Little Lies By Liane Moriarty

[amazon_link id=”1405918462″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link] ‘Little Lies’ is the latest book by Liane Moriarty.

Jane hasn’t lived anywhere longer than six months since her son was born five years ago. She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic seaside town of Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane finally feels like she belongs. She has friends in the feisty Madeline and the incredibly beautiful Celeste – two women with seemingly perfect lives . . . and their own secrets behind closed doors. But then a small incident involving the children of all three women occurs in the playground causing a rift between them and the other parents of the school. Minor at first but escalating fast, until whispers and rumours become vicious and spiteful. It was always going to end in tears, but no one thought it would end in murder . .

The first book that I read by Liane was ‘The Husband’s Secret’ I loved that book and it became one of my favourite books of 2013, I was regularly recommending it to people and was even buying it for fellow book lovers as Christmas presents.

When I heard about her latest book ‘Little Lies’, I was eager to read and when I received a copy, I was prompt to delve straight right and return to Liane’s quick-witted and compelling style of writing.

The story starts in the present tense, after the much excitement of ‘Trivia Night’ where a tradgy of some sort occurred, the story then flashes back to the lead up to the event and the things that happened along the way.

The story is seen through the perspective of the three leading ladies, Jane, Madeline and Celeste and the friendship that they strike on the first day of the nursery. Jane is the newcomer to the town, after years of moving around with her little boy Ziggy, she decides that Pirriwee is the place to settle down in and looks forward to the future ahead. But, on the first day of school Ziggy is accused as trying to choke a little girl resulting in all the mothers turning against her and telling their children to stay away from Ziggy. Madeline and her best friend Celeste, are the only two mothers, who stick behind Jane and take the quiet young woman under their wings. Madeline and Celeste have been friends for years and are complete opposite characters. Madeline is loud, robust and always ready to speak her mind. Whereas, Celeste is quite refined and retired in her actions, married to a successful businessman, she leads a wealthy life, that many envy but behind closed doors she leads a less enviable life. Madeline’s life is more chaotic, after her ex-husband decides to move to the same town, with his hippy wife, she finds it hard to ignore the jealousy and resentment she feels towards them as her daughter decides that she wants to move in with them and live their way of life. The three women form a strong bond together and share a mutual appreciation for their dislike of the gossiping mothers who were trying to turn everyone against Jane and Ziggy.

Just like ‘The Husband’s Secret’ the book is cleverly written, with short snappy chapters that you can easily get lost in. I found myself reading it into the wee hours, promising myself that each chapter would be my last but continuing on until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The story flicks between both tenses wonderfully, laying the groundwork until the event which doesn’t happen until about fifty pages from the end so it is impossible to put the book down, as it makes for such gripping reading. A clever addition to the story is the inclusion of comments at the end of each chapter, these comments are from people who have witnessed things within the chapter or from the Trivia night and it gives an interesting insight into how simple things can be misconstrued and gossip can cause a lot of harm.

With a riveting storyline about the consequences of schoolyard bullying and domestic abuse and cast of relatable and likeable characters, ‘Little Lies’ is an amazing story, that hooks you in from the very beginning. I loved every page of this book and I have the bags underneath my eyes to prove it!

You can buy [amazon_link id=”1405918462″ target=”_blank” ] Little Lies from Amazon[/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.