Jane Corry is an exceptional master of the psychological thriller. This book had me on the edge of my seat, suspenseful and full of twists and turns that you don’t see coming. A brilliant read.

Overall a very enjoyable book.
I liked the characters and the way it was written.
I think in parts there may have been some unrealistic elements and the ending was pretty standard but overall I would recommend this book.

Rated 4/5

Corry does it again. I thoroughly enjoyed this well thought out, considered and complicated plot. All about the consequences of one’s actions, deceit and lies. So many secrets.

A moral dilemma. Imagine, as a mother, your son came home and told you he had killed someone, what would you do?

Sarah and Tom are poles apart, so different, with not a lot in common. However they got together and if they had only communicated with each other and been honest from the start, things may have been quite different.

Being so different, they both struggled to keep it together, Tom started working later and befriended a lady at work, Hilary, who listened and was a lot more his type. Hugo, Tom’s best friend, thought that Tom was Sarah’s meal ticket, all of the time they needed to make an effort to rise above the objections outside the marriage as well as within.

Sarah desperately wanted children and when Freddie came along after a few miscarriages, you can imagine how she felt towards him.

Did his parents’ relationship and how they behaved have a negative effect on their son. The reason why he behaved like he did? Sarah didn’t set boundaries for Freddie, she didn’t discipline his obnoxious behaviour. She let him get away with a lot, in particular his disrespect. And when she did she didn’t do it well.

As long as Freddie loved her, Sarah wasn’t too concerned, she felt that teenagers test their parents, all part of finding their independence, erm, yes, right!

Freddie had quite a few behavioural and developmental problems and challenges. This led him to make unwise choices, mixing with the wrong crowd, doing things to be liked and included, with serious results.

This was his downfall. But was he a murderer?

How Corry brings this together is impressive and it all comes out in the end to a brilliant conclusion. All of the characters were well developed, and I loved Steve. Sarah’s time in Cornwall is heartfelt.

Thank you Penguin Random House UK, Viking, NetGalley and Jane Corry for this ARC provided in exchange for my unbiased review.

This is a brilliant book. It makes you question how you would have handled the situation and the rights and wrongs of each scenario. Highly recommended.

What would you do if your 15 year old son came and told you he’d just killed someone?

That’s the dilemma facing Sarah and Tom with much of the book telling from each of their perspectives, in turn, how they reached this point.

The remainder of the book moves from London to Cornwall and is mostly Sarah, pottery and a court case in Truro.

An enjoyable, fast paced read that keeps you hooked. This was the first Jane Corry novel I had come across but have downloaded a couple more to add to the backlog of unread thrillers for rainy weekends.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for a fair review.

Having enjoyed Jane Corry’s previous novels, I was really excited to receive an advanced copy of The Lies We Tell thanks to Team Corry at Penguin Random House and Netgalley.

I enjoy the way Corry uses different characters to tell the story as well as flicking between the past and the present. The characters are well thought out and tightly guard their secrets, which keeps the reader interested. However, I struggled to find anything likeable about them.

Overall this is a good read and I would recommend it to others.

What a great read.

The premise makes it stand out because it’s such a difficult situation that the main characters are put in.

The way the book builds the characters and explains where they come from really makes you think about what you would do in their position.

How far would (and should) a Mother go to protect her child? That is the central theme of the latest detailed, twisted thriller from Jane Corry. I am a big fan of her books and was thrilled to have the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review - thank you to Netgalley, the author and publishers for the opportunity.

The book begins with a teenage boy's confession of a henious crime, but the story takes us so much further than that, delving into the past and present of both parents and child. Told from multiple points of view across several periods of time, the plot was well thought out with multiple twists and turns I didn't see coming. It made for easy reading and thanks to being on annual leave, I sat down and devoured the second half in a matter of hours. Thanks to Jane's fantastic writing, I didn't find the jumping back and forward difficult to follow, although I did find myself itching to get back to the 'present' in the second half.

This book also interestingly had no really likeable characters in my opinion but rather than being a weakness, this added to the appeal of the book - this is a novel that had me questioning my own moral compass as well as that of the characters.

Not the most groundbreaking thriller ever and perhaps not as 'cannot do anything until I have finished this book' as her other novels, but definitely one to look out for on release day!

