Book Review: An Honest Lie

An Honest Lie is my first Tarryn Fisher novel and now I can see why she’s so popular. A friend of mine told me a while ago that her book The Wives is amazing so I had it on my tbr list (and still do) and then I was sent a copy of An Honest Lie by her so I was excited to read it.

In An Honest Lie, Rainy is a successful artist living in a remote area of Washington state with her boyfriend Grant. After maintaining a long distance relationship for a while, Rainey moved to Washington from New York City and has started to get acclimated to her new home. Part of that new home in Tiger Mountain consists of spending time with the girlfriends and wives of Grant’s friends, some of which are also his friends from growing up. Rainy has never felt very comfortable with the other Tiger Mountain Women – always feeling like they were judging her or trying to “catch” her.

But, Rainy has a reason to be paranoid. She has been secretive about her past because of a dramatic and traumatic teen years that not even Grant knows about. But her past comes back to haunt her when she is talked into going on a girls’ trip to Vegas and is confronted with it. Braithe, one of the Tiger Mountain ladies who is actually more friendly to her than a few of the others, goes off on her own one night and texts the girls saying she’s decided not to return home. Unlike her to do something so rash and to leave her husband back home, the girls know something is wrong. It ends up being up to Rainy to figure out what is going on and how it connects to her past.

The novel is told from a dual timeline, alternating from present day and the past when Rainy was younger.

I loved the novel and found it so captivating and gripping. I hurt for Rainy and what she endured in her past and I was frustrated for her in the present day having to deal with new friends who frankly weren’t that great.

My only critique of the novel is that the ending started to drag a little towards the very end and I wish there was a little more of the “after” part – like more detail of how life is going after everything.

All in all, I really liked the novel and I plan to read more by Tarryn Fisher!