Day One: Review of Where the Truth Lies by Jessica Warman

*As part of October's Outstanding Bloomsbury and Walkerbooks Author's Week, I have a reveiw of Jessica Warman's Where the Truth Lies today; be sure to check back later for more Where the Truth Lies related goodies*

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

A riveting exploration of how love can lead to lies.

On the surface, Emily Meckler leads the perfect life. She has three best friends, two loving parents, and the ideal setup at the Connecticut prep school where her father is the headmaster. But Emily also suffers from devastating nightmares about fire and water, and nobody knows why. Then the enigmatic Del Sugar enters her life, and Emily is immediately swept away—but her passionate relationship with Del is just the first of many things that aren't quite what they seem in Emily's life. As the lies she's been told start to unravel, Emily must set out to discover the truth regarding her nightmare; on a journey that will lead her to question everything she thought she knew about love, family, and her own idyllic past.

This companion novel to Warman's critically acclaimed Breathless proves that sometimes the biggest lies are told to the people you love the most.

Review:

Where the Truth Lies is one of the most beautifully and elegantly written books of the year, one that deals with situations present in most teens' lives, if not their friends- first love, break-ups, pregnancies...

Where the Truth Lies starts of at the beginning of Emily Meckler's junior year of high school. Emily has always been the good girl. She has three best friends, a picture perfect family life with two parents (something most of her friends don't have), and the right to a boarding school education where her father is the headmaster of the said school. Her junior year is supposed to be just like the rest- perfect and uneventful. That is until it changes in one moment when she meets the mysterious, eccentric, and swoon-worthy Del Sugar. Del Sugar isn't like most boys at her boarding school. He came from foster care and has a tattoo and past he refuses to talk about. And soon he has Emily's heart as well, though as Emily is soon to learn through the falling apart of her life, this isn't the best of things. But how is one girl supposed to leave a guy she thinks she loves, especially given the situation she put herself into? And how is that same girl supposed to pull herself up when she's fallen so far from the top? Well, it looks like Emily is soon to find out...

Emily was a great main character, one that I continuously rooted for no matter how bad the circumstances she got herself into. One of the things I loved most about her character was the layers Jessica put into her, ones that contained the good girl that hid the girl who wanted to break out of her shell which hid a girl who was truly lost in all ways possible. I thought Emily was simply a fascinating character and a perfect pick to lead the story. I also enjoyed reading about her relationships with different characters in the story and how each where built up on truths and lies and how some could go tumbling down in a second. One of my favorite secondary characters was Renee. She was a funny and trustworthy girl that I truly liked. I also adored reading about Emily's other friends and the sometimes funny situations they got themselves into.
 
The plot of this was interesting and forever kept me immersed in the story at hand. I enjoyed seeing the constant twists Jessica put in Emily's life, as well as seeing how far one girl could fall from the 'perfect' life she had before.

Further more, I loved the fact that Where the Truth Lies took place at a boarding school. Because not only did Jessica do a great job of capturing the feel of one, but her descriptions of it often made me feel like I was right there with the characters, wrapped up in all the drama just as much as they were.

And as mentioned before Jessica's writing was nothing but fantastic. My favorite part of the story by far! I loved the level of detail to the story and how she easily made this story take place in two years without giving me the feeling that I missed important details.

The only part of the story I wasn't too found of was how everything also felt a bit too neatly into place, but other than that small thing nothing else truly bothered me.

In all, Where the Truth Lies is a fabulous novel, one that I highly suggest to all readers out there looking for a new contemporary author and her books to read! And I think it goes without saying that I can't wait to read more by Jessica Warman!

Grade: A

Where the Truth Lies is now out!

Source: Kate at Bloomsburry. Thanks!