Give the gift of reading this holiday season!J.T. Ellison’s pulse-pounding new psychological thriller examines the tenuous bonds of friendship, the power of lies and the desperate lengths people will go to in order to protect their secrets.Goode girls don’t lie… Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status, long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond.
But a stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous.
In a world where appearances are everything, as long as students pretend to follow the rules, no one questions the cruelties of the secret societies or the dubious behavior of the privileged young women who expect to get away with murder.
When a popular student is found dead, the truth cannot be ignored. Rumors suggest she was struggling with a secret that drove her to suicide.
But look closely…because there are truths and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened.
Don’t miss this fast-paced suspense story from New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison!
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Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison is a page-turner, wild ride of a book with not nearly as much teenage drama as I was expecting it to have. At 458 pages it is not a short book, but the pages will fly by and you won’t want to put it down.
When I started reading Good Girls Lie I had no idea I would read it in one day, but that is exactly what I did. Short, punchy chapters really make the book fly by, and I was also a big fan of the chapter titles. Ellison’s writing style in this novel was really unique as well and I loved it. I already enjoy her books, but there was definitely something even more great about this one and I liked it even more than Tear Me Apart.
I really liked the setting of an all-girls boarding school and even though I was expecting tons of teenage angst, that’s not really what I got. There is plenty of drama sure, but overall the feel was more suspenseful than angsty to me. I don’t think there are really any huge surprises in Good Girls Lie but it was a fun, solid thriller and I absolutely loved the ending.
Song/s the book brought to mind: Everything I Wanted by Billie Eilish
Final Thought: If you decide to read Good Girls Lie (which I highly recommend doing) then you are going to be in for a treat. It was highly addictive, and a lot of things I want in a thriller. There is suspense, drama, mystery, promises of ghosts, dirty deeds, and so much more! I love the things that come out of this author’s mind and I already can’t wait for her next book!
Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Awesome read!!! My favorite J.T.Ellison book. Full of twists & turns.
This was definitely an interesting book! A good read if you’re looking for a mystery or suspense.
I’m typing this with an unrepentant smirk on my face and holding back a diabolical laugh. Perhaps a part of me is evil…or maybe I enjoy a wicked twist!
Good Girls Lie is filled with intrigue, lies, secrets, and plenty of mystery. The Goode school gets exactly what it deserves. Forged into a respectable girls school, The Goode School houses 200 well respected young women who will go on to be leaders and captains of industry. Goode girls run this world. Goode girls never lie.
On my honor…I had a wild time figuring it out. I was wonderfully entertained by this novel. I think my paranoid mind was extremely helpful in discovering the secrets in these pages. Devious or not, any mystery lover would have fun dissecting these pages. Just dont forget…Goode girls never lie.
Two deaths at the Goode School, a ‘Silent Ivy’ prep school for daughters of privilege–are they suicides or murders? GOOD GIRLS LIE add extra twists and turns to the exclusive-girls-school narrative and creates characters that are more than they first appear. A page-turner that delivers twists to the very end.
I’m an avid J. T. fan. Read all her books. No spoiler alert…
I thought I had this book figured out. In true J.T. style,
I was fooled and only partially right… Lots of twists and
turns in this one. Great Read!
I loved this book! There’s just something about mysteries involving exclusive boarding schools that automatically attracts me and this book drew me in from the very beginning. How could it not when the first few pages detail a student hanging from the school gates! Revolving around the students of well to do families that attend the all girls school, Goode School, in this tiny town of Virginia, there are plenty of clashing personalities, friendships, enemies and secret societies to create the dark allure of this story.
A student from Britain whose parents recently died, Ash is the main narrator of the book and she’s unsure what to make of this place. She immediately makes an enemy of Becca, the all around alpha female and head girl. She gets along slightly better with her roommates but still doesn’t feel like she fits in and would rather keep it that way. We also see from the Dean’s point of view and she’s quite the opposite of the dreary severe old school marm that you may have expected. She welcomes Ash and feels bad for her situation but also feels compelled to keep an eye on her, for reasons she herself doesn’t fully understand.
There are so many well developed characters and such a great atmosphere that you can’t help but immerse yourself in this dark tale. It is such an incredible page-turner and you will not want to put it down. This author had me hooked until the very end and I cannot recommend this book enough!
