Lie to Me by Jess Ryder
Lie to Me by Jess Ryder
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Meredith grew up being raised by her father when her mother left them while Meredith was very young and now she remembers very little about the mother she barely knew. When cleaning out her father’s place before a move Meredith comes across an old VHS tape that is obvious it has something to do with her mother. Meredith’s father objects to Meredith watching the tape but she is determined to find out more about her past.
After viewing the tape Meredith is more confused than ever about what happened to her mother. It seemed that she really had psychological problems but her mother had mentioned a murder that may or may not have happened thirty years ago so Meredith decides to look into the matter and find out once and for all what happened in the past.
Lie to Me by Jess Ryder is a mystery/thriller that is told from alternating time lines and points of view throughout the story. Part of the book is flashing back to a character named Cara who was killed before Meredith was ever born that Meredith’s mother somehow had something to do with. Then the other story is following Meredith’s as she digs through the past trying to find out just what had happened.
For me this book ran hot and cold throughout reading as I found myself enjoying Meredith and her quest for the truth about the past but then with the chapters glimpsing back into Cara and her life I found myself a bit disconnected with her character. I really couldn’t put my finger on why I would become bored with Cara’s story, perhaps knowing she had been murdered there just wasn’t an intensity to dragging out the buildup to the murder or she just wasn’t a favorite character of mine overall. In the end though I struggled with rating the story since parts of it I had completely enjoyed but felt others drag on so I decided to rate right down the middle with three stars.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Carries Book Reviews 
I’ve been wondering whether to get this book or not as I keep seeing it around on social media. Your review is so well balanced and it’s helped me decide. It’s a shame that the part of the story set in the past doesn’t match up to the present day – I always think books with two timelines should make you enjoy, and be absorbed in, the part you’re reading but also make you want to get back to the other time strand too. If they don’t quite live up to each other then you end up wanting to skim one time strand to get back to the part you’re enjoying. Great review!
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Thanks Hayley! I usually do enjoy a book with different timelines thinking it’s much like reading two stories at once and watching and waiting for them to be brought together. Just for some reason I wasn’t connecting with the past story but it was sort of like sitting a slower read to the side to pick the faster back up as it switched back and forth.
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