
The Book:
Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering, 2018
The Characters:
Lucy
Her on-and-off boyfriend Stephen
Get it on Amazon.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Lucy Albright is far from her Long Island upbringing when she arrives on the campus of her small California college, and happy to be hundreds of miles from her mother, whom she’s never forgiven for an act of betrayal in her early teen years. Quickly grasping at her fresh start, Lucy embraces college life and all it has to offer—new friends, wild parties, stimulating classes. And then she meets Stephen DeMarco. Charming. Attractive. Complicated. Devastating.
Confident and cocksure, Stephen sees something in Lucy that no one else has, and she’s quickly seduced by this vision of herself, and the sense of possibility that his attention brings her. Meanwhile, Stephen is determined to forget an incident buried in his past that, if exposed, could ruin him, and his single-minded drive for success extends to winning, and keeping, Lucy’s heart.
Alternating between Lucy’s and Stephen’s voices, Tell Me Lies follows their connection through college and post-college life in New York City. Deep down, Lucy knows she has to acknowledge the truth about Stephen. But before she can free herself from this addicting entanglement, she must confront and heal her relationship with her mother—or risk losing herself in a delusion about what it truly means to love.
The Review:
I received Too Good To Be True (coming 3/2/21) through a Goodreads giveaway a few months ago, and until then had never heard of Carola Lovering. I was thrilled to see that she had a previous novel out, and knew I had to read it!
Tell Me Lies was good, but Too Good To Be True was way better. This book is about college relationships, missed connections, and growing up. It was interesting to watch the characters grow throughout their college days. Don’t we all have those relationships that we look back on and cringe at? I definitely do.
This book is for readers that love to hate the main character. Lucy is so naive, and I don’t love characters that hang their entire personality on a relationship. I just couldn’t connect with her at all, from constantly forgiving a cheating ex to not confronting her mother about her infidelity. Obviously I didn’t like Stephen either, but he was meant to be hated.
I didn’t understand the point of the split timelines. I feel like the story could have been told chronologically without the flashbacks. I’m not really sure what the “present-day” timeline at Bri’s wedding contributed to the story. I thought the “twist” was kind of random and also unnecessary to the story.
QOTD: Tell me a funny story about a cringe-worthy relationship from your youth!
My first year of high school, a guy did such a bad job of asking me out that I didn’t know I had been asked out. I had to have my friend set him straight: I didn’t want to be his girlfriend just because I had agreed to spend my lunch hour hanging out with him. Something similar happened in college when a friend-of-a-friend asked me out and I gave him a nonanswer. He thought I said yes and told all of our mutual friends we were dating. He was angry when I told him I hadn’t said yes, and in fact I did not want to date him. I learned how to say no after that, but I can’t live it down with our mutual friends!

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