Never Lie by Freida McFadden

Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams.

But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end.

In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance.

Tricia plays the tapes one by one, late into the night. With each one, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Dr. Adrienne Hale’s web of lies slowly unravels.

And then Tricia reaches the final cassette.

The one that reveals the entire horrifying truth.

So this is my first thriller, and idk, I am not sold. I do think it was interesting, and I enjoyed reading it, it was suspenseful without being downright scary, and I blasted through it wanting to know what happened.

But, it was just so inconsistent and I did not think it made sense. things were alluded to that ended up being wrong, which can be fine for a twist, but when they don't make sense? That is where I think it becomes more inconsistency and less 'twist'.

The build up on the husband being EJ and then it wasn't was not my favorite. It just made perfect sense for him to be EJ, and then it wasn't at all? Tell me more about him then, because ya boy was suspicious and should have been EJ. Nope, he just randomly killed his mom. Nevermind the fact that he is overly obsessed with this house, encourages Tricia to wear Adrienne's clothes, etc. Clearly we were being directed down this path and then at the end randomly twisted away.

I did enjoy (Pa)Tricia and her twist, it totally makes sense for the most part. I do think there is inconsistency from the beginning few chapters to the end, but it wasn't as bad as Ethan.

Unless there is a part 2, several things were just left out: why did she continuously mention she only has known her husband for a year and doesn't really know him if it doesn't matter at the end? Why is Luke randomly there, perfectly poised like a little lamb in the den of lions? just so he could die? Why didn't we get a kill scene for Adrienne but did for this random stalker EJ?

Personally i hoped they all died but alas that is not the HEA we received. Instead we got a look into their happy family while also learning Tricia is ready to kill her husband at any time.

It was enjoyable and a quick read, but the inconsistencies bothered me and made it less enjoyable.

This is 100% brain candy. And for what it is, it's fun. For you hyper-critical readers (like me) you'll be rolling your eyes at the redundancy of detail and the syntax issues. But suspending that, it was a pretty good time. Palate cleanser for sure.

So much fun. I thought I had it figured out immediately and I was not even close. Very entertaining.

I had so many thoughts and theories while reading this. Lo and behold, I only got like one or two things right and the rest were unexpected! This kept me entertained despite some little parts that were irksome due to the FMC being kind of annoying. Despite that, I would still definitely recommend!