TELL ME PRETTY LIES
Series: Heartbreak Hill #1
Genre: New Adult Romance
Author: Charleigh Rose
Release Date: April 5, 2020
Three things my mother acquired when she became engaged:
1. A brand new Tiffany’s ring.
2. A lavish home on Heartbreak Hill.
3. Three privileged stepsons.The last thing I expected was to fall for one of them, least of all Thayer Ames.
Beautiful, brooding, and untouchable.
I knew it was a bad idea. He warned me himself.
But he was a thunderstorm, and I never could resist the rain.
It was perfect…
Until it wasn’t.
One night was all it took for our world to crumble, leaving only secrets and lies between us.
Now, I have to face him again, but the boy I used to know has become the man who loves to hate me.
So innocent. So pure. But they don’t know what you like to do with your stepbrother in the dark.”
I’m a sucker for a good bully romance. Give me a tortured alphahole, and I’m putty in your hands. PUTTEH. So of course the second I saw the blurb to this book, I jumped on it faster than you can say GIMMEH.
Tell Me Pretty Lies was an interesting read for me. A part of me loved the somewhat convoluted yet still addictive story. But then another part of me was thoroughly confused for a good chunk of it. This is only the second book I’ve read by this author, so when I was thrown into what felt like the middle of an already developing story in the beginning of the book, I was confused. I had to go back and see if this is a continuing series. Did I jump into book 3 of a series? Was there a prequel novella I missed? I was left scratching my head because this is what marks book one in what I’m hoping is the start of a new series.
The story starts with a funeral and gives you a peek into an already developed relationship between the two MCs. It’s clear that theirs is a relationship that has a lot of history, and I would have loved to see it, rather than being told about it in hindsight. I think that actually experiencing that part of them would have gone a long way in really connecting me to the characters. It felt like the backstory and the true start of their relationship is told off the pages and we only get a small glimpse, where it should have been a full experience. Because of this, I spent a large part of the story trying to wrap my mind around all of the characters, their connection, and what was happening.
Now there’s the other part of me, too. The part of me that was still glued to the pages, confusion or not. There was just a certain zap to this story that kept me riveted. The mystery and suspense kept me turning the pages well into the night. Truth be told, I finished this in one sitting, so that definitely tells you something. It wasn’t without issues, but it was still gripping enough to completely hook me on what I’m hoping is a series, and desperate for more of the brothers. So while it wasn’t a perfect 5 star read, it was still an enjoyable 3 star, and certainly one I’d recommend to any fans of the bully trope that like a good dose of angst with their NA romance.
