Following marriage problems, Sadie has just returned from the USA with her 10 year old daughter Robin. They have moved into her former family home in North London, which she recently inherited following the death of her mother. However, the conditions of the inheritance are punitive and reflect the longstanding dislike her mother had for her and the eventual breakdown of their relationship when Sadie insisted on marrying her husband and leaving for the USA. One of the conditions of the inheritance was that Robin must attend the same private school her mother had gone to and had hated. Robin and Sadie are at first treated contemptuously by the other children and their parents and gradually the reason for this emerges with chilling consequences.

This is a well-written book with a lovely building sense of tension and several interesting plot threads that, while unrelated, are all compelling. I enjoyed both the look at the work of a legal team and the portrait of school gate politics. Sadie and Robin are a great mother and daughter duo who clearly love each other, and Sadie trying to do the best for her daughter and make a new life under their difficult circumstances is what drives the plot forward.

However, I wasn't keen on the ending, which felt rushed – tying up some plot threads too neatly (Andrew) and others confusingly. I've read the last few pages a couple of times and I still don't get it. Why would a certain person plead guilty if she wasn't? Or were they both in on it? It just left me confused and that's not a good way to end a book.

Also, FUNERAL FAKEOUT. Please, authors, stop doing this! It's never convincing and I've seen it so many times that it's just plain annoying.

Finally, a note on the editing. Normally I don't comment on this since these are ARCs and more work may be done on the text. But as well as words being run together at points in this text, in places there seemed to be bits of text missing. For instance, Sadie refers to Zoe's name being 'shared by chance' when it has never been mentioned before. So assuming these issues are corrected, this may affect some of my points above since for all I know a vital sentence was lost from the book.

In short: really enjoyable book with a confusing ending, and I hope they fix the problems evident in the ARC.

Really good read. Would recommend to friends and family. I could sympathise with characters (important for any fiction novel!) and looked forward to picking it up and reading the next few chapters! Interesting plot line and a good ending. Will look out for more novels by the author. Thank you.

I went for this book as I see alot of comments about "Blood Orange" which, so far, I have been unable to read. It seems popular enough and decided to go for this one. For me, it's a slow burner until about 85% and it all comes together beautifully and the tension suddenly starts to build. Hold on tight! Love the court room drama, which I haven't come across alot in the books that I have been reading. A welcome change. Also the different storyline of friendships being built at the school gates as a new mother to a new pupil. Atmosphere is delightfully written of making new friends at a school where the mother attended back in the day. Such a surprise at the end where I wasn't expecting that outcome at all. Great emotions coming through the writing though. Recommend this up and coming new author :)

This is the second book by Harriet Tyce and after the amazing ‘Blood Orange’ I was so keen to read this so thank you to NetGalley, Headline and Harriet Tyce for my ARC in return for my honest review.

The novel centres around Sadie and her daughter, Robin, who have returned the UK from America as Sadie has left her husband in what appears to be a nasty split. As part of her grandmother’s will Robin will receive the house and an income providing she attends and completes her time at the girls’ school her mother attended.

Sadie hated the school and Robin struggles initially as she appears to be ostracised by the rest of her class mates. Sadie is trying to restart her career as a barrister as well as navigate the school gate politics and finds herself floundering.

The first sixty to seventy percent I was intrigued and gripped. However, I found the ending to be rushed and not really in keeping with the rest of the novel. I felt it had such potential. As usual it was well written.

A decent read but I much preferred ‘Blood Orange’.

I loved Blood Orange so when I got the chance to read this I jumped at it!

School ground politics, and a plot with a trial this book kept me turning the pages to find what happened.Who hasn't been through hell at one time or other at the school gates!

I loved the way the story went back through time and then back to the present building up the picture of what was to happen. The suspense I felt was kept right until the end.

Even the ending had me guessing , the twist was not unexpected but fell in line with the thoughts I had on the way the story was going.

