Never Tell a Lie

Title: Never Tell a Lie

Author: Hallie Ephron

Date Finished: April 21. 2009

Personal Book Count: 33 out of 100

Rating: 4 out of 5

Genre/ Subject: suspense

First Line: Rain or shine, that’s what Ivy Rose had put in the yard-sale ad.

Summery: taken from the dust jacket-

“It all started with the yard sale. Ivy was eight months and one week pregnant when she insisted that she and her husband, David, clean out the junk they'd inherited with the old Victorian house they'd bought three years before. Call it nesting, call it nerves—she just wanted it all gone: the old electrical fixtures, the boxes of National Geographics from the 1960s, the four black wool greatcoats.

Neither she nor David recognized the woman at first. But it turned out that the customer asking about the lime-green glass swan dish—the woman who looks just about as pregnant as Ivy—was none other than Melinda White, a former high school classmate of David and Ivy's. When Melinda was a child she used to play in their new house, she explained. It looked like they'd been doing some work. Would it be all right if she took a look around? David took Melinda inside. And she never came out.

Now David's under police suspicion, and Ivy finds herself digging deep into the past to clear his name. But David's history, she begins to discover, is not necessarily the history she remembers, and before long Ivy has uncovered a twisted web of deceit, betrayal, and lies, both the ones we tell those we love and the ones we tell ourselves. . . .

Relentlessly fast-paced and disturbingly creepy, Never Tell a Lie is a page-turning thrill ride about how well we know the people we love, and how far we are willing to go to protect the secrets of our past.”

Why did I pick this book? : I had heard of it shortly before it was released. I requested it as an ARC, but couldn’t get my hands on a copy, so had to read it when it came out.

Review: I liked it. It was a little predictable. Like something I had read, something similar, or seen something in a movie once, it felt familiar. I was able to figure it out from the clues read, but I still enjoyed the ride. The suspense had me well hooked in, and was nearly impossible to put down for the last 100 pages. There were enough characters that I think if you weren’t reading closely enough, there would have been more doubt about how it was going to end. I think it would have been a good ‘stormy night’ read. Ivy and David were a fairly relatable couple, as they are about the same age and stage in life as my husband and I. I have always liked Victorian houses, and was a little jealous of this one, with the descriptions on the inside and outside. The authors descriptions made me want to go in and snoop. I think I will be seeking out more to read by this author.

Agree? Disagree? Recommendations? Any insights, suggestions, or comments on the book or format, or blog at all are most welcome. If you have read this and/ or review it yourself, please let me know. Can you think of any books like this? Give me a recommendation! =D