The Liar

Nora Roberts has another hit. Shelby finds herself widowed with a three-year-old and massively in debt. While going through her husband's stuff she discovers unexplained cash and a few different sets of IDs. The man she thought she married, and was no longer in love with, wasn't at all who she thought he was. After trying to get a handle on all the various lies that he told her, she decides to go back home to her family in Tennessee. That's when the story really takes off for me.

I loved the close relationships that Shelby has within her family. Her mother and grandmother are strong women who are very competent. Her father, grandfather, and brothers are find examples of men who understand responsibility and relationships. Shelby does show more have some fences to mend with her best friend because her husband had kept her from her friends and family. He was the type to constantly belittle her and, while he gave her access to credit cards, wouldn't let her have any cash. He also kept the family moving from place to place to make it impossible for Shelby to find any friends in the new places they went.

When Shelby gets home, she has to rediscover her strengths and rebuild her confidence. She meets a new man too. Griff Lott is a transplant from up North who has a successful contracting business with his partner who is engaged to Shelby's best friend. Griff falls for her and for her daughter Callie. He is just the sort of strong, loving, reliable man that Shelby and Callie needs but Shelby is afraid to trust herself again.

Shelby is also dealing with the problem that her husband was probably responsible for a multimillion dollar theft of jewelry and stamps and his former partners and a private eye are convinced that Shelby knows where he stashed his loot. All of them follow her back to her home in Tennessee and cause problems for her. When both one of the partners and the private eye are killed, Shelby, Griff and her family band together to protect Callie and Shelby herself. Then there is the jealous local woman who is more than willing to cause trouble for Shelby.

I had a pretty good idea what the plot twist would be by the time I was halfway through the book and was pleased that I had guess correctly. But I don't read Roberts for the mystery. I read her books because of the characters and the relationships. This book overflowed with wonderful characters and had so many wonderful relationships. show less

The Liar by Nora Roberts
4 stars

From The Book:
Shelby Foxworth lost her husband. Then she lost her illusions…

The man who took her from Tennessee to an exclusive Philadelphia suburb left her in crippling debt. He was an adulterer and a liar, and when Shelby tracks down his safe-deposit box, she finds multiple IDs. The man she loved wasn’t just dead. He never really existed.

Shelby takes her three-year-old daughter and heads south to seek comfort in her hometown, where she meets someone new: Griff Lott, a successful contractor. But her husband had secrets she has yet to discover. Even in this small town, surrounded by loved ones, danger is closer than she knows—and threatens Griff, as well. And an attempted murder is only the show more beginning.

My Thoughts:
The first part of this was fascinating. Shelby discovering that her husband was never even close to who or what she thought he was and consequently the entire four and a half years of her life was one gigantic and dangerous lie. The only good thing that came from the marriage was three year old Callie Rose. How she went about getting herself out from under over three million dollars in debt while discovering more and more deception at every turn, would have by itself have made a excellent book. The story, for me at least, began to break down when she and Callie Rose returned to her family in Tennessee. Everyone was just too sweet to be believable or digestible for very long. I'm from the south and I know that family is everything but this felt way over the top. It was however a good story and picked up when the private detective tracked her down and became involved again. It earned the 4 stars. show less

Nora Roberts has another hit. Shelby finds herself widowed with a three-year-old and massively in debt. While going through her husband's stuff she discovers unexplained cash and a few different sets of IDs. The man she thought she married, and was no longer in love with, wasn't at all who she thought he was. After trying to get a handle on all the various lies that he told her, she decides to go back home to her family in Tennessee. That's when the story really takes off for me.

I loved the close relationships that Shelby has within her family. Her mother and grandmother are strong women who are very competent. Her father, grandfather, and brothers are find examples of men who understand responsibility and relationships. Shelby does show more have some fences to mend with her best friend because her husband had kept her from her friends and family. He was the type to constantly belittle her and, while he gave her access to credit cards, wouldn't let her have any cash. He also kept the family moving from place to place to make it impossible for Shelby to find any friends in the new places they went.

When Shelby gets home, she has to rediscover her strengths and rebuild her confidence. She meets a new man too. Griff Lott is a transplant from up North who has a successful contracting business with his partner who is engaged to Shelby's best friend. Griff falls for her and for her daughter Callie. He is just the sort of strong, loving, reliable man that Shelby and Callie needs but Shelby is afraid to trust herself again.