I really enjoyed this book and will be looking for more of Harriet Tyce in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced kindle copy of this book.

Blinkin’ brilliant. This outdoes Blood Orange easy peasy. The storyline unravels in a slow and tense way, with an incredibly creepy ending. The characters develop well throughout and Harriet’s imagination and brilliance at plotting, creating and sparking the readers attention is astounding. Plus some of the tiny bits of humour is a great added touch. I loved it and think it will fly off the shelves.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but not as much as I had hoped or thought I would. It seemed to have so much potential to be so dark and suspenseful.

The ending to me felt rushed, both in the main plot and minor sub plots. Everything seemed to be tied up a little bit too neatly and to be honest, the ending could be seen coming a mile off. Even the last page was expected.

This is not to say I did not enjoy this read. It was well written and I felt like I knew the characters. But I just felt a little let down.

#TheLiesYouTold #NetGalley
Dark and disturbing. A good read.
Sadie needs to get her daughter settled into a new school - one of the most exclusive in town. Next, she's going to get back the high-flying criminal barrister career she sacrificed for marriage.But the school doesn't welcome newcomers. The other mothers are fiercely competitive, and Sadie immediately finds herself on the outside.In chambers, she's given the junior brief on a scandalous, high-profile case. It's an opportunity to prove herself again, but will she let a dangerous flirtation cloud her professional judgement?
This book shows all the feelings of a mother. It's very dark and disturbing psychological thriller. It's even darker than this author's previous, Blood Orange.
I loved the character of Sadie very much. How she's managing to get her carrier on track with her responsibilities of a mom. Other supporting characters are ok ok.
Narration of the story is slow in the beginning but it's pacey after a few pages.
Thanks to NetGalley and Headline for giving me an advance copy.

Another dark, gripping domestic noir if you enjoy a psychological thriller. The book is based around an exclusive primary school and the supremacy of competitive mothers and the deleterious effect of their obsessions upon their children and the repercussions when “things go bad”. Do people like this seriously exist? I must live a sheltered life!
There were quite a few side-plots some of which added to the narrative, however to my mind some appeared pointless and distracting. Maybe simplicity rather than complexity would have made the story seemed less disjointed.
Overall it was an ok book which killed some time, no pun intended. The author’s previous title was a huge success and I’m sure this will be too.

Has she left her child in the care of a killer?

Sadie has moved back to London so her daughter can attend the exclusive school her domineering father has secured her a place at. It's highly sought-after and highly competitive - just like the other mothers, Sadie soon discovers.

While she's trying to get her daughter settled and navigate the fraught politics of the school gate, Sadie is also trying to reclaim a position in her old legal chambers - she used to practice as a criminal barrister. She's given the junior brief on a scandalous case involving a male teacher and his student. It's an opportunity to prove herself, but will she let a dangerous flirtation cloud her professional judgement? And will her sudden close friendship with another mother prevent her from seeing the truth - and the threat that she's inviting into her home?


I'm sure everyone remembers what a challenge it was, navigating the school playground between the different groups of kids and trying so desperately to fit in. To be accepted. Turns out that it can be just the same for the school gate parents. Or so Sadie finds. When she secures a space for her daughter at a prestigious girls' school, Sadie does all she can to be accepted by the other mothers.

As well as bending over backwards for the PTA meetings, Sadie is also trying hard to get her career back on track and returns to work at a barrister's chambers. She's set to work on a case involving a teacher and soon gets embroiled in this, which takes her focus off Robin's school for a while.

Suddenly, it's as if a switch is flipped and Sadie is accepted by the other mothers, once they realise that she in fact went to the school as a child. I found this a little confusing as a backtrack on such character build-up around the other mothers, but there we are. Everyone becomes bosom buddies and Sadie allows Robin to spend a lot more time with her new friends, so that she can focus on preparations for the trial.

