2026 Holiday Reading Challenge | The Running Bibliophile

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Who doesn’t love a good challenge, especially when it pushes you to read outside your comfort zone or discover a new author? I’ve always wanted to join a reading challenge or reading bingo, but so many of them feel repetitive. So, I decided to create something a little different. It doesn’t mean a challenge like this isn’t out there; I just haven’t come across one myself. Introducing The Running Bibliophile’s 2026 Holiday Reading Challenge, a fun and unique way to expand your reading list while celebrating the spirit of the year. This challenge features 14 books of your choice, with one key twist: each book’s plot must revolve around the specific holiday mentioned. The challenge runs for January 1 through January 31, 2026. To keep things exciting, you may not duplicate any books on the list. By the time you've completed the challenge, you will have read 14 new books to diversify your reading list. To kick things off, the first prompt is simple: choose any holiday-themed book as l...
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Book Review: Never Lie by Freida McFadden

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Psychological Thriller Never Lie by Freida McFadden
Never Lie by Freida McFadden opens with newlyweds Tricia and Ethan driving to a house showing that is in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm.  The house once belonged to a psychiatrist who just happened to be murdered.  Upon arriving, they've lost cell phone service and realize that they're going to be snowed in.  Finding a set of keys, the married couple settle in for the night.  While searching for something to keep her entertained, Tricia finds a secret room full of cassette tapes and decides to play one.  What Tricia learns about the former owner unravels a web of lies.

Freida McFadden is an author I've heard a lot about in the online book groups I belong to, and the other members have raved about several of the author's novels.  Not knowing much about her writing style or books, I decided to place holds on several of McFadden's novels at my local public library.

Entertaining and fast paced, Never Lie by Freida McFadden held my interest, and I finished the book approximately twenty-four hours after I began reading it.  Told from two different perspectives ... Tricia and Dr. Adrienne Hale, the book switched back and forth between past and present.  It was executed extremely well.  
 
With that being said, I didn't particularly care for Tricia because a lot of her thoughts seemed like something a teenager would think instead of someone in their mid-twenties.  An example is she kept thinking it was romantic that her husband wanted to take care of her and always wanted to cook her dinner . . . she thought this multiple times, and it came off as obsessive and immature. Yet, Tricia was afraid to tell her husband certain things that she shouldn't have been afraid to tell him.  Regarding Ethan, I liked him quite a bit. His character seemed more mature and more level headed than his wife.
 
book review never lie freida mcfadden
As for Dr. Adrienne Hale, I felt that she was much more mature in her thought process with the exception of a couple of instances.  You'll see what I mean if you read Never Lie.  I also found the doctor to be a bit strange, so I didn't exactly warm up to her.  By the end of the book, I ended up disliking every single one of the characters with the exception of one.
 
Regarding the motive of the killer and who it actually was, I was completely off base . . . the author did a fantastic job of planting red herrings.  There were twists and turns galore.  One thing I did get right though, is I thought one of the psychiatrist's patients was lying about what happened in their life, and it turns out I was correct on that point.
 
Overall, I enjoyed Never Lie by Freida McFadden and give it four out of five stars.  I'd recommend it to people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two because I think that age range would relate to the main character a little bit more than someone older.  I look forward to reading other novels by this author.
 
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