Dangerous Lies
by Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher – Simon & Schuster
Release Date – 10th November 2015
Buy – Amazon | Book DepositoryA teen is forced to make a fresh start after witnessing a violent crime—but love and danger find her anyway in this novel from Becca Fitzpatrick, the New York Times bestselling author of the Hush, Hush saga.
Stella Gordon is not her real name. Thunder Basin, Nebraska, is not her real home. This is not her real life.
After witnessing a lethal crime, Stella Gordon is sent to the middle of nowhere for her own safety before she testifies against the man she saw kill her mother’s drug dealer.
But Stella was about to start her senior year with the boyfriend she loves. How can she be pulled away from the only life she knows and expected to start a new one in Nebraska? Stella chafes at her protection and is rude to everyone she meets. She’s not planning on staying long, so why be friendly? Then she meets Chet Falconer and it becomes harder to keep her guard up, even as her guilt about having to lie to him grows.
As Stella starts to feel safer, the real threat to her life increases—because her enemies are actually closer than she thinks…
Estella Goodwin is on the run. After being put into the witness protection programme, her mum in rehab, her boyfriend also in protection, and a cartel drug dealer wanting her dead. Now Estella is missing and out comes Stella Gordon. Stella now has to live the summer in Thunder Basin, a place so remote and empty there really isn’t anything to do. No friends, no family even though she didn’t really have one before. It’s an escape, not attachments, but in the end it could be a fresh start for her. But when she settles into Thunder Basin little did she know she would run into trouble in the form of Trigger, the towns star baseball player, a complete douche and bully of the cruelest kind. Stella gets herself in the middle of things with Trigger which send hers in all kinds of danger especially when he starts to dig in Stella’s past.
Stella witnessed a murder in the confines of her own front room, of course she is scared and thought of being ripped away from her boyfriend leave her feeling hollow inside. I don’t blame her that being sent to the opposite end of the state outs a curveball in her senior year and her life. It would pretty much suck to be honest. Stella is a very guarded character, she does give herself away very much until the end of the book, which I liked. I liked that we broke down to her gradually and it wasn’t instanteous. I mean she’s a new person after all and it takes a while to really get to know her. I think with this story you have to patience till you get the full picture. I find also that when a character such as Stella is brought up in such a rural area as Thunder Basin, it’s like your living and breathing to the simplest of humanity. It’s the simple acts of nature that shows the rawness to her character being stripped to the bone that she once was as Estella. I think when she stayed with Camille, something changed in her, with Camille care and gentleness but also her routines and strictness that made Stella realise another path to human nature as well. She found herself caring and also finally realising that she’s got something she never had before, a family. But above all falling in love… Oh the romance, queue the fan ladies, you are in for a treat. Whilst Estella was attached from the beginning, I didn’t really get to know Reed so I wasn’t emotionally connected or felt that he had any real connection or even fulfilled Stella as a character. The only reality that he even existed was through the letters she would read in order to keep some semblance of the life she used to have. But I guess you have to realise is that was Estella and Reed. That is a past life. Now Stella is a whole new person, she is starting a blank new canvas. To help fill in those bright and hot spots she has Chet. Wow wee. Chet Falconer, is also as honest and raw as they come. Those eyes of his have seen and witnessed a fair share horror and pain. Being a parent to his younger brother is hard when he’s an rebellious one at that, especially after losing both of his parents. Chet is innocent as it comes when it comes to love, so when his eyes set themselves onto Stella, he was in for ride. The hard part was she isn’t who she says she is. But the reality was that he didn’t care, because he knew that in those few weeks she had let her guard down, he knew he was already there. It was a pleasure and heart-warming to read such a relationship as it reminded me of the love I have around me. I love when a novel really connects not just to you but to the desires of the heart as well.
Fitzpatrick’s writing is really rather addictive. I think the combination of the her writing style and the thrill of the chase with the plot line It was a page turner. Combine the thrill and near experience with some steamy romance and you got yourself a killer of YA story. For some reason though I felt that her writing was so much better from what I (briefly) remember from the Hush Hush series. Although I really need to read the others or reread them to get he full experience of her writing. I think this sort of contemporary suits a lot more authors than others and that’s Becca Fitzpatrick.
Becca Fitzpatrick and I haven’t really had a long relationship in terms of books. Long long ago I read Hush, Hush and I have to say I haven’t actually read the rest of the series nor do I remember very much either of it. So I took the opportunity of reading something totally different for the change. I haven’t read Black Ice yet which I know it is of a similar genre, so I will take that as my next venture. But what Dangerous Lies reminds me of is Katie McGarry’s Nowhere But Here, with the characters and also the background of the story too. That just made it even more brilliant. I’m not saying it’s the same but I do love a thriller romance such as this.
Rating – 5
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This sounds like a fabulous read! Thanks so much for the chance to win!!
Nice to see you posting. That's always a positive when a book gets credit for curing a book slump.
Well, this sounds like it'd be the book to get me back to reading Becca Fitzpatrick's books after DNFing the second book in the Hush Hush series…
Great review Emma!
YAY! So glad you enjoyed this too Emma! I was initially concerned in the first chapter when I learned she already had a boyfriend since I knew there was going to be a romance with Chet, but like you said, Reed was present in name only and I was never overly attached to him, so the cheating issue became a non-issue for me. Definitely had fun with this one:)
this looks like a vibrant story with great characterisation, and I'm really looking forward to reading it after reading your post xx
Occasionally I find a book that I think both me and my husband would enjoy and this sounds like one of them! He likes crime and generally I don't but I've enjoyed Gine Girl, Girl on the Train and a few others.
You've definitely convinced me! I wasn't a huge fan of Hush Hush either but I'm really liking the sound of this, especially the character dynamics and romance. I think I'm going to check this one out! Great review 🙂
I've been hearing some things about this one, so it has me a bit curious. I think Witness Protection is such a fascinating concept. I haven't read anything by Becca, so I have no idea about her writing style and whatnot. I'll have to try it out!
This sounds a really good book. Thank you