Pretty Ugly Lies

By: Pamela Crane

Narrated by: Jeff Harding, Lyssa Browne, Ruth Redman

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

From USA Today best-selling author Pamela Crane comes an unmissable new psychological thriller. 

What causes a woman to murder her family? 

Jo's idyllic life would make most people jealous. Until one day her daughter is abducted, and the only way to find her is to unravel her dark past. Ellie is a devoted wife...until she discovers the pain of betrayal. Now vengeance is all she can think about. Party girl Shayla knows how to hide her demons. But when she's confronted with a life-shattering choice, it will cost her everything. June knows suffering intimately, though the smile she wears keeps it hidden. Soon, the lives of these four women intersect, and one of them is about to snap.

©2018 Pamela Crane (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd

Wow that was intense

At first I thought I wouldn't like this book but I hung in there, glad that I did. It was pretty intense, the stories of these women. Everyone has their fair share of burdens in life, along with some secrets that they don't want to share. Definitely worth listening to, even those jaw dropping parts. Makes you wonder how many people actually share their lives along with these women. Narrator's did a great job as well as the author. 😀😀😀

I want to listen to it again!

So realistic, I would bet every women on earth can relate in one way or another to this book. Very well written and thought provoking. It will not disappoint.

Steer clear of Oleander Way!

Not unlike Wisteria Lane the desperate housewives in this novel are selfish, narcissistic, devious, violent and just plain vile. It was disappointing that none of the women had any redeeming qualities. I like when a book has at least one character you can root for. Not the case in this novel. If you are looking for girl
power you won’t find it here. The book has too much going on too. Several different point of views had me very confused. I wasn’t vested enough to go back and revisit the previous chapter because the characters were just so annoying. I got the impression the author was trying to garner sympathetic feelings for women who just snap. I didn’t and I don’t. the characters in the story don’t care for their kids, how can you have any empathy in that. The narrators were ok except one and I’m not sure which woman but she was overly theatrical and sometimes it sounded like she was suppressing a foreign accent which was a distracting annoyance to an already confusing book. I can’t recommend this one it just wasn’t good and the way women were portrayed, so much evil on one street, cmon not remotely realistic!

Too much

Too many main characters. With chapters alternating between the main characters, by the time you got around to revisiting character 1 again in chapter 4, I forgot what that character’s main storyline was. Would have been better if it focused on less characters. And the narrator who read Jayla’s part had an odd accent and didn’t seem to have a good grasp of English. Her read was stilted and there were many words she said incorrectly. Completely took me out of the story.


Sent from my iPad

Perfect narration!

Pretty Ugly Lies by Pamela Crane left my mouth hanging agape all throughout the story. That opening chapter, I was chilled and horrified. I’m a thriller-addict. I push myself to listen to the most twisted stories with monsters so dark you can’t see them. This book gave me pause in those first minutes... will I be able to listen? Will I be able to carry on without nightmares. I continued, even though there were times I felt nauseous and very hesitant. I didn’t have any nightmares but I definitely had some interesting conversations.

It was odd that I found the content so disturbing and heartbreaking and one moment, only to relate in the next. I think if you are a mom and/or a wife, there are going to be thoughts or conversations that you can understand or perhaps you recall the same conversations held by you and another mom-friend. PUL is THAT relatable. Pamela Crane has listeners evaluating their lives... their parenting and their marriages. I’ll be honest that I did have a bit of a hard time recalling who was who and which women went to what family. I think 4 distinctive voices for the four women would have helped a lot. I do think adding in a man’s voice really helped in separating and making it a bit varied. I’m not sure he’s the man I would have chosen but I’m glad for him, either way.

The narrators were incredibly talented. I’m not sure which female narrator did what person, but again, that opening scene and the narration gave me chills. Ruth Redman, Jeff Harding, and Lyssa Browne exhibited so much emotion through every single word. For as intense as this story was, it was moving. It did open my mind and get me thinking. There is so much psychology in PUL.

Totally Depressing

I Enjoy books that have a serious plot, can educate, and stimulate me. I enjoy books that have good plots and interesting settings and characters.. There is none of that in this book. If this is any indication that author 'writes' about what they know, I doubt if this book will be read very much. I am sending it back!

Great read

Starts out a little slow while you are being introduced to the characters but if you stick with it it gets better.

Mixed feelings...

I’ve never left a negative review but this book left me with a bad feeling. I’m not religious - but I was taken aback by how morally wrong the the message was at the conclusion. Wow. Maybe it’s just me....

In addition, I found the motivation of the primary “bad guy” ridiculous and the resolution... well... it was resolved!

Aside from that, I stuck along for the ride. It was entertaining most of the way and the narration was great 👍

Love this story kept me interested the whole time

I was really pleased with this had me interested from beginning to the end of this he book

“Anyways”!

The story was dark but mostly well-written and plotted. The wrap-up in the epilogue was a little too pat.
Definitely could have used some copy editing. While it’s non-standard English that’s accepted conversationally in dialogue,the word “anyways” must have been used at least once per chapter, and by each character multiple times. Most of these characters were portrayed as well-educated so the word didn’t make sense. It’s a pet peeve of mine that I hear more and more frequently—not limited to this book.
Narration was spotty. Some good but some very stilted with mispronunciations of even quite common words. It makes me think no one listened to it all the way through before release.