Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Title: Little White Lies
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Format: ARC
Publisher: Freeform
Publish Date: November 6, 2018
Source: Publisher
What's the Story?:
From Goodreads.com: "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."
My Two Cents:
Street-smart Sawyer is used to taking care of herself. Her mom is mostly absent and she doesn't think she has any family around. At least her mother won't tell her about any of her family. So when a chance meeting puts Sawyer back in touch with her mysterious grandmother, Sawyer is surprised. This chance meeting will open Sawyer's life to family secrets and a glittering world that she couldn't have dreamt up.
There's a reason that "fish out of water" books are so attractive. It's always interesting to see a character like Sawyer, who is very used to a gritty lifestyle, entering the world of debutantes. She doesn't get it at first but it was so much fun to see her be totally bewildered and then fall into place in this new world.
The other part that I really liked are all of the family secrets. Sawyer knows barely anything about her mother's family and absolutely nothing about her father's family and nothing about her father himself. I don't want to give anything away but this book definitely has some twists when it comes to these secrets that kept me wanting to read.
This book is definitely a slow burn and I thought it could be a little streamlined to focus on the action. I did like how the action flashed back and forth between the present and the past. I really liked how that shaped the story. This is only the first book in the series and I think it shows a lot of promise!