Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley. 

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. 
Natalie.

"The Liars" is a book about immigration and growing up. It's about mothers and their children, and how daughters and sons are often viewed (and treated) differently. I found it to be a quick read. The story unfolds across dual timelines and alternating narratives, which helps us empathise with both Elena, Carrie and Joaquin. I also enjoyed the h/t to Jesus and Mary Chain.

The Liars predominantly focuses on the three members of the Finney family, namely Caridad (Carrie), Joaquin and Elena.

This book is written from two timelines, the first that takes place in 1986, from the perspectives of Elena and Joaquin, siblings both trying to deal with small town life, and the other from Carrie in 1957 during the Cuban Revolution.

The reader is first introduced to Elena who's excited for the Summer holidays. Elena lives on Mariposa Island, Texas and the Summer holidays always grant her a small amount of freedom away from the house that she shares with her mum, Carrie, and brother, Joaquin. Narcissist Carrie suffers from alcohol addiction and is sometimes abusive, and Elena often finds herself looking after her.

Elena's point of view is interjected with flashbacks from her mum's reflections of her younger years in Cuba and early life in America. In the later chapters of the book, the reader hears increasingly from Joaquin and I was able to glean something more about him, allowing a deeper insight into his feelings. Eventually Carrie's revelations provide greater context about her life and the reasons behind her behaviour towards her son and daughter. I really liked that all of the characters in The Liars were so well formed as people with their own parts to play and none were added afterthoughts. I could see how the lies and untruths that each character fabricated and perpetuated caught up with them, long-term. For me, the story-telling held some poignant messages about dishonesty and mental health issues.

I would certainly recommend reading Jennifer Mathieu's The Liars.

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

This book baffled me, and I am still thinking about it weeks after finishing it. It is told in two parts: Elena and Joaquin's present life, and their mother's past. Their mother (mami) hides in her room and drinks a lot. Her life did not go the way she wanted it to, so she tries to micro-manage her children's lives. She is not a loving, maternal mother. The children look after her, and although I understood she had a difficult past, this made me furious. When Elena meets a boy, she has to hide it from Mami to avoid her anger. Her new relationship causes tension in her relationship with her brother, and her best friend, who don't like Elena's boyfriend. Joaquin is planning to leave the island, and is searching for more information about his dad. It is a gripping mystery. The twist in this story was next-level bonkers. I'm still reeling from it. Everyone in this book is lying about something. They are all unreliable. I didn't like any of them, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

A lot of build up here. It was quite a boring read for me unfortunately. This is my first read from this author so I didn't know what to expect but I've heard so much about her other novels that I did assume I'd be in for a good ride. But I found that it dragged, focused more on characters than plot, and I didn't like any of the characters enough for that to compel me.

I'm going to start off by saying this was a dark story revolving around family relations that also see drugs and violence and sometimes the harsh reality that comes with that.

The use of flashbacks was well done and interesting. It was full of twists and turns and I was gripped by this pretty much from the start!

Published in the US as The Liars of Mariposa Island, this is a historical YA mostly set in 1986, about brother and sister Joaquin and Elena Finney. There are also chapters from the perspective of their mother, Caridad, when she was a teenager and young woman, showing how she went from a life of luxury and utmost privilege, to being a refugee from the Cuban revolution. I really enjoyed this book and the way it played with truth and lies via its very unreliable narrators. 

Full review in video: http://www.betterthandreams.com/2019/11/october-2019-wrap-up-nearly-finished-the-summer-project/

This is a dark story of mother and child relationships and the effect of drugs and violence.

Elena and Joaquin both dream of a different life and growing up in Cuba in the 1950s is hard. The author captured the feel of the times beautifully and reading about the two was emotive and interesting.

Their mothers secrets soon come to light and what I loved was the final conclusion. It is a brilliant read and I was sad when it ended

This book started slowly but the writing was engaging and drew you into Elena and Joaquin's world. I enjoyed the flashbacks to 1950s Cuba and while I had some sympathy for Caridad, she never grew out of being a spoilt, selfish child even when she was a middle-aged mother. I was disappointed that the story didn't return to Elena's POV especially after her experience of drugs. I would have liked to know more about her feelings towards JC and how she deals with her mother's secrets. 

An interesting, although, dark read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book had an interesting premise. However, I had some technical issues whilst trying to read it.

A complex read that offers so much. Love, lies, family, friendship. A well written and deep plot and this book delivers. 
Greta read.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Hachette Children’s Group for gifting me this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

I loved this exceptional story of love, lies, secrets and family. The three POV's really made this story come together and I loved trying to untangle the lies the characters have woven to see if they would uncover their realities before it was too late. A beautifully written sad but moving story.

5 Words: Family, friendship, secrets, lies, love.

Content Warning: Alcohol abuse, drug use, child abuse, family separation.

The Liars was much more complex than I first expected, and almost like a psychological thriller at times. The story had me hooked, the unreliable narrators had me second guessing everything. And yet, I still didn't see it coming.

I really enjoyed the different narrative perspectives, how it cast a different slant on the story. Each character had their own motivations for the lies they told. And Elena was the most fascinating and it was a little bit chilling how naturally it seemed to come to her.

As much as I loved being inside Elena's head as the story unraveled, I think my favourite character was Joaquin. He is so full of love and anger and frustration and resentment and a desperate need to care for his sister. He's so torn up about wanting to help himself too and I found it so endearing. I loved how much of an excellent big brother he was, even if Elena resented it at times.

Caridad is a wonderfully complex character and my opinion on her switched back and forth with what the story revealed about her life. Sometimes I hated her almost as much as some of the other characters, other times it felt like my heart could break over what happened to her.

The Liars is also known as The Liars of Mariposa Island in the US.

