Tao of J.T. is the online blog of New York Times bestselling author and EMMY-award winning television host J.T. Ellison.
Today is the day! I am so excited to finally share GOOD GIRLS LIE with you, in all formats!
Head to the Events page to learn more about each tour stop. I hope to see you there!
It’s hard to believe… my new novel, GOOD GIRLS LIE, will be out in the world very soon. Because it’s releasing at a tricky time, when many of you will be gone for the holidays, I wanted to give you a precursor round-up. Here is everything you need to know about GOOD GIRLS LIE in one convenient spot! I can’t wait to get this book into your hands. Merry Everything!
GOOD GIRLS LIE will be in bookstores on Monday December 30, 2019.
About the book:
Goode girls don’t lie…
Perched atop a hill in the tiny town of Marchburg, Virginia, The Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status, long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond. But a stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous.
In a world where appearances are everything, as long as students pretend to follow the rules, no one questions the cruelties of the secret societies or the dubious behavior of the privileged young women who expect to get away with murder. But when a popular student is found dead, the truth cannot be ignored. Rumors suggest she was struggling with a secret that drove her to suicide.
But look closely…because there are truths and there are lies, and then there is everything that really happened.
J.T. Ellison’s pulse-pounding new novel examines the tenuous bonds of friendship, the power of lies, and the desperate lengths people will go to to protect their secrets.
★ Publishers Weekly starred review
I had a lovely sit down with the folks at BookClubbish to discuss GOOD GIRLS LIE, my writing, and other tidbits. Enjoy!
Head to the Events page to learn more about each tour stop. I hope to see you there! If I’m not coming to your area, you can preorder a signed copy from Parnassus Books.
“A high-tension thriller...Alternating points of view raise the suspense, blurring the lines between what’s true and false...Ellison keeps readers guessing throughout."
—★ Publishers Weekly, starred review
"An intriguing plot, featuring a final twist, shows what can happen when hidden truths are revealed."
—Booklist
“Good Girls Lie is an entertainingly twisted coming-of-age tale, pitting the desire for privacy against the corrosiveness of secrecy and taking an often harrowing look at how wealth and power can lull recipients into believing they’re untouchable.”
—BookPage
“Sinister and atmospheric, this page-turner elevates the thriller genre with descriptive writing and well-drawn characters. Ash arrives at the Goode School with secrets of her own. Following an honor code is difficult enough (no lies allowed), but throw in secret societies and overly privileged students, and the scene is set for murder. For readers who liked The Secret History and Watching You.”
—Douglas Beatty, Baltimore County Public Library, LibraryReads
“An exploration of deception and betrayal—and the caring-and-cruelty rollercoaster of adolescent friendships—“Good Girls Lie” represents a gripping read that simultaneously mesmerizes and disturbs.”
—The Free-Lance Star
“GOOD GIRLS LIE is a superb psychological thriller…a deliciously dark, wickedly plotted suspense story…with drama, secret societies, cliques, illicit affairs, manipulation, and, of course, murder, and it’s the sort of book you never want to end.”
—Crime By The Book
"Every facet this author weaves will have you chilled to the bone. Out of all the books you choose to read, make sure this is the one you do not overlook.”
—Suspense Magazine
THE LOST KEY, the second book in the Brit In The FBI series, is on sale for $1.99! Get your copy while it lasts.
"A thriller packed with nonstop action, real-life name-dropping and enough cutting-edge science to make you wonder how much of it could be true." – Kirkus Reviews
Freshly minted FBI agent Nicholas Drummond is barely out of his Quantico training when he and his partner, Mike Caine, are called to investigate a stabbing on Wall Street.
Their investigation, however, yields more questions than answers. It quickly becomes clear that the victim, John Pearce, was more than the naval historian and antiquities dealer he appeared to be. What Drummond doesn’t know is that buying and selling rare books was Pearce’s cover, and that he had devoted his life to discovering the whereabouts of a missing World War I U-boat concealing a stash of gold bullion, and an unexpected surprise that only raises more questions. When Drummond and Caine find both of Pearce’s adult children have disappeared, the case assumes a new sense of urgency. The FBI agents know their best lead lies in the victim’s cryptic final words—“The key is in the lock.” But what key? What lock?
