Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
If You Tell A Lie by Lucinda Berry Narrator: Bailey Carr, Stephanie Nemeth-Parker, Carly Robins, Jane Oppenheimer, Susannah Jones
Published by Brilliance Audio on July 23, 2024
Genres: Thriller
Length: 8 hours, 31 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible
They never considered how his wife might react, or that by the end of the summer a man would be dead. But Blakely always got her way, and the others followed her lead—even when they knew it was dead wrong.
The girls had been friends from day one at Camp Pendleton, a haven for gifted children. But their senior summer was different. When Mr. Crosby, the handsome tennis coach, wound up murdered after a reckless lie, Blakely, Grace, Meg, and Thera swore themselves to secrecy. And never spoke to each other again.
Until now. Twenty years later a sinister note claiming to know what they did brings them back together. And once again Blakely is pulling the strings.
I’ve been thinking about what to say and I’m still not sure. There are four main characters who start as friends at gifted kids camp when they are 8. They are all misfits in their regular life as too smart, too fat, or something. At camp, they end up as the popular girls. If You Tell A Lie alternates between their last summer of camp an their lives now, twenty odd years later.
The last summer they did some things which led to a a coach at camp being murdered. It started with a lie taken too far by Blakely. The girls, in general, don’t agree with her, but you don’t say no to her.
Now Blakely has called them together again. Uneasy about what happened that last summer, they are not certain they want to get together and relive those emotions. But they all go. Blakely is in trouble and wants her old friends to help her.
I’m not going to spoil what happens. I will say I don’t like the ending, parts of it are too open ended for me. I also really dislike some of these girls, now women.
Narration:
I appreciated having different narrators for the different characters. It took me a bit to figure out about the 4 main characters. The emotion infused into them enhanced my enjoyment of their performance. I was able to listen at my normal 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Carly Robins
Carly Robins is an actress and voice-over artist. She can be heard on commercials, video games, and promos. Carly comes to narration with a passion for performance along with the capability to span several genres, from romance to children’s literature and thrillers.
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I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 24-COYER
I’ve seen this author all over BookTok. If there’s too many loose ends with the ending it bothers me.
yes. Also I didn’t like the characters, at least some of them, as teens and as adults. That should probably make the character rating higher rather than lower because the writing made me feel, I suppose.
It’s hard to love a story when you don’t like the characters much or the way it ends. It sounds like an interesting premise, though.
It was interesting until things ended.
I don’t think this one is for me. The characters sound awful and I don’t like lots of loose threads in an ending. The writing does sound good so I’ll keep an eye out for other books by this author though.
yes the last book of hers was amazing, definitely one of my favorites of the year. This one was not the style I prefer. Others may like it.