Review: GOOD GIRLS LIE by J.T. Ellison
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison 
Published by MIRA on December 30, 2019
Genres: Thriller, Mystery
Pages: 464
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Thanks so much to Justine Sha for inviting me to take part in Harlequin Trade Publishing’s Winter 2020 Mystery/Thriller Blog Tour. Today I’m sharing my thoughts on J.T. Ellison’s latest thriller, GOOD GIRLS LIE.
Those who follow my blog know that I’m always on the lookout for a good thriller. I love reads that are filled with suspense and intrigue and that keep me guessing from start to finish. I had never read one of J.T. Ellison’s thrillers and was primarily drawn to Good Girls Lie because it’s set in my home state of Virginia, but after flying through the pages of this novel, I can say without hesitation that J.T. Ellison has joined the ranks of Ruth Ware, Riley Sager, and the legendary Agatha Christie as one of my favorite thriller authors.
It’s always hard to talk about a thriller without giving away spoilers, so I just want to touch on a few highlights that made this read such a win for me.
- If you enjoy reads that are set in boarding schools, Good Girls Lie is your book. It’s set in an elite all girls’ boarding school called Goode Academy nestled in the hills of Central Virginia, and I just loved how atmospheric this setting is. The school itself has an illustrious past – a student was murdered there years ago and rumors abound that the school grounds are haunted. Supernatural elements aside, the school also has secret societies with bizarre initiation rituals, as well as its fair share of mean girls and hazing. The girls at this school are destined for the Ivy Leagues and greatness, if they can survive their time at Goode Academy.
- I love a story that captivates my attention from the very first page and Good Girls Lie definitely fits the bill. The opening scene of the novel features a dead student hanging from the school’s front gates, which of course immediately caught my attention and started an internal barrage of questions: Who is she? How did she get up there? Is it suicide or something more sinister? If she was murdered, who would do such a thing and why? Death is tragic enough, but when it’s the death of a young person, a promising life cut short, it just pulls at my heartstrings all the more. I was completely engaged from this opening scene because I just had to know what happened to lead up to such a devastating moment.
- I’m always drawn to characters who are flawed and complicated and J.T. Ellison has a cast of them in this book, my favorite of which is Ash Carlisle, a new student at the school who is struggling to find her place and fit in. She has come to Virginia from England and we soon learn that both of Ash’s parents recently died unexpectedly and that she has no other family. It’s easy to feel sympathetic toward Ash because she’s all alone in the world and trying to find herself while maintaining some semblance of privacy. Ash becomes an even more interesting character, however, as we realize that not everything is as it seems.
- “Not everything is as it seems” is actually a recurring theme with Good Girls Lie and it’s what really kept the suspense ramped up and had me turning pages well into the night because I wanted answers and kept getting more and more twists and turns instead. Everyone in this book seems to have something they’re hiding and it was just such an entertaining read to watch the story unfold and all of their secrets unravel.
- I will say that I ultimately wasn’t too surprised by the novel’s final reveal. Even though the reveal itself didn’t have huge shock value, the journey to get to it was well worth it. I loved how intricately plotted the entire story was and how each piece gradually slipped into place to lead to the reveal. Ellison’s ability to weave together the many tangled threads of this story and its characters into a cohesive and engaging read is on point.
If you’re looking for a dark and twisty mystery to keep you on the edge of your seat, J.T. Ellison’s Good Girls Lie is a must read. Be sure to check it out when it hits bookshelves on December 30th!
PURCHASE LINKS:
Harlequin – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Indie Bound – iBooks – Books-A-Million – Target – Kobo – Google Books
SUMMARY:
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.
J.T. ELLISON GOOD GIRLS LIE BOOK TOUR
About J.T. Ellison
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 20 novels, and the EMMY-award winning co-host of A WORD ON WORDS, Nashville’s premier literary show. With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, and has been published in 26 countries. Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens.
Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Hope to Find Under My Christmas Tree
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Books I Hope to Find Under My Christmas Tree. I honestly didn’t ask for any books this year, but even when I don’t, I usually get at least a couple of gift cards to the bookstore so here are some books I’d consider purchasing with those cards.
Wishing a very Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates the holiday!
* * * * *
Books I Hope to Find Under My Christmas Tree
1. THE TESTAMENTS by Margaret Atwood
* * * * *
2. DARKDAWN by Jay Kristoff
* * * * *
3. CHILDREN OF VIRTUE AND VENGEANCE by Tomi Adeyemi
* * * * *
4. DEV1AT3 by Jay Kristoff
* * * * *
5. CAPTURING THE DEVIL by Kerri Maniscalco
* * * * *
6. THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR by Susan Meissner
(or any other books from Meissner’s backlist)
* * * * *
7. THE RECKLESS OATH WE MADE by Bryn Greenwood
* * * * *
8. NECESSARY LIES by Diane Chamberlain
(or any other titles from her backlist)
* * * * *
9. FOOLISH HEARTS by Emma Mills
(or any other books from Mills’ backlist)
* * * * *
10. WINTER GARDEN by Kristin Hannah
* * * * *
Question: Are you hoping to get any books this Christmas?