The search for Adam and Sophia Pearce takes them on an international manhunt, which threatens to run them afoul of an eccentric billionaire industrialist with his own plans not only for the lost gold, but the creation of a weapon unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Happy Release day to us! THE SIXTH DAY trade paperback is on sale today! Look at this gorgeous artwork! It’s stunning, and I love it! To celebrate, here are some insights about how we put together the book, the research we did, and a few other little tidbits. Hope you enjoy!
I’ll be the first to admit, naming the 5th book in the Brit in the FBI series THE SIXTH DAY shows a small lack of foresight on our part, as now that the 6th book is underway, I keep finding myself saving files to the Sixth Day folder. A small price to pay, though, for what I think is the most intricate, intense ride of the series thus far.
Set in London, Nicholas and Mike are up against a villain who thinks he’s a descendent of Vlad the Impaler, and believes the lost pages of the Voynich Manuscript hold the answers to save his twin brother from the grips of severe hemophilia. (Get it - vampires, hemophilia…) Plus, there is some high-tech madness, and a drone army, and falcons named after the original Cabal. Trust me when I say Nicholas and Mike have their hands full.
You might wonder how Catherine and I cook up these crazy plots. Normally, we meet at her place in California, but for this book, we set up shop in a lovely hotel in Manhattan, with oodles of tea and bacon (the staples of life) being brought by room service, and started throwing ideas against the wall. We had two basic concepts to start with — the Voynich Manuscript and Vlad Dracul — and we tossed out plot twists until they began to gel into a plausible story.
We had so many cool ideas for THE SIXTH DAY I often wondered how we would manage to fit them all in. But we did, and the result is a mind-bending thriller that will leave you breathless.
A part of this book’s inspiration was a family affair. I have to give props to my dad and my brothers for inspiring the falcons in the book. We were walking on the beach last year and my eldest brother mentioned a documentary he’d seen about a falcon hospital in Saudi Arabia. My dad had forwarded me a story about the French using eagles and falcons to take down drones just days before … and my middle brother mentioned he’d recently seen a story about a Saudi Prince booking seats for 80 of his falcons on board a plane. I was hooked on these ideas and ran to Catherine and said — Roman has to be a falconer. She bought in immediately, for which I will be forever grateful.
In that vein, I also have to give props to Helen Macdonald for her incredible book H IS FOR HAWK (recommended to me years ago by my very first editor, so how’s that for full circle), and Deborah Harkness for introducing me to the Voynich in her incredible ALL SOULS series. These inspirations truly helped bring this book to life.
Thanks to all!
I hope you enjoy THE SIXTH DAY – let me know what you think!
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
BOOKS-A-MILLION
INDIEBOUND
INDIGO
TARGET
I have 10 copies of the trade paperback up for grabs! Giveaway is US-only (sorry, international folks!) and ends this Friday November 16. Enter on the Rafflecopter widget below or by going here.
“Death hath a thousand doors to let out life: I shall find one.”
— Philip Massinger
I saw this quote years ago, and it sparked an idea. Now, over a decade later, you get to see what Massinger wrought in my mind. I found the door, now I bring you the lives…
I am so thrilled to announce A THOUSAND DOORS: An Anthology of Many Lives is on sale today!
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
INDIEBOUND
BOOKS-A-MILLION
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
INDIEBOUND
BOOKS-A-MILLION
Having this book out in the world is an absolute dream for me. I’ve been harboring this story ever since I saw the quote, about a young woman who is murdered, and as she dies, has the chance to lives all the lives she’d once dreamed of having.
I’ve likened it to Sliding Doors meets The Lovely Bones.
But it wasn’t my usual kind of story, and a very ambitious one at that, so I shelved it until I felt the time was right. I’m so glad I did, because as the years progressed, I realized how incredibly cool it would be if I had help writing Mia’s many lives.
