✱✱ Book Review ✱✱ The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

The Last Time I Lied 

by Riley Sager 

In the latest thriller from the bestselling author of Final Girls, a young woman returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago.

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees.

Familiar faces, unchanged cabins, and the same dark lake haunt Nightingale, even though the camp is opening its doors for the first time since the disappearances. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, but soon discovers a security camera--the only one on the property--pointed directly at its door. Then cryptic clues that Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins begin surfacing. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing mysterious threats in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to those girls, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.

❃❃The Last Time I Lied releases July 3rd❃❃

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Momma Says: 5 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Man, oh man, Riley Sager is a master at messing with the mind of the reader! Last Time I Lied should've been titled Everybody Lies because there are secrets buried everywhere, both literally and figuratively. The story starts a bit slow, but once it has its hooks in you, there's no breaking loose as the tension builds little by little. Every answer brings another question as past merges with present and everyone is a suspect, including our less than reliable narrator. With the exception of Emma's friend, Marc, there's not a character in this twisted tale that I was completely sure about for more than a hot minute. Everyone has an agenda of one kind or other and every conversation is laced with what could be a clue, a veiled threat, or on the other hand, mean nothing at all. With some whiplash inducing twists, mysteries within mysteries, and so many secrets, this one will keep you guessing right up to the mind-blowing conclusion, and I absolutely loved it! 

❃❃ARC provided by Penguin Random House First to Read

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✱✱ Book Review ✱✱ When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri

When Katie Met Cassidy

by Camille Perri

From the acclaimed author of The Assistants comes another gutsy book about the importance of women taking the reins--this time, when it comes to love, sex, and self-acceptance.

"Perri's book is a real gift--tender, sexy as hell and laugh out loud funny."--Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

When it comes to Cassidy, Katie can't think straight.

Katie Daniels, a twenty-eight-year-old Kentucky transplant with a strong set of traditional values, has just been dumped by her fiancé when she finds herself seated across a negotiating table from native New Yorker Cassidy Price, a sexy, self-assured woman wearing a man's suit. At first neither of them knows what to make of the other, but soon their undeniable connection will bring into question everything each of them thought they knew about sex and love.

When Katie Met Cassidy is a romantic comedy about gender and sexuality, and the importance of figuring out who we are in order to go after what we truly want. It's also a portrait of a high-drama subculture where barrooms may as well be bedrooms, and loyal friends fill in the spaces absent families leave behind. Katie's glimpse into this wild yet fiercely tightknit community begins to alter not only how she sees the larger world, but also where exactly she fits in.

❃❃When Katie Met Cassidy releases June 19th❃❃

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Momma Says: 3 stars⭐⭐⭐

When Katie Met Cassidy is a well-written, lighthearted, easy summer read. That said, I came away from it with some mixed feelings - some things I liked and some, well, not so much.

The biggest drawback for me was the emphasis on Katie's background. She's a Kentucky girl, complete with riding horses, close knit family, and traditional values. She's quick to ask questions about things she doesn't understand and to speak her mind with her observations - at least with Cassidy. On this part, I totally got her. However, when she runs into her ex and company, she becomes someone else, including suppressing her Southern accent. That aside, the traditional values part of her background is where I had a problem. As a Kentucky girl, myself, and also raised with traditional values, it never fails to irk me when this comes up in a book. The stereotype that Southern born and bred equals intolerance is just that - another stereotype, and this type of labeling has become all too common in LGBT romances. 

Enough on that, I'll get off my soapbox now, and talk about what I did enjoy in this story. While it is completely predictable, almost from the minute this pair meets, it's also witty, fun, and even a bit silly at times. The story is told in dual points of view, bouncing between Katie and Cassidy, who are quite different in personality, but somehow just work together. We also get a great bunch of secondary characters, who at times, are even more interesting than our romantic couple. Some I absolutely loved, and some I wanted to just give a good shake, Gina in particular, but love them or hate them, they're all colorful, interesting characters. 

But here's the thing, even with the predictability, there's just something oddly compelling with this story. Whether it's the writing style, which is very good, or the flow, also good, I found myself wanting to see what was next, moving on to that next chapter to get the other person's view on any given situation. In the end, even though this story had its ups and downs for me, the author's talent did shine through and I would happily read other works from her. 

❃❃ARC provided by Penguin Random House First to Read

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✱✱ Book Review ✱✱ Order of Protection by Lexi Blake

Order of Protection 

A Courting Justice Novel

by Lexi Blake

A sexy and suspenseful new contemporary romance from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake where love and law entwine for a conviction of the heart.

To high-end defense attorney Henry Garrison, Win Hughes is a woman he met during one of the most trying times of his life. She's soft and warm, and he finds solace in their brief relationship. But Win has a secret. She's actually Taylor Winston-Hughes--born to one of the wealthiest families in the country, orphaned as a child by a tragic accident. Win moves in the wealthiest circles, but her lavish lifestyle hides her pain. 

When her best friend is murdered in the midst of a glittering New York gala, Win's charged with the crime, and the only person in the world she wants to see is Henry. 

Henry is shocked at the true identity of his lover, but he can't reject the case. This trial could take his new firm into the stratosphere. Still, he's not getting burned by Win again. And yet every turn brings them closer together. 

As the case takes a wild turn and Win's entire life is upended, she must look to the people she's closest to in order to find a killer. And Henry must decide between making his case and saving the woman he loves...

❃❃Order of Protection releases June 5th❃❃

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Momma Says: 3 stars⭐⭐⭐

Order of Protection opens on the beach and as we meet our main characters, we also get a bit of backstory for each. Henry and Win are both fresh out of rehab - him for alcohol and her for anorexia, and they're both trying to get on with their lives. The scene of their first meeting is witty and fun and there seems to be some chemistry between this sexy older man and the attractive young woman he brings in out of the rain (literally). 

From what I read in the opening chapter, I expected a reasonably paced story. Instead, it slows down and a lot of the next several chapters are well, kind of boring, which led me to set this one aside several times. The book does pick up again at about the halfway mark and we begin to get some real suspense going on. 

The suspense side of the story was interesting and did keep me guessing, but by that time, I was disconnecting from the romance. Henry's reaction to Win's secret was way over the top, especially considering his past. If anyone should understand the need for anonymity, it should be Henry. Instead, his complaints become tedious. I did like Win's wit and attitude, but when Henry starts acting like a child, I didn't much care if this pair made it work or not. Plus we have the fact that neither of these people, fresh out of recovery, ever feel the need to get help when stress gets high. Even early in the book when Henry wants a drink, he runs instead of contacting a sponsor, friend, therapist, etc. 

To sum it up, this first Courting Justice novel left me straddling the fence. There were things I liked and things I didn't, and whether or not I'll continue on with the series remains to be seen.

❃❃ARC provided by Penguin Random House First to Read

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