ARC Review: Black Lies by Alessandra Torre

“…when I can’t believe something would happen the way the story goes, then you loose me.” ~ Under the Covers

It’s hard to talk about a book with a secret, especially when keeping “that” a secret is key to the enjoyment of the book. So I will try my best to express my feelings while keeping it vague. Wish me luck!

BLACK LIES starts off hitting all my “NO” buttons. The heroine, Layana Fairmont, is an heiress. Her family wants her to find a respectable husband of good social standing and lots of money. She is completely against that, and is biding her time to rebel against her families’ wishes until she meets exactly the man they want for her and falls madly in love.

Brant Sharp is a billionaire and a tech genius. Self made fortune, super intelligent and completely focused on only her. But with a secret. A secret that takes over and changes his relationship with Layana after she realizes what it is. And a secret that pushes Layana to have her own secrets and lies.

I wasn’t immediately invested in the characters. From the very beginning, their whirlwind romance didn’t completely draw me in, but it wasn’t bad either. They had some chemistry.

Now lets just say if you are not into reading books about cheating, then you may get annoyed by this book. Up to 80% I felt like I was reading a different version of book I’ve read before. As much as cheating can get on my nerves, I don’t mind pushing my limits and seeing it done justice. It has worked for me in the past. But it’s not a topic to brush off lightly and push it aside. It can seriously destroy people’s lives. That being said, cheating is not my favorite thing to read about.

But here is my biggest issue with this book. No, not the cheating. I love reading a good paranormal romance and suspending my belief to enjoy those stories, but I’m not a fan of having to do that with contemporary romance. And to fully enjoy this book, that had to happen for me. And I just couldn’t do it. Yeah, there’s a twist at the end. What I thought when I originally found out what it was: “ok, this could be interesting.” But then the most illogical happened. And when I can’t believe something would happen the way the story goes, then you loose me.

When an author touches on topics that are serious in nature, I like to see that they’ve done their research. That research should show in their work. Taking a liberty here and there on something minor is ok (again unless your liberties entail fangs and blood drinking and shifting). But when a liberty is taken that is big enough that it changes the course of the story, or explains events away to make your story easy to get to an HEA, just a big no no for me. This is a personal thing, I guess. I love being shocked by authors! But my brain just knew there was no way it could honestly happen the way it’s told. As shocked/annoyed as I was reading the ending, I was actually also annoyed reading the final note which states that yes, liberties were taken.

*ARC provided by author

[about-author author=”Alessandra Torre”]

 

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