The Lying Game/ Ruth Ware / 370 pgs

I'm really not sure how I feel about The Lying Game. While I think the author tried hard to make the reader care about the characters and their relationship, the whole thing just fell a little flat for me. Isa, Kate, Thea, and Fatima spent one year together at boarding school and formed a thick bond before they were all told to leave for something mysterious that happened. They've kept in touch sporadically and have always been there for each other in an emergency. So fifteen years later when Kate texts "I need you," they all drop what they are doing and race to her side, Isa with her six-month-old baby in tow.

It becomes clear that the ladies are hiding a secret, something to do with Kate's father, who was a teacher at the boarding school. The girls used to play--and really still play--something called the lying game where they tried to get other people to believe their lies. Since they really don't seem to have outgrown this immature game, it can be hard to like the characters. The story is told only through the eyes of Isa and her rationalizations of her behavior, especially in regards to her partner, Owen, got on my nerves. But the writing is fantastic and the setting is atmospheric. I was really rooting for Fatima, who seemed the only sensible one, to take charge and sort everything and everyone out, but alas this is not what happened and the story ends on two notes--one tragic and one ugly.