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meloches's review against another edition
5.0
My wedding is next week. Things are insane. Yet, when I found out the Bookouture would be doing a blog blitz for the newest publication by Kathryn Croft, I threw all caution to the wind and signed myself up! Kathryn Croft is one of my favourite writers of psychological thrillers. I couldn’t resist!
As I previously mentioned, Silent Lies, is the newest release by Kathryn Croft. A fast paced plot filled with multi-layered, manipulative characters had me binge reading this novel late into the night! From the moment I started the book, I was hooked by the prologue.
The story unfolds and is completely filled with tension. Mia, reeling from the loss of her husband, is still trying to make sense of his suicide and supposed involvement with one of his students, Josie. Five years, Josie is still missing and a mysterious woman, Allison, who tells her that her husband did not kill himself, visits Mia. With this revelation, Mia is pushed down the path of uncovering the truth.
The story is told in two different perspectives: the first one is told through the eyes of Mia as she tries to figure out the truth and combat her many feelings about her husband and the gossip surrounding his death. The second perspective comes from Josie as she discusses her roommate and life on campus. I do not want to reveal too much more about the plot, but the style of the story makes you feel as if you are an insider into both perspectives. I loved watching the parallels.
Croft’s writing style is easy to become lost in and I found myself flipping the pages frantically by the time I neared the end of the story.
Overall, if you are a fan of psychological thrillers with a sort of “chick lit” vibe, then I feel like this will absolutely appeal to you.
5/5 stars from me!
As I previously mentioned, Silent Lies, is the newest release by Kathryn Croft. A fast paced plot filled with multi-layered, manipulative characters had me binge reading this novel late into the night! From the moment I started the book, I was hooked by the prologue.
The story unfolds and is completely filled with tension. Mia, reeling from the loss of her husband, is still trying to make sense of his suicide and supposed involvement with one of his students, Josie. Five years, Josie is still missing and a mysterious woman, Allison, who tells her that her husband did not kill himself, visits Mia. With this revelation, Mia is pushed down the path of uncovering the truth.
The story is told in two different perspectives: the first one is told through the eyes of Mia as she tries to figure out the truth and combat her many feelings about her husband and the gossip surrounding his death. The second perspective comes from Josie as she discusses her roommate and life on campus. I do not want to reveal too much more about the plot, but the style of the story makes you feel as if you are an insider into both perspectives. I loved watching the parallels.
Croft’s writing style is easy to become lost in and I found myself flipping the pages frantically by the time I neared the end of the story.
Overall, if you are a fan of psychological thrillers with a sort of “chick lit” vibe, then I feel like this will absolutely appeal to you.
5/5 stars from me!
hainyh's review against another edition
3.0
The plot of Silent Lies was absolutely a brilliant; the suicide of a lecturer, as well as the murder of one of his students. Five years down the line, questions start to emerge as to whether these events happened exactly as were initially portrayed. We are quickly introduced to two main characters, Josie, the victim, and Mia, the wife of the lecturer, Zach. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of the two women, and the way this has been done makes it really easy to follow both stories side-by-side; sometimes it can be difficult to follow parallel stories without getting muddled up with the facts and names, but Kathryn Croft has done it really well.
Immediately you know that all is not as it seems, and the story will unfold in troubling and mysterious ways. Croft has done a great job at building suspense and filling the reader's mind with questions, meaning this is one of those books you just HAVE to read in a hurry - I devoured this one in less than a day!
The writing had all the making of a brilliant story, however I am sad to say that the ending and the 'twists' really disappointed me. Admittedly what we find out at the end is quite surprising, but for some reason I just felt it was very 'meh'. It fell flat. It's difficult to say too much without giving the story away, but throughout the majority of the book we are lead down a certain path of thinking, and then when the twist comes it seems completely out of kilter with the rest of the book. I'm glad the twist came in the last couple of pages, because had it come any earlier I probably would have abandoned reading it.
