“I reconciled that night long ago, when the choice I had was college or jail for accessory to murder.”

I had enjoyed Jaime Lynn Hendricks’ book I Didn’t Do It, which, though that book had quite a bit of swearing, I thought there were some redeeming parts. So I was looking forward to this book.

Unfortunately, this one had way more swearing and sexual content without any of the redeeming parts.

This book followed the popular trope of ‘something bad happened back when we were in school and someone died but we promised never to talk about it until we’re adults and a stranger starts digging and asking questions and now we have to talk about what really happened back then.’


Most recently I read Only If You’re Lucky which also released this year and they are pretty similar stories actually. Same unbelievability about what teens are capable of doing and keeping a secret and somehow not being affected by any of it. Also both have a duo of: narcissistic best friend and best friend who would do anything for their popular friend because they can’t afford to lose their friend’s love and attention.

Sometimes the ‘what really happened back then’ trope works for me, but it seems like most of the time youths are involved (including this one) I’m unsatisfied with the book.


The basic premise of this book was that a car accident happened the night of the senior year party that was eventually just determined to be an accident, but the detective suspected something else happened that night. Scarlett and Pepper, best friends, have agreed never to talk about it or tell a soul. Pepper leaves town that week and never comes back. Now 20 years later, Pepper’s grown daughter, Zoey, shows up on Scarlett’s doorstep with the news that Pepper died in a car accident recently. Zoey is now demanding answers about who her father is and what Pepper lied to her about from her past. Was someone murdered? Who was cheating on who? Was everyone too drunk to know anything?!


The characters in this book are all terrible. I don’t even believe the ‘characters I love to hate’ acquiescence applies here. The only good character was Scarlett’s son, Luke, but even he was a drug dealer— which by the way, is apparently supposed to be endearing because he’s doing it to help his mom get away from his dad and he’s not actually really doing the drugs.

It’s a book full of debauchery— because everyone slept around and lived their high school years in drunken stupor— that of course is going to lead to some challenges. It’s all pretty dysfunctional and the only character development I saw was that compared to some of the characters, others are all of a sudden ‘not as bad as that one.’


I also didn’t like the title- A lovely lie. Somehow the story Pepper and Scarlett determined they would tell the detectives was referred to as the lovely lie, but that adjective doesn’t make any sense and is definitely not how any normal person would refer to the lie. I’m trying to think of a better example of a lie that could be called a lovely lie and I can’t come up with anything. It’s fun alliteration, but it feels disjointed and uncreative to invest the title in and then try to cram it into the character’s thoughts throughout the book.


Another annoying thing from this book was how Scarlett constantly used the phrase ‘my boy’ in regards to her son, Luke. She says it 11 times throughout the book. It got to the point where I was convinced Vince had to not be Luke’s father. Considering all the other information we were learning about Scarlett, Pepper, Vince, and Chris, it really felt only natural that Scarlett had a child with someone else and lied about it this whole time.

But nope. She just really likes to talk about her son like an old grandpa. I don’t think it’s a spoiler, but since I wouldn’t recommend this book to you, it doesn’t matter anyway because you won’t read it.


Lastly, I just really don’t enjoy books where the mystery and lies are surrounded by drunkenness. It just feels like a lazy or too convenient way to not have to give the readers the truth or to cast suspicion on other characters. It is an unsatisfactory excuse for any sort of plot development. I don’t like those kinds of stories. Everyone’s drunk so they don’t remember everything right… just teens being teens…


Okay one more thing: shouldn’t the car on the front of the cover only have one headlight?



Recommendation

I do not recommend this book.

There’s not much to like. Unlikeable characters. Lots of profanity. Lots of dysfunction. Predictable. Not a great ending.

I can’t think of a reason for why you should read it.There are plenty of other books about lies, past or present, that are way better than this one so just skip it and move on.

If you want to try this author, try I Didn’t Do It instead. I’m not sure I’m willing to try any of her other books at this point. We might just need to part ways now.


[Content Advisory: 101 f-words; 81 s-words; 26 d-words; 15 b-words; sexual content; reference to rape; miscarriage; affair]


**Received an ARC via NetGalley**