t read Osman’s previous thrillers I highly recommend you do 😊. A Perfect Lie has everything a good psychological thriller should have. The opening pages pulled me right in and never let go. A tale of revenge, karma and how one mistake can impact your life in years to come. The chapters, alternating past and present were fluid and easy to follow, the characters were well developed. Truly amazing. This exceeded my high expectations. Five stars xx

Former mean girl Claire appears to have it all. Married to her high school sweetheart. Two mostly perfect sons. Law partnership with her best friend Julia. But revenge is a dish best served cold when someone she wronged in high school with The Perfect Lie returns twenty years later to upset her perfect life.

Good psychological thriller about how one mistake can impact you and your loved ones a lifetime later. It is fun to see Claire try to upright the cascading dominos of her life in this revenge thriller. If you like thrillers pitting two strong leads against one another where it is not clear who to root for, you will enjoy The Perfect Lie. 4 stars!

Thanks to Aria Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Claire's married to her high school sweetie Chris, she has two boys, and a business with her friend Julia.  In other words, it looks like she's the prototypical young mom who's got it all.  She's also got a big secret and it's about to come back hard.  Told in alternating chapters between today and the late 1980s, you'll slowly come to understand why what Claire did- the lie she told about Paul- served as the seed for today.  The Queen Bees, the group Claire belong to in high school, were the classic mean girls even if they didn't recognize it in themselves.  The damage done....No spoilers.  Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.  A page turner with vivid characters and good plot.

This is a fast paced psychological thriller. 
The story is told from various points. Some from the current time and then back 30 years. 
The characters were very relatable. The plot was original and worked very well. The ending came as a surprise. 
This book is gripping, chilling and thrilling