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Early Review: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE by Carola Lovering

February 28, 2021

 

About the Book:

 

ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH.

Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips―she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family―she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.

But now Burke―handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before―says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married, and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.

In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past―or will he find his way into her future?

On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.

Too Good to Be True releases on March 2, 2021.

 

 

My Review:

 

LOVED this twisty, clever thriller! Please don’t read any spoilers for this book, it is best to jump right in. I found this book to be wonderfully addictive. I could not put it down until I learned how each of the separate narratives were connected!

I don’t know why but this book really lifted me out of a book slump when I read it. My favorite character was Skye, who has OCD. I loved how the author described the rituals Skye had to engage in and how Skye dealt with her behavior. I also loved the settings of the book. The author obviously knows New York City and the Hamptons and it shows!

Too Good to Be True is just one of those books that completely grabs your attention from the very beginning. I have to keep this review brief because I don’t want to give anything away about the plot. I loved the clever details and the alternating narratives. Is one of the main characters lying? It was very hard to figure this one out. I truly enjoyed every minute of this book and highly recommend it. Try to avoid spoilers if you can!

(Thank you to the publisher for proving an advanced copy via NetGalley in return for an honest review.)

“The truth has to be somewhere in these tangled narratives. And I have to find it.”

Categories : 4.5 Stars, Adult, Contemporary, Domestic Thriller, Mystery, Reviews, Thriller Tagged : Carola Lovering, Too Good to Be True

TELL ME LIES by CAROLA LOVERING

January 2, 2021

 

About the Book:

 

A thrilling, sexy coming-of-age story exploring toxic love, ruthless ambition, and shocking betrayal, Tell Me Lies is about that one person who still haunts you—the other one. The wrong one. The one you couldn’t let go of. The one you’ll never forget.

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.

With the psychological insight and biting wit of Luckiest Girl Alive, and the yearning ambitions and desires of Sweetbitter, this keenly intelligent and staggeringly resonant novel chronicles the exhilaration and dilemmas of young adulthood, and the difficulty of letting go, even when you know you should.

 

My Review:

‘Tell Me Lies’ is the completely addictive story of a very poisonous relationship. I can look back with the wisdom of age and see how toxic Stephen and Lucy’s relationship was, but yet also understand why Lucy made the choices she did.

The tale spans several years of the relationship between the charismatic yet sociopathic Stephen DeMarco and the beautiful but insecure Lucy Albright. They meet in college in California but coincidentally are both from the same area of Long Island. This actually plays a crucial role in the conclusion of the book. While definitely not a romance, there are plenty of very graphic sex scenes. Told in alternating points of view, the author did an outstanding job of making me feel anxious yet completely invested in the story. I could not put this book down!

Lucy knows that Stephen is a serial cheater (and quite possibly, worse) but she has such low self-esteem that she falls for all of his attention and flattery. (I mean, just look at the amazing cover of this book!) I actually felt sympathetic towards both of the main characters (I know, shocking!). I felt that the author really presented a clear picture of the mind of a sociopath, someone incapable of feeling any empathy or remorse whatsoever.

“I know about guilt, and it doesn’t apply to me — I don’t carry the burden of it. It actually works to my advantage, most of the time.”

I have known Stephens in my life, which might be why this was such an addictive read for me. Lucy passed up many opportunities just for a fleeting chance she might be with Stephen, and over and over again, he disappointed her. She began a very promising college life, only to settle for average just so she could be closer to Stephen. I loved the exploration of Lucy’s very complicated relationship with her mother, which thankfully, resolved itself in the end. Overall, this was a very sexy, dark and complex tale with two very difficult characters.

“I was delirious and idiotic and naive and irresponsible and self-destructive, and I knew all of that. But none of it weighed anything against what I actually felt. Do you follow your head or your heart? Which do you do? Your heart, always. Right?”

‘Tell Me Lies’ came out in 2018 and it has been on my TBR list since that time. I am so glad I got around to reading this one! I was totally engrossed in this very realistic story of obsession and first love. Highly recommend!

(Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.)

Categories : 4.5 Stars, Adult, Contemporary, New Adult, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged : Carola Lovering, Tell Me Lies

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