Outstanding audiobook! Good Girls Lie may be my favorite J.T. Ellison book to date. The unreliable girls of Goode preparatory school are utterly captivating, and the mystery Ellison weaves kept me guessing from start to finish. Fiona Hardingham has a wonderful narrating voice and gave a tremendous performance. Highly recommend!
I wasn’t sure of the ending.
Definitely twisted and undeniably entertaining, this book hit all the right notes for a psychological thriller. The author did a fantastic job of dropping subtle hints throughout, some of which were barely noticeable even though they made a huge impact. When I finished, I had to go back and re-read it to see what clues I had not realized were vital. The twists were interesting, and the end was amazing. You can see a full review at Fireflies and Free Kicks Fiction Reviews. This was written based on a digital ARC of the book.
First read of 2020 in the books!
Good Girls Lie has seemingly everything that I look for in a “boarding school mystery”: rich, entitled girls who are catty and evil for no good reason, a dean/headmistress with a secret and a suspicious looking groundskeeper.
These ingredients normally make for a compelling read but for some reason this story fell flat for me. With the added character of a British transplant student it still didn’t excite me enough to keep me feverishly turning pages. The “twist” was just kinda mehhhh……
It’s a solid 3 stars as it kept me interested enough to see how it ends.
Good Girls Lie is completely unpredictable mystery with an end that could have knocked me over with a feather. In a dark, twisted boarding school whose students pledge truth and honesty, everyone lies- the students, the dean, the chauffeur, everyone. Told between switching viewpoints of first and third person, the first person narrative is from an unreliable narrator full of secrets and manipulations that I felt empathetic for and still did not completely trust. When a death rocks the school, the ivory tower teeters on the brink of destruction as the lies and secret societies become unwound as the police investigate the possible suicide or murder of a student. A school full of rich, privileged, and spoiled brats provide a buffet of suspects when everyone is snappish and seems capable of murder. The blows keep coming as the author stands the story on its head in thrilling and shocking plot twists that blindsided me and kept me coming back for more. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
The Goode School for Girls is an elite prep school located in Virginia. The headmistress is Dean Ford Westhaven.
Ash Carlisle has arrived from Oxford England to attend the school starting as a sophomore. She has recently lost both of her parents and needs to get away from the sad memories in a new place. As she settles in, we learn about her talents and her background. She is an expert piano player, but with the passing of her parents, she is not inclined to play right now. She is also quite clever with computers and impresses her professor. Ash is a lovely girl who just wants to keep to herself.
When Ash’s roommate dies after falling off a roof, no one knows if she jumped or was pushed. The ensuing investigation into the girl’s death puts more scrutiny on Ash. Unfortunately, the school bully has zeroed in on her as well and opens up some things that even Ash doesn’t understand. But the tragedies don’t end there which leads to an explosive ending.
I admit that I had a little problem with keeping up with some different characters, but that simply means that the author has written a fabulous novel. I really loved every page of this book and look forward to reading even more by this truly amazing and talented author. Don’t miss this one!
Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Our story follows Ash Carlisle, a student at The Goode School, an all female boarding school for the Elite. She’s smart, beautiful, and she’s a liar.
After both of her parents pass away, Ash goes to America to attend school at an elite boarding school. Soon after she gets settled in, her roommate dies in a tragic fall from the tower. When the sheriff starts to interview the girls, all fingers are pointing at Ash. So who is Ash, and what is she hiding?
I really wanted to enjoy this one. The boarding school filled with rich, snobby girls, the secret societies, murder… all the makings of an amazing story. But it fell flat for me. The plot was great, but there were way too many viewpoints which made it extremely annoying to follow.
Besides the somewhat predictable ending, poorly used phrases, and the many viewpoints, I did enjoy this book a lot and it did hold my attention. I will warn you though, it is a slow buildup until about 60% in. Overall, I would recommend this book.
Favorite Quotes:
Everyone lies. To themselves, to each other. It’s a way to belong, to be included. To look important.
I employ the only tool in my arsenal— silence. It only adds to the mystique. Who knew? I thought lies had power until I saw what silence could do.
My Review:
J.T. Ellison has mad word skills and is a master storyteller, her descriptive and emotive prose fully created each scene from the ground up with multiple textures, scents, sights, and sounds. I was sucked right in and fully present, sometimes, uncomfortably so. While it wasn’t an edge of your seat thriller, I was deeply invested in this twisted and tense hybrid tale that was part YA, part Women’s Fiction, part suspense, part family drama.
