Four guys. One girl. Dangerous truths. Now that I maneuvered my parents into giving me the future I wanted, life seems easy. I finally have some freedom to enjoy my senior year without feeling like I’m slowly suffocating under the twisted morals and warped expectations of my parents. But it’s not long until everything starts to fall apart. The pretty lies that kept my world tied up in a pretty … tied up in a pretty red bow? They’re starting to unravel.
And not just for me. Something’s wrong with Jonah. No matter how I push, he’s not letting me or the guys in to help.
Then there’s the tension between Thatcher and Beck. Not to mention the sudden change in my friendship with Rhys.
How do you stay afloat when the ugly truths emerge from the pretty lies?
You don’t.
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Ugly Truths continued the story where it left off from book 1. I must admit that I’m anxiously waiting for this installment as I was left wondering where this will lead on especially for Jonah. That boy had me so wound up and trapped under his nerdy gaze.
This book felt like a bridge for the next one, as we see a buildup of its characters and their relationship. Astrid felt more matured in her thinking towards her budding relationships with the guys while we see the guys slowly make their feelings known to our FMC. It is always a delight to see how their minds work regarding this kind of set up, given that it is in contemporary setting and small town nonetheless, not to mention the society’s view of this. Also, we’ve learned Jonah and Beck’s back story, and it really pains me to see Jonah try to do things on his own. I felt he was more withdrawn to the others in this installment and with valid reasons on his part. There were twists and turns that I did not see coming and made me fall for this story harder.
I love seeing each guy’s having a one-on-one time with Astrid. It always makes me giddy and feel like a school girl with a crush. And OMG! This little, seemingly innocent, flirtations makes me squeal like the teenage girl that I am (not!). I am SWOONING! Gah!!! I can never get enough of it. I want more!
After the events at the end of the last book, Astrid can finally do things like a normal teenager, but her life is truly anything but normal.
Thatcher wants to spend time with Astrid like the others do, he’s been hesitant because of his role as her art tutor. He does manage not to put his foot in asking her out too badly.
Now Astrid has effectively eliminated the threat of the cheerleaders that they started because of Trey. However, Trey becomes even more of a problem when he corners Astrid. That puts Rhys’ plans for his future in jeopardy. The thing is while it does matter so does Astrid’s safety and he quickly moves to get Beck, Thatcher and Jonah involved in doing just that.
Jonah becomes somewhat distant due to his aunt’s manipulative boyfriend. He feels he’s between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to turn. Things take an unexpected turn when a couple of goons show up at Beck’s show.
Of course, Astrid isn’t about to let things go and all of them get involved. Including Beck and he isn’t going to be happy about it.
That turn of events means they aren’t letting Astrid be alone, since her parents are away they stay the night.
Now there’s a rude awakening as we see Astrid’s mother in her true form.
So many OMG moments in this book as the guys become closer and Astrid finds herself falling for all of them.
I am already reading the next book, I can’t seem to stop.
Astrid is continuing to grow stronger, and is starting to live life on her terms. Mother Dearest and Trey are getting a little more out of control, and the guys lives and histories are starting to unravel. I feel like this book really showed us more about the guys especially Beck, Jonah, and Rhys. With the ending, I feel like we are going to learn more about Thatcher in the next book – and boy the little surprise about Jonah’s connection at the end, not sure how Astrid’s going to feel about that! I am loving this series and can’t wait to see what happens next! Off to download book 3…
I’m extremely sleep deprived and it’s all Blake Blessing‘s fault.
Ha. Just kidding But I did spend a couple nights staying up way too late to read this book. (And before I lose my book blogging cred, I can easily polish off a book in a day, but I don’t always have the ability to do so.)
Ugly Truths picks up where Pretty Lies left off. We get to find out if Astrid’s mom is still an abusive bitch and if her dad is holding up his end of the bargain that they made at the end of book 1. We also get a deeper look into Jonah’s life and exactly why Beck has hated him so much for so long.
Between college plans, family difficulties, bullying, unexpected fights, and a plethora of shocking revelations, sexy flirtations, and some drama, this book pretty much had it all. I will say I definitely enjoyed this book more than the first, but that’s not too surprising considering the first book was just setting the story for the series and didn’t go as in-depth as this one did.
I wasn’t sure what to make of Astrid in the first book. She was a mess of contradictions (as I wrote in my original review: She’s kind of shy, but she’s not a pushover; she doesn’t have a plethora of friends, but she isn’t exactly someone I would classify as a loner.) but I couldn’t help but like her. Now, with having the initial nervousness and shyness subsiding with her guys, it was great to see the bonds strengthen and the flirting grow. I think there’s going to be quite a bit of jealousy between at least two of the guys as the series progresses, so that’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out.
Astrid really grew on me in this book. She’s a bit more mature, knows what she wants as far as her relationships with the guys–she’s already decided if she can’t have them all romantically, then she refuses to choose–she won’t take crap from her mother or her dad, and she’s genuinely trying to better herself. All in all, her character went through a great growth period and I loved it.
Uggghhhh. These guys. I love each one of them so much. Just when I think I have a favorite, another guy jumps on the pages to try to change my mind, lol. This results in me constantly thinking, “oh, I love him so much,” no matter which guy is in the scene. Obviously, I adore all of them and when I can’t honestly tell you which one stands out as a favorite, you know the author has taken great care to give each one his own genuine personality and individual qualities that make it impossible to choose. I’ve come to recognize this as pretty standard in Blake‘s writing because I. Can. Never. Choose. and I’m definitely not complaining, lol.
One of my favorite parts of this book was learning more about the Jonah/Beck dynamic and finally getting to understand Beck’s feelings toward Jonah. Let’s just say Jonah gets himself in a little too deep in some trouble and he has to learn to set aside his pride and rely on his new friends to get him some help.
There were a couple shocking reveals that I didn’t see coming but made so much sense and added a huge amount of depth and emotion to this story, and there were also a couple new character additions–one of whom I unashamedly totally have a crush on. (This is me hoping and crossing my fingers that Angel gets added to Astrid’s men. *fans face*)
Anyway, if you’re a fan of the bully genre in a young/new adult setting and have an open mind to multiple love interests, you’ve gotta check this series out. I have a feeling it’s going to keep getting better and I can’t wait to see what Ms. Blessing has in store for us!
Happy reading!!
Original review: http://bit.ly/uglytruthsrev
Ugly Truths are exactly what this book is full of. Some shocking ones, Some secret ones and some i didnt see coming. They all make book 2 a compelling and absolutely fantastic book. I love this series so much. The characters are well written and i love the dynamic with Astrid, Jonah, Beck, Thatcher and Rhys. As well as their personal stories. A sheer joy to read