The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark
BOOK REVIEW
Synopsis:
Two women. Many aliases.
Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She's a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be―a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she's done, you've likely lost everything.
Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat's long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg's true target is.
The Lies I Tell was a solid 4-star read for me. This book follows two narratives between Meg and Kat and a timeline consisting of the present, ten years ago, and two years ago. Meg is our con artist, and Kat is a reporter who crossed a specific path with Meg 10 years ago. From the get-go, I was all about Meg. I did not care that she was a con artist; I was, in fact, actually loving what she was doing to people. I thought her motives were completely understandable, and the more you get into the story, the more each job makes sense. You don’t get a look into all of her con jobs, but you do get a few that give the bulk of why she does what she does.
Jump to the present, and Kat is going through a downward spiral and is desperate to reveal Meg to the world for something Kat has been blaming Meg for years. Kat starts to change her opinion of Meg after she crosses paths with her intentionally and starts working as her assistant for her real estate business. After that, my views about Kat changed (I did not care for Kat very much initially). From there to the end of the book, I was rooting for them both. This story screams girl power at the end, and I was here for it. Meg was super clever and crafty, and the way she would just come in and blindside someone after playing them to her advantage was an entertaining ride.
Jessica's Review
Rating: 💙💙💙
I had a hard time getting into this one. It did not pick up for me until page 140, about halfway, then it got interesting.
Meg is like the Robinhood of con artists. She gets justice for those that are less fortunate. I am definitely Team Meg and your heart kind of goes out to her in a way. The people she marked definitely deserved it.
It ended okay, but I doubt I would read book two if it ever existed.
I hate to admit, I was intrigued by this read, but something about it just didn’t satisfy me like I anticipated.
The story was a bit confusing, it just starts. No build up, or at least not what I expected. Once I finally caught on to what was happening it got better from there. It was interesting to get two different perspectives throughout the book. Both past and present.
The dual POV and timeline was executed well. But a few parts were confusing, and I found myself having to go back and reread to get the complete picture.
Meg is a genius, the plan she put into place was pretty impressive. I wanted the outcome to be a little more satisfying, but all things considered it was definitely justice.
Kat isn’t my favorite character, she’s kind of bland and uninteresting. I get why she’s important though, and by the end of the book…(the epilogue) I found her infinitely more interesting.
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