PEACE LOVE BOOKS : Ramblings of a Book Dork: One Tiny Lie Review & Spotlight

Book Review June 8th

One Tiny Lie (Ten Tiny Breaths #2)

by: K.A. Tucker

★★★☆ 3.5 Stars

Blurb ~ Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.
Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team.
As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.
Review

I could not wait to read One Tiny Lie. Livie was such an amazing character in Ten Tiny Breaths. Considering her age she was wise beyond her years and watching her get her own HEA was something I could not wait to experience. Overall the story was good. I was not overly impressed and it turned out to be way different than I expected, that’s for sure. One Tiny Lie is full of just as much drama as Ten Tiny Breaths but of a whole different variety.

One thing I noticed about One Tiny Lie is how many different facets it contained from other books. I won’t go into details because I don’t want to give anything away. But in some ways I’m a bit disappointed by Livie. I know she’s always been a people pleaser and will basically do anything to make others happy; however, I could not get over Dr. Stayner’s plans to help Livie. At times it seemed like he was having fun at her expense knowing she would not say no. Most times her ‘tasks’ given to her by the psycho Doc were age appropriate even as ridiculous as they were. Yet others I thought he pushed too far such as with the drinking and involving Kacey. We all know Kacey is a million times different than Livie and I was a bit worried by how easily Kacey threw Livie to the wolves. Mostly I refer to her disregard of Livie’s V-card, since considering she kept it so long and her aversion to men would not be something Kacey would keep pushing her towards.

It’s quite beautiful in some ways because now that Livie is finally at Princeton, her and her families dream, she really begins to awaken and become herself. Without Kacey around for her to constantly worry and watch over, Livie is utterly alone, with only herself and her issues. Admitting she even has an issue is no easy feat for Livie. All it takes on her first night out at her first college party is an insurmountable amount of Jell-O-shots, and Livie is encumbered by a shell no longer. In one night she busts out of her shell and literally loses herself. It is also this night that Livie meets Ashton.

There is a love triangle in the book, which considering it involves Livie was a huge surprise but it’s not a huge part of the book. However, at the same time I did not feel we really got to see or know much about Connor. Connor is the epitome of everything Livie thought she and her family wanted. A man much like her father with a Irish accent, smarts and passion for his future. The whole time they are dating we never see them go out together or anything like that, but whenever she sees or meets up with Ashton, no matter how short a time, we get pages of interaction between them. Considering she is with Connor for a bit, I wished we saw more of him.

Ashton, Ashton, Ashton. I don’t really know how I feel about him. In many ways he appears weak and driven by a controlling father who he can’t stand up to. What we see of him is not the most endearing in qualities and though he grew on me, I don’t know if I can truly understand Livie’s attraction to him. But they do say opposites attract and Livie is like a grounding force for anyone and Ashton needs someone like that in his life awfully bad.

What I really loved was finally seeing Livie deal with her parents’ death. In Ten Tiny Breaths, she is so strong and brave for Kacey that her own feelings are pushed aside so she appears strong and ready to take on the world so Kacey does not have to. Where Kacey was close with their mother, it becomes clear early on Livie was a daddy’s girl. In fact all her motivation comes from him and their dream for her to attend Princeton and become a Doctor, something Livie has to analyze almost ten years later. Dreams, goals and motivations change over time. Livie was so stuck on a future she planned when she was little, she never once took the time to reexamine her life and see if that’s really the future she wanted. Luckily, Dr. Stayner is a not a complete whack and helps Livie through trial and error come to decisions about her future that not only change how she sees the world, but how she sees her family and herself.

Overall

I enjoyed the story. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite, especially after Ten Tiny Breaths but I would still recommend it to fans of the series. It was great to see a bunch of characters return in small snippets. Livie goes through a number of changes but that’s what college is all about. At times the story will throw you for a loop but at the end of the day you can still see Livie’s genius poking through in everything she does and every decision she makes.

Author Bio:

Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures.