A gripping young adult suspense novel drenched in color, mystery, and lies. New York Times and USA Today bestselling author CJ Lyons grabs you and won’t let go, keeping you guessing until the very last page of The Color of Lies. When you can see emotions in color, motives become black and white. Even murder. Ella Cleary has always had an eye for the truth. She has synesthesia, which means she is … synesthesia, which means she is able to read people via the waves of colors that surround them. Her unique gift has led her to trust very few people outside her family since her parents died in a fire. So when a handsome young journalist appears with no colors surrounding him at all, her senses go on high alert.
But while Alec is a mystery, Ella feels a connection to him she can’t ignore. Something about him feels familiar, and she is able to talk with him in ways she can’t with anyone else. Then just as feelings develop between them, Alec drops a bombshell: he believes her parents’ deaths were no accident. And she may be in more danger than she’s ever realized.
Soon Ella doesn’t know who she can trust or even who she really is. As family secrets begin to unravel and fact and fiction collide, it becomes clear that the only way for Ella to learn the truth about her past is to find a killer.
The Color of Lies:
- YA suspense with themes of mystery, romance, and friendship
- By New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller writer CJ Lyons, whose adult suspense novels have sold over 2 million copies in print and digital
- Features a protagonist with synesthesia, which can allow people to see sounds, taste words, or feel sensations on their skin associated with certain scents
- Perfect for fans of E. Lockhart, Karen M. McManus, and Jennifer Brown
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It was amazing
Will give a false idea of what synesthesia actually is.
A young woman who can literally see the emotions of people around her, a family who lives with synesthesia, and a young reporter looking for answers combine to uncover truths long buried.
When Alec asks Ella questions she didn’t even know needed answered, everything she’s believed her entire life becomes suspect. What is the real story behind her parents’ deaths? And who, exactly, is Alec?
C J Lyons delivers a cast of interesting and memorable characters—from Ella and her family to her friends. And even though this story is categorized as YA (because Ella is eighteen), it never felt like I was reading in that genre.
The mystery moves the story along until the intense conclusion, and the immediate attraction (romance is pretty much non-existent until the end) and connection between Ella and Alec is palatable because it has a solid base readers will learn as the story progresses
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
With Color of Lies being a YA book, I was not confident I would enjoy or even like it. As it turns out, I loved it! Loved it enough that I will be recommending it to my 17 year old granddaughter.
Blessed, or maybe not, with the gift of synesthesia, Ella Cleary has been reading people her whole life. Like her mother before her, she sees colorful auras about people, auras that can change with moods, auras that keep her somewhat isolated as being “different” leads her to have few friends.
Following the death of her parents in a fire that swept through a beach cottage, Ella was raised by her grandmother, Helen, her Uncle Joe and godfather, Darren, Ella is thrown into a season of confusion, anger and fear when a stranger enters her life.
Confused by Joel, whose aura is the first she is unable to see, Ella somehow finds that a part of him trusts him. And his off the wall story about the fiery death of her parents, well that cannot possibly be true, can it? Her parents died in a fire, it was an accident, they were not murdered as Joel says.
Surprised by how much I enjoyed this book; I’m older than the author’s average reader. To me, that says a lot about an author’s storytelling abilities, to be able to entertain a cross-section of more than one generation is an outstanding example of good writing.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley and am not required to provide a positive review. All thought and opinions therein, are solely my own.
I am a big fan of this author’s YA books: Broken and Watched. And I am also very intrigued by the whole synesthesia thing. I even have a really good friend who has the condition. I remember first reading about synesthesia when I was in college. Studying to be a science teacher, I had a subscription to Discover magazine, which I would read cover to cover. That story on people who always thought of certain numbers having a specific color, or sometimes words had a taste to them, that story stuck with me. This story was a really good one that used a few different types of synesthesia symptoms for characters in a family, since it is considered to be genetic. I feel like this author with her medical background is able to be very realistic about things like this disorder, the same as she was with the genetic heart defect in Broken. But we also had at the heart of this story a very good mystery. To me, this book is right up there with many adult mystery titles that have a medical aspect to them. It reminds me in a way of the good old fashioned Robin Cook novels. Less complicated and conspiracy theory-ish, but definitely as good of a mystery with things you know are coming, but don’t always see completely until the bad guys begin giving their plots away. I guess that makes sense since the author does write those same books for adults. In this case I guess my point is that she does this well within the YA genre as well.
Now I had a few questions about how it all wrapped up, and if there was more faking going on than just identities. And maybe those things were actually touched upon, but I was at the exciting action point of the book and probably reading faster to get to find out how we could keep both Ella and her friends and family safe. Other questions I pondered when I had to put the book down to go back to work included wondering if schools have synesthesia as something they might use to put a student on an IEP, or Individualized Education Plan, so that they could get help from the special education teachers. Because it seems to me that it could cause some learning environments to not be the best suited in some cases. At some point I mean to reach out to those types of teachers in my school just to find out for myself about this very topic.
Highly recommended book, one I will be ordering for my school library with future budget money.