Review: Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick

A coming-of-age romance with threads of suspense.

3.5 – 4 stars

• Young Adult | Thriller
• Buy Now: Amazon Kindle | Amazon Hardcover | iBooks

Synopsis

A 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…

My Review

I love Becca Fitzpatrick’s books and I love thrillers, so I was extremely excited to read Dangerous Lies. The novel centers around a girl (Estella Goodwinn) who witnesses a crime and is placed in witness protection as a result. Estella grew up ignored by her drug-addicted mother, left to fend on her own. But after witnessing a murder, she and her boyfriend are whisked away to separate locations, while her mother heads to rehab. Estella becomes Stella Gordon, and is taken to a small rural community in Thunder Basin, Nebraska. Her new life couldn’t be more different than the life she left behind in Philadelphia. She rebels in every way, hating every minute she’s away from her no-rules lifestyle, away from her boyfriend.  Soon enough, however, she befriends the enigmatic Chet Falconer (her neighbor) and begins to form a connection she never expected. Meanwhile, danger looms around the corner as those she plans to testify against do everything they can to find her.

This was a fairly well-crafted story, with rock-solid writing (as always), but my main letdown was that I felt it needed to ratchet up the suspense factor. Dangerous Lies felt more like a romance or a coming-of-age story, with a great deal of focus on the intensifying feelings between her and Chet. I wanted more moments of action to punctuate the thriller aspect of the novel. In addition, there are plot threads that were never tied off, leaving me with unanswered questions.

This is a well-written novel perfect for those who love to relish in summer love with some minor notes of mystery. Billing it as a thriller was the book’s primary disservice.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | Goodreads | Subscribe by Email

Subscribe for Updates: