Please Don't Lie Audiobook By Christina Baker Kline, Anne Burt cover art

Please Don't Lie

A Thriller (Crystal River, Book 1)

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Please Don't Lie

By: Christina Baker Kline, Anne Burt
Narrated by: Ardenn Stolz
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In this stylish, twisty thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline and award-winning author Anne Burt, a young woman heads to the Adirondacks with her new husband for a fresh start—but the past won’t let her go.

Two years ago, Hayley Stone lost everything. First, her parents died in a devastating fire. Then, her sister overdosed, leaving Hayley alone and hounded by a media circus that turned her family’s tragedy into tabloid fodder. When her new husband suggests a fresh start in the Adirondacks, the promise of anonymity in an isolated mountain town feels like salvation.

But the mountains hold darker secrets than she ever imagined.

Her once-loving husband grows distant and volatile. The widow down the road keeps spewing vague accusations. Not even their new friends—a free-spirited couple living on the property—can help Hayley shake the creeping sense that something is off.

As winter edges closer, Hayley discovers that her sanctuary is anything but safe. Trapped and isolated, she faces a terrifying truth: in trying to escape her past, she may have run straight into something far more dangerous.

©2025 by Christina Baker Kline & Anne Burt. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Domestic Thrillers Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Marriage Exciting Fiction
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Critic reviews

“A palpable sense of fear, terrible secrets, and a horrific confrontation shatter Hayley’s already fragile world in this taut psychological thriller about grief, trauma, and survival.” —Booklist

“An original and masterfully crafted psychological thriller of a read from start to finish…” —Midwest Book Review

“Getting away from it all has never looked more sinister or ill-advised than in this deliciously dark version of the small-town idyll.” —Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Suite 11
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Oh wow. The narrator has this interesting cadence that I found distracting and was unable to finish the story.

Narration

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I think it did a great job at building tension. Great plot twist I didn’t see coming.

Twisty turny tension

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I don’t want to give anything away. I had so much fun guessing the entire way. Excellent book. I highly recommend it.

Excellent Thriller

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10 chapters in and I had to review and I usually don't review books, it makes me feel like I'm back in school writing book reports. I had to start this book several times because in the narrator made it hard for me to stay focused on the story. Eventually, I just skipped the beginning and went straight to chapter 1. While her cadence was still distracting, not as much as it was in the prologue. I will admit her cadence does make the story more creepy, it is still very distracting. Maybe it's just me and my ADHD but there were several times I had to pause the book think about what I just heard, rewind and listen again because I knew I was off in La La land. When it becomes noticable that her cadence is creeping me out and I take a vacation from my present self, I have to stop the book and do something else. I just checked and I have 30 chapters to go but hoping I can finish it by the end of the week before I decide to archive it.

The Narrators voice is creepy but she's not for everyone

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Boring in some parts but the ending was great. That’s all I want to say, keep it short, seriously

It was ok

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