BLOG TOUR: Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison @harlequinbooks
Good Girls Lie
by J.T. Ellison
Harlequin | Indiebound | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Target | Google | iBooks | Kobo
Perched atop a hill in the tiny town of
Marchburg, Virginia, The Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a
Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and
influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status,
long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young
women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond. But a
stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous.
In a world where appearances are everything, as
long as students pretend to follow the rules, no one questions the cruelties of
the secret societies or the dubious behavior of the privileged young women who
expect to get away with murder. But when a popular student is found dead, the
truth cannot be ignored. Rumors suggest she was struggling with a secret that
drove her to suicide.
But look closely…because there are truths and
there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened.
J.T.
Ellison’s pulse-pounding new novel examines the tenuous bonds of friendship,
the power of lies and the desperate lengths people will go to to protect their
secrets.
My Review:
My fourth Ellison book and let me tell y'all. I just love her. Her wicked mind, the crazy stories she comes up with and the ease in which it is to read her writing. Take all those things and add it in with a boarding school/secret society-esque type story and I am here for it for every page.
I'm completely torn with this read. I was intrigued enough to continue page after page but it wasn't until around the 300 page mark that it really captured my interest. The pages leading up to this gave me no clue to what was actually going on. There are different POVs throughout the read and sometimes it's difficult to determine whose mind you're in with each chapter.... when I got toward the end, I understood why. However, it still was a bit eyebrow pinching.
Once a couple reveals came about, I unfortunately wasn't exactly wowed. It wasn't quite what I was expecting yet wasn't really a surprise either. There is one part in the epilogue that did make me smirk and I was pretty happy with it. I dunno you guys.
Was I entertained? Yes, I was. I think had it not taken 300 pages to fully capture my attention, I may have liked this one more. Ellison is a favorite author of mine. So far Lie to Me is my favorite of hers but each book I've read has made my thriller heart happy. This is still a fantastic thriller read and I appreciate where Ellison was taking us readers. I just wish I had bonded with this story earlier than I did.
★★★
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times
and USA Today bestselling author
of more than 20 novels, and the EMMY-award winning co-host of A WORD ON WORDS,
Nashville's premier literary show. With millions of books in print, her work
has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, and has been published in 26
countries. Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens.
Q&A with J.T.
Ellison
• Do you plan your books in advance or let them develop as you
write?
Both. Sometimes the story
just unfolds, and sometimes I have to relentlessly work on themes and turning
points and characters’ points of view. Every book is different, every book has
its own unique challenges. I’m always thinking about what’s next, and sometimes
even what’s after that. But when it comes to actually sitting down to write, I like
to let the story unfold a bit, let it stretch its wings, before I try to lash
it to the mast and conform it to my vision.
• What does the act of writing mean to you?
It’s a sacred contract with
me and a mythical “someone” who might read the words at some point in the
future and find them entertaining or moving. It’s sheer magic on my end,
creating, and sheer magic on the readers’ end, when they get to experience what
was in my head as I was writing. It’s the most incredible mystical experience
out there.
• Have you ever had a character take over a story, and if so, who
was it and why?
All the time. Oh my gosh, all the time. Honestly, if the character
doesn’t run away with things, I know there’s a problem. Ivy, n LIE TO
ME, is a particular favorite. She’s just so nasty…
• Which one of Good Girls Lie’s characters was the
hardest to write and why?
Ash, for sure. She was so elusive and aloof with me. The Britishisms,
the secrets, the lies, she was always just out of reach. Of course, that was
because I’d written her in third person. When I switched her to first, she
wouldn’t shut up.
• Which character in any of your books (Good Girls Lie or
otherwise) is dearest to you and why?
Oh that’s an impossible question. Taylor. Sam. Sutton. Vivian.
Ash. Aubrey. Ivy. Juliet. Lauren. Becca. Gavin. Baldwin. Xander. They are all
me, on some level, whether it’s a fear or a triumph, a flaw or a heroic action.
A moment of love or a moment of animosity. It’s like asking me to choose among
my children, which one is my favorite. (I don’t have kids, by the way, but I
couldn’t pick my favorite of my kittens, either.)