The main character of Ash was always taut with tension and anxiously on edge for fear of discovery and I found myself often nibbling on my cuticles with the extremely poor posture of my shoulders in my ears while clutching my Kindle with a vise-like grip. This was a long, complex, and cunningly paced tale with multiple layers and interesting textures. The storylines were rather ingenious, shrewdly plotted, and expertly populated with a cast of diabolical and oddly intriguing characters of all ages. The most heinous was, of course, the teenaged girls, who were especially vile and vicious as only teenaged girls can be. Although, and I know from personal experience, rich and privileged teenaged girls are the absolute worst of the breed.
Creepy, atmospheric, and disturbing!
In this latest novel by Ellison, Good Girls Lie, she transports us to Marchburg, Virginia, a small town home to an elite private girl’s school that has all the usual fare, secret societies, hazing rituals, ghost stories, mean girls, and a history full of scandals, violence, and murder that may be about to repeat itself.
The writing is tight and intense. The characterization is spot on with a cast of characters that are damaged, secretive, and selfish and a setting, The Goode School, that is a character itself with its eerie passageways and isolation. And the plot told from alternating points of view is a suspenseful, twisty tale filled with familial drama, neglect, jealousy, hatred, abuse, callousness, desperation, cruelty, and bloodshed.
Overall, Good Girls Lie is a clever, tortuous, chilling page-turner that keeps you guessing from the very first page and ultimately leaves you surprised and thoroughly entertained.
I was so excited to be given a widget for this book that I stopped everything and read it immediately. I have not one regret!
This is a tight thriller set at an exclusive boarding school. Bursting with secrets, hazing, sexual surprises, murder and some really creepy stairs this one was really tough to set down and I lost most of yesterday to this juicy read!
Thank you to J.T. Ellison, HARLEQUIN – MIRA (U.S. and Canada), and NetGalley for giving me this widget/ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison
So this story is set in a private girls school setting, has some mysterious goings-on what with secret societies “tapping” prospective girls late at night, a suicide or is it, and other odd happenings. This overall was a pleasant albeit kinda slow but steady read, it kept my interest and had a few twists and turns but nothing edge of my seat. Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for this ARC.
Ending and beginning the new year reading a mystery book was certainly a GOOD thing. With Good Girls Lie, J.T. Ellison shows the devious side to teenage girls from wealthy families. Not all the young ladies at The Goode School are bad, but the bad ones are well trained and plentiful.
The story opens with a pivotal incident, but then we are taken back to the start of the term and are quickly embroiled in hi-jinks of this all-girls boarding school. Primarily told through two points of view, that of the Dean, Dr. Ford Westhaven and new to the school girl Ashlyn Carr, the story unfolds across the semester where we learn about school hazing, called tapping, and the mystery of who Ash is and what she’s running from.
Ash is targetted early, as jealously swirls for this young British girl. The girls of Goode give no quarter and highly distrust anyone new to the environment. Immediately Ash finds herself in the crosshairs of senior Becca Curtis but overtime is brought into the fold. But no one appears to be safe at Goode and there is no shortage of suspects. Pay close attention because the story culminates with a new voice and a great twist, one I had to re-read a few times to make sure I was absorbing this new information.
I found this to be a very captivating and unsettling mystery thriller. This is my first read of a J.T. Ellison story and you guessed it, it won’t be my last. 4.5 Stars – I highly recommend this gripping thriller.
You may never trust teenage girls again after reading this book. The Goode School is a very prestigious all-girls school. Its graduates are guaranteed entrance into only the best colleges. There is a strict Honor Code at Goode School but these are pampered, privileged girls with all their deceits, manipulations, and lies. Behind the closed gates of Goode School one encounters secret societies and scandals. Dean Ford Westhaven has run the school ever since her mother had to step aside in the aftermath of the murder of a student at the school. Is history now repeating itself?
New student Ash Carr, 16 years old, is the catalyst for the newest scandal to beset the school. I found myself feeling sorry for the bullying and hazing she encountered, but also wondered about her role in the mysterious events that occur only after she arrives. Instigator…or victim?
The setting for this book is perfect – a school atop a hill, hidden doors, tunnels underneath the school, a legacy of a murder, a cemetery. It reminded me of the old Victoria Holt books.
This book is action-packed and sure to keep you up past your bedtime, muttering the mantra “Just one more chapter, just one more.” You are kept guessing to the very end.
Thank you to Harlequin-MIRA for a digital copy of this amazing new thriller. Opinions expressed here are entirely my own.