Book Review: Living Lies by Natalie Walters

In the little town of Walton, Georgia, everybody knows your name—but no one knows your secret. At least that's what Lane Kent is counting on when she returns to her hometown with her five-year-old son. Dangerously depressed after the death of her husband, Lane is looking for hope. What she finds instead is a dead body.

Lane must work with Walton's newest deputy, Charlie Lynch, to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when that truth hits too close to home, she'll have to decide if saving the life of another is worth the cost of revealing her darkest secret.

Debut novelist Natalie Walters pulls you to the edge of your seat on the first page and keeps you there until the last in this riveting story that will have you believing no one is defined by their past.

Series: Book 1 of the Harbored Secrets series

My rating:

Living Lies certainly starts out with a bang! Opening right up with a murder mystery, I knew that this book would keep me right on my toes! The writing style kept me reading just as much as the plot, though—Ms. Walters knows how to spin a tale!

So, the characters. 

Lane . . . oh my word. Right away, I wanted to jump into the book and pull her into my arms and hide her from every ugly thing life has to throw at her. She is definitely a character that will pull on your heartstrings!

Noah—hold on to your hearts, ladies, before this five-year-old steals every one of them! He was so adorable, and to see him interacting with Lane and Charlie will either steal your heart or melt it. So definitely lock your heart up in a super tough shell if you don't want one (or both) of those things to happen.

Charlie. The slightly cliche, I'm-a-gentleman-that-won't-do-anything-to-hurt-you knight in shining armor. He was easy to like, but like I said, kinda cliche. The way he understood how Lane felt, though, and the way he wanted to help her added to the story so well.

Or, at least, it added to the story until they really fell in love. I don't want to hear about the rush of electricity or heat that you get when you touch each other, 'kay? I don't want your kisses described in detail.

Honestly, I reallllllyyyyy disliked the romance. It's not that Lane and Charlie didn't belong to each other—far from it! I just didn't like the way their attraction was described so much.

The themes in the book, though—suicide awareness. Self-love and respect. Your true worth. So, so much yes. Ten thousand-star plot but, in my opinion, 1- or 2-star romance. Thus, I'll just stick with 4 stars.

The mystery definitely kept me guessing, but that could be because I was pretty confused through a good bit of the book! I'm not sure whether or not this was the author's intent or not, but I'll lean towards not. Of course we're supposed to be confused as to who the actual culprit is, but not how all the pieces are tying together. Much of the time while the detectives were discussing things, or when certain scenes played out, I was left going, "Wait, what?" All in all, though, the mystery was fabulous.

So, yes. If you can handle heavy attraction, murder mysteries, and suicide, this book is for you!

I was given a free e-copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Will you be checking this book out? The themes are so good!