ARC Review: ☆The Innocent Liar☆ by @ElizabethFinn77

A woman hiding from her past, a man lost in his own…

Fiona was desperate to find a life in Jackson, Wyoming, but when a job interview that was supposed to be a sure thing turns ugly, she doubts there’s much hope of it. Eli sees through her lies, and regardless of the favor his father has asked of him, he’s just too stubborn to hire a woman who refuses to even give him her real name.

But there is a reason for everything, and he finds out soon enough her deceptions have a purpose too.

Secrets and lies are nothing to build a relationship on, but their attraction to one another is too intense to ignore. They’re simply magnets pulled together in a situation that should be driving them apart, but Eli has his own ghosts to contend with, and his past leaves him incapable of trusting a woman he can never fully know.

How can they move beyond her lies when the truth is what Eli really needs, and when her past threatens to destroy her, can he rise above his own needs to protect her — his innocent liar?

A woman hiding from her past, a man lost in his own…

The Innocent Liar is an angsty and erotic story about 2 broken people, each hiding from different kinds of demons from their past.

Fiona is hiding behind a veil of lies, innocent as they may be. She’s in a desperate situation, and the one saving grace that she’s counting on is the job that Eli may give her as a favor to his father.

Too bad Eli is too much of an asshole to just blindly do what his father asks. A man with his past is not one that can trust a woman that can’t so much as give him her real name. And his none-too-gentle dismissal of Fiona sends her fleeing his office in tears.

Guilt, circumstance, and desperate need bring them together again. But can a man that’s incapable of blind trust survive a relationship with a woman that’s incapable of giving him the truth, no matter how hot the passion between them may be?

I really liked this story, especially with the introduction we get to Eli. I have a particular soft spot for assholes, and Eli was one major asshole when Fiona first showed up to his office. He’s not exactly known for being a nice guy. A past that still haunts him and a fucked up marriage and divorce have pretty much guaranteed that. But there’s a method to his madness…

Anger gave him a sense of control and power that had once been missing from his life. People always assumed when a person was broken they didn’t realize they were broken. It wasn’t at all true. He knew it well. He saw it in himself, yet he would do nothing to stop it because he didn’t know how to function without his defects. They kept him sane and grounded. That was just a fact of life for him.

Fiona was one of those characters that I had a tough time deciding whether I truly loved or not. She wasn’t quite strong, and yet she wasn’t exactly weak either. What she was, was desperate and hiding from something that you know from the very beginning is going to be brutal to learn.

But something pulls the two of them together, even if neither of them truly understand what it is. Eli is a man that depends on truth, and Fiona is a woman that can’t give him that. Yet the inevitable happens…

He’d lived his life as though his past didn’t exist, yet oddly, his past had consumed him. But now, it didn’t – it wasn’t, and strangely, what had happened so many years ago was closer to the surface than ever before. She had something to do with that, and he needed to hold onto her, even if he hadn’t a clue how to do that.

Eli bounced back and forth between an utter asshole, to sweet back to asshole, to broken man, and then sweet again. It was tough to get a handle on his moods at times, though I did understand the reasoning behind them.

I’ll admit that at times I struggled to understand the connection between him and Fiona. I get that there was a sexual pull between them, but I felt like the progression of their relationship, especially given the circumstances was a little unbelievable to me.

I do love Elizabeth Finn’s writing, and by then end of the book I was very much sold. And if there’s one thing that Elizabeth can give you, it’s one hell of a scorching love scene. If you like your books steamy, this one will deliver that in spades.

I’m going to eat your pussy.” His tongue flicked the lobe of her ear. “Then I’m going to eat your ass.”
She shuddered…
“Then I’m going to watch you suck my dick. Then I’m going to fuck your ass, and I’m not going to stop until I’ve come inside you. Do you understand?”

I had a feeling about Elizabeth’s past, though we never really get the full painted picture, just the glossed over version of it. I understand that had the author went into the gory details of it, it would have shot the book from just angsty to pure dark category…but a part of me feels like I would have still wanted those details. We get bits and pieces of what she went through, but never the whole picture. And the ending doesn’t give much more details. Maybe it’s the dark romance lover in me that craved those details? I’m not sure.

For whatever reason there was just always something here that kept this from being that perfect 5 star read for me. I tend to be stingy with my 5 stars, so I tend to save those for books that I either absolutely LOVED or would see myself reading again.

Fans of Elizabeth Finn would definitely enjoy this book. She delivers a great angtsy love story about 2 broken characters finding healing with each other. And if you haven’t yet discovered this author, then I recommend you do. I’ve read a few books by Miss Finn, and I’ve enjoyed each of them.

So while this may not have been a perfect 5 star read for me, it was still a very enjoyable one and certainly one I would gladly recommend.

**ARC courtesy of author in exchange for an honest review**