Shelby is also dealing with the problem that her husband was probably responsible for a multimillion dollar theft of jewelry and stamps and his former partners and a private eye are convinced that Shelby knows where he stashed his loot. All of them follow her back to her home in Tennessee and cause problems for her. When both one of the partners and the private eye are killed, Shelby, Griff and her family band together to protect Callie and Shelby herself. Then there is the jealous local woman who is more than willing to cause trouble for Shelby.

I had a pretty good idea what the plot twist would be by the time I was halfway through the book and was pleased that I had guess correctly. But I don't read Roberts for the mystery. I read her books because of the characters and the relationships. This book overflowed with wonderful characters and had so many wonderful relationships. show less

This was a nailbiter! Shelby’s husband just drowned in a sailing accident, leaving her a widow with a toddler daughter. Come to discover, he was hiding multiple identities, loads of debt, and lots of secrets, if the contents of a safe deposit box provide any hints. Super creepy. Was anything he told her true? Can she trust anyone she meets? Shelby sells the house and escapes to her hometown, but will her husband’s shady past follow? Lots of great characters in this one, classic southern drama, brothers you can count on, and great suspense as the mystery is slowly unraveled.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.

Shelby's life is in ruin. Her husband is dead, leaving her with debts and it seems he wasn't the man she thought he was when she married him. Even his name seems to be false. So, she packs everything she still owns and returns to her hometown with her daughter. But it seems that someone is out there watching her every move and soon her peaceful hometown will not be so peaceful anymore...

Before last year I had only read one Nora Roberts book, which to be honest feels a bit odd when you think about how many books she has written. But to be fair I mostly read fantasy, sci-fi and crime novels and hers have always felt a bit not my type of book. But lately I have been given a chance to try out various books written by her and this is the show more latest and I actually thought that this would be the first book by her that I would give four stars to. That was before I hit the 50% in the book and everything started to fall to pieces when it came to the story.

On the plus side with the book we had some really interesting characters; I liked the main character Shelby and her family, her love interest Griff was OK (yes it was a bit to instalove for my taste, but I can take that sort of). The crime/mystery everything to do with her husband worked for me (mostly) but it was all the Hard of Dixie stuff, feuding with an old enemy from school, playing family and the extremely predictable ending that made this book lose stars. There are three ways to end a thriller, a surprising ending (the best), a not so surprising ending (kind of OK ending, you had an inkling of what should happen, but, for the most part, the ending still delivered) and a terrible, terrible predictable ending, the kind that you see miles away. This one had the number three ending and I can take many things like for instance instalove, well no not really, but I can overlook it, kind of. But this kind of ending, no!

So, in the end 2.5 stars because half the book was good and I still liked Shelby and her family in the end.

Thank you Piatkus for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! show less

Nora Roberts continues to impress me with her ability to make characters that seem real and engaging, even in the midst of mysteries that are intense and fantastical (not necessarily unreal, but the kind of things that happen to Other People). Sure, one of the big reveals at the end of this book was not really a surprise, but that didn't detract from the amazing people in the story the rest of the time. I do think some of the mystery ran on a little long, and I was glad when we got the HEA part, which was why I didn't give the book 5 stars. Other than that, another fine work from a consistently good author who never fails to make me laugh and cry along with her characters.

The Liar is a romantic suspense thriller featuring Shelby Pomeroy, who moves back to her parents' house with her young daughter Callie when her husband Richard dies. Richard's death revealed that he was a liar and a cheat, whose fortune was built on a stack of debts that Shelby has now taken on. As she works out how to support herself and her daughter, Shelby meets the handsome carpenter Griffin Lott, but also has to face up to the fact that Richard's death doesn't mean she is free of him.

The main characters are too cute to be believable but some of the cuteness is countered by the darkness of the novel, which we get a hint of from the first section of the book. When Richard's true colors are fully revealed, trouble comes to Shelby and show more her hometown, turning the community into a target for some very bad people. The author weaves together a series of mysterious happenings and shifty characters, and although I suspected I knew what was going on, there was no way for me to guess how Roberts was going to bring it all together..

I read this book in a day because I thought it was a impossible not to keep turning the page. Like “the most interesting man in the world” might paraphrase: I don't often read romantic suspense but when I do I prefer Nora Roberts. Unfortunately, the premise of the story and most of the plot has been done many times. Wife discovering that her husband wasn't who she thought he was, that he was a cheat, a liar and left her with tons of debts, etc. I will say that Nora Roberts took the premise one step further, but it was still pretty predictable. Just because it was predictable doesn't mean you can't enjoy humorous characters and a happy ending though! show less