I'm sorry but this book just didn't hold my interest.
The first few chapters were great but then it just went downhill from there, so much so that I didn't finish it.
I lost the will to find out what happened because the story about how the parents met/married/tried for a baby etc just dragged on for so long.
Maybe I'll go back to it one day but I highly doubt it.

Well written and fast paced I loved it, I’ve enjoyed a few of her previous books and so this was hopefully going to live up to expectations and it did 😃

What would you do? I think I’d of protected my child and done what I’d need to do to save them too! Brilliant storyline and characters and I ploughed through it at warp speed, bloody loved it 😉

Sarah and Tom, very unlikely couple in many ways, have been married a long time. (A surprise in itself). They are just about to move house when there teenage son returns home in the middle of the night, in a mess, before admitting that he has killed someone.
The story then goes back in time to Sarah’s and Tom’s past lives - where you see they really are polar opposites - both with their own secrets.
The middle part of the story focuses on the past and the reader is left wondering what is going on in the present and what has become of their son Freddie.
The final part of the story ties up all the strands a little too ‘nicely’ and a bit unlikely.
As a big fan of Jane Corry this was my least favourite- still better than the norm,
3.5 ⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair review.

The Lies We Tell by Jane Corry
Publishers: Viking Book UK
Publication Date: 17 June 2021

No Spoilers
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Highly Recommended.

I’ve loved Jane Corry’s previous books. She takes seemingly ordinary people and puts them in extraordinary situations meaning you can always identify with the main characters and wonder what you would do in the same circumstances
This is perhaps my favourite so far. How far would a parent go to protect their child. And how do they cope with the devastating impact and consequences of their choices.
The endings are always satisfying, though never neatly tied up with an obvious or unlikely resolution.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to reading the next book from this author.

I’d like to thank the author, publisher and netgalley for providing me with this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I would like to rate this 3.5 as it wasn't quite a 4 but more than a 3 for me!
The Lies We Tell is a very intriguing and absorbing thriller about a couple, their relationship, and their hidden secrets that come to a head when their 15-year-old son Freddy comes home late one night and confesses that he's done something terrible...
This is where the story starts, before we are taken back in time to when Sarah and Tom first meet. We quickly learn that this seemingly ordinary couple is anything but ordinary. Opposites attract in the beginning but then dishonesty, worries about their past lives, and differing views on how to raise their son, begin to cause problems for the couple.
The story then moves between looking back at the early days of the relationship and the fall-out from what happened with Freddy last night. Just how far has Sarah gone to protect him?
My favourite thing about this novel was the depth of the character development - I really came to like Sarah and understand her ways of thinking as a result of her past. I wanted her to find happiness and to be her real self again! It was quite a slow-burner but I did feel that it benefited from being more about the characters' experiences than a fast-moving story, which could have become ridiculous if there had been lots of unnecessary twists to keep things changing.
Another great book from Jane Corry!

A Jane Corry book is always a big event for me. The author never shies away from exploring dark themes and putting her characters in the midst of scenarios that bring their, and our, true nature, out. Her books always feel extremely cathartic and The Lies We Tell is no exception!

The title gives you a hint at what you are in for. Lies. Do they all have the weight? Little white lies don’t hurt, do they? But what makes them different from those big lies that we hide behind? The lies we sometimes base our lives on? I always honesty is the best policy. However life is not that simple. I have been lucky to never need one, or several, big lies to cover anything, so I tremendously enjoyed diving into this story to get a glimpse of a different kind of life. Not that my life is all white, mind…

Sarah and Tom were an unlikely pair right from the start. Does that mean their future was doomed? Not at all. Yet, I loved how Jane Corry let us meet each character through their POV and memories of their younger self, while at the same time setting their current situation. I was pulled in different directions, finding myself preferring the older Sarah to the younger free-spirited one. Tom, whose rigidity never faltered, appeared more layered as I got to know multiple versions of him. And in the middle of this, their son Freddie.

Do our mistakes lead our lives? Can they influence our children’s? Does history really repeat itself? Those were some of the questions I had in mind when reading The Lies We Tell. The most pressing one had me shake my head at times. Why don’t we choose honesty, especially when given the chance to let everything out in the open? But aren’t shaky foundations better than scary earthquakes ready to destroy all we have?

