Three Perfect Liars by Heidi Perks
Actual Rating: 3.5
Thank you to NetGalley for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
Beautiful cover aside, Three Perfect Liars gripped me with its promise of a whodunnit told through alternating perspectives of secretive narrators. There’s Laura, who returns from maternity leave to find her position stolen. Her replacement, Mia, is everything Laura’s not — likeable, fun. But she’s there for other reasons. And then there’s Janie, the wife of the agency’s CEO. When the company building goes up in flames one evening, secrets are unearthed.
I kind of had mixed feelings on the plot itself, which sort of bounced between interesting and predictable. The first half talked a lot about tensions in the office amid Laura’s return, and while I liked that pressure, it got repetitive and old fast; the second half was focused more on the actual reveal, and while I was interested in seeing how the stories of the three women would be weaved together, ultimately the story that was behind it all was similar to a plotline I’ve seen in other books in this genre.
Funny enough, the character that annoyed me the most was also the one that I connected to the most — Laura. The cycle of her aggression towards Mia, annoyance towards her husband, and scorn towards her boss seemed to go on and on, and yet she had the clearest backstory and reasoning. Mia was a little hard to read and place in the story, and honestly, I felt as though Janie had a very marginal role, the most boring perspectives, and a passive role in the story up until the very end. With all that being said, this isn’t a character-driven book (it’s more event-driven) and for that reason I couldn’t really connect to the characters emotionally.
The writing style was good. My usual aversion to multiple-perspective and dual timeline books reared its ugly head in this book that had BOTH of them; I enjoyed some chapters much more than others, but I’m still happy to say that I was never lost or confused because of it.
Overall, this was still a good read, probably best suited for those interested in contemporary mysteries and new adult fiction.
etherealpages 