The Lies They Tell finally has a face — and today you get to see it. But first, how we got here: in dispatch one I made the map, in dispatch two I interrogated the sentences, and now the book I’ve been taking apart gets to look back at me.
Every choice on a cover is a decision, and decisions are what this blog is for. Let me tell you what you’re looking at.
The House Nobody Should Have Built
The Sullivans have one house rule: protect each other, whatever it costs. The problem with a rule like that is what it gets built on. Every card in this house is a lie — kind ones, protective ones, lies so old nobody remembers laying them down — and a house like that stands only while everyone agrees to hold still.
Somebody moved.
Look closely: it’s not down yet. Parts of it are still holding. That’s the book — the fall, in progress, and everyone inside it deciding which cards to grab.
The blood. It’s not decoration, and it’s not only on the ground. If you’ve read The People You Trust, you know this family’s secrets were never the polite kind. The game was never friendly. The cards just made it look that way.
The petals. You know the rose. She made Book 1’s cover in one piece. She didn’t make this one that way. Count the petals and ask how long something has to fall before it comes apart.
The Cards Worth Finding
A king of hearts, face up — see what found him.
A queen of hearts: torn clean through, taped back together, landed just clear of the wreckage. Sit with that repair for a second. It’s the most important object on this cover.
And an ace of spades — historically not a card that brings good news — which you’ll notice did not land far from the queen.
I’m not telling you who’s who. You’d guess wrong about at least one of them, and I’ve learned to let you.
The Question Underneath
The Sullivans have one house rule: protect each other, whatever it costs. This winter, Rose finds out what it’s been costing. Every sister is carrying something. Every something has a reason. And Rose — who can taste when a dish is off from across the room — won’t taste this one coming.
That’s the official teaser, but underneath it the book is asking one thing: can a relationship survive on a foundation of lies? Rose spends this book finding out — and she’s keeping count. Of the lies. By the end, you’ll have lost track.
She won’t.
From Stick Figures to Shelf-Worthy
This cover started as hand drawings. Mine. I am not an artist, which the drawings made abundantly clear — but they knew where every card belonged and why, and that was their whole job. From there it was texts and emails back and forth with Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations, who designed Book 1 and came back for this one: me explaining what a card meant, Sarah making it look like something you’d actually pull off a shelf.
The ideas survived translation. The stick figures did not. Everyone’s better off.
One housekeeping note: the release date may breathe a little. You’ll hear it here first when it’s firm.
Back downstairs. Forty chapters are still waiting to be questioned, and now they know what the cover of their confession looks like.
~ KTG
© K.T. George 2026 | This post was first seen on ktgeorge.com | Cover design by Sarah Hansen / Okay Creations