Dangerous Lies

A love story with secrets, lies decision-making, relationships & responsibility wrapped up in a thriller. 'Stella' opens her narrative as she starts witness protection. Her past unfolds throughout the story in haunting flashbacks & old letters & we learn the truth a little at a time before the characters. The book lives up to its title - Stella lies to herself (about falling in love with the boy next door) her new friends (about who she really is), the police, & sometimes to us. Fitpatrick is known for her pacy YA novels with tons of 'smoulder' (as the blurb states) & this will not disappoint fans of the Hush, Hush series. There is nothing explicit for mature younger teenagers, but a lot which is implied, & the book opens dramatically with Stella in a motel bedroom with her boyfriend. Fitzpatrick creates a descriptive narrator in Stella, although she overdoes the set pieces & doesn't trust the cleverness of her reader. Yes, she really likes Chet, even when she say she doesn't; yes, her life is really dangerous; yes, someone is eventually going to turn up from her old life & ruin her new one. She even has to point out that 'the wild tempest mimicked my own raging heart'. Stella is an intriguing character, who develops through the story & learns to make tough decisions about the adult she plans to be. She doesn't always do the right thing, & comes from a tradition of main female characters who the reader doesn't necessarily like in the beginning, but grows to love. Stella provides hope. Chet, her love interest, is too good to be true, really, but maybe that is what fiction is for - 'he smelled like soap and sun-dried laundry'. It is also refreshing to find he, along with other characters, is part of a church community & shows this in a positive, normal light. 384 pages / Ages 12+ / Reviewed by Helen Swinyard, librarian.

Suggested Reading Age 11+

Seventeen year old Estella lives in Philadelphia with her mother, who has a serious drug problem, so Estella has to look out for both of them. She develops a deep mistrust of adults and those in authority, believing she's been let down and is old enough to look after herself. She closes herself off from others, only trusting her boyfriend, Reed. Her world is turned upside down when she witnesses a shooting and identifies the murderer - a powerful mob drug dealer - and agrees to testify against him. Given a new identity by the witness protection programme, she is taken to live with Carmina, a curmudgeonly retired police officer in Thunder Town, Nebraska. At first Estella vows to leave as soon as she hits eighteen, but over a long hot summer Estella / Stella slowly learns to let down her guard and begins to love her new life and the friends she makes. Needless to say there's a handsome young neighbour with a guilty past to keep Stella on her toes - he's so much more than just a pretty face - meaning Stella is torn between her past and future. She has to figure out who she really is and wants to be. Stella comes to learn about guilt, forgiveness and finally takes responsibility for her actions. Events unfold slowly, just like life in this sleepy rural town, before coming to a thrilling conclusion. Like Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush series, this is a very entertaining page turner. I can see this being a very popular read with girls who enjoy romance but want something a bit darker. It has some sexual references, but it's not explicit, so would be suitable for 12+. 384 pages / Ages 12+ / Reviewed by Allison Ustun.

Suggested Reading Age 11+