Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering

"You have to be careful of girls that are too pretty, though. 

They hold a power that they never had to earn."

-Carola Lovering, Tell Me Lies

Cover Art Courtesy of Goodreads

With every great reading streak, you're bound to encounter a dud sooner rather than later, and this book was unfortunately that dud for me. Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering had so much promise, but just fell flat. This story follows two main characters, Lucy and Stephen. Lucy is perpetually stuck in Stephen's charismatic trap, even though he treats her terribly. Each of them have their own individual issues going on outside of each other, which makes the toxic relationship even worse, but the only real growth that happened in the book happened so late in the game that everything up to that point was like watching paint dry.

Normally I really enjoy character-driven stories, even if there isn't much plot, but this was such a drag! The story just chronicled their college years in dual narrative format, and all the story really focused on was each time Stephen ensnared Lucy only to begin treating her like crap fairly soon after.

I've been Lucy myself-the girl fully absorbed in a guy and completely ignoring how badly he treats her, listening to lie after lie, and believing that he will change. Observing this from the outside though, all I wanted to do was scream at Lucy to get a grip and leave the loser, even though personally I know it's not that easy.

The book also kept referencing one specific incident in the past that Lucy and Stephen both have ties to, but neither knows it. I honestly didn't see the point of this addition whatsoever. This could have been done so much better to turn this story into a somewhat-mystery. I liked all the side characters a lot, and I think stories about them would have been much more interesting than this. I especially loved Pippa, and was absolutely fascinated by CJ.

The only other redeeming quality I could find in this book was the abundance of Fleetwood Mac references. Lucy sure did have good taste in music. That and the fact that I really like the book cover.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Thanks to Atria Books for an advanced e-copy of this book! Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering is out now, so if this sounds up your alley be sure to pick up a copy!