Book Review / The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

The text message is just three words: I need you.

Isa drops everything, takes her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten. She spent the most significant days of her life at boarding school on the marshes there, days which still cast their shadow over her now.

Something terrible has been found on the beach. Something which will force Isa to confront her past, together with the three best friends she hasn't seen for years, but has never forgotten. Theirs is no cosy reunion: Salten isn't a safe place for them, after what they did.

At school the girls used to play the Lying Game. They competed to convince people of the most outrageous stories. But for some, did the boundary between fact and fantasy become too blurred?

And how much can you really trust your friends?

Published:     15th June 2017
Publisher:  Harvill Secker
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Library

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this story...  Right in the middle of my thriller reading kick I discovered Ruth Ware and loved The Woman in Cabin 10 and In a Dark Dark Wood.  So I was obviously excited about reading this one!  The one aspect I absolutely adore about Ruth Ware's stories is the suspense.  There's a lot of it and its good.  Right from the word go I was hooked in following Isa as she gets the mysterious text message that calls her back to her home town for some mysterious reason that we have yet to discover.  From then on it was all about what happened when she and her friends were younger and what are they trying to hide?  That, by far, was my favourite part of this book.  The suspense and wanting to find out what happened next. 

What I didn't like about this story...  As much as I did enjoy this story, there were a couple of aspects of this book that I wasn't particularly fond of.  The first of which is the presence of Isa's baby daughter.  I could not understand why she took her daughter with her and not left her with the baby's father.  She obviously knew that the situation she was getting into was dangerous, why on earth would you take your baby there as well?  There was also as aspect of the story where the baby daughter was used as a plot twist which I didn't particularly like because to me it was obviously that was the only reason she was in that particular scene.  The ending was also a bit blah for me.  It was an ok ending but not as explosive as I was expecting. 

 In summary...   A great suspense with the same feel as her previous books.  Although there were parts of this book that I didn't like it is definitely worth picking up to find out for yourself what you think.   If you have not tried reading a Ruth Ware book, I would honestly start with In a Dark Dark Wood as that was my favourite.