Lie, Lie Again

A Novel

By: Stacy Wise

Narrated by: Emily Ellet

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

For three women with so much to hide, there’s no such thing as a little white lie...

All three women who live at 1054 Mockingbird Lane have secrets...and with a body at the bottom of their apartment building’s staircase, those secrets need to stay buried. 

Sylvia Webb has a plan. And a potential Mr. Right. He’s sweet, simple, and dependably clueless about what she’s up to. The only thing unpredictable about him is his needy ex-girlfriend, who is this close to shattering Sylvia’s dreams. But Sylvia’s not going to let that happen. 

Riki McFarlan has a good career and an amazing boyfriend who wants to settle down. If only she didn’t have feelings for her neighbor - who happens to be her close friend’s husband. With everything going so right, why is Riki flirting with something so wrong, so...dangerous? 

Embry Taylor is as devoted to her children as she is to her husband, who’s a bartender by night, an aspiring actor by day. She is his biggest fan. But with his career not taking off and tensions high, even sweet Embry has something she’s desperate to keep hidden. 

Lies, secrets, and revenge. For three neighbors with stakes so high, someone is headed for a downfall.

©2020 by Stacy Wise. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

No bad, but...

The little girls voice & character were almost a complete story-kill. I almost stopped listening.

Meh

Lie, Lie Again was meh to me. I heard all about these 3 womens lives but what did it have to do with the murder? I guess I thought the murder would be the main focus of the book, but it wasn't. It was entertaining and all but after awhile i got tired of hearing about they're day to day life. I had to hand it to Stacy Wise, one of her characters could handle multiple devious tricks at once.

Don’t expect too much from this book

I thought there would be more to the secrets, and more to the story but nope. The mystery of who dies in the end is obvious. Even if you’re not sure, there’s really only two people to pick from.

Emily Ellet is fantastic!

“Lie, Lie Again” by Stacy Wise is a solid chick-lit (aka women’s fiction) story about three women who live in an apartment building in California. It starts off with a dead body at the bottom of their building’s staircase. And then it flash-backs 15 days prior to this dead body and we learn about the three women.

Sylvia is the most interesting character. She’s a driven and conniving woman who wants to have a baby, and finds out her man is married with a child. She decides to seek revenge, and yikes! I wasn’t sure if I found her revolting or actually a woman who is justified in her schemes. Next is sweet Embry who is married to very attractive Brandon (who is trying to get work as an actor). They are financially struggling, and Embry finds that she’s pregnant with a third child and is afraid to tell Brandon. Riki is a teacher at a private primary school, and she is bullied by power-hungry parents. Riki is also a bit attracted to Brandon, but everyone is. Wise has written him as a very attractive and hot man.

So the story is mostly about the days leading up to this man at the bottom of the stairs. I forgot about the cliff-hanger at the beginning of the dead body. I got wrapped up in the women and their day to day activities.

As I wrote, it’s a solid chick-lit story. I listened to the audible production narrated by Emily Ellet. Ellet is fantastic with her different voices for the different characters. The story is a 3 star and her performance is a 5 star.

Narrator with multiple characters

I wish publishers would use multiple narrators when there are many characters in one book. It’s hard to determine who’s talking, and this one one of them has a slight southern accent, and it eventually got easier because you could follow the storylines. However, either one narrator who can voice different accents, or voices that are unique, or several narrators would’ve worked better. Otherwise the book was OK

I’m no book critic

Let me first say I am no book critic! I am not going to critique the style of writing or how the book starts all the way through it’s ending. I can honestly say that I love and hate three out of these two women. Sylvia made me mad with her manipulating and schemes and scams while Ricki irked me with her daydreaming lust for Brandon. Embry was just the sweetest little thing, I like all the background characters and I hated some just the same. I wanted to see what would happen between Sal and Sylvia but that was not part of the writers agenda. It was just a means to get to the end. I’m not going to ruin this book for anyone and I’m the first to ignore others reviews. This book, for me, was a great listen and the narrator did a perfect job with how she voiced each character which also determined how much I disliked them up to the end.

It’s just ok

If you don’t think too deeply the book is ok. Think desperate housewives, but in a condo.

I struggled a little bit with the narration. She used different accents for the different characters, but something about an adult putting on a toddler voice was creepy.

Overall a good listen

Some of the content was unnecessary (ie; the character of Rickie’s weekend away skiing) but overall a good listen.

The narrator was really good at doing the different voices of the characters.