A Year of Lies

A gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist

By: Shelby Shaw

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Framed for murder. Surrounded by women with secrets.

I’ve spent my whole life becoming someone else.

A new name. A polished history. A flawless facade—all carefully constructed to earn me a place in Magnolia Estates, the most exclusive neighborhood in Mississippi. Joining the Magnolia Estates book club feels like the final seal of approval. These women are everything I’ve pretended to be: wealthy, elegant, untouchable.

But perfection is exhausting.

And every woman in that room is hiding something.

Betsey Hartwell watches me like she knows who I really am.
Margot Spencer’s designer lifestyle is collapsing behind closed doors.
Sloane Winters drinks too much—and flinches as if she’s waiting for punishment.
Tatum Carter’s sealed divorce records suggest something violent and unresolved.
And Nina Cunningham sits silently in the corner, writing in her leather journal, recording everything.

Then Betsey is murdered.

The police think I did it.

My fake identity turns me into the perfect suspect—the outsider, the fraud, the woman with everything to hide. Someone inside the book club is feeding the police my secrets while guarding their own. One of these women killed Betsey. One of them is framing me.

If I don’t uncover the truth, my carefully rebuilt life will be destroyed.

Because in Magnolia Estates, truth is the most dangerous currency of all. These women have been protecting the same secret for twenty years—a secret worth lying for, worth killing for, worth burying a body to keep hidden.

I thought I knew how to pretend.

I had no idea how deadly this game could be.

The book club meets once a month.
The lies last a lifetime.
And the only way out…is through.

Tropes:
📚 Exclusive Book Club
🏡 Suburban Secrets
🔍 Framed for Murder
👤 Unreliable Narrator
🖤 Female-Led Psychological Thriller
🔐 Hidden Identities
💎 Wealthy Neighborhood Drama
🧠 Slow-Burn Psychological Tension
🩸 Murder Among Friends
🖊️ Journals, Notes, and Dangerous Truths
🤫 Twenty-Year-Old Buried Secret
⚠️ Everyone Has a Motive
🧩 Twisty Domestic Mystery

A Year of Lies is a psychological thriller with plenty of twists and a deeply unsettling ending that will stay with you long after the final page.

Not well edited but story was interesting

There was some repetition and unrealistic aspects that made it read as poorly edited. Also, the AI reading is not great, like referring to 911 as nine hundred and eleven. The story was interesting so kept me reading.