Picture Perfect Lies

A Waterford Novel, Book 3

By: Mia Hayes

Narrated by: EL Beckett

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

If you can’t be you, who can you be?

That’s the question Veronica White asks herself in the wake of her husband’s very public affair. For years, she’s been known as the prettiest member of the Bitch Brigade and Pete’s wife, and she has used social media to present her messy life as picture perfect.

But those days are over.

Leaving her Waterford life behind, Veronica lands in Marrakesh, Morocco. There, she plans to regroup and convince everyone she’s having the time of her life without Pete. First step: Post endless fun pictures on Instagram. She believes that if she can convince others she’s okay, then maybe the embarrassment will cease.

Enter Oz, an engaging young man who is traveling the world and chasing the endless summer. He regales Veronica with stories of his adventures, and intrigued, she throws caution to the wind and joins him on a trip to the Sahara Desert. Soon, Veronica finds herself following Oz to Croatia and France, where, with Oz’s support, she tries reinventing herself.

As she grows closer to Oz, Veronica realizes she’s not the only one pretending, and that sometimes what we want to see gets in the way of reality.

©2019 Dawn Rae Miller (P)2020 Dawn Rae Miller

Loved the story and amazing narration

The narration as EL Beckett moves from persona to persona is amazing. The story moves along and I get caught up in the adventure.

Thoroughly enjoyed this listen!

Picture Perfect Lies by Mia Hayes was a super enjoyable and unexpected listen. V's story drew me in and while I couldn't stand her and her Waterford friends, I enjoyed watching the person that she became over the course of the story. Also, it was fun reading about the different locations that she traveled to. Having recently been to Morocco myself, I can definitely attest to may of the details that V experienced while there. I really loved Oz and thought that his part in V's adventures was really sweet. Pete, V's husband, continued to be a turd throughout and I was so glad that V kind of came into her own throughout the story. I haven't really given anything away, so if the summary sounds like something you'd enjoy, I would definitely recommend this listen!

EL Beckett did a good job narrating this story. She brought emotion to the characters and did a good job with the various character accents and whatnot. I'd be more than happy to listen to more of her performances in the future. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher for an honest review.

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Worth the time

This was my second Waterfod novel. I missed the first one but book two was well-written, even if I could barely stand the main character. This third installment was seriously much better in the heroine department, and I really enjoyed the exotic settings of the majority of this story.

Beckett's narration continues to be a shining beacon into the Waterford world. It's inhabitants are shallow and prone to adultery and the narrator eschews that dynamic quite nicely.

The story itself was really good and totally worth your time. Cheating husbands, bad. Put upon spouses, good. Don't forget the gin and tonic!

I was incredibly underwhelmed with that epilogue though. Up until that point, this was a great listen.

Enjoyable Read! Can be standalone!

This book was great- I enjoyed it via audiobook! It is a women’s fiction novel that follows the actions of Veronica once she discovers her husband has been cheating on her- and apparently everyone but herself knew about it. To help sort out her feelings and to get away from her husband, she hops on a plane to Morocco all while posting perfect pictures on her Instagram.

I really enjoyed this story and was surprised with how it ended! It was totally different from books in this genre and I loved it!

It felt like a mix between Eat Pray Love and Marriage Vacation.