The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark – Book Review

A huge thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and Edelweiss+ for providing me with an ARC of The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark in exchange for an honest review.

What It Is About

I’m still the person I was when I left. A woman on the run, flush with the power of knowing I could become anyone. Do anything. All I had to do was tell a man what he wanted to hear.

Meg Williams is a skillful con artist that goes under many names and wears many masks. If you are on her radar, it is too late to save your assets from the very moment you met her.

Kat Roberts is a journalist who 10 years ago worked on a case about young Meg Williams who’d just performed her first scam at the time. But Kat got badly burned, and she blames Meg for it.

But now Meg is back. With a new plan and new victim. And Kat is determined to get out of their reencounter as a winner. But getting close to Meg will prove to be enlightening in more than one way. And both women have things to learn from each other.

After all:

The difference between justice and revenge comes down to who’s telling the story.

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark – My Review

Wow, this was such a great read! Not at all what I expected, and I loved it!

It starts how it always starts. With me, quietly slipping alongside you— no sudden moves, no loud fanfare. As if I’ve always been there. Always belonged.

The Lies I Tell is the first book I’ve read by Julie Clark. She has two previous pretty well rated novels, which now of course I have to check out. I am especially interested in The Last Flight – what a concept! And if it is as well written as The Lies I Tell, then I’m sure I am going to love it.

I hope it will surprise me as much as this one did. I don’t even know what I thought this book will be like. But in a thriller about a con artist, I didn’t expect so much… humanity.

In The Lies I Tell, we follow two POVs, Meg’s and Kat’s. The story starts in the present day when the two finally meet again. Then we get a few long jumps into the past, when the two women’s paths first crossed, plus a couple of events after that.

Sounds like too much jumping around? It really wasn’t. Everything worked together so smoothly, it was easy to follow and super engaging.

Amelia had options where I had none, and with a few keystrokes, she could have even more. Today she might be out of work, but tomorrow she could find an even better job, simply because I said so.

The plot and the pacing were immersing and almost melodic. Not too fast and not too slow. Just the right rhythm to keep you interested without rushing through scenes.

And the women in this story! Their complex but also very simple and relatable reasons and motivations. Their strength and determination, softened by compassion and sympathy.

It was so easy to root for them with your whole heart. And the beauty of this book is that you can wholeheartedly root for both of them even when they work against each other.

He bends down so he can hear her better and I wonder how she does it. How she can trick people into believing she is who she says she is, into handing over their deepest desires, opening themselves up to her manipulation and trickery. Offering themselves willingly to her deception.

Especially Mag’s backstory pulled on my heartstrings. I am not for revenge in real life, and I don’t think it ever brings anything good to anyone. But books like this tend to feel almost cathartic to me.

The Lies I Tell is more a thriller than a mystery. Not a very tense thriller, but so entertaining. And no big twists and turns, but you do get many smaller surprises along the way and a satisfying finish.

The only thing I might change – I wish the stakes were even higher for Meg. High enough to really make her sweat.

Then again – why fix it if it ain’t broken?

Good fortune and second chances. Everyone wants to believe those are real.

This is one of those books where the best you can do is just dive into it knowing as little as possible. So I am going to cut my review short, even though I’d have much more to say about it.

Just one last thing I’m going to say – The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark just got itself an instant spot on my top 10 mysteries and thrillers of all time (currently in progress). And I know it’s only February, but I’d be very surprised if we also don’t see it on my top 10 books of 2022 at the end of this year.