The Lies She Tells: When Falling in Love Means Faking It by Alex Woolf
Finding true love can be hard when you’re leading a double life …
Kay, a sassy librarian and self-proclaimed queen of deception, thought ghosting her online fling Jeremy was a clever way to avoid awkward goodbyes. But when she falls for his charming brother Dan, her life spins into a tangled web of fake names, outrageous stories, and a world of lies she can barely keep straight.
As ‘Elaine’, her stylish and spontaneous alter ego, Kay navigates a romance with Dan, hiding her true identity while dodging her past with Jeremy. But as her double life starts to unravel, Kay is forced to make a life with her lies or take a risk on love. Can she escape her own web of deceit, or will her past catch up with her at last?
The Lies She Tells is a feel-good, witty romantic comedy that explores the twists and turns of modern love, the lengths we go to for a fresh start, and the surprising power of a well-told lie.
My Review
I really enjoyed this book. I finished it at 2 o’clock in the morning, thinking only a bit more, only 20 mins to go.
The first question here will be do you like Kay? Do you want her to have a happy ending? If she does, will it be deserved? And if she doesn’t, I bet you are thinking it serves her right. Well obviously I’m not saying.
As with all romantic comedies, we usually root for the poor wronged woman, unlucky in love, failed relationship, bad experience with men. It’s 2024, so Kay is on a dating app called Serendipity, using a fake picture. That’s how she ‘meets’ Jeremy, but we can all see he’s too emotional and damaged for someone like Kay. So she ghosts him and goes after his older brother Dan. But Dan has the perfect relationship with Lorna, except it’s not. When they decide to split Jeremy is more devastated than Dan or Lorna.
Kay works at the Library. Her mother wanted her to be a doctor and is disappointed in her. Kay’s colleague is called Sondra. She’s a bit of an oddity, mid-twenties going on fifty. Kay even lies to Sondra.
As she digs herself in deeper with her lies and fake persona as Elaine, I wanted to hide behind the sofa. How is she going to get out of this one. Then another and another.
The book is very funny, and well-written. It’s kind of a romcom, but the lying and role playing takes it to another level.
Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
Alex Woolf is an award-winning author of books for adults and children. In his non-fiction he has written on subjects as diverse as sharks, robots, asteroids, flying reptiles and chocolate. His novels span a range of genres, including crime, mystery, science fiction, historical fiction, steampunk and horror.
In 2024, Alex received a Readers Favorite Award for his YA time-slip novel, The Year I Lived Twice. He is a regular author for Fiction Express, online publishers of interactive stories for schools. Fiction Express is read by 1.2 million pupils in over 8,500 schools around the world. Two of his stories have won reader awards. In 2021, he won the prestigious ASE award for his non-fiction book Think Like a Scientist. His horror novel, Soul Shadows, was shortlisted for the Falkirk Red Book Award.
