Skip to main content

Such Charming Liars book review




 As someome who has been a Karen M. McManus fan for around 4 years now, 4 books binged when I first discovered her and 4 highly anticipated and read upon release, I always get excited when I see she has a new book out and Such Charming Liars was no exception. 

Such Charming Liars follows Kat and Liam, whose parents were briefly married for 48 hours and realise that may not be the only thing they have in common when things go wrong and someone dies at billionaire Ross Sutherland's birthday party. 

This definitely had a different feel to Karen M. McManus's previous books which have felt a lot more contemporary with characters who you feel like you could meet on the street, and while Kat does have the same realness to her nobody is bumping into her the same way they are Bronwyn and Nate. Saying this though it still had the other key elements I have come to associate with her books - characters you can't trust nor rule out, a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat and twists that are well foreshadowed so looking back they don't surprise you but you still can't predict them. 

Something else that I really liked about this book was getting both the POV's of Kat and Liam and with that feeling like you really did get to know them, who they were and what impacted them. It was interesting to see their relationships with their parents, how similar things happened but the reactions and consequences were completely different and also how they felt their relationship as siblings was developing. 

I think that compared to the speed of the rest of the book the ending does have a very different pace with maybe around twice as much happening in the same number of pages and I think that if it had slowed down a wee bit so still a faster pace but not quite as fast it might have finished the story off nicer. 

Overall this was a really enjoyable Karen M. McManus book even if it doesn't hold up as well compared to some of her other books that are just so fantastically done. I am glad to have read it but I do hope with her next book we are back to more of what I would typically expect from one of her books, as I just enjoy that type of story more. However if she goes in a completely different direction again, I won't ne complaining abd instead interested fo see how she does it. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Match book review

  Back in April I was recommended my first Sarah Adams book and really enjoyed it however it wasn’t my favourite type of romance book so when I saw this one had been rereleased and was 99p on Kindle I knew that I needed to read it.  The Match follows Evie who works for a company that trains service dogs to help people with all sorts of disabilities after her life was changed when she got a service dog to help with her epilepsy and when she meets Jacob when trying to convince him how much a service dog would help his daughter she begins to fall for him and his small family.  This was such a light brilliant romance that I just wanted to read and continue to be immersed in the story for as long as I could. I loved all of our major characters particularly Evie, Jacob and Sam (Jacob's daughter). Sam just added the best things to the story and the romance going on between Evie and Jacob. She was also a brilliant character on her own that you really felt for and you just underst...

The Mistletoe Motive book review

  I discovered Chloe Liese for the first time this year and have since May read her entire backlist and loved all of them. The Mistletoe Motive was no exception to this and another one I read within 24 hours.  Over the course of The Mistletoe Motive we get to know Gabrielle and Jonathan who have worked together at Bailey’s Bookshop for about a year but don’t find themselves getting along. They have recently learned that the bookshop is at risk of closing though and set a challenge of whoever sells the least books in December has to resign and through this challenge Gabrielle meets a new side of Jonathan that she didn’t expect.  This is a novella of under 200 pages so while going in I knew I love Chloe Liese as an author I wasn’t sure what I would think of it with it being so short and having less time with the characters. However I was not at all let down by this book and absolutely loved reading it.  Gabrielle was a character I connected to from early on in the stor...

It Only Happens in the Movies book review

  I have previously loved Holly Bourne books but found that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the one I read in 2024 so was a bit anxious going into It Only Happens in the Movies however I had no need for that anxiety because this book was exactly what I wanted and more.  It Only Happens in the Movies follows Audrey who is over romance after her parents divorce that has left her stuck in the middle, a tough break up and teenage friendship struggles. When she starts a new job and meets Harry, Audrey tries to stay away however she can’t help falling for him even if she knows she shouldn’t.  When I first started I was unsure about the book with the elements of romance however I was pleasantly surprised. Holly Bourne built up a character who I understood and felt relatable. The book had the expected message present in almost all Holly Bourne books which made the story more impactful and me wanting to keep reading to see how things worked out.  All the characters were well-deve...