Thank you for the chance to read this book. I was not familiar with this author until reading this book and unfortunately, I don't think I will look into anything else by her. I was literally stuck at 33% for weeks because I just couldn't get past it because I was not a fan of Clare and the direction that the book was clearly headed. I finally followed through in the last few days mostly from curiosity and not actually because I wanted to know the outcome. The writing is fine but the characters and story line to me just kept getting more ridiculous. The ending is left to the reader to pretty much draw their own conclusions and that's a big No Thank You to me especially in a suspenseful book.

As a ripple in the ocean can eventually become a tsunami on the other side of the world, a lie will have repercussions.  The author did a good job with character development and advancing the story.  More of a family drama/suspense than a thriller.  My first by this author and I will surely look forward to her next!

If I had to use one word to describe this book it would be gripping.

I also have to note that the title is perfect.  The characters are real, in that we know them.  We've met them, worked with them, gone to school with them, we know them.  That's what draws you into their lives, is the desire to see where their lives are going.  The more information that is provided to us, the more we want.  

I can't really get into particulars here, but I can tell you that it is a worthwhile read.  It will have you thinking for sure.  The writing is good, the story keeps you hanging on, and you will enjoy the ride.

My copy was provided by NetGalley.com and the publisher, for which I thank them.

Compulsive reading, this is an addictive suspenseful psychological thriller like no other.

The plot is unpredictable with lots of twists and turns along with solid engaging characters.
There is also a sense of dread as the story deals with the deep and dark corners of the human psych.

I very much enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone!

What an amazing novel! The character development was incredible, the story line flowed seamlessly and I was captivated the whole time. Highly recommended!

I was given an early copy of The Perfect Lie in return for an honest review. Thanks to NetGalley as well as the publisher and author - all opinions are my own.

This book was honestly difficult for me to get through. The premise was good, the writing was good, I just couldn’t commit and didn’t feel a true connection. It’s a popular predictable premise these days and some of these tend to run together in my mind - 🤷‍♀️.

Overall I do think it will appeal to a lot of people so o gave it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 star rating). I do feel there is a market for this book!

Suspenseful and thrilling, I really enjoyed this book. A great “beach” read you can finish in just a couple hours.

Why do I feel like I have read this plot somewhere. These days the thriller books are getting repetitive. So many of them.
But definitely readable. I was intrigued and enjoyed it.

Note: I received a free e-copy of the book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Special thanks to the author and publisher for giving me a chance to read it.

A decent read. I found the first section very slow but once the narrative went into the past for the first time, the pace picked up and my enjoyment increased. I found both Claire and Paul to be flawed but sympathetic characters; both made terrible decisions that were at the same time fully understandable.

There are no real surprises in the plot; it's very clear from the end of that first past section what the truth is, and from that point on it's just a matter of waiting for everything to unravel. Which means the ending is inevitable, and a little depressing. I would have preferred things to turn out differently, but I understand why there wasn't really any alternative.

They say “revenge is a dish best served cold” and in this story it is certainly true. Claire was living her life with no idea that things from years in her past were about to cause havoc. I wouldn’t call this book a thriller so much as a drama but that doesn’t take away from the storyline at all. It is still very good, interesting and the author has a fluid easy way of writing. Her journeys into the past were not at all distracting. The characters are well developed - flaws and all. 
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review

A brilliant thriller on how one action can change so many lives.

Claire Carmichael is a happily married woman with two sons, Joshua 17 and Jamie 5. She has married Chris, her school sweetheart and the only problem on the horizon is returning to work full-time and setting up her company with her friend Julia. The perennial problem of juggling being a mum as well as holding down a pressurised job is solved when a neighbour’s daughter becomes the ideal childminder and everything seems yet again to be perfect.

However, Claire is still haunted by a potential scandal that had happened when she was only 16 and with her first boyfriend. Claire had recently been initiated into the Queen Bees, the society for popular girls at her school, and although she was secretly seeing the school swot, Paul, this would not have been considered a suitable boyfriend for her by the Queen Bees, they had already picked out Chris Carmichael.

When Claire and Paul are discovered having sex in an abandoned classroom by the Queen Bee herself, Charlotte, who immediately accuses Paul of rape, to avoid scandal Claire agrees with her. Paul is immediately expelled from school, Claire goes on to university with Chris and is now living a happy and fulfilled life. No one in her family or friends knows that the sex was consensual except Paul and Claire.

The brilliance of this book as to how we discover what has happened to Paul, his dreams of being a doctor shattered, his family ostracised his life in pieces. His only consolation is stalking Claire and her family. He still has an amazing brain and works out the perfect revenge on Claire and her family. 

To find out what and how he does this you need to read this book, it would be unfair to give many details as it would spoil the enjoyment but suffice it to say it is brilliant.

I read this book in a couple of days and was absorbed by the story. Ms Osman is a very good writer and apart from the main storyline, describes various other interesting and relevant topics. The problem of being a working mother, the need for boys and girls to be popular, the cruelty for those who are a little bit different and the basis of the whole book, how a lie can change so many lives.

