“A twisted modern love story” (Parade), Tell Me Lies is a sexy, thrilling novel about that one person who still haunts you–the other one. The wrong one. The one you couldn’t let go of. The one you’ll never forget. Lucy Albright is far from her Long Island upbringing when she arrives on the campus of her small California college and happy to be hundreds of miles from her mother–whom she’s never … miles from her mother–whom she’s never forgiven for an act of betrayal in her early teen years. Quickly grasping at her fresh start, Lucy embraces college life and all it has to offer. And then she meets Stephen DeMarco. Charming. Attractive. Complicated. Devastating.
Confident and cocksure, Stephen sees something in Lucy that no one else has, and she’s quickly seduced by this vision of herself, and the sense of possibility that his attention brings her. Meanwhile, Stephen is determined to forget an incident buried in his past that, if exposed, could ruin him, and his single-minded drive for success extends to winning, and keeping, Lucy’s heart.
Lucy knows there’s something about Stephen that isn’t to be trusted. Stephen knows Lucy can’t tear herself away. And their addicting entanglement will have consequences they never could have imagined.
Alternating between Lucy’s and Stephen’s voices, Tell Me Lies follows their connection through college and post-college life in New York City. “Readers will be enraptured” (Booklist) by the “unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story” (Kirkus Review). With the psychological insight and biting wit of Luckiest Girl Alive, and the yearning ambitions and desires of Sweetbitter, this keenly intelligent and supremely resonant novel chronicles the exhilaration and dilemmas of young adulthood and the difficulty of letting go–even when you know you should.
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TELL ME LIES is as dark and daring as it is absorbing. I found myself immediately drawn into the desperation and misguided obsession of young love. Who hasn’t, at one point, fallen this hard and gotten this lost? Carola Lovering has created something unexpected and original yet deeply familiar.
I think every woman has run into one of these accomplished, charming liars at some point in their lives.
Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering is told in dual timelines (during and after college), and the two narrators are the horribly flawed main characters Stephen and Lucy. From the start, it is clear that Stephen is a womanizer. He is the classic predator—always valuing his prey during the hunt, but not once it has been caught. Readers are supposed to assume that his obvious disregard for women stems from his feelings toward his mother. I felt that Stephen’s behavior is more likely a result of mental health issues than an outcome of his less than perfect parents. After all, who among us has or is the perfect parent? Yet, parents, especially mothers, are all too often depicted as the root of all problems in YA and NA novels. On a similar note, the other main character, Lucy, may not suffer from narcissism, but she is self-absorbed and ridiculously judgmental toward her family from whom she has all but estranged herself. She does not have a good track record in terms of relationships either. While neither of the main characters is particularly likable, I found myself absorbed in their toxic relationship.
“She expected honesty the way you expect water to flood from a faucet, and around her I sometimes felt shady and deceptive.” –Lucy
The story of Stephen and Lucy’s college experience is filled with alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, longing to fit in, social insecurities, casual hook-ups, and serial cheating. It is not uncommon for college students to take advantage of their new-found freedom, however, the drug of choice in this book felt like the time period should have been late 20thcentury instead of early 21stcentury. Post college, Stephen and Lucy’s lives are equally filled with bad decisions and bad behavior. If Lucy had honestly pursued dealing with her anxiety and her issues with her family, she might have been an empathetic character. My interest in Tell Me Lies quickly became about the secondary stories regarding Lucy’s college girlfriends, her family, the mystery surrounding Stephen’s horrifying, recurring nightmare, and a hope for a karmic denouement.
If Tell Me Lies was a fashion magazine, Stephen and Lucy would be the unaware targets of the “fashion don’t” spread with a little black band across their upper face to hide their identity. They are the epitome of how not to behave in a relationship and society in general. Don’t read the book looking for romance. Pick it up for a dark, twisted, pseudo-psychological thriller that is filled with dysfunctional characters, heartache and desperation.
I was disappointed in the quick relationship fixes, and I was unsatisfied with the ending. However, the writing was good, the dialogue felt organic, and the pace was perfect. Ms. Lovering’s messages of honesty and trust will strike a chord with everyone.
A wonderful, intricate, realistic story! I think reading the definition of a sociopath and narcissist really hammered home the fact that even though people usually throw that word out when speaking in extremes, it really is a more common trait in the lower end of the spectrum. This story was really relatable me as I too have had the experience of being with someone like that and it truly is a harder thing to finally recognize in someone then most people would think. I could really understand Lucy’s struggle with it and as much as I wanted to smack her at times and scream wake up, unfortunately the only way to really learn is to go through it yourself and realize it on your own. This story captivated me from the beginning and I couldn’t wait to see how it played out. I really enjoyed this book and honestly wouldn’t mind seeing what Lucy got up in the aftermath of her new realizations. Great story!
* I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review *
It’s very true that everyone has that one relationship/person you can’t forget but you should because everything about it is wrong. This book takes that truism and weaves a wonderful story showing both the darker side to romance and the strength and importance of true friendship. The dynamics of family relationships in the book are a really lovely element to the book. It’s easy to read and very hard to put down. Definitely worth reading.
Wasn’t sure I would finish this one. A very depressing tale of obsession and psychopathy. I think I kept reading to the end out of pure hope that there would be a satisfying ending. Decent story, though, but definitely not a ‘feel good” novel.
So, wow, this book, I could not stop thinking about it.
We’ve all had that one relationship that’s messed us up, that one person who has gotten under our skin, and that one relationship that seemed to end so suddenly and without reason. This book really got me to thinking about the way that people don’t really care about others’ feelings, that they do the things they do without rhyme or reason, and sometimes, it’s good to let people go.
People throw around the term toxic a lot when it comes to relationships and in this book, Stephen is the perfect example of a toxic man. When Lucy starts college, she isn’t sure of herself yet, but she seems determined to herself. After Stephen, however, she goes into a downward spiral: doing drugs, developing an eating disorder, and even turning down the program that made her go across the country to Baird.
I think I liked this book so much because it really made me reflect on the way that people change themselves for others. We want to fit a picture that someone has, and when we don’t, we destroy ourselves trying.
That’s why the ending of this book was so beautiful. Not for anything that Lucy said or did, but just because of the fact that she could walk away with her head held high. I know from experience what a challenge that can be considering everything she went through with Stephen.
This was just overall a very beautiful, thought provoking book. If you’ve ever been through a toxic relationship, you’ll find this book very relatable and impossible to put down.
** 2.5 Star Review **
This is one of those books I wanted to read based mostly on its genre classification. With that being said, if you are expecting a psychological thriller or any kind of thriller at all, look the other way. This book is in NO way any of those things. Other than just a fictional story about two horrible people, this book has no other classification.
To put this book in a nutshell, this book is about two characters who neither have any redeeming qualities and the back and forth games they play with one another without caring about the destruction they cause in their wake.
This book moves painstakingly slow from start to finish. If I am being honest, this book would have been much better had half of it been taken out. I get that the author was trying to show the toxicity between these characters spanning a few years time, but there was too much of it. It really would have been much better without so many cases in point.
Back to the thriller aspect. That is the only reason I wanted to read this. So to say I am highly disappointed that it is in no way a thriller would be putting it mildly. This book is about a playboy and a naive girl and their on and off again relationship. That is just not a thriller. It’s not even the least bit of a romance.
I am sure some people might love this book. Some people love the drama and the back and forth and the destruction. Those of you that seek that out in your reading, this is most definitely the book for you.