Book Review: Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Title: Little White Lies
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Release Date: November 6, 2018
Publisher: Freeform
Pages: 400
Source: Publisher
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary

          

"I'm not saying this is Sawyer's fault," the prim and proper one said delicately. "But."

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 story has been pitched as Gossip Girl meets Gilmore Girls with some of Pretty Little Liars thrown in. I can see this throughout the story - there's scandals galore and high society (Gossip Girl), there's witty banter (Gilmore Girls) and there's some arrests and mysterious things going on (Pretty Little Liars). This blend was done well and felt original yet I appreciated the familiarities of a similar feel to some of my favorite shows. 

I love the uniqueness of this story. One of my favorite plot lines is when a character is put into a situation where they are unfamiliar or even a situation that they had misjudged in the first place. Here we have a young lady being bribed by her grandmother to be a debutante. The high society is another plot line I always tend to find so interesting and intriguing, this book was no exception. I was drawn in what would happen next. 

I liked getting to know all the characters and I enjoyed seeing how things played out throughout the book. There was always that "what is going to happen next?!" feeling that keeps pages turning. However, there were some portions of the book that felt like they were dragging a little bit - and then the ending really packed a punch. Good news is that there is a sequel coming! 

Happy Reading from me to you!