I can't fault Croft's story-telling ability, it's just the plot here that I felt let down by. I would highly recommend it though, and you can decide yourself how you feel about the plot twist! I'll certainly be looking for more books from Croft though, that's for sure.
(Thanks NetGalley for this copy).
Immediately you know that all is not as it seems, and the story will unfold in troubling and mysterious ways. Croft has done a great job at building suspense and filling the reader's mind with questions, meaning this is one of those books you just HAVE to read in a hurry - I devoured this one in less than a day!
The writing had all the making of a brilliant story, however I am sad to say that the ending and the 'twists' really disappointed me. Admittedly what we find out at the end is quite surprising, but for some reason I just felt it was very 'meh'. It fell flat. It's difficult to say too much without giving the story away, but throughout the majority of the book we are lead down a certain path of thinking, and then when the twist comes it seems completely out of kilter with the rest of the book. I'm glad the twist came in the last couple of pages, because had it come any earlier I probably would have abandoned reading it.
I can't fault Croft's story-telling ability, it's just the plot here that I felt let down by. I would highly recommend it though, and you can decide yourself how you feel about the plot twist! I'll certainly be looking for more books from Croft though, that's for sure.
(Thanks NetGalley for this copy).
craz0's review against another edition
5.0
This is a must read.... an absolute page turner. I think i was sucked in from the very beginning and the ending was nothing I saw coming.
ayeshawrashid's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.75
This book is boring and 300 pages too long. I admit, the last page confession was a good plot twist, but that's about it.
gudzilla's review against another edition
4.0
It's the lies that leave the bigger scar, that cause the mistrust.
I really enjoyed this! Solid 3.5 stars. I also cannot believe why I haven't read anything from Croft before but I certainly going to...and some of them are available in KU. Oh the joy!
I like the narration style, I am not fan of going back and forth in time but the format works here perfectly. One chapter from Mia as current day and one chapter from Josie, 5 years ago, adds bit mystery to the story. Having said that it was written simple yet effective free-flowing language. The kind of format I prefer.
I think the end was bit let down for me. As Kathryn herself mentioned in her acknowledgements -
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my sixth psychological thriller, Silent Lies - I really hope you got involved with the characters and were taken by surprise at the end!
Yes, yes we did, and I am relieved we found out truth about Zach's death, but having said that, what happens next? What will happen to Alison, Mia and Josie's lies once they are no longer lies? What would happen with Truth? There are many unanswered questions, open ending to call this as satisfying end but may be it is open for readers to design the ending whatever they like - maybe.
But like I said, Croft shows potential and I would looking into more of her work.
jaclyntravers's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! I read A LOT of mysteries and I almost always have a pretty good idea of how they will end but this one totally stumped me. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! Awesome book and I absolutely loved Josie! Solid 5 stars
nephilimitless's review against another edition
4.0
Maybe I’m just bad at predicting endings but this one was a shocker! The alternating perspectives were great and written so differently that they were convincingly 2 separate women.
yetanothersusan's review against another edition
2.0
Five years after her husband supposedly kills a woman and himself, someone shows up to tell Mia he didn't do it. Great idea for a book except that none of the characters felt trustworthy or likeable. Mia has a boyfriend she keeps at arms' length because her faith in men was destroyed by her husband's actions? Fine, except not five years later. And if that really is the case, why have a boyfriend? And Will, the boyfriend, needed to get some self-esteem. The moping along behind Mia waiting for dropped pieces of affection grated on me. So, combine the dislike and distrust of the characters and that made the story annoying rather quickly. Sadly, this meant that the twists that might have excited me were drowned out by my easy acceptance of anything said or done by the characters. If the book had ended with them flying to the moon I wouldn't have been phased. Somewhere these characters lost all sense of plausibility and it ruined what could have been a really good read from an author I have really enjoyed.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.
deannareadsbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Grabs you right away
I'm a sucker for mysteries and I liked this one a lot. It was such a page turner. So easy to get into
I'm a sucker for mysteries and I liked this one a lot. It was such a page turner. So easy to get into