Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: November 6, 2018
Publisher: Freeform
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Mysteries & Detective Stories
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.
Little White Lies is the first installment in author Jennifer Lynn Barnes Debutantes series. Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars go Southern in this
comedic mystery about a girl raised by a down-on-her-luck single mom who
allows her wealthy grandmother to bribe her into becoming a proper
Southern debutante—all in the hopes of finding out who her father is. Protag Sawyer Taft grounds this sudsy mystery with her honest approach to
relationships and situations, and her very personal mission--to find out
where she comes from.
9 months ago, 18-year old Sawyer Taft worked for Big Jim's Garage while living with her irresponsible mother Helen who disappears with different men regularly. Sawyer has never known who her father is thanks to the fact that her mother refuses to talk about her past and why she is estranged from her family. But, when Sawyer’s maternal
grandmother Lillian Taft makes a sudden appearance, she promises both answers and a
whole lot of money if Sawyer will agree to live with her for nine months
and be introduced to Debutante society.
Despite
her initial misgivings, Sawyer accepts with her own conditions. The money is a great incentive, but Sawyer’s true motivation lies
rooted in the realization that living in her grandmother’s world might
mean finally learning the answer to the biggest question of all; Who is her father, and what really happened almost 20 years ago? Aside from the back and forth throughout the 9 month time frame of Sawyer's contract with Lillian, there's the family side of things.
Sawyer has only had her mother for 18 years. Now, she has her grandmother, an aunt, an uncle, and a cousin along with the baggage that they each carry. Most
of the story is told in flashbacks, with little snippets of the
present preceding some chapters. The snippets of the present tease readers with
the knowledge that something “big” has already happened. The plot gradually
unfolds to describe exactly the series of events that take place before
this huge bombshell.
I
loved Sawyer. She’s sassy and sarcastic and it was a blast being in her
head while all of this unfolded. There’s quite a group of characters
here like her mother Ellie, Cousin Lily, Sadie-Grace, as well as Campbell Ames who you really need to have patience with. The beautiful, over-privileged cast of Little White Lies has more
secrets than they have money in the bank, filling the novel with the
interpersonal twists and turns and aha moments that have made binge
reading a thing.
Living in the south, we do have our share of debutantes.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental