After the Lie by Kerry Fisher

Lydia appears to have the perfect life: a loving husband, two children, and a thriving business of her own. She’s the one who always knows what to do, and what to say. But the image of that ‘perfect life’ couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything she has,  everything she’s done is based on a lie. A lie that covers a truth so shameful, it hasn’t been spoken of for thirty years. A lie her husband and children must never find out about. A lie that she and her parents have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect from discovery.

But lies don’t stay hidden forever. And when they finally see the light of day, the lives of those affected will never be the same.

When the one person who might shine the light of truth on Lydia’s carefully constructed lie reappears in her life, she’s in a panic. Stressed and uncertain what the future holds, she becomes impatient and angry with her family, who can’t understand why she’s behaving so strangely. She turns to her mother for help, but only finds more stress and is ultimately pushed into confronting the one person she wants to avoid the most.

The pressure of having lived with a terrible secret for most of her life becomes too much for Lydia, leading her down a path of dangerous choices that puts her marriage in even greater jeopardy. As her secrets begin to come out, one by one, Lydia is forced to face her deepest fears and make choices that will not only affect her own life, but the lives of everyone involved in the tangled threads of her deception.

After the Lie was an emotional ride. There were moments that were genuinely laugh out loud funny, some that made me feel terrible dread, and others that were heartbreaking to read. There is one character I was so certain had no redeeming qualities to offer at all, and it surprised me to find myself feeling sorry for that same character near the end of the story. For just a moment, I was able to see things from their point of view, and it completely changed my opinion of that character. (I’m being deliberately vague about the character’s identity, because I don’t want to risk spoiling a moment of the story for anyone.)

This is the first book I’ve read by Kerry Fisher, but I’ll definitely be reading more of her work in the future.

I received an advance review copy of this book courtesy of Bookouture via Netgalley.

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Author: Kerry Fisher
Title: After the Lie
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Publication Date: April 29, 2016 by Bookouture
Rating: 4 stars

About the Book

An addictive and gripping read about love, life and living a lie.

One little lie can make one big difference …

Lydia has the ‘right’ kind of friends, her children are at the ‘right’ kind of school and she’s married to the ‘right’ sort of man – kind, steady, reliable Mark. Her wedding business is flourishing and even though she is at loggerheads with her mother, she couldn’t ask for anything more from life.

But the truth is that Lydia has been lucky. She has been living a lie for years and Mark has no idea who he is really married to. But nothing lasts forever and the past has a funny way of catching up with the present. When the person who knows all of Lydia’s dark little secrets turns up at the school gates, his presence threatens to blow Lydia’s life apart.

What is Lydia’s terrible truth? Once the secret is out, you can’t put it back …

A powerful and heartbreaking story, perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Jane Green.

About the Author

Born in Peterborough, KERRY FISHER studied French and Italian, and taught English in Corsica and Spain before climbing to holiday rep and grape picker in Tuscany. She eventually returned to England to ‘get a proper job’, and spent two years in features at Essentials magazine. She now lives in Surrey with her husband, two teenagers and a very naughty lab/schnauzer called Poppy.

Kerry’s first novel, The School Gate Survival Guide, was published by Avon, HarperCollins in 2014. Her second book, The Island Escape, came out in May 2015. It won first prize at the York Festival of Writing for the opening line: ‘I was wearing the wrong bra for sitting in a police cell’.