Review: Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Little White Lies

Author:  Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Freeform
Publishing Date:  November 6th, 2018

Pages: 390
Genre: YA Contemporary Mystery 

Series:  Debutantes #1
Source:  Audio

 

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.

This is the second time I have attempted to read this book. Jennifer Lynn Barnes is one of my favorite authors and I was sad when the first time I tried to read this book , I couldn't get into it. I think it was just one of those moods last year. So I decided to try again and I loved this read. I couldn't put this book down. It was fun and snarky and exciting and a bit troubling. I really enjoyed this read. 


Sawyer has grown up with just a mom. For her entire life she didn't know who her family was on her moms side and had no clue who her father was. Then one day her maternal grandmother shows up and whisks her away to a new world. A world for spoiled rich kids, scandals, debutantes, and a world that just might have her father. She is on a mission to discover who her father is when instead she discovers her cousin is holding another teen hostage. From that point on Sawyer's life will never be the same. 

This book was really good. I really loved it. I found the setting to be interesting and fun and of course the writing was well done. The characters were great and the story was just unforgettable for me. 

I didn't quite know what to expect from this read and didn't know how I would feel about a story set in a world of debutantes and spoiled kids. Seems a little too angst and not really for me. But I love the author. I have enjoyed so many of her other books. This book didn't disappoint. I am not sure what the highlight for me was but it had to be the story and the humor that as unique and kind of messed up or the characters who were so flawed but I just loved every single one of them. 

I didn't mind the setting as I thought I would. It was done well and most of it was set with the debutante ball and parties in the background. The story and characters were center ring and it was just so much fun. 

I loved so many of the characters its really hard to say who was my favorite. On  gut feeling I am going to say it was Sadie Grace. She was so smart yet so dumb. She was sweet but had her jabs. She was loyal without fault. I just adored her. 

All the characters just owned my heart and were so unique with such an expressive voice that I couldn't help but love them even when they were making the worse choices. The kids in this book were not good. They weren't necessarily bad either. The adults were more on the villainous side, the kids were just trying to survive the cruel world they lived in. 

I also loved the friendships that were built in this book. Some of the relationships I wouldn't have never seen forming such a Strong bond. But they did and those really are my favorite kinds of books. 

There really wasn't romance in this story which to me was just a fresh of breath air. I really do love books more on family and friendship. I just love those type of bonds. This book had both. 

The story was more of a who done what. Its told in little snippets of the presence but mostly the story is told in parts of the past bringing out more of the story telling what really happened and why. So for most of the story I didn't know where it was headed, except that they all end up at the police station for some reason. IT was great. 

I wouldn't call this contemporary or thriller. It's hard to classify. Its a little chic lit and a little mystery and a little but of dark comedy.  It really was great. I am excited to read the next installment which I already have on audio. YAY. 

Just a fun and exciting read. 

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has been, in turn, a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic book geek, and a lemur aficionado. She's been writing for as long as she can remember, finished her first full book (which she now refers to as a "practice book" and which none of you will ever see) when she was still in high school, and then wrote Golden the summer after her freshman year in college, when she was nineteen.

Jen graduated high school in 2002, and from Yale University with a degree in cognitive science (the study of the brain and thought) in May of 2006. She'll be spending the 2006-2007 school year abroad, doing autism research at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.