Has she taken her eye off the ball? When one of Robin's school friends is taken ill in suspicious circumstances, Sadie barely knows what to focus on. A lot of the book seems to spend time building up little threads of sub-plots, but then leaves the majority undeveloped. I'd have loved to read more about some of those, but the ending the author chose to go with was kind of predictable. I feel as though this book had so much more potential than it ended up delivering.

If you'd like to make up your own mind, it's due for release on 20th August 2020.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ three average stars

This book had so much potential to be better however a couple of things let it down for me.

There are too many sub plots that add nothing to the story and are a bit of a red herring, such as the school teacher case.

The theme of the pressure of exams - really?

The whole reason she returned from the UK was flimsy, then we get descriptions of a vile partner. But then at the end it’s all nicely tied up in a storyline which makes no sense.

Julia’s character.

The rushed end.

Overall it lacked suspense for me but having read all the rave reviews for Blood Orange maybe I will give that a read.

THE LIES YOU TOLD is a very dark and fierce psychological thriller that sucked me in and gave me chills from page one to the end. It is very complex and filled with mysteries unfolding brilliantly in a very lean order, not revealing it all until the very last phrase.

Going through chapters with a desperate desire of finding out what’s really going on, I have to say that this time I was pleased to discover that I anticipated some of the events but definitely not the ending. It was one that made me think a sequel might be in place (wouldn’t that be amazing)

There was lots to like about this book, but ultimately I really wanted it to be in slightly better shape. The main plot didn't really feel connected to the subplots (the legal case, the drama with Sadie's husband) and the ending felt a bit rushed and fell flat for me. I also don't want to mark the book down for how it was presented because it seems unfair, but the fact that there weren't spaces between italic words made those sections really tricky to read, and the whole thing was fairly messy (I guess it's pre-copy edit?). Harriet Tyce is a great writer and I really want to be on board with this one because I feel like it *could* be fantastic with polishing, and it was an enjoyable read despite its flaws.

I read Blood Orange and loved it but this was definitely my favourite of the two. Sadie and daughter Robin move from the States to London, where Sadie is from. She manages to enrol Robin in her old school where the mothers are interested only in academic prowess and being best. Sadie returns to work as a junior criminal barrister and loves it. But Robin is struggling, the mothers are blanking them both and strange things are happening. When the tide turns, will Sadie be able to see what’s really going on and not be dazzled by the thought of friendship?

I haven’t read Blood Orange, but I will now! This is a well crafted psychological thriller that keeps momentum all the way through. Sadie and her ten year old daughter Robin return to Britain from the States because of a marriage breakdown. Because Sadie’s mother has died she is able to live in her childhood home as long as Robin attends Sadie’s former school. The gaggle of competitive mothers at the school gates is done very well. At the same time Sadie is trying to resurrect her legal career and through her old Chambers is taken on as a junior in a trial, which also runs through the book. I thought the plot worked very well in the various parts and it is always a good sign when the pages turn more and more quickly! An enjoyable thriller and yes, with a twist at the end.

Another absolutely fantastic read by a hugely talented author. I’ve been pulled in and completely unable to put this one down.

Definitely a read to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Public links to follow publication day

Really enjoyed this book. The plot was good and the characters were interesting. I found it easy to follow and would reccomend this book to other readers.

I loved Blood Orange and so was looking forward to reading this book. The Lies You Told is another unputdownable thriller from Harriet Tyce. I enjoyed the multi aspects of this psychological thriller that include family secrets, sinister school gate feuds, and courtroom drama. The secondary plot around the court case that Sadie is working on could be a story in its own right. I liked the protagonist, Sadie, particularly the way she stands up to the awful Julia and the tribe of mothers at the school gates. The ending had me raging to turn the pages and ends with a shocking twist.

I felt like this book took a long time to go anywhere... 
It was easy to read,but the different plots just seemed like they were different books.
No major surprises by the time I got to the end,I just felt the whole book a little flat.