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FilmIntuition (33 KP) rated Lies You Never Told Me in Books

Jul 20, 2018

Lies You Never Told Me

Jennifer Donaldson | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)

7.4

(5 Ratings)

Book Rating

A tale of two narratives, in Lies You Never Told Me, debut novelist Jennifer Donaldson deftly flips back and forth between the first person points-of-view of high school students Gabe (in Austin) and Elyse (in Portland).

An addicting work of romantic suspense, although it opens with an air of mystery followed by the bang of a hit-and-run, the book slows down enough to carefully build the characters and effectively develop their alternating storylines to the point that – to the author's credit – there's no easily mistaking one for the other.

Nicely balancing the intrigue of a Gabe chapter with the drama of an Elyse (and vice versa), the book's pace quickens with each chapter to the point that I found myself nearly unable to put it down.

And despite the fact that I was able to piece together precisely how and why the two characters were connected roughly a quarter of the way into the novel, thanks to certain context clues, the book is so well written that I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. Of course, that being said, the less you know going in the better.

Reminiscent of a great character driven '80s thriller from the Hollywood heyday of Fatal Attraction, in spite of a slightly contrived climax, Lies You Never Told Me is a terrific stay up all night summer read you'll definitely want to recommend to a friend.

Kudos

Russell Evans (179 KP) rated The Songs of Us in Books

Feb 22, 2020

The Songs of Us

Emma Cooper | 2018 | Contemporary

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Heartwarming, heartbreaking and beautiful

‘The Songs of Us’ is an amazingly emotional book. Beautifully written and quirky, it made me laugh out loud many times, but in perfect balance, it made me cry as it also dealt very sensitively with some more serious issues. It’s hard to explain without spoilers, but it was heart-warming, heart-breaking, funny and sad all at the same time.
I highly recommend reading this debut novel from Emma Cooper – perhaps have some tissues at the ready!

The Blurb
‘Our life – no matter what happens in between – starts and ends with a heartbeat: our own personal rhythm, our own song’
If Melody hadn't run out of de-icer that day, she would never have slipped and banged her head. She wouldn't be left with a condition that makes her sing when she's nervous. And she definitely wouldn't have belted out the Arctic Monkeys' 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' in assembly at her son's school.
If Dev hadn't taken the kids to the zoo that day, then the accident wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have left Flynn and Rose without a dad. Or shattered the love of his life's heart.
But if they hadn't seen the missing person report that day, they might never have taken the trip to Cornwall. And, in the last place they expected, discovered what it really means to be 'Us'.