Perfect Liars by Rebecca Reid @RebeccaCNReid @TransworldBooks @BeckyShort1 #PerfectLiars - My Life In Books

Sixteen years ago, at an elite boarding school secluded in the English countryside, best friends Nancy, Georgia and Lila did something unspeakable. 

Their secret forged an unbreakable bond between them, a bond of silence. But now, in their thirties, one of them wants to talk.

One word and everything could be ruined: their lives, their careers, their relationships. It's up to Georgia to call a crisis dinner. - she knows there's nothing that can't be resolved by three courses in her immaculate kitchen. 

But the evening does not go as planned. 

Three women walk in to the dinner, but only two will leave. 

Murder isn't so difficult the second time around...

Perfect Liars by Rebecca Reid was published as an ebook by Transworld Books on 1 September 2018, the paperback will be published on 21 February 2019.

As part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour, I'm delighted to welcome the author, Rebecca Reid here today. She's talking about the books that are special to her in My Life in Books.

My Life in Books - Rebecca Reid

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The first time I read it I was thirteen and I only picked it up because it had my name on it. But I fell completely in love with it and now I reread it every couple of years. It was the first book I ever bought for my husband (a somewhat egocentric book) and I’ll spend my entire career trying to be a fraction as good as Daphne du Maurier.

I’ll always be a sucker for an older man, a big house and a dark secret, as my next book Truth Hurts demonstrates!


Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh When I was seventeen I spent a summer living in Florence, studying history of art. I was surrounded by very clever, very grand students from Oxford and when I got back to England (with something of a bump – going back to school is a bit dull when you’ve been living in your own apartment) I found refuge in Brideshead. Evelyn Waugh is still one of the funniest, driest writers of all time and that’s something I like to try to emulate.


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte  Jane Eyre was the first book I ever read properly. I struggled to learn to read, what with being dyslexic. I was seven, and I found a cassette tape of Jane Eyre in my parents house, listened to it and thought it was the most amazing story I’d ever heard. My mother (a very canny woman) gave me the book, rather than the second cassette tape, and I wanted to know what happened next so badly that I conquered reading, and then I never stopped.

Rivals by Jilly Cooper  I could quite happily have filled this list with just Jilly, but I fear that might have seemed a bit limited. I’ve chosen Rivals here because I think it’s the most exciting of the Rutshire Chronicles, and I could read about Taggie and Rupert Campbell Black tidying out their sock drawers and still find it thrilling.

Jilly taught me everything I knew as a Catholic school girl about sex, men and relationships. So I hold her entirely responsible for all my decisions!


Truly Madly Guilty by Lianne Moriaty   I love everything that Lianne Morriaty writes, but Truly Madly Guilty holds a very special place in my heart, because it was the last book I read before I started writing Perfect Liars. I was on my honeymoon, feeling a little despondent about my writing career, and something about Lianne’s writing just convinced me that I could – and should – write. I don’t think that there would be a Perfect Liars without Truly Madly Guilty.


I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith  Is there a more perfect book than I Caputre the Castle? Dodie Smith bottles the feeling of being seventeen, living in the middle of nowhere and wondering whether you ‘real’ life is ever going to begin. I read it and I’m a teenager again. Plus, she is the absolute mistress of description. I can see every frame of her book in my mind.

Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov   The ultimate unlikeable protagonist, reading Lolita is an experience of being manipulated by the pages, which is deeply uncomfortable but incredibly impressive. I’ve read it at different ages and been increasingly horrified by it as I get older, but I’m always blown away by the beauty of the prose.



Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling   Find me a child of the 90’s who doesn’t have space in their heart for Harry Potter. I’m part of that age group who grew up with Harry, just a couple of years younger than the characters in the final book when it was released. Harry Potter was the first truly voracious reading experience I ever had, consuming a book as quickly as my eyes could move, staying up late into the night.

Rebecca Reid - October 2018

Rebecca is a freelance journalist. She is a columnist for the Telegraph Women’s section, works for Metro Online and has written for Marie Claire, the Guardian, the Saturday Telegraph, the Independent, Stylist, Glamour, the iPaper, the Guardian, Indy100, LOOK and the New Statesmen amongst others. Rebecca is a regular contributor to Sky News and ITV’s This Morning as well as appearing on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, LBC, BBC News 24 and the BBC World Service to discuss her work.

She graduated from Royal Holloway’s Creative Writing MA in 2015 and Perfect Liars is her debut novel. 

Rebecca lives in North London with her husband.

Twitter @RebeccaCNReid