Review: THE DAY THE LIES BEGAN, Kylie Kaden

• NB Book not released until August 19, 2019 - available for pre-order
• source: Netgalley 
• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 2208 KB
• Print Length: 344 pages
• Publisher: Pantera Press (August 19, 2019)
• Publication Date: August 19, 2019
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07SMBVNDB

Synopsis  (Amazon)

‘It seemed simple at first - folding one lie over the next. She had become expert at feathering over the cracks to ensure her life appeared the same. But inside, it didn’t feel fixed.’

It happened the day of the Moon Festival. It could have been left behind, they all could have moved on with their lives. But secrets have a habit of rising to the surface, especially in small towns.

Two couples, four ironclad friendships, the perfect coastal holiday town. With salt-stung houses perched like lifeguards overlooking the shore, Lago Point is the scene of postcards, not crime scenes. Wife and mother Abbi, town cop Blake, schoolteacher Hannah and local doctor Will are caught in their own tangled webs of deceit.

When the truth washes in to their beachside community, so do the judgements: victim, or vigilante, who will forgive, who will betray? Not all relationships survive. Nor do all residents.

My take

Abbi and foster brother Blake have a secret that dominates the first half of this book. We are not sure what it is - several alternatives are on offer - but it is something they shouldn't have done, something that will devastate those close to them, and something that will destroy them both if it becomes known. But they both doubt their ability to keep it hidden.

It turns out that even though they didn't know it these families have lived with lies and secrets all their lives. Once Abbi and Blake's big secret is "out" nothing is the same.

The structure of the novel is quite confusing at the beginning and then intriguing as the setting swaps between the present and the day and night of the Moon Festival.


My rating: 4.4

About the author:
Since being plucked from the Random House slushpile, Brisbane writer Kylie Kaden is now an internationally published author of women’s fiction (when she’s not wrangling her sticky brood of boys). Kylie followed her breakthrough debut Losing Kate, with another critically acclaimed suspenseful read, Missing You, in 2015.