The Lie by C.L. Taylor
HarperCollins – Avon
Publication Date: April 23, 2015
Date Read: April 17, 2015
3.5 Stars
I would have to say that overall I liked this book. I enjoy a wide range of books and find that mixing things up works best for me. I have been reading way too many romances lately so I was immediately interested in this book because I was in the mood for a mystery. The fact that the cover promises that it will be “Dark and creepy” was really just an added bonus.
I really had a hard time getting into this story as I started reading the book largely because of the dual timeline. I actually set this book aside early in my reading to read another book which isn’t something that I do very often. Once I picked the book back up and read about a third of the story I was much more interested in what was going on. The second half of the book really flew by and I couldn’t pull myself away from the story.
This book is told in two different timelines: the present and five years ago. It switches back and forth every chapter or two which really made it hard for me to get into the book. Each timeline is really a different story with different characters and separate problems. In the present, Jane is working in an animal shelter, dating a divorced teacher, and really just living a quiet life. Jane was a different person five years ago….literally.
Five years ago, Jane was Emma. Emma and her group of girl friends take an extended vacation to a retreat in Nepal. Emma’s group of friends were the kind of girls that I love to hate with the exception of Al. Trying to figure out what was really going on at this retreat was really what grabbed me about the book. I have to admit that I just couldn’t figure out where the story was going.
Jane’s past is catching up to her in the present. When she receives some strange messages, she is at a loss as to who could be sending them. I wasn’t quite as pulled into the mystery set in the present time. Jane and Emma really didn’t even seem like the same character in a lot of ways. As I read the story, I believed that the key to solving her current mystery was held in what actually happened at the retreat. In the end, I thought that the present storyline was much weaker.
This was a good story that was fast paced and kept me guessing. I really wish that I had truly liked any of the characters. Leanne and Daisy had no redeeming qualities while Al and Emma/Jane just felt flat to me. This book was just missing that special something that makes a good book become great.
I would recommend this book to others. It was a good story that was a little different than the norm. This is the first book by C.L. Taylor that I have had a chance to read and I plan to look for her work in the future.
I received a copy
of this book from HarperCollins – Avon via NetGalley for
the purpose of providing an honest review.
Oh, I'm definitely a sucker for alternate timeline novels. This sounds interesting in theory, it's just the execution that I'm worrying about right now. In Ugly Love Colleen Hoover wasn't really able to pull it of and I've been hesitant about novels like this ever since.
I have not had a chance to read anything by Colleen Hoover yet but I hope to soon. It just took me a long time to really get hooked on either of the timelines in this book but in the end it was a pretty good book.
I get easily confused with dual timelines. I guess a book has to be written seamlessly for me to be able to enjoy it. I like the barebones of this book, though.
Each timeline in this book is so different that there was no confusion. I just had a hard time getting started with this book. The past ended up being so much more interesting for me than the present.
It's a bit of a shame about the beginning of the book being so hard to get through. But it's good that you kept reading and in the end the book eased up and you were able to enjoy this more.
The portions of the book that were set 5 years in the past were just so interesting. I think I had a difficult time connecting with either storyline at the beginning of the book.