"Pretty Lovely Lies" by Heidi Stark, eBook, 300 pages
From GoodReads: Alina lives in poverty with her daughter, Yara, constantly on the run from her cruel ex but now she has the opportunity to start a new chapter–a life in America with a wealthy, handsome man who promises her and her daughter the world. But, as Alina has learned, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is–and this time is no exception.
Caught in the crosshairs of two cruel, rich predators, Alina must do everything in her power to save her daughter and herself from a fate worse than death. But can she trust the dashing FBI Agent Morello, or is he just another bad life choice in different packaging?
This is definitely a book WAY outside of my typical genre but I decided to put myself out there to read other things so here we go! First, the author does include a little warning about the type of content that is in this book. Please read that prior to diving into this book to make sure it's something you'll be okay reading. There were times that I had to set the book down and walk away. Now, I fell in love with Alina. As a mom, I was right there with her willing to do absolutely anything and everything to protect my child. I was in tears by the end of the first chapter. My heart felt like it was breaking. There are a couple of throw back moments throughout the book which I was able to see right away because of the font change which I appreciate! There were some words/phrases that I felt like in certain chucks of the book were repeated so often and too close together. It's one thing if a phrase is mentioned a handful of times throughout the book but multiple times within a few pages was a little much. There was a scene that seemed to get left out. No spoilers but the chapter ends at one point and then it's like we jumped ahead but missed something big. I reached out to the author and asked for clarification and she explained this scene in particular and said that it is a scene that didn't translate from her head to words and that she would make that revision for the next release of this book.
Somewhere in the middle, you get a second narrator. I do like that the POV stays first person based on the narrator mentioned at the top of the chapter, however when the majority of the chapters have all been Alina, I was starting to think it was unnecessary. One thing that I noticed was my reaction to reading the spicy scenes. If you read my review for The Duke and I, then you'll know that I felt weird when it came to their spicy scenes. I was talking to my mom and realized that those were intimate, love making scenes that were special and that is what made me feel like I was reading someone's diary. The scenes in this book are straight up spice and I was fine with those. Still don't think I'm ready for romance/spicy books but this was a good book and I'll definitely read this author again.
Overall, my rating is a 4.5/5 (I wish GoodReads would let us give half stars). I was given this book by the author with the promise of an honest review.
4.5/5 Stars
2024 Reading Challenge: 16/50 complete
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