When Freddie comes home late one night, Sarah and Tom’s lives hit a wall. Something happened. Freddie killed someone. Here comes the part where I tell you I am happy I do not have children! But joke aside, what a shock. Freddie seems your usual teenager, living in a family in which lies have smothered the love and turned marital vows into tight shackles. You can clearly see the difference in each parent through their reaction to their son’s admission. Call the police? Hide your son and protect him? Does it mean one of them loves Freddie more? Is one of them right? In those crucial moments when life puts us at a crossroads, we have to make choices, with no guarantee we’ll make the right one. Or no guarantee there IS a right one!

When I think back to The Lies We Tell, I imagine a sand castle built by little and big lies, a castle that time has eaten at before the biggest wind finished it in seconds. It felt as if every moment led to Freddie’s dark night, each decision bringing them closer to the day of more choices.

As Freddie’s life hangs in the balance, the world opens up and more characters appear. They reminded me lies were not the normal for people like Sarah and Tom, but for all of us. Some lies come from good intentions, others from fear, and a few to make things right.

As usual Jane Corry creates multi-layered characters that you may not like or understand, but who will take you to the what-ifs and paths that could have been ours, with her usual perfect pinch of thrills.

Big fan of this author, this book was no exception. I fell into the story very quickly, and found the characters interesting. I really liked Sarah and Tom's dynamic and differences. I'll admit I think Freddy's storyline could've been a bit pacier, and the twist at the end wasn't as shocking or dramatic as it could've been. But still an absorbing thriller.

What would you do if your only son came home one night and told you he had killed someone? Would you hand him in? Or, would you go to great lengths to try and protect him?

That is the dilemma which Sarah and Tom are faced with, when 15-year-old Freddie comes home one evening and tells them exactly that.

The book rewinds back to the past and takes us on the journey of how Sarah and Tom met. Two, very different, people with very dissimilar traits and personalities, both of whom have experienced turbulent pasts and mistakes.

Overall, this book centres around the moral dilemma, of would you protect your child if they told you they murdered somebody or not? Sarah takes a more nurturing approach, whereas Tom wishes to call the police. I think for some this may seem too fetched- you may like to hope you would do the obvious right thing- but Jane Corry has a way with writing which really makes you feel Sarah’s pain. She wanted to be a mother to correct the wrongs of her own up-bringing, she suffered multiple miscarriages, the pain of giving up her son is unfathomable.

Jane Corry is one of those authors who I know will not let me down, and The Lies We Tell did not fail to impress. Her writing is spot on. The characters in the book, were well thought of, not just the main protagonists but also those supporting, such as Olivia and Gladys, and the pace was perfect. Whilst a huge timeframe was fitted in to one book, it did not drag and it kept my attention. The novel was full of twists and turns and every time you thought you knew you didn’t.

Overall a great book. A solid 4.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin General UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

P.S I saw another reader picked up the following and just wanted to mention I couldn’t work this bit out either.

{There is just one part in the book that was a bit weird and that is when Sarah went to visit Freddie in prison and they saw each other through the plastic barrier, the closest they could get to touching was putting their hands on the screen. Then this is what is written "I'm so sorry I've got you into this mess" he weeps, hugging me. "It's all right" I say hugging him back. How can they hug each other through a plastic barrier?. I don't know whether other readers have picked this up, I just thought I would mention it.}

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. I've read several other Jane Corry books and enjoyed them, but I think this has been my favourite. Whilst you had to suspect disbelief at times, it was well-written, well-paced and with well-rounded characters. Although it could have been clearer where the narration switched between past and present, the characters had clear voices.

This makes for an entertaining book but unfortunately it lacks the grip that this author’s previous books had. It is more of a family drama rather than a thriller. Parts of it are very unbelievable and this left me a little annoyed. I would still recommend it but definitely not to thriller-fans.

What would you do to protect your only child? When Sarah’s 15 year old son comes home one night and admits to killing someone she decides she will do all she can to protect him from going to prison.

The story tells of a mother desperate to prevent her son from going through the same experiences as her and lies that both parents have told that have devastating affects on their lives.

What would you do if your son told you he’d killed someone?
This is the dilemma that Sarah and Tom have.
You see this from both sides, Told in turn by Tom and Sarah from when they first met to the very end.
Emotional and thought provoking story very well written.