I’m delighted to welcome you today to my stop on the blog tour for the exquisite My Lies, Your Lies by Susan Lewis. Thank you to Anne Cater and Harper Collins for giving me the opportunity to read and review this brilliant and thought provoking book.
About the book:
His life was destroyed by a lie.
Her life will be ruined by the truth.
Joely tells other people’s secrets for a living. As a ghost writer, she’s used to scandal
– but this just might be her strangest assignment yet.
Freda has never told her story to anyone before. But now she’s ready to set the record
straight and to right a wrong that’s haunted her for forty years.
Freda’s memoir begins with a 15-year-old girl falling madly in love with her teacher.
As the story unravels, Joely is spun deeper into a world of secrets and lies.
About the author:
Susan Lewis is the internationally bestselling author of over forty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime, including the Sunday Times bestseller One Minute Later and her most recent novel Home Truths. Susan’s novels have sold nearly three million copies in the UK alone. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s.
Susan has previously worked as a secretary in news and current affairs before training as a production assistant working on light entertainment and drama. She’s had homes in Hollywood and the South of France, but now lives in Gloucestershire with husband
James, two stepsons and dogs.
My Review:
Susan Lewis is an author whose books I’ve been meaning to read for years, so when the opportunity came to read her new novel My Lies, Your Lies, I jumped at the chance. And what a book to pop my cherry with! I absolutely adored it, from the opening chapter right through to the gripping denouement.
Joely’s husband has left her for her (now former) best friend, taking their teenage daughter with him. Reeling from the breakdown of her marriage, she decides to take up the offer of being a ghost writer for reclusive author Freda, who is writing her memoir. The story is told in dual timelines, the first taking place in 1968 when young Freda embarks on a passionate love affair with her teacher. The second brings us up to the present day as Joely moves into Freda’s remote and atmospheric home in Devon, where the reclusive author begins to tell the shocking story she has kept hidden for a lifetime.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started My Lies, Your Lies, but it certainly wasn’t the exquisitely written story of family, relationships, secrets and lies that it turned out to be. I loved the use of music in this book, with each song and piece of music acting as a backdrop to the story unfolding before my eyes. Each song transported me back in time to 1968, to the life of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, and of her infatuation and illicit affair with the music teacher known as ‘Sir’.
The use of dual timelines works incredibly well in this beautifully written book, with the devastating events of both making for a riveting read that kept me turning the pages, sometimes even holding my breath, in anticipation of what was about to happen next. The reclusive author’s imposing home in picturesque Devon, with its beautiful Library, writing room and remote location, all add to the tense atmosphere as the secrets of the past begin to emerge. Freda herself is aloof and difficult to get to know, but there’s something fascinating about this woman whose story is slowly being revealed. Together, Joely and Freda begin to connect in ways they never would have thought possible. Two women whose lives have been plagued by secrets and lies begin to discover things about themselves and their lives that will change them both forever.
It’s difficult to say much more without spoiling the twists and turns of the plot, which is something I really don’t want to do. All I will say is that this is a story that needs to be dissected layer by layer, each one peeling back to reveal more new and shocking revelations as all the pieces begin to fall into place, moving towards a denouement I did not see coming.
Susan Lewis is a gifted storyteller and I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to finally delve into her work. Suffice to say my TBR list is now a lot longer than it was before! My Lies, Your Lies is a brilliant and thought provoking read that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I finished it.
Highly recommended.
My Lies, Your Lies by Susan Lewis is available to buy now: Amazon UK
Check out what these other lovely bloggers have to say about this fabulous book:
Cal Turner Reviews 
Thanks so much for the blog tour support Cal xx
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You’re more than welcome, Anne. xx
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