B | This is a solid thriller/mystery book that had me on the edge of my seat half the time. It’s a dark and twisting tale. It has elements of Gossip Girl tossed into the mix, although this is certainly more grown-up. From the very first page, this book refuses to let you go. It makes you go back and forth, making you question what is truth vs. lies.
Title: Good Girls Lie
Author: J.T. Ellison
Synopsis: Goode girls don’t lie…
Perched atop a hill in the tiny town of Marchburg, Virginia, The Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status, long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond. But a stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous.
In a world where appearances are everything, as long as students pretend to follow the rules, no one questions the cruelties of the secret societies or the dubious behavior of the privileged young women who expect to get away with murder. But when a popular student is found dead, the truth cannot be ignored. Rumors suggest she was struggling with a secret that drove her to suicide.
But look closely…because there are truths and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened.
J.T. Ellison’s pulse-pounding new novel examines the tenuous bonds of friendship, the power of lies and the desperate lengths people will go to to protect their secrets.
Publication Date: 31 December 2019
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The first impression I had with the book was that it has a very Gossip Girl like vibe. Except, you know, this book opens with a death. Now, this is one of those books (well, eARC in my case since I received this book as part of the blog tour, but you know, schematics) that I can honestly say I enjoyed it. But while it captured my attention from the start, it wasn’t until I made it to about the middle of the book where I truly started to devour the book, even then I felt like the moon — waxing and waning in interest. Before that, I was only really interested in certain parts of the book because they were so — different.
Strange? Well, let’s just say that it had to do with the tone of some of the chapters written in 1st POV. I won’t say anything more than that.
But the tone is one of the biggest strengths in this book. While I didn’t care for Ford or any of the other characters presented to us in 3rd POV, every character had their own distinctive tone and voice. That’s part of the reason why certain chapters caught my attention more than others. My interest waxed and waned until I reached the middle part of the book, and then I was all in.
Still, while it took me a while to get into the groove of things and care — I did like Ash. Her POV chapters were mostly interesting and the more I read, the more I needed to know.
Another strength of this book is the writing. Ellison’s writing is to the point. It is straight forward and doesn’t weigh you down with nonsensical descriptions. While I tend to appreciate the worlds around the characters described in sci-fi/fantasy novels (or hell, even historical fiction) because they are different worlds/times, after all, I don’t like to see it very much in contemporary fiction. This was a “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am,” sort of book which I’m happy for — at least in this case.
However, where there are strengths, there are weaknesses. One of the biggest weaknesses was pacing. The book felt stretched out — like things were added in just to add more pages. There were times where I told myself to just keep going and reading. Yeah, the plot is interesting, but even an interesting plot can be maimed by bad pacing.
Another weakness is the other characters. Yes, Ash is an interesting character and her chapters in 1st POV made things even cooler because I ended up wondering if she was a reliable narrator. But, aside from Ash, Becca was the only other interesting one. Everyone else felt — boring? A bit dull, really. They were just there.
Overall, I still say that this is a solid thriller. I recommend that you give this book a try.
I received this book as I am taking part in a blog tour for this novel. Thank you to Harlequin Mira for a chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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