Two and a half stars - pretty soapy and not very credible plot. Never heard of this author before but her style is nothing like Jodi Picoult. ( )

Could not get into it DNF ( )

I had high expectations for this book, but the story did not live up to my own hype. I found it distracting to jump from a chapter concerning Joely's situation to reading a chapter of the teenager dealing with her infatuation of her teacher "Sir". I gave it a run and believe I would have enjoyed it more had it followed a different pattern. ( )

I've read some Susan Lewis before and enjoyed her books. But this one was just mediocre - I wanted to know what happened. The first third was pretty slow. I liked the middle third - the action picked up, the mystery was revealed and there a lot more going on. But the final third was so hard to believe and seemed to resolve everything a little too neatly. Although I did like how the last line alluded to more mystery or even a possible continuation of Joely's story. ( )

My Lies, Your Lies by Susan Lewis is a recommended novel of intrigue that morphs into a family drama.

Joely is a ghost writer who assists other people in telling their story, so it is a surprise to her when she is hired by a well-known writer, Freda Donahue, to be a ghost writer for her. Freda apparently has a story she wants to tell to set the record straight and she hand-picked Joely to do the job. It is clear from the start that Freda is an odd, eccentric woman who has an arrogant, condescending attitude. The story she wants to have Joely write is set in 1968 and is about a fifteen-year-old girl who had an affair with her twenty-five-year old teacher. Joely wants to escape her home life right now anyway because it is in turmoil.

My Lies, Your Lies started off strong and once it got going it grabbed my attention. The tension was palpable and I was glued to the pages. Then something switched off in the writing and the novel morphed into a completely different story, one that was neither gripping nor compelling. There was a place in the novel where, if Lewis had changed her direction and came to a conclusion, I would have rated it five stars. Instead, she headed off in an insipid, unbelievable direction and lost my interest in the last 20% of the novel. The impact the novel could have had was lost in a fluffy ending. The writing was mostly good and the characters well-developed so I'm recommending it, with the warning that the ending will work for some readers and not for others.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/08/my-lies-your-lies.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3499221303 ( )