Earn Lie With Me By Sabine Durrant Formatted As Paperback

was one of those unfortunate reads where there is so much waffle and unnecessary detail it makes it difficult to decipher what is actually going on, It's called a psychological thriller, but I found it neither, The synopsis promises a lot but the writing simply fails to deliver,

The narrator, Paul, is unlikable pretty much from the outset, He is middle aged but his actions and thoughts are that of a man twenty years younger, When he meets Alice, part of a very middle class friendship circle, he worries about living up to their standards, He quite randomly joins this strange group in Greece for a holiday, I found it uncomfortable to read about Paul's clandestine spying of the teenage female holidaymakers too,

Like other reviewers have noted, there is so much padding to this story that I struggled to ever take it seriously, Despite an overall fair rating on Goodreads, I can't say I would recommend this author,

Call me cynical as I approach the ripe age of thirty, but maybe life is just too short to waste on books like this! I have been holding on to this book for nearlymonths and have no clue why I put it off for so long.
Being swamped with arcs has really put a damper on my “reading for fun” stack, but Im glad that I made a goal this year to incorporate more of my fun pile regardless of deadlines and requests.
Though it took longer than I would have liked to get to it, this book was a gripping read that held my attention from beginning to end, I read my friend Jos review and was worried I might not connect with the book, as the main character is so unlikable, but she assured me it was all part of the story and Im very glad I trusted her.
The book is underpages and the pacing is quick and suspenseful that gorgeous cover really drew me in and just added bonus points to how much I loved this book.


There is a reason that the plot description is so vague and slim you really just want to read it without knowing anything prior, This was a traditional psychological thriller, with a slow building sense of dread, like a spider building a web around its prey and then, by the time the victim is aware of the plan, its far too late to escape.
While I havent read her second thriller, I read the first titled sitelinkUnder Your Skin and, while it was a bit predictable, found it an enjoyable read with fleshed out characters.
Once again, Durrant shows that her writing is high quality due to her excellent development of a character driven plot, We get to know these friends well, without loads of boring details included just to fluff up the page count, Many aspects of the ending surprised me, and I felt like the author did a fantastic job of setting everything up so that it connected well in the end and made sense.


Id highly recommend this thriller to readers who enjoy a British setting with a bit of Greece thrown in as well those who enjoy a building sense of dread in lieu of action packed scenes will thoroughly become engrossed in this read.
This is the type of book that makes me grateful for the people in my life that I know I can trust or can I, Its the type of read you can blow through easily in a single sitting I found myself at the end of the book flipping back through to the beginning checking a few details I love it when a book causes me to do that! Whether you bring it to the beach or a cabin by the fire, this is the perfect read to take along on a vacation as its easy to get lost in.
Oh my oh my! Looks like this is going to be another "Marmite" book that you will either love or dislike intensely, But I have to say that having read and liked Sabine Durrant's previous books, this is my favourite by farI absolutely bloody loved it!!!!!! It just had everything that I want in a book, horrible people, dysfunctional families, death, suspense and all set in my most favourite place in the world.
. . Greece. If I'd been able to, I would have been laying on my sunlounger with a large Mythos and a plate of olives to get the full effect but a rainy summer's day in Cheshire gave

me just as much of an excuse to curl up and read this in one sitting.


Paul Morris is our narrator here and he isn't a very nice person, Having had one major literary success in his early twenties, he is still dining out on it now aged, He is one of those men who makes women feel uncomfortable, the way he talks about women and girls is just creepy and some of the things he did or said just made my skin crawl! A chance meeting with an old friend from university leads him to meet Alice, a widow, who invites him to holiday with her and extended family and friends on a Greek Island.
Paul seems to have no qualms about using people to satisfy his own needs sex, money, a place to live so this holiday seems heaven sent but it is far from the relaxing break he was expecting.


I love being surprised and this book did that from start to finish, I also love a dark and brooding hero but Paul was the most vile character and everything he did just wound me up, It was cringe worthy the way he acted around women especially, Although, truthfully, none of these people were the sort of people I would warm to and so it takes a lot of skilful writing to make us care about what happens to them! I loved the theme of Lies used throughout, the quotes and the double entendres especially once the entire group move out to Greece.
And I can't think of anywhere better to have set this domestic noir than in the beautiful Greek countryside, I could almost feel the heat generated by the hot Greek sunshine and hear the sounds of donkeys and dogs and buzzing mosquitoes!

It took me quite a long time to work out where this was going, I was having too much fun grimacing at Paul's behaviour but when the finale did roll around it was just so satisfying, perfectly handled and rounded off the plot nicely.
I really did just love it from start to finish,

I received an advanced copy from Veronique at Hodder so thank you and this is my unbiased review, This is a book that took me a while to get into, I think mainly because the narrator is a man and by some strange quirk of fate, most of the books I read tend to be narrated by women, especially those that fall into the psychological drama genre.
In addition, the man in this case, Paul Morris, is not particularly likeable, He is first and foremost a liar who uses people for his own ends, especially those he calls “friends”, Heaven help you if he is your friend because he will think nothing of going through our pockets and stealing from you, And to be honest, the rest of the characters in this story are not much better, The odds were stacked against Paul for me from the beginning especially as I found the story quite slow moving, yet having said that it did draw me and by the end I was hooked.
I was thinking about the characters when I wasnt reading about them and all in all, I have to say that I did really enjoy this read, I received a review copy from the publisher via Netgalley, I had not heard of Sabine Durrant until a month ago but having read one I instantly wanted to read more, This is now theth book I have read by this author who I find very enjoyable and plan plan to continue reading,
This psychological thriller is fairly slow paced with a simple plot but intriguing just the same, Lead character Paul is not the most likeable character who lives off the boast of one successful novel he wrote sometime ago, He befriends Alice, a widow who he starts a relationship with, They go to Greece on holiday with her family and the trouble begins, Paul is a born liar, and one fib is quickly followed by another which gets him deeper into trouble,
This is myrd Sabine Durrant book, Remember Me This Way I gave an easyto while Under Your Skin I gave the dreadedstar, Needless to say I was a little hesitant picking this one up,

Need not fear because I thought this book was great,

Paul Morris is a truly despicable character that I enjoyed reading about, There is just something about a snarky sociopath that really intrigues me, If you are looking for nonstop thrills and chills then this will likely not be for you, This is more so a character study of Paul and we are built up slowly to the final conclusion, Ms. Durrant had my head spinning with that ending! So good!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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