The Lies I Tell

My June Book of the Month selection was The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark (the other options were The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah, Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier, The Lifestyle by Taylor Hahn, Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, and The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan). This is a cat-and-mouse thriller with a twist and I found it to be so engrossing that I read it during every bit of free time because I had to know who was conning whom! Meg Williams, an expert grifter, has returned to her hometown of Los Angeles after an absence of ten years to perpetrate the ultimate con on a man who once wronged her and her mother. Kat Roberts is a journalist who holds Meg responsible for an incident that derailed her life ten years ago and has been waiting for the opportunity to expose her for her duplicity. She views Meg's return as the perfect opportunity to take her revenge and does everything she can to insinuate herself into Meg's operation without revealing her true intentions. But can you really con a con artist? What I enjoyed most about this novel is that it features two strong female characters who are both incredibly sympathetic and have compelling reasons for doing what they do. I also enjoyed that fact that I didn't know what to believe and kept going back and forth about who I wanted to succeed until the final resolution! The unlikely friendship that develops between the two characters, despite their best intentions, is also very moving. The narrative alternates between the perspectives of the two women in the present with flashbacks to various times in the past so information about each of them is revealed little by little. It seems as if there is an a-ha moment at the end of every chapter and I kept reevaluating everything I thought I knew. I literally couldn't put it down! The ending is not at all what I was expecting but it left me completely satisfied and I think it is one of the best I've read in a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed this selection and would highly recommend it to fans of domestic thrillers.