Lies

Kylie Scott wrote the fabulous, funny & sexy STAGE DIVE series. I loved every single book in that series. Because of this, I’ve tried other books she has written.
This book is a real genre-jump for this author, and sadly I do not love it. I finished it, because the writing was good enough to get me there, but I was left very unsatisfied.
What I liked: The PREMISE!!! What a fantastic idea for a rom con!
What I didn’t like: The author just doesn’t deliver the goods.
The hero is…boring. He has no real personality on the pages, no depth. We learn his childhood has a lot to do with his life choices (don’t they all), but there is no angst displayed, no real emotion. Also, he behaves like a real tool not once, but twice to the heroine, for reasons that I just didn’t accept. And I don’t understand why she did, either.
The heroine is fun, but her spine could use some stiffening. And I wanted to FEEL her fear, terror, grief and pain. I really did not. She just kind of rolls with whatever happens, and we don’t see beneath her surface much.

This is not my favourite Kylie Scott book unfortunately. There was no real chemistry between Betty and Thom and the story felt very rushed and not very well thought out. I even found myself having to re-read paragraphs to make sense of it. Plus certain aspects were just not believable and the ending was too abrupt.
The biggest gripe I have is the “poor me” fat female protagonist, this gets very old very fast especially as this seems to be a character type that this author likes to write. I lost any and all sympathy towards Betty with her negative attitude towards the view she thinks the world has of her. I don’t really understand why there has to be a fixation on body shape.
However, Kylie Scott is good at delivering a laugh and even though I didn’t enjoy the book especially it did get a giggle or two out of me.
Ayway, I think the premise is good but the execution lacking.

So,
I’m reading Lies, and it’s just not doing it for me. I take a break at chapter six to read the bad reviews on Amazon, and, unsurprisingly, the one and two star reviews mostly cover my issues with this novel. Tellingly, no one is complaining about porn or bad language–a bad sign since there’s definitely some smut. And I mean that in a good way. At this point, I need to assess whether I really want to sacrifice a couple of hours to finish this book. I decide to compromise, skip to the last three chapters, and review it with a focus on my personal issues with the novel.

I am definitely a fan of Kylie Scott, despite the fact that I’m not usually a fan of first person present tense POV whether single or dual. I also don’t care for thesaurus abuse or preposition dropping, but those are minor caveats in this case. However, when Scott is on, she’s really on, so Stage Dive 1, 2 &3; Dive Bar 1; and Repeat totally worked for me. So why doesn’t Lies?

I didn’t actively dislike Betty & Thom, but I did find their characters really flat and their romance less than engaging. The so-called banter definitely didn’t scintillate. Part of the issue with Thom is that we never get his POV, but the whole impassive male thing leans towards the unsexy side of alpha. . . or absent, as the case may be.. Betty, despite the snark, is too much the mellow, rather passive “curvy girl.” Worse, she’s with Thom in the first place because he asked and he’s not awful. There’s a little too much reverse Walter Mitty here for my taste. She develops some intriguing facets by the story’s end, but by chapter six I’d run out of patience. Also, just as a side note, I hate the names Betty & Thom.

Though the emphasis is clearly on the spy trope, this is also a road trip novel without any of narrative goodies that make road trips my fave. The humor is based more on inappropriate violence and peculiar modes of transportation than on forced proximity or character interactions. I also adore road trips for the way they peel away the layers and reveal the protagonists’ internal selves to the reader and to each other . This does not happen in Lies. There’s way too much description of (un)safe houses, ugly vehicles, and uglier firefights, keeping the action fast and shallow. So disappointing.

As for the spy story? Total fail. The True Lies references are obvious, yet I can’t help but think about the way tales of espionage have evolved over the last 60 years. (Yeah, I’m old. So what.) Many of the major spy franchises have always been so over the top that the evolution of spy satire has been natural yet only narrowly separated from the genre it mocks. Often it’s impossible to tell what’s humor and what’s not. The problem with this is that both standard espionage plot devices as well as humor based on said plot devices has become old hat. Doesn’t get much more trite than mysterious international spy agencies full of clowns with animal code names where only the good guys are furry. As a side note, it’s too easy to compose a spy story from a compenium of cliches with no underlying logical structure or believable motivation to shore them up. The inclusion of a completely pointless torture scene early in tbe story exemplifies this problem. Like Betty, we can predict what’s going to happen cuz we’ve seen it on the screen a hundred times, and that makes for some tedious and annoying reading.

The twists that turn up in the final chapters of the book are effective as plot devices but don’t really blow the reader away (hur) because by then, as a romance aficionado, you’re so fargin’ POed about the suffering the heroine’s gone through due to aforementioned furry clowns. Even if you don’t like her that much to start with, Betty’s trials and tribulations are more rage-inducing and unfunny than adventurous. It’s really hard to reconcile so much unsubtle blood and gore with a credible happy ending.

I guess I’ve spent more time reviewing this than I would have spent reading the whole book, but that’s ok. To borrow a line from the SBs, I did it so you won’t have to. So two stars for the DNF, though admittedly I cheated, but at least I avoided an excess of spoilers.

John Wick can move over because Thom Lange is on the scene and taking names. Kylie Scott has taken John Wick, Jason Bourne, and Harry Tasker (True Lies) and tossed them in a blender with her magic sprinkles of sexy male cluelessness , a heaping dose of snarky plus size diva, and loads comical, sarcastic dialogue to create the perfect spy romance. Lies by Kylie Scott is a comical adventure in romantic espionage.

Betty Dawson is more than a big girl with rainbows, unicorns, and guns who does more than save the day. She is handing Thom Lange an explosive dose of his own medicine. The man deliberately gave her bad sex. She may strangle him in his sleep but not until she gets to experience the super sexy spy sexiness. He may look like her boring normal fiancee that rocks a pair of abs (she never knew he had) and he may be super confident, but is he any good at real orgasm inducing sex?She’s determined to get some personal intel and experience before she kills him or they both die. Who would of thought robotic Thom Lange could give an organsm while killing the bad guys.

It’ll take more than an apology and good orgasm. Thom loves Betty with all of his heart and now he has to prove it. First he has to keep her alive.

Kylie Scott is a pure genius! When she picks up a pen she lets her imagination and great sense of humor take over, the results are magnificent. She gives her readers a FUN reading experience while giving them goosebumps with her sexy romantic stories. Lies is more than a rom-com suspense romance, it’s a true adventure in the world of Kylie Scott’s imagination.

I highly recommend reading this book. It will not disappoint!

DNF @ chapter five/38%.

Well, this is disappointing. I haven’t read this author in a while but seems I haven’t been missing out on anything. Liked her earlier work better.

So Betty wants to leave Thom because of their blah life. Nothing wrong there. However, she finds out he’s actually a spy or whatnot and someone is out to get them.

It started out good but then went downhill. Fast.

Also Betty. Thom lied to her. Did other stuff too and yes, I get that she’s running for her life so she has to focus on that, but she can still be angry at the things Thom pulled. God knows I would be – and I’m sure many others! And Thom… one of the flattest characters I’ve ever encountered. And no, it’s not because of his profession. Read a few similar novels and the hero was well-developed.

I was so excited about this book but it was a major miss. Huge one. Standard DNF rating o’mine of 2 stars. Can’t recommend it.

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