by
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bookshelves: 2018, author-arc, new-to-me-author, contemporary-fiction, psychological-thriller, romance
ABOUT THIS BOOK: My name is Adeline Bell. I’m a suburban housewife. Period. My husband has always kept me on a tight leash. I’m not even supposed to leave the house.
My husband leaves every Monday morning for business and comes back Friday night. I have the weekdays to myself. And I always leave the house every morning. What my husband doesn’t know won’t kill him. I wake up, run, clean the house, wish for a better life, repeat. It’s best when I have a routine. And every day is exactly the same.
Except for Thursdays. I live and breathe for Thursdays. It’s when he comes. You know the type. The guy that is the epitome of escape from your wretched life. The one who embodies the strength and freedom you don’t have. I watch him from a distance. I can’t help myself. But I was never supposed to talk to him. I was never supposed to fall for him.
I know what you’re thinking. But you don’t know my story. You don’t know the kind of monster my husband is. And trust me, you have no idea who I am.
MY THOUGHTS: This is a difficult book to review. At first I was unsure of what I was reading, it seemed to be heading into the steamy adult romance arena, but that is not where it went, although it took a long time not to get there. . . Not my thing at all, and a couple of times before it started to head in another direction I contemplated dnf’ing it, but I didn’t, and I am pleased I didn’t. Because once Smoak gets into the nitty-gritty of the plot, it’s a good read.
Adeline Bell is the queen of unreliable narrators. She is a liar. She is manipulative. She has secrets. Big secrets. She has lied and manipulated so much, even she doesn’t know the truth any more.
I would have liked to have loved this book, but I think it was trying to be too many things. Addie’s obsessing over the ‘lawn boy’ very nearly killed the book for me. But I am probably in the minority here. I enjoyed the psychological thriller part of The Truth in My Lies much more. And there did seem to be two distinct parts to this book.
There were a few things that didn’t ring true to me that gave me some idea as to where the plot was going, but I wasn’t 100% right. There are one or two nice little twists in there that threw me off balance. But the biggest problem for me, after all the pseudo-romance at the beginning, was that I just didn’t find The Truth in My Lies suspenseful. It didn’t have me holding my breath, or frantically flipping pages.
Thank you to author Ivy Smoak for providing a digital copy of The Truth in My Lies for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the ‘about’ page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.
This review and others are also published on my Goodreads.com page https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2396632491
Sandy's Book a Day Blog 
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with unreliable narrators. On one hand, I like having a narrator I can truly get behind and support. On the other hand, boy is it a great twist to have a narrator you can’t trust. I love mysteries, but to start one off as a romance seems so wrong. Thus, I think I’ll skip this book. But you did a great job reviewing it!
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To be honest, I first thought it was going to be another 50 shades of gray, but it doesn’t actually stray into ‘erotica’. But the start didn’t do the book any favors. The author seems to have written a lot in the romantic vein, but perhaps was trying a switch in genres 😕
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Ah, that makes sense. I’ve noticed when authors switch genres, their new books tend to have common themes with their previous genre. But at least it never strayed too much into romance!
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Great review, Sandy!
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