Book Review: Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick, by Teen Reviewer Lexi

Today Teen Advisory Board member and reviewer Lexi shares with her thoughts about the recent release DANGEROUS LIES by Becca Fitpatrick.

Publisher’s Book Description:

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…

Lexi’s Thoughts:

I didn’t like it.

That’s it. It wasn’t my cup of tea. I went in really open to enjoying another fantastic novel by Becca Fitzpatrick, but that isn’t what I got out of this book.

First off I must admit that I may be biased to the genre. I fell head over heels for Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush series. I expected the same amount of admiration for this book but I couldn’t seem to muster it. Within the first few chapters I was forcing myself to continue. I don’t like feeling like reading a book is a chore.

Crime novels aren’t usually for me but I have enjoyed a handful before. So, I was quite saddened when I couldn’t get into Dangerous Lies.

Don’t get me wrong, the writing is as great as I would expect from such a fantastic novelist, but for me the content, the crime, the drug cartel, irritated me and made me lose interest real quick. I powered through it just to power through it but I will admit that there are bits and pieces of the book I just skimmed because I felt like I was being tortured reading it.

The main character, Stella, is the type of character I just couldn’t relate to. I couldn’t connect to her and I think that’s why it pained me to read this book. Her hostility and self-centeredness makes me want to fight her. Life gets bad sometimes but you don’t have to take it out on others who are just trying to help.

Personally, I think it was the main character that ruined this book. If Becca Fitzpatrick wrote a more intellectual, mature main character for this book it would have been maybe a 3 on a scale of 5. But having written such a bratty main character, she branded her book a sold 1 for me.

Read it if crime contemporary is your thing. Read it if you don’t mind such a judgmental and irrational main character. Read it for you. However, i wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone looking for a book similar to the Hush, Hush series. It’s so far off but I guess you’ll have to decide to read or not to make your own opinion.

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