Review: Dangerous Lies

DANGEROUS LIES
Becca Fitzpatrick
Young Adult/Thriller
400 pages
Simon & Schuster BFYR
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Stella Gordon is not her real name. Thunder Basin, Nebraska, is not her real home. This is not her real life.

After witnessing a lethal crime, Stella Gordon is sent to the middle of nowhere for her own safety before she testifies against the man she saw kill her mother’s drug dealer.

But Stella was about to start her senior year with the boyfriend she loves. How can she be pulled away from the only life she knows and expected to start a new one in Nebraska? Stella chafes at her protection and is rude to everyone she meets. She’s not planning on staying long, so why be friendly? Then she meets Chet Falconer and it becomes harder to keep her guard up, even as her guilt about having to lie to him grows.

As Stella starts to feel safer, the real threat to her life increases—because her enemies are actually closer than she thinks…

MY THOUGHTS
Dangerous Lies is a quick, exciting read, introducing us to Stella on the eve of her entry into Witness Protection and then whisking us off to the small town of Thunder Basin, Nebraska. From there we have the pleasure of watching as Stella grows and matures, forced to walk a mile in the shoes of good people living a small town life and thus change her perspective on a number of things. We're never allowed to forget the reason for Stella's new home situation however, the threat of discovery hanging over our heads throughout to ensure we ultimately choose one more chapter over going to bed at a reasonable hour.

Stella makes it a touch difficult to like her in the opening chapters, her very understandable hurt and anger at her mother for leaving her no choice but to join WITSEC in the first place spilling over onto all the wrong people. She chafes at the bit for the first few weeks, determined to weigh, measure and find wanting everything and everyone in Thunder Basin, and content to judge those around her left and right for choosing a life different from she's known. She also disobeys direct orders from the U.S. Marshal responsible for her safety by trying to get in touch with her boyfriend Reed (who is also in WITSEC), but she at least does so in arguably the smartest way possible, and once she receives no response she doesn't attempt further contact even as her desperation for news grows.

Once Stella gets a job and takes time to get to know some of the people she was so quick to consider beneath her, she becomes someone we can easily root for, standing up to the resident athletic hotshot/sociopath even when the cops try everything in their power to get her to look the other way. Her romance with Chet is something that could have easily gone wrong considering she's initially with someone else, but the way she handles herself makes the cheating issue more palatable, and she proves time and again that she doesn't take her shifting feelings lightly. She stays strong in the face of everything that's thrown at her, and by the end she takes every step necessary to remedy her past mistakes, learning more than she thought possible about herself along the way.

Overall, Dangerous Lies is pure entertainment, perfect for late night binge reading and snacking, and with just enough suspense and romance to keep us on the edge of our seats.

Rating: 4/5

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.