• What did you want to be as a child? Was it an author?
I desperately wanted to be Colorado’s first female firefighter.
When that job was taken, I cast about. Doctor. Lawyer. Fighter Pilot. Spy.
International business maven. Olympic swimmer. Poet. In the end, being a writer
was my only choice. That way, I get to experience all the lives I could have
led.
• What does a day in the life of J.T. Ellison look like?
It’s rather blissful. It starts rather lazily, with the cats
cuddled into my arms and the newspaper on my iPad, then progresses to kicking
the lazy beasts out, pouring a cup of tea and handling email. I am not a
morning person, so I tend to do business in the morning and writing in the
afternoon, when I’m sharper. I’ve always wanted to be the writer who gets up at
5 am to write whilst the birds chirp and the house sleeps, watching the sun
rise and running five miles before the rest of the world is awake, but alas, it
was not meant to be. You need to go to a concert that starts at ten p.m., I’m
your girl.
• What do you use to inspire you when you get Writer’s Block?
It depends. If it’s a genuine block, a I’ve lost faith in myself
and my work block, I will step away from the manuscript entirely, read, walk,
golf, yoga, go out for margaritas with my husband, anything to remove me from
the situation. But 90 percent of the time, it’s just a story issue, so I work
it out with some of my creative partners. Lots of texting and phone calls and
what ifs, until it shakes itself free.
• What book would you take with you to a desert island?
Hmmm… my knee jerk is the Harry Potter series – I know, I know,
that’s seven books, but I’m sure there’s an omnibus edition somewhere. The
fight for good and evil never ceases to amaze and comfort me. Knowing love
conquers evil is a big deal in this world. And Hermione kicks ass. If I’m forced
into a single title, Plato’s Republic. I’ve been obsessed with the
allegory of the cave my entire adult life.
• Favorite quote?
“Do. Or Do not. There is no try.” – Master Yoda
• Coffee or tea?
Loose leaf earl grey. Making tea is a meditative experience for
me.
• Best TV or Movie adaptation of a book?
Clueless, hands-down the best
adaptation of Austen’s Emma ever, and I’ve been enjoying A Discovery
of Witches, based on the fabulous books by Deborah Harkness. Outlander
isn’t bad, either. And Game of Thrones… obviously, I don’t include anything
past the second episode of the final season of that, though I did enjoy the
whole Deanarys-Drogon airborne apocalypse. I mean, talk about a girl who had
reason to be aggravated with society.
• Do you have stories on the back burner that are just waiting to
be written?
So. Many. Stories. I will never get to them all. At last count,
there are 49 in my “Story Idea” folder, with several more floating around in my
head.
• What has been the hardest thing about publishing? What has been
the most fun?
The hardest is staying in the game, juggling the necessary mix of
creativity and business, finding new paths to reach readers and leveling up the
writing so it’s possible to grow my career. It was much easier to write, to
focus, before our constant connections to the internet consumed us. The most
fun is that email from a reader, when something I’ve written strikes a chord
with them and they write to tell me they love a story, or a character, or an
ending. It doesn’t get better than that.
• What advice would you give budding authors about publishing?
Stay as much in a vacuum as you can while writing. You don’t need
a platform, you need an excellent, groundbreaking book. And read everything.
Everything you can get your hands on. You learn writing through osmosis as much
as writing the books themselves. Find your writing habit and hold it sacred. If
you respect your work, your people will, too.
• What was the last thing you read?
I just finished Holly Black’s THE QUEEN OF NOTHING, the finale of
her Folk of the Air trilogy, and just finished listening to BAG OF BONES by
Stephen King. Both were exceptional.
• Your top five authors?
Diana Gabaldon
JK Rowling
Deborah Harkness
Leigh Bardugo
Sarah J. Maas
• Book you've bought just for the cover?
That’s how I found the Holly Black trilogy – I adored the cover of
THE CRUELEST PRINCE.
• Tell us about what you’re working on now.
I’m writing a novel about a
destination wedding that goes very, very wrong. It has loose ties to Rebecca,
and it titled HER DARK LIES.
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