‘The Lie’ by C. L. Taylor ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I know your name’s not really Jane Hughes….

Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She’s happier than she’s ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist.

Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a lifetime rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.

Jane has tried to put her past behind her but someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed Jane and everything she loves.

This gripping psychological thriller is told in dual timelines by Jane Hughes, a woman living a quiet but happy life in rural Wales working at an animal sanctuary and is in a new relationship. But Jane isn’t her real name. She has been lying about her identity for the past five years to escape the infamy of her life after a girls trip to Nepal went terribly wrong, resulting in the deaths of two of her friends. But someone knows who she is and starts sending notes and messages that threaten to turn her happy life upside down.

I loved the characters in this book and enjoyed that Jane was flawed and not the popular girl of her group as it made her more relatable. I enjoyed the dual timelines and found the chapters that focused on five years ago interesting in how it explored the dynamics of female friendships and how you can think you know someone, or that they’re there for you no matter what, only to find out you’re wrong and be betrayed when you need them the most. As well as dealing with the intricacies of friendship, this book is also about how we can’t escape the traumatic or difficult events in our life or our mistakes no matter how hard we try, and it is important to face your past while also not letting it shape your future.

I had never read a book by this author before but have had many of her books recommended to me. After reading this book I understand why they did. The Lie was an exciting thriller that was full of twists and turns you didn’t expect. I was full of anticipation and couldn’t put the book down as I raced to the end to find out what happened. Throughout the story I tried to figure out who might be tormenting Jane but could never be sure and was shocked and surprised when the perpetrator was finally revealed. This will certainly not be the last book that I read by this author.

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