This sequel to "Beautiful Lies" (which I enjoyed), was a flop from beginning to end. Although I didn't care much for the opening of the book, where the narrator's approach in bringing the reader "up to speed" just seemed annoying, I still at that point held out hope for a good plot. Unfortunately, the plot was merely acceptable, nothing more.Yet, even with that—the annoying opening and the merely acceptable plot—I might still have at least found the book passably entertaining, had it not been for the hack job that the author did on the protagonist. Whereas our "heroine" came off as likeable, intelligent, spunky, and even somewhat complex in the first book, here she just comes off as foolish, irresponsible, and just not at all as likeable as before. Too add to the mess, some of the choices that the author has made for the storyline just seem so incredibly implausible. For example, the ridiculous love scenes that materialize out of the blue at the most implausible of moments. It's almost as though the author couldn't decide if she wanted to write chick lit or a bona fide suspense/thriller and decided to jarringly switch between the two styles, even within the same chapter.Another trivial, but illustrative, example is when when she has the protagonist—who is on serious antibiotics at this time while also chasing down a lead through a dangerous, unknown nightclub—drinking beer. I don't know if I should be hating the author at this point for such a stupid implausible choice for her character, or hating the character! Like I said, trivial, but illustrative.The author also takes a lot of time to dish out the protagonist's feelings in very silly and repetetive teaspoon doses, as though spoonfeeding them to a reader having problems either grasping or remembering the emotions at play in the story. So, for example, you have a line like, "I was still naive enough to believe that somehow everything was going to be okay," the likes of which crop up all over the story. Unfortunately, the average reader is probably not naive enough to swallow these lame lines this many times in one novel. Or this gem: "I know, I was being pathetic, a total girl. I needed to focus, so I did." Get that? She just did. If only it were that easy for the reader to stop seeing this character as pathetic at this point.Incidentally, unless a book is atrocious, I generally finish what I start reading, and this was no exception—but, I did have to take a break every few chapters to read something less frustrating and more enjoyable for a while.In short, this was a major disappointment following the decent and entertaining first book. I would recommend stopping after the first and going out on a relatively high note.
This, along with its sequel Sliver of Truth, are thrillers by Lisa Unger.Beautiful Lies is a halfway decent story, and I admit I got caught up in it while reading. However, I suspect if I hadn't I would have found a number of inconsistencies in the plot. Sliver of Truth I enjoyed considerably less. For one, the speaker spends a considerable amount of time addressing the reader directly. For two, the speaker offers up a lot of background information that is completely irrelevant to plot, characterization, or much of anything. And third, the author has an annoying tendency to jump around in the timeline of the story. I try to avoided anything that could possibly be construed as a spoiler in this blog, but since these things very much annoyed me, I am compelled to share what I consider to be a fairly harmless example. At the end of one chapter, we find the speaker finishing up an argument with her boyfriend in New York City. The start of the next chapter finds the speaker in Detroit, whereupon she provides a paragraph explaining why she is a bad driver, something completely irrelevant. A few paragraphs later, she writes to the reader (paraphrasing) "I bet you wonder how I got here." At this point, she begins to elaborate everything that happened between the end of the last chapter and the start of the current one, finally finishing up with where she currently is...again.I suspect Beautiful Lies is a case of an amateur writer stumbling across a decent story in much the same way a chimpanzee, if put in front of a typewriter, will eventually quote Shakespeare. It is the sort of writing that is suitable for passing a few hours in an airport. However, I would not make a habit of reading books by this author.
What do You think about Sliver Of Truth (2013)?
From my blogA great continuation in a series that you should read soon after because many details can have you (me, lol) completely confused, in the end I remembered some but think I would have enjoyed even more if I had read sooner. Beautiful Lies was more like Deadly Lies and Sliver of Truth was the line between innocence, naivety or to know the truth you must die. Great thrillers, I highly recommend.My favourite style was the chapter parts - Daddy's Girl, The Ghost and The Homecoming.Ridley has moved on after the disaster of finding out who she is and family history that almost breaks her. She is still with Jake, her boyfriend who gives mixed signals, we should move on or just enough to keep her engaged with her past. She is feeling balanced and then is pulled off the street by detectives and shown pictures of someone they state is her father but her father is dead.Everyone is asking her where is the ghost. It becomes a chase against time but why are they chasing a ghost? Another detective continues being in her life, does she trust him or is he the ghost they are chasing thinking it is her dad. Lots of action and mystery to keep you thrilled.Lisa Unger continued with the second person narrative, she executes this style perfectly, draws you in, making it more personal.
—Tea Time with Marce
The sequel to Beautiful Lies was not as good as the original. For one thing in order to make it a stand alone book, there was a lot of material from Beautiful Lies just transferred into this book, sometimes summarized, sometimes just cut and pasted. The story was more far-fetched and didn't seem to accomplish much besides removing what charm there was from the romantic aspects of the first story and getting a lot of people killed. The characters seemed more mechanical and less human and sympathetic. I think I might have been growing tired of them; it was very apparent that the author had, and what was fresh in the first book grew stale in this one.
—LadyCalico
They say: "Do not judge the book by its cover" and literately I was mislead by the cover of this book. I have read the description at the back together with great reviews from two of my favourite authors Lee Child and Lisa Gardner and was hoping for a great story that will hook me from the very first page but what a disappointment! I gave up after 120 pages as I could not stand this horrible book. The protagonist Ridley is so annoying, naive and was getting on my nerves with her constant referring to her past. There is no flow what so ever. On few instances the mystery was building up to be only spoilt by Ridley and her thoughts or lack of action. I read a lot of crime novels and this is the first one I gave up on reading. Please do not waste your time. Unfortunately, I bought two other books by Lisa Unger but not sure if I even want to open them.
—Malgorzata