Read my reviews of Jennifer Mathieu's other books:
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu - http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/2017/09/moxie-by-jennifer-mathieu.html
Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu - http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/2019/01/devoted-by-jennifer-mathieu.html

I loved this book - I really liked Elena and Joaquin, and I loved learning about Carrie's life in Cuba and all that she had left behind, and why she had become abusive towards her children like she was. I was really surprised in the middle, and I was surprised when the point of view changed too as I had been enjoying Elena so much. It's a fantastic YA book with a very real issue at its heart. Love it. My review will go live on 5th September, the day of publication

This book is the story of a family that doesn't function well, and full of secrets and lies. Caridad is the alcoholic, abusive mother. Elena is the daughter who makes up a babysitting job to leave the house. She represents the rebel teenage. Her uncle Jouqain is trying to work, and help Elena deal with her mother's behaviour. 

Character development was the strongest part of this book. Mathieu did an amazing job out of it. We have the perspectives of all these characters, so that we have access to each part of the story. 

It was a very compelling read that I enjoyed, except Elena's ending. I don't get along with open endings, so I wish the writer concluded it properly. But, if you're OK with that, the rest of the book was really strong. 

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. 

This was my first Jennifer Mathieu book and I absolutely loved it! It was well written with real characters. Elena was a trapped young girl who wanted to be able to live her life but couldn’t because of her over-bearing mother Caridad, who is still living with the trauma from her childhood of living in Cuba. Her brother Jouqain has the freedom to come and goes as he wants but still struggles with balancing work, relationships and trying to help Elena escape his mother’s abusive behaviour. 

This book is told from each of their perspectives with Caridad’s focusing on her past. Most of it is told from Elena’s POV with the final third being from Joaquin’s. I really enjoy multi-perspective books and this one was perfect. It allowed you to learn more about each character and watch their development.

However I do feel like the ending could have been better and is the main reason that this book doesn’t get a five star review. Whilst I was happy for Jouqain, I felt like Elena honestly deserved a better ending. I don’t know if that’s because I felt myself being more attached to Elena but I wanted a happy ending for her. 

This book is a lot darker that I thought it would be and there are a lot of triggers in this book so please be aware of this before picking this book up!

I adored this book! The Liars dealt with many different conflicts and disputes that touched my heart. Through Caridad's perspective, the reader gains way more insight as to why she's such an abusive mother after all. I found myself feeling heartbroken at the fact of how sad her life really is. 

Elena was another primary character and just as developed and so real. Her emotions and teenage rebellion that means so much more than what its surface is taught me a lot. The trials of living with an abusive mother like Carrie came through and how Elena is still a girl. All she wanted was normality. We don't get much closure towards the end as to how J.C. may stay relevant. However, I think that makes it way more real.

Joaquin was another character I thought wouldn't have a narrative. When he did, I was pleasantly surprised as to what he had to say. He was probably my favourite one, complex and conflicted. All the other secondary characters still had vivid personalities and I really liked that.


Thank you for this lovely book and Netgalley for letting me read it xx

This book was completely different to everything else I've read by Jennifer Mathieu, but it was brilliant! I loved this novel, it was surprisingly set a few decades ago rather than in the modern day but that only added to the intrigue and mystery of the secrets and lies.

We follow two time lines and three POVs throughout this novel, we start with Elena in 1986 who's excited for the start of the Summer holidays. Elena lives on Mariposa Island, Texas and the Summer holidays always grant her a small amount of freedom away from the house that she shares with her mother, Caridad, and brother, Joaquin. Caridad is an alcohol addict and abusive, Elena usually finds herself putting her mother to bed when she's too intoxicated to do it herself.

Caridad's POV is set in Cuba in 1957. Although rebels are threatening more and more violence nearby, Caridad convinces her father to host an elegant and expensive quince for her. On the night of the celebration disaster strikes, resulting in Caridad being shipped off to Texas to live with a family willing to host a refugee. Torn from her world of splendour and affluence, Caridad feels lost and unhappy in Texas, she clings to the only means of escape; marriage.

In the later chapters of the book we have the opportunity to read from Joaquin's POV in 1986, I wasn't expecting to learn much about Joaquin so these chapters were a very interesting development in the story. I gained a much deeper insight into how Joaquin was feeling throughout the book.

It was incredibly fascinating to read about Caridad's journey from a young, innocent girl at fourteen to an abusive middle aged woman full of secrets and lies. Including Caridad's backstory in so much detail created empathy for her situation.

The only reason this book wasn't a five star is that the ending left me a little deflated, I loved the ending for Joaquin but I think Elena deserved a better ending. It was left fairly open, whereas I prefer my endings to be finished and precise. But I would definitely still recommend this book to everyone, you never know, you might love the ending!

A very different book from Jennifer Mathieu, but I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.
The ARC I received has the simple title ‘The Liars’ and this definitely indicates more characters could be given this title than the family of three we predominantly focus on.
The majority of the story focuses on 17 year old Elena, who has invented a family that she babysits for in order to be able to leave the house. Her older brother, Jouqain, is allowed to work and go out at night but he recognises their mother’s controlling behaviour is abusive. With nobody else to support him though, Jouqain doesn’t know what to do to improve their situation.
Alongside the story of these two and the summer that starts to signal change, we get the background to their mother’s life. It is jarring at first, but the details about her wealthy home in Cuba and the change in lifestyle when she’s sent alone to America do explain - at least in part - some of her actions.
Nothing is really resolved by the end of the book for Elena, but the circumstances around Jouqain do give some hope that things might change in time.

This book was not an easy read. By that I mean the subject matter. The writing was superb. It dealt with some quite dark and delicate subject matters with ease. It was enticing and gripping read with "real" characters whose emotions were complex but written beautifully so that you understood the gravity of their situation.. The unresolved ending also gave the novel a more realistic base.

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