Last year, I recruited some of my favorite writer friends to help me. Look at the amazing list of authors bringing Mia alive:
This is the most unique, exciting project I’ve ever had the pleasure to work on. It’s much more than an anthology, this is a novel. Over the course of the story, you are going to meet 16 different variations of Mia Jensen. You are going to journey through her lives, be shocked by her decisions, her actions, her vulnerabilities, her loves, her mistakes. You are going to get to know Mia better than she knows herself.
A THOUSAND DOORS is on sale in hardcover, trade paper, and ebook today, everywhere books are sold. Audio is coming after the first of the year. I hope you’ll talk to your favorite indie booksellers and librarians and ask them to stock the book, too.
“I cannot express how unique, thrilling, and emotional of a ride it was to make my way through A Thousand Doors. The journey that Mia faces from beginning to end was suspenseful, tense, and gripping, and the ending tied everything together in a satisfying manner. Highly recommended to those who are finding the thriller genre a bit stale these days; A Thousand Doors is a breath of fresh air for readers who are feeling stuck in a rut.” –– Chelsea Humphrey, The Suspense Is Thrilling Me
“What makes this book so special is the different courses a person’s life can take and each author’s spin. If you have read each of the contributor’s work previously, you will see each story was ideal for that respective author. Each story is full of humor, intrigue, and suspense and very thought-provoking. Highly-entertaining!” –– Judith Collins, TLC Book Tours
“A Thousand Doors is unlike any book I’ve ever read...an intriguing concept brought to fruition by an extremely talented and diverse group of women.” –– Susan Peterson, Goodreads
“This is one of those pieces of work that come along and leaves you thinking about every life choice you have ever made. And what would you do if you had the chance for a do over? Each story tells a different path and outcome. I have no idea how all of these authors came together and speak with the same voice. I have never read anything like this and it is just a brilliant idea and body of work.” –– Patricia Romero, Goodreads
The day Mia Jensen died, she finally got to live…
WHAT IF?
We’ve all played the “what if” game. For Mia Jensen, “what if” is a fact of life. Dissatisfied with her choices, she often dreams about what could have been. Now she has the chance to know. But that knowledge is going to cost her dearly. Only through death can she fully realize the value of her life.
Forty-year-old Mia Jensen is home after a terrible day, trying to figure out how she’s come to this point in her life, when she hears a strange noise from the kitchen. She investigates, only to be brutally attacked and left for dead. As she dies, she experiences some of the lives that could have been hers had she only made a different choice.
Can one woman can find peace with the path she’s chosen before it slips through her fingers forever?
Through the unique voices of New York Times bestsellers and rising stars in women’s fiction, A THOUSAND DOORS examines how our smallest decisions can create lasting effects, and asks the ultimate question—can we actually change our lives?
I always have a soundtrack for my books, and A THOUSAND DOORS is no different… except this one was compiled en masse, with each author offering their own song to match their story. Can you guess which song goes to which life?
Enter to win a $100 Parnassus Books gift card! This is my hometown bookstore and a wonderful place to shop—either in person or online. Thank you for celebrating with us!
As you can imagine, a project of this magnitude isn’t undertaken lightly. A great deal of time, effort, and care has gone into this story over the years, as well as putting the book together and getting it into your hands. My deepest thanks to Ariel Lawhon and Laura Benedict for helping me conceptualize and organize, Kim Killion for the beautiful cover art, and Phyllis DeBlanche for her editorial expertise, and the amazing Leigh Kramer for putting together a stunning series of images and PR material that has really helped Mia shine. And of course, without the amazing authors who brought Mia to life, this story would still be rattling around in my brain. Thank you, brilliant sisters of letters. You’ve made this all worthwhile. XO
And as always, thank you for being on this journey with me.
Now, get thee gone, reader, and buy your copy of A THOUSAND DOORS, STAT! I can’t wait for you to read it!
I leave you with a final question.
Which life would you choose?
