Would I Lie to You by Aliya Ali-Afzal

 

From Goodreads

From fresh new voice Aliya Ali-Afzal, Would I Lie to You? is a page-turning, warm and funny debut about what happens when you have your dream life – and are about to lose it.

At the school gates, Faiza fits in. It took a few years, but now the snobbish mothers who mistook her for the nanny treat her as one of their own. She's learned to crack their subtle codes, speak their language of handbags and haircuts and discreet silver watches. You'd never guess, at the glamorous kids' parties and the leisurely coffee mornings, that Faiza's childhood was spent following her parents round the Tooting Cash 'n' Carry.

When her husband Tom loses his job in finance, he stays calm. Something will come along, and in the meantime, they can live off their savings. But Faiza starts to unravel. Raising the perfect family comes at a cost – and the money Tom put aside has gone. When Tom's redundancy package ends, Faiza will have to tell him she's spent it all.

Unless she doesn't...

It only takes a second to lie to Tom. Now Faiza has six weeks to find £75,000 before her lie spirals out of control. If anyone can do it, Faiza can: she's had to fight for what she has, and she'll fight to keep it. But as the clock ticks down, and Faiza desperately tries to put things right, she has to ask herself: how much more should she sacrifice to protect her family?

A tense, funny and page-turning debut from a fresh new voice in fiction, Would I Lie to You? is perfect for readers of Adele Parks, Celeste Ng and Kiley Reid.

My thoughts

This was a book that my local Library Reading Group read as one of our monthly reads.  It is not an Author or book that I had heard of previously.  This is a debut novel by this Author, so no surprises that I'd never heard of her before.

I feel that the Author has drawn on her experiences and the racism that she may have been subject to at times, to create her lead character Faiza.  Faiza and Tom are a happily married couple with three children.  Sadly Tom loses his job and it's when this happens and money becomes tight, that Faiza begins to panic as she has spent their savings and more.  With debts galore due to trying to maintain a standard of living that they had become accustomed to both at home, private schooling their children and socially how will she keep all this from Tom?

Told in short chapters that make you want to keep reading and binge the story to find out what happens, I found this a great read.  It had plenty of elements to engage you, at times it was told with humour you almost felt that you were with them and there were some laugh out loud moments, there were secrets that you wondered how they would be dealt with by the characters as they tried their utmost to keep them from being found out by family and friends and then there were darker moments too.

Whilst I enjoyed this book, I don't feel that the reading group that I am in will have enjoyed it quite the same.  I feel that it is not a book that most of them would actively read, but I may be completely wrong on that score.  Time will tell and I may be back to update about that later.