Review: HUSBAND MATERIAL by Emily Belden
Husband Material by Emily Belden Published by Graydon House on December 30, 2019
Genres: Women's Fiction, Romance
Pages: 304
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Thanks so much to Justine Sha for inviting me to take part in Harlequin Trade Publishing’s Winter 2020 Blog Tour for Romance & Women’s Fiction. Today I’m sharing my thoughts on Emily Belden’s latest novel, Husband Material.
Husband Material is a romantic tale that is filled with both wit and heart. It follows twenty-nine year old Charlotte Rosen, a young woman who seems to have it all. She lives in L.A. and has a great job working as a social media analyst. Charlotte is not only a rising star at her firm, but she is also a whiz at numbers, algorithms, and programming, and so as a side project, she’s also developing her own dating app in hopes of one day turning it into a big money maker for herself. Charlotte is convinced that she can pull enough data from the internet (social media, etc.) to determine who would be most compatible. As she is also in the market for Mr. Right, Charlotte is using herself as a test subject to work out the kinks in her app.
Charlotte is all about the numbers and the data. She sees everything in life in black and white, 0s and 1s. Everything has a right and wrong answer…until life throws a curve ball at her in the form of her dead husband’s ashes, which show up on her doorstep in a J. Crew box. Not only is this incredibly awkward because Charlotte hasn’t told anyone in LA. that she’s a widow, but it also exposes old wounds, unresolved issues, and of course the immense grief that Charlotte thought she was moving past. In order to begin the healing process anew, Charlotte has to reopen doors she thought were closed, including rekindling an awkward and painful relationship with her ex mother-in-law, as well as an unexpected one with her dead husband’s best friend. With these encounters, Charlotte realizes her numbers and data will only take her so far, and that not everything in life is black and white. There’s a lot of gray, more gray than she ever thought possible.
Charlotte’s growth throughout the story is what really made this book work for me. I actually found her a little annoying at the beginning because she was just so borderline arrogant about how her skills with numbers were the answer to everything. The can of worms that the urn showing up opened really turned Charlotte’s life upside down and I liked watching her have to re-evaluate and adapt her view of the world. Even though she annoyed me in the beginning, by the end of the story, I adored Charlotte and was sad to have to say goodbye.
In addition to creating such a complex character who shows so much growth in the story, I also thought Belden did a wonderful job of making Charlotte’s experience of loss and grief feel so authentic. I read at the end that she actually interviewed widows to discuss their experiences and that research really shines through with the range of emotions that Charlotte goes through each day and the unexpected things that can suddenly trigger an emotional reaction.
I also really liked that even though the book dealt with the very serious subject of grief and healing, it still overall felt like a very lighthearted read. It was entertaining and heartfelt at the same time and was written in such a vivid way that I could easily picture it as a film on the big screen while I was reading.
If you’re looking for a heartwarming story about love, family, and finding a way to move on from the past, Emily Belden’s Husband Material is a great choice. On sale, December 30, 2019.
PURCHASE LINKS:
Harlequin – Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Indie Bound – Kobo – Google Books
SUMMARY:
Told in Emily Belden’s signature edgy voice, a novel about a young widow’s discovery of her late husband’s secret and her journey toward hope and second-chance love.
Twenty-nine-year-old Charlotte Rosen has a secret: she’s a widow. Ever since the fateful day that leveled her world, Charlotte has worked hard to move forward. Great job at a hot social media analytics company? Check. Roommate with no knowledge of her past? Check. Adorable dog? Check. All the while, she’s faithfully data-crunched her way through life, calculating the probability of risk—so she can avoid it.
Yet Charlotte’s algorithms could never have predicted that her late husband’s ashes would land squarely on her doorstep five years later. Stunned but determined, Charlotte sets out to find meaning in this sudden twist of fate, even if that includes facing her perfectly coiffed, and perfectly difficult, ex-mother-in-law—and her husband’s best friend, who seems to become a fixture at her side whether she likes it or not.
But soon a shocking secret surfaces, forcing Charlotte to answer questions she never knew to ask and to consider the possibility of forgiveness. And when a chance at new love arises, she’ll have to decide once and for all whether to follow the numbers or trust her heart.
About Emily Belden
EMILY BELDEN is a journalist, social media marketer, and storyteller. She is the author of the novel Hot Mess and Eightysixed: A Memoir about Unforgettable Men, Mistakes, and Meals. She lives in Chicago. Visit her website at www.emilybelden.com or follow her on Twitter and Instagram, @emilybelden.