Review of Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I’ve loved Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Naturals series about kids solving creepy crimes and her Fixer series about kids wrapped up in political intrigue. Little White Lies offers up Southern teen debutantes involved in family intrigue – let’s see what I thought! Here’s my review of Little White Lies

Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

To be published on November 6, 2018 by Freeform

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC for possible review!

Synopsis via Goodreads: 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.

My review of Little White Lies:

I have really enjoyed Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ prior books, especially The Fixer series, which also features a girl who was the product of a teen pregnancy. Well, without too many spoilers, teen pregnancy (and paternity) are big themes of this one.

And I always LOVE a good “fish out of water” story, and this is indeed that.

Sawyer Taft is happy with her life as a mechanic and daughter of a cocktail waitress. But then some rich Southern woman of a certain age shows up saying she is Sawyer’s grandmother and offering to pay Sawyer’s college tuition if she’ll come live with her and participate in the debutante season. Sawyer agrees…because she has always wondered who her father was and sees this as an opportunity to figure it out.

The positives for me:

I liked the emphasis on family and friendship in this book. There was little to no romance. And I typically enjoy stories about family drama – which there is plenty of in this book.

There’s also a lot of female friendship as Sawyer gets to know her cousin Lily and her friends Campbell and Sadie-Grace (both of whom are possible half-sisters to Sawyer.)

Jenn Lynn Barnes is really good at the twists – the end had a few twists and turns that I definitely did not see coming.

Things I liked less:

Because there needed to be a sense of mystery surrounding Sawyer’s father, there were a LOT of characters, almost too many for me to keep track of.

The pacing felt a little off to me. It was leisurely (Southern?) for a long time. Then there were a ton of revelations crammed in at the end.

There’s also not a full resolution at the end of this. If you are expecting a standalone, it’s not exactly that.

Try this if you like fish-out-of-water stories and family drama! I think this would appeal to fans of the Rebel Belle series by Rachel Hawkins.

Have you read any Jennifer Lynn Barnes books? Are you planning to read this?