I’ve been anxious to read “Sometimes I lie” ever since I won a copy via a Twitter giveaway.  A thriller riddled with twists and an unreliable narrator ensured that I wasn’t disappointed.  Whew!

“People are not mirrors, they don’t see you how you see yourself.”

“Sometimes I lie” is told via three timelines.  Now (when Amber is in a coma); Then (the week before Christmas, leading up to her accident); and Before (when Amber was just eleven years old)

“Despite my internal cries, on the outside I am voiceless and perfectly still.”

Now – We first meet Amber Reynolds when she is in a coma. It is Boxing Day and it would appear she has been in a horrible car accident.  She is aware of the people around her and can hear what they say – she just cannot acknowledge them, make a sound, or move her body. She is thirty-five years old and is married to a man named Paul.  She remembers this…  but there are huge gaps in her memories leading up to her accident.

Apparently Paul’s beloved car was the vehicle crashed in her accident.

“He bought it with the advance for his first novel and he loves it almost as much as I hate it.”

A man enters Amber’s hospital room. He talks to her likes he knows her. He deletes the messages on her cell phone… He tells her that it is HER fault that she is in this condition.

Then – She works as a presenter for a radio talk show called “Coffee Morning”.  Quite recently she was given a warning that she might be made redundant.  She plots to get her nemesis on the show off the payroll. She begins a covert campaign to oust her from the show by creating negative social media buzz and sending her nasty anonymous notes in red envelopes.

Amber’s husband Paul is a writer who is struggling to write his second book. Lately their marriage has been strained.

“His success broke him and his failure broke us.”

Amber’s younger sister Claire is married and is the mother of two-year-old twins.

Amber really doesn’t like the person she has become.

“I’m not as ugly on the outside as I feel on the inside, but I still don’t like what I see.”

Amber doesn’t care for her mother-in-law and the feeling is mutual.

“I always get the impression that she sees straight through me and doesn’t like the view.”

In fact, Amber doesn’t really like people at all…  and she is overwhelmingly unhappy.

“I think my parents used to love me, but I disappointed them so often
that the love got rubbed out.”

Before –  We meet Amber through a series of diary entries when she is eleven years old. Never wanted by her mother, Amber is often neglected and she comes to hate her Mum. She feels unloved by her parents and is friendless until she meets a girl named Taylor.  After a play date arranged by Amber’s mother, they become friends and remain quite close.  The two girls share a birthday, love books, and have many of the same interests.  They are like ‘two peas in a pod‘.  Amber is terribly jealous of Taylor who has a nice house and loving parents.

Amber’s beloved Nana has recently passed away taking with her the only unconditional love Amber has ever known.

“Claire takes everyone I love away from me.”

Amber seems to resent her sister, Claire. She loves her but feels that Claire got all the love that the parents had to give.

“People say there’s nothing like a mother’s love, take that away and you’ll find there is nothing like a daughter’s hate.”

What a twisty, mesmerizing novel!  Packed with red-herrings and genius twists, it will be favoured by thriller lovers everywhere.  I was excited to learn that this book will be made into a TV series!

A book of jealousy, toxic relationships, and what the lack of nurturing and unconditional love can do to the psyche. A novel that examines the fine, thin, line between love and hate.  A thriller that will mess with your head!

I won a signed and dedicated copy of this novel via a Twitter giveaway!

6 favourite quotes from “Sometimes I lie”:

“If you were to strip us all down to our purest intentions, the lowest common denominator would always be wanting to be listened to, needing to be heard above the noise of modern life.”

“Life is more terrifying than death in my experience, there’s little point fearing something so inevitable.”

“Grief is only ever yours and so is guilt. It’s not something you can share.”

“Celebrity ceases to impress when you subtract humility.”

“History is a mirror and we’re all just older versions of ourselves; children disguised as adults.”

“People who do nothing are just as dangerous as those who do.”

Alice Feeney is a writer and journalist. She spent 15 years at the BBC, where she worked as a Reporter, News Editor, Arts and Entertainment Producer and One O’clock News Producer.

​Alice is has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside, where she lives with her husband and dog.

​Sometimes I Lie is her debut thriller and is being published around the world.

You can connect with Alice @alicewriterland on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.