A Lovely Lie

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars | 247 ratings

Price: 15.04

Last update: 12-15-2024


About this item

1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences. Then Pepper left town and Scarlett never heard from her again . . .

Now: Twenty-two years later, Scarlett has buried that deadly incident deep in her mind and built a comfortable life for herself, working in a hotel on the west coast of Florida and raising her teenage son with her husband Vince. Her peace is disrupted, however, when Pepper's daughter shows up with news of Pepper's death. Zoey is twenty-one and studying to be an investigative journalist. She has a cryptic letter from Pepper addressed to Scarlett that alludes to the events of that fateful night and Pepper's initial intentions to get an abortion. Now Zoey wants answers about her mother's past. Who is Zoey's father? And what really happened after the senior picnic? As Zoey continues to dig into the past, all of Scarlett's buried secrets threaten to rise to the surface.

Jaime Lynn Hendricks, "the queen of the page-turner" (Ashley Winstead), will have you questioning who you can trust in this intricately twisted thriller.


Top reviews from the United States

K0RI.P
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2024
This book is the anxiety you get before a big poop. I said it here, mark my words. Jaime Lynn Hendricks gives me the most exciting diarrhea

Pepper.Scarlett.Vince.Zoey.Chris.Luke

They all have secrets…

Some worth killing for.

A Lovely Lie : An arm-hair-raising, Mind bending, spine tingling, kind of thriller that will enable the ability to blink for 72 hours after concluding.

That’s how I’m feeling. The bags under my eyes have rolled in and this is a job even La Mer, can not handle.

I have loved and obsessed over Jaime Lynn, since Finding Tessa. I have waited for the fluttering in my tummy since the day I concluded that book and man, it’s been a struggle .

Why can’t I ever feel completely satisfied? Don’t get me wrong, I still love my thrillers but nothing has tickled my fancy quite like Finding Tessa.

That is until A Lovely Lie

Jaime speaks to my soul. I know that I got this book by being super duper annoying and I’m sure she just gave it to me so I would shut up but I was willing to do what it took

I won

I love you, boo bear. You speak my language and I’ll never stop annoying you to write. You are a magician, a beast, my spirit animal and I am addicted to you.

A Lovely Lie, is like nothing you have ever read before and I promise you I have read them all.

Teaser :

1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences. Then Pepper left town and Scarlett never heard from her again…

Now: Twenty-two years later, Scarlett has buried that deadly incident deep in her mind and built a comfortable life for herself, raising her teenage son with her husband Vince. Her peace is disrupted, however, when Pepper’s daughter shows up with news of Pepper’s death. She has a cryptic letter from Pepper addressed to Scarlett that alludes to the events of that fateful night and Pepper’s initial intentions to get an abortion. Now Zoey wants answers about her mother’s past.
C.L. Cavalier
4.0 out of 5 stars Drama/Thriller/Suspense
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️???? 3.5/5

Scarlett and Pepper’s lives are forever altered by a tragic car accident during their senior picnic—a crash that left two classmates dead and haunting questions unanswered. After the incident, Pepper disappears from Scarlett’s life, while Scarlett tries to move on. More than 20 years later, the mystery of that night resurfaces, forcing Scarlett to confront the secrets and lies she thought were buried.

This is a well-crafted, suspenseful thriller that kept me guessing with its twists and turns. The pacing is steady, and the tension builds nicely as Scarlett unravels the truth. While I would have liked a bit more character development, the plot was engaging and kept me invested until the final reveal.

Recommended for fans of thrillers packed with mystery and unexpected turns.

Thank you #NetGalley, #ALovelyLie & Penzler Publishers for the ARC. My review is voluntary.
Melissa Parcel
3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Predictable
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2024
I'm not a fan of when nearly everyone in a book knows something that the reader doesn't. Little clues are dropped for quite a while until it's revealed what happened at the senior picnic 22 years before, and I couldn't quite figure out why the reader is kept in the dark for so long. It's obvious from the beginning that people lied about what happened, but I couldn't figure out why the original story that was told to the police was kept from the reader.

This made me dislike the first part of the book, until we finally learn what happened and the characters begin to reveal what really happened that night. Basically, best friends Scarlet and Pepper covered up what happened during a car accident at the senior picnic that left two of their classmates dead. Pepper disappeared off to New York, and Scarlet eventually met and married Vince, who used to be Pepper's high school boyfriend. They have a now teenage son and a horrible marriage. But who should show up on the doorstep but 21-year-old Zoey, daughter of the recently deceased Pepper, who has some questions about the identity of her father and about what exactly happened at the senior picnic.

I know we are supposed to be shocked about what happened, but overall I was underwhelmed. I pretty much saw everything coming. I listened to this as an audiobook and if anything, it made the characters seem more annoying. Scarlet calls her son "my boy" every few pages and it was annoying and then just got weird. I felt like an editor should have cut a few of those out. Maybe I wouldn't have noticed it as much had I read the book on the page, but it was silly in the audio.

Overall I found the book predictable and kind of forgettable. There are lots of people who loved this one so read their reviews to balance mine as I'm a bit of an outlier here.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

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