Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Little White Lies

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Kindle Edition, 400 pages

Published November 6th 2018 by Freeform

✰✰✰✰.5

“I’m not saying this is Sawyer’s fault,” the prim and proper one said delicately. “But.”

Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother’s “society” might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father’s identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn’t expect to find is friendship, but as she’s drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn’t the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother’s glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer’s search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.

Set in the world of debutante balls, grand estates and rolling green hills, Little White Lies combines a charming setting, a classic fish-out-of-water story, and the sort of layered mystery only author Jennifer Lynn Barnes can pull off.

I love books setting in the south, but I love it even more when it involves southern belles and debutantes! There’s just something really fun with seeing all the prim and proper girls fighting with their smiles and subtlety, or just investigating mystery in the midst of debutantes tightly-packed social calendar.

I have this book on my TBR for a while now, but I impulse read it after watching Miss Congeniality as, well, I just need the same dose of fun in my read. And fun is exactly what I get here! Our main character, Sawyer, is born out of ex-debutante single mother whose pregnancy threw her out from her high profile family and town. While she expected to join the high society when she accepted her grandmother’s deal, she did not expected to have to participate in all debutantes events, including spa days and dress fittings. This whole things is just totally different from who she, leaving her bewildered with her mouth and wit as her response. She’s such a hilarious and genuine main character that reminds me to Agent Hart and the whole thing is just very entertaining to read!

Especially since we got to see the drama underneath the sweet and perfect charm the debutantes have. We all know Sawyer is trying to solve the mystery of her paternity, but we also got in for a ride in solving another mystery that involving kidnapping, blackmailing, and some not-debutantes-moms-approved-blog. But don’t worry since nothing is too serious here, so I definitely had a good time reading this book.

And yet despite all the fun times I had, this book also gave me so much more. Little White Lies really explores its characters and use them to break common character stereotypes. For example, despite having all the boys “flirting” with Sawyer when introducing them, all of them actually already have an established love interest. None of the characters and their relationships are perfect (despite maintaining the perfectness as much as possible), that they are all felt really human and easy to sympathize with.

Another reason why I really enjoyed this book is the unlikely friendships (and eventually clique) formed in this book. I am honestly so ready (not in a good way) to read about girl on girl hate, but that is not what we got here. Also, the plot is just soo good and filled with twist and turns! Especially the final twist- that really shocked me and put into questions what we knew about some characters so far.

Little White Lies is a really entertaining book and perfectly fits what I need at the time! It has hilarious main character and easy writing, with well developed cast of characters and plot that’s filled with twist and turns. I just really love it and I can’t wait to read the sequel asap!

“To success”, Campbell said finally. “And to unholy alliances.”
“To friendship”, Sadie-Grace corrected. She glanced at Campbell. “Or something vaguely friendship-like.”