"The Last Time I Lied" by Riley Sager--We Both Liked This Mystery

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager is a mystery about missing girls that takes place at Camp Nightingale.  It is an all-girls camp for mostly rich girls.  This story centers around Emma who at 28 is still trying to find out what happened to her three cabin mates, Vivian, Natalie and Allison. Emma is an artist but can't get the girls out of her head and they are all she paints, hiding them in pictures of forests.  Sometimes she even still sees Vivian and keeps telling herself she isn't crazy.  The camp closed down for years after the girls went missing and were never found, but is re-opening 15 years later and Emma has accepted the opportunity to go back as an art instructor to teach girls to paint.  The only reason she accepts is to snoop around to see if she can find clues to what happened when she was a camper there.  There is a lot of suspicion and people still think she must have had something to do with it.

This book kept me guessing and I felt bad for Emma and the camp owner, Franny.  There are lots of questions that came up as I read this:  What happened to the three girls 15 years ago?  Is Emma hallucinating seeing Vivian all over or could Vivian still be alive?  Who is after Emma now?  What happened to her current cabin mates?  Is Theo telling the truth or not when he finds Emma in the woods with the girls?  This book jumped from present to past throughout, but it was written well so was easy to follow.  I liked it and was eager to finish to find out what actually happened.
(Karen's review, 5 stars)     

(Gerard's review, 5++ stars) 
In The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager, Emma is a first-time camper.  She gets put in a cabin with three older girls who are long-time friends.  They befriend her and things are going along good until tragedy happens!  Fifteen years later, Emma gets a chance to go back to this camp.  She reluctantly winds up going to find out answers to what really happened on that night years ago!

I thought this book was really good!  Emma is a really good character and the pacing of this book is so good, you do not know the outcome till just about the last page!  This was the author's second book so I order her first one to read as well.


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"Harmony" by Carolyn Parkhurst is About Living in Harmony With Special Needs Kids

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst is about the Hammond family, Josh, Alexandria and their two daughters, Iris and Tilly. Tilly is a 13-yr-old somewhere on the autism spectrum whose “special interest” is statues and who has a quick temper, no filter and is fairly smart with a good imagination. When the mother is near wits end from daily episodes with Tilly, she attends a workshop by Scott Bean for help. She starts listening to his tapes and even arranges a personal consultation. When Tilly gets kicked out of the school for special needs children, the mother suggests to Josh that they consider helping Scott Bean run Camp Harmony – a new endeavor for families with a special needs child. Scott is an educator who gives parents advice and through the summer, different families can attend the camp for a week. Three families agreed to help Scott run it and help with all the chores that need to be done.

This is an interesting and sometimes funny read. I liked it overall and was able to overlook the foul language which was part of Tilly’s problem. Most of the book is told from Iris’s perspective with some chapters interspersed showing Tilly’s thoughts and some that give the background on their family, particularly the mother’s dealings with Tilly, before leaving DC for the camp in New Hampshire. This gives insight into some struggles families with special needs kids may have, but also shows the tender moments too. The ending was sad and quite a shock—not what I expected. My favorite part was the interaction among the kids at the camp and between Tilly and Iris.
(Karen's review, 4 stars)

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