For anyone who loves a great story and an amazing ending, read this book, you will love it.

Dexter

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

4 stars! I was so happy to receive an advanced copy of this book as i loved Karen Osman's previous novel. This one did not disappoint and kept me hooked from page 1. I cannot wait for her next book and highly recommend The Perfect Lie. 

Thanks kindly to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.

The last book I read from Karen Osman was beyond amazing, but this one was a bit of a let down for me. Mainly because the way it was written and the way it was portrayed. The story kept switching directions in the middle a scene... I honestly thought my brain was getting whiplash and it was quite confusing.

The storyline itself was really good, well put together and interesting, thrilling, but it was the best part of the whole book. I couldn't relate to any of the characters and I really did like Claire, felt her pain, 'til the end where I just wanted to throat punch her myself. I love how the story deceives you and how edgy it can be. I hate Chris, what kind of a husband is he? Urgh.

BUT, the author's writing style was on point, and definitely kept me reading all the way to the end.

Great book, could be written better but the story was gritty and thrilling, mysterious and chilling.

Basically 1.5 stars,  started off decently enough but went absolutely nowhere.  And should have kept going from there because eventually the plot became so ridiculous I ended up skimming through the final third of the book.  Can't recommend

⚖️|#partner Thank you to NetGalley, Aria & Karen Osman for the free advanced digital copy! This book is available August, 2019!|
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🌟BOOK REVIEW🌟
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▪️MY THOUGHTS
✔️I really enjoyed this book.  It went back and forth from present day to when the main character was a teenager.  The story was written from a few different perspectives which I enjoyed.  It gives you insight into characters that you wouldn’t normally see.  I thought the story was very interesting and although I knew by the middle of the book what was going to happen - I didn’t know how it was all going to go down.
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▪️OVERALL RUNDOWN
✔️I thought the book was very well written. It was a story of deceit, lies and revenge.  I look forward to reading more from this author!
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▪️TITLE RUNDOWN
Parents 
Enjoying 
Revenge
Furious 
Envy
Children 
Truth
Lies 
Intriguing 
Engaging

Wooo.. what a great book! Kept me interested all the way through. Great buildup to the what the ending was as i was wondering what was going on at one point. Not going to be the last from this author will be picking up more of her books. 



Thanks to the publisher and net galley for an ARC of this book.

Well, to be perfectly honest, this wasn’t a reading choice laden with expectations. I wasn’t in love with the author’s previous thriller Good Mother, but it was decent enough and these types of thrillers are impossible to avoid these days, so I figured I’ll check out how the next book is. And guess what…it is a definite improvement. Nothing mind blowing, the writing remains well within the prototypical women thriller confines, but the actual story here is really quite good, a tale of revenge served as a dish decades in the making by the man destroyed by a lie. The thing here is that the book is much more of a drama than a thriller of any kind, thriller presupposes plot twists and plot twist wise here you might be disappointed, because they are fairly predictable. There isn’t enough mystery to go around. Instead you have an essentially character driven psychological drama with a moral. But, of course, that wouldn’t sell enough copies, so it ends up being somewhat misadvertised for the sake of popularity. At any rate, it was a good revenge tale. It won’t stand out in the overpopulated world of similar women authored women driven stories, although it was nice that for a change there was no tiresome split narrative thing going on with three female characters (like in Good Mother), the narrative time travels here instead, but at least has the decency to mostly remain told from a single perspective. But plot wise it is a considerable improvement upon the author’s previous effort, it shows the psychological complexity the other lacked, so that’s something. Basically, don’t go in expecting much and you’ll be sufficiently entertained. The page count of this one (and the cover for that matter) are inexplicably unavailable at the time of this review writing, but at a guess, it’s about mid 200s and reads very quickly. Thanks Netgalley.

Thanks for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book! Premise was awesome, but overall the book didn’t “flow” as well as it could have. The first half of the book was slightly disjointed and didn’t set up as well as it could for the plot twist to come. The plot twist however, was great! Definitely a good story line. Overall, was hoping that this book would be as likable as “The Last Mrs. Parrish” but it just didn’t get there.

It seems as if Claire can't just get everything right. Her sons are ages 17 and 5. Claire wants to get back to work, full-time, at her career in law. But! She needs her husband's approval and a nanny. Once back, Claire had forgotten the long hours and the innate stress her job entailed. This, especially since she partnered with her longtime friend, Julia. We see a lot of background on Claire and this is interwoven into the present day Written well, by Karen Osman.'

A good suspense story with great character development.

Many thanks to Aria Books and NetGalley for a great read!

Finished this book in two days. A great domestic thriller. Claire is a happily married housewife, living the good life. She decided to return to work  when her second child started school. She is living with a terrible secret, that destroyed a young man’s life years ago. This book is filled with great characters, and the story kept me wondering.  I will  definitely recommend this book to all my friends and family. Thank you for my advance copy.