It’s so hard to concentrate on anything with the juvenile-esque writing style. It would be different if any of the characters were interesting or had a personality, but we don’t have that here either. Unless you count the female MC being utterly vapid as having a personality. Not my jam. I’ve given two books a shot now and am not even a little impressed. 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.

Never Lie, a review by Kristin – The Book Review Crew Never Lie, a review by Kristin – The Book Review Crew

Poor writing. If this tried to be a read-it-again-for-a-different-story type of book, it failed. Mood setting is lousy. And I never appreciated the inner dialogues that just keeps on going in circles which only serves to make the characters look dumber but I get it, it does help fill the word count. For once, if the floor creaks I'd want someone to actually investigate and not be like 'it be like that sometimes', 'that's just how it be' or not dismiss it with 'maybe that's just — ', 'i guess it's —', if not, you best believe I'll be rooting for your character to dies first. In a secret hideaway, she finds all these cassette tapes and all her patient's sessions. As she listens to them, she begins to piece together the big puzzle, revealing details that as a reader, you may start connecting and wondering. When she reaches the final cassette... truths are revealed.It's also very possible that this was written by two people who had very different ideas. You write the intro and the middle and I'll do the ending then we'll call it a book! Exciting! This book's saving grace is that these two dysfunctional human beings ended up together, saving the world from their chaos. Well done, they deserve each other. They end up at an old, gigantic manor, waiting for their realtor. But due to a blizzard she never shows. The the of them take shelter in the house.it turns out to be the house of missing Dr Adrienne Hall, bestselling author of “Anatomy of Fear”. Tricia already has a bad feeling about the house, something happened here. Then she stumbles across a secret room, filled of recordings of Adrienne’s sessions with her patients. That’s when the mystery unravels. I love Freida McFadden. I’ve read all her novels and liked them all. I have some favourites of course. I read many people saying online they thought they figured this one out early but they were wrong. There were some really obvious red herrings. Who is EJ? I think it was natural that we thought it is Ethan. But is it really Ethan? Not going to spoil this. It’s never that easy with Freida… this being said, I didn’t even try to figure the twist. It has no use anyway. I take the information as I am reading and just go with the flow. Freida is a comfort author. I can rely on being surprised anyway and getting a great story. For me, she can’t do wrong. Once again, she got me with the end, I would not have guessed it.

Never Lie by Freida McFadden | Goodreads Never Lie by Freida McFadden | Goodreads

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. It's dark-lite. Not exactly addictive. It's a psychological thriller by virtue of it being sensational. Popcorn thriller for sure.

Anytime someone goes house shopping and set their eyes on the people-may-or-may-not-have-died-here-but-you-can-get-it-for-a-low-low-price-of-uhmm-say-your-eternal-soul it's a plot hole for sure. I never completely meshed with this story. So much of it was over-the-top unrealistic. I think we all want to feel that we could walk in the shoes of the characters we read about even if only for a moment. (Or a chapter). But it just wasn’t possible here.