I actually bought this book at the bookstore and read it because I’ve been reading Ms. Francis’s blog, Simply Wait, for a long time now. I was there, virtually, when she heard that her book was going to be published. And Patry Francis is an amazing blogger. She tells good stories like this one called “The Paper Closet” or this character sketch called “Whatcha Lookin For?”

So, how could I not read her book? And how will you believe me when I say that I liked it very much? (I’m just one of those biased bloggers, you know, who can’t tell a good book from a dud.)

Still, I say it: The Liar’s Diary is a good read. It’s exciting with intriguing characters and a twisty, labyrinthine plot that I didn’t figure out until the final chapter. Who’s lying, and who’s telling the truth? Which of the characters is lying even to himself or herself?

The Liar’s Diary is about the friendship between two women and about the lies they tell. I must say that although I read the novel compulsively to get to the end and find what happened, I ended up disliking or loathing almost all the characters in the novel. Surprisingly, this antipathy didn’t ruin the story for me, maybe because I couldn’t tell what I thought about the people in the novel until the very end when I finally figured out what had happened and who was lying to whom.

The Liar’s Diary would be a good summer book to take on vacation or to the beach. It’s a fairly “clean read” with some language, sex and violence, but nothing graphic or gratuitous. If you read it, come back and tell me what you thought.