Julie Clark | The Lies I Tell

The Book: 

The Lies I Tell  by Julie Clark
Published June 21, 2022 by Sourcebooks Landmark
Date read: February 28, 2023

The Characters: 

Meg
Kat

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The Plot (from Goodreads):

From author Julie Clark comes a twisted con-woman thriller about two women out for revenge―or is it justice?

Two women. Many aliases.

Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She’s a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be―a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she’s done, you’ve likely lost everything.

Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat’s long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg’s true target is.

The Lies I Tell is a twisted domestic thriller that dives deep into the psyches and motivations of two women and their unwavering quest to seek justice for the past and rewrite the future.

How did The Lies I Tell end?

Click here for book spoilers for The Lies I Tell
Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read The Lies I Tell, I suggest you turn back now.

The Reveal:

While this book is thrilling, it wasn’t exactly a thriller. There wasn’t exactly a reveal or twist, we just slowly find out whether Meg is successful. I guess there was a twist for Kat, but the reader already knew that Meg’s goal was righting wrongs rather than just screwing over random dudes.

The Ending:

In the end, Meg set up a fake escrow account so that Ron’s $7M escrow funds went straight to her. She donated this money to an initiative to help homeless people. Since Ron was using campaign funds to buy his house, he had no way to get Meg back for what she’d done.

Meg escapes to Costa Rica, ostensibly to sit on the beach and read. She leaves all her notes on all her cons for Kat, telling her to use them to write a book. Kat instead decides to use Meg’s notes to go after Nate, becoming the grifter herself.

The Review: 

The Lies I Tell is a quick, compelling read about a grifter and a journalist determined to take her down. I was hooked–I love reading about grifters, like in Pretty Things and The Last Mrs. Parrish. This was one of those books where I couldn’t decide who I should root for–I sympathized with both Meg and Kat, even though they were on opposite sides!

While this book is thrilling, it wasn’t exactly a thriller. There’s no big reveal, the reader just steadily finds out what happens and why. The pages turn quickly, though, and I was excited to see how Meg’s con would turn out.
I haven’t read The Last Flight yet (although I own it!), but I will certainly be jumping in soon after enjoying this one.

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