Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Summary:

“I’m not saying this is Sawyer’s fault,” the prim and proper one said delicately. “But.”

Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother’s “society” might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father’s identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn’t expect to find is friendship, but as she’s drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn’t the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother’s glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer’s search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.

Set in the world of debutante balls, grand estates and rolling green hills, Little White Lies combines a charming setting, a classic fish-out-of-water story, and the sort of layered mystery only author Jennifer Lynn Barnes can pull off.

Review: 4 Stars

Lately I’ve been having a hard time getting into books, so I thought that it was time for something light and funny. Little White Lies was the perfect choice because despite the fact that I was having issues sinking into a good story I could not put this book down. I have been a fan of Jennifer Lynn Barnes for years now, but this book is probably one of my favorites of hers. Every step of this story was so captivating and so much fun.

Little White Lies had so many fantastic elements mixed together that I just knew it was going to be entertaining. The main character Sawyer, a bold girl who likes to get her hands dirty working on cars, is bribed by her grandmother to be a debutante. Combine that with some scheming criminal behavior and all of the secrets Sawyer tries to sift her way through and you wind up with a killer plot.

Sawyer was a great main character and she made this story so fun. She was so bold and definitely didn’t fit into the debutante scene. She was headstrong and got herself into a lot of trouble throughout the story. I also really loved all of the other characters. Lily, Sadie-Grace and Campbell were all done so well. Sadie-Grace was one of my favorites, she was just so sweet, but also I wanted to protect her from any harm. Campbell was just entertaining. At times I wanted to hate her, but I could also understand her need to be seen and I found her to be pretty brilliant when it came to scheming. All of the characters gave this book so much life. It was full of wit, charm and conflicting personalities and it all just worked so well.

The plot was pretty great. Most of the time a book has either great characters or a great plot, but Jennifer Lynn Barnes knows what she’s doing because both aspects shine so brightly. The plot was a real roller-coaster. It was full of so many twists and turns and just when I thought I had things figured out there was another surprise. I thought there was a good balance between the mystery of who Sawyer’s father was and the scheme that the girls cooked up. Both parts of the plot kept me guessing and they were both executed very well.

Little White Lies was really pretty fantastic and exactly the kind of book I look for when I venture away from the fantasy genre. The only think that I didn’t like is that the story took place over such a long period of time. I felt like there could have been more character development and more details about debutante events if the timeline was shorter. Regardless I think this novel was really fantastic and I’m excited for the sequel.