Devious Lies by Parker S. HuntingtonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Two and a half stars.
Where to start? I was lured to read this (despite having sworn off the angst-ridden, navel-gazing, ludicrousy that is NA/YA) by a number of five star reviews from reviewers I trust here on NG.
Years ago I used to have a YA/NA checklist that I used to rate books against to see if they reached peak NA/YA-ish-ness. I don't have it any more but I know stupid names were on it, as was abusive parents, gazillionaires, being super smart and/or super arty, and having a very annoying quirk. Well guess what, ding, ding, ding this one hit the jackpot!
Emery Winthrop (I know her mother is mean, but please naming your daughter after a nail file?) was the spoilt North Carolina princess living with her parents in their mansion until an insider dealing scandal brought down the company and bankrupted half the citizens of the local town, leaving them unemployed and causing at least two deaths. Reed was her BFF and Nash was his older, more dangerous brother, their parents worked for Emery's parents and lived in a cottage on the grounds. Once, before the Winthrop Scandal occurred, Emery climbed into bed with what she thought was Reed only to discover it was actually bad boy Nash.
Four years later and Emery is some kind of stupid martyr, giving all her money to support the daughter of one of the victims of the Winthrop Scandal, going without food and generally acting like a pissy 13 year old rather than a 22 year old. When the money isn't enough she begs Reed to get her a job, so of course he gets her a job as a paid intern with Nash's hotel chain, helping to design the interior of his latest hotel.
Nash has sworn revenge on the Winthrop family, he has evidence which will implicate them in insider-trading and he blames them for his father's death. He will go to any lengths to discover where Emery's father is hiding, including making Emery's life a living hell.
There were four things which really annoyed me about this book:
1. Emery and her stupid words that she uses as a mantra, words that no-one has ever heard of
2. (view spoiler)
3. Nash acting like a moody teenager rather than a 32 year old man who runs an international hotel chain
4. I got distracted and I can't remember the fourth one but I think it is Emery's stupid T-shirt slogans (see point 1 above)
And the sex was a bit odd, very little of it but goes from 0 to 100 in five seconds flat - I may never look at cupboard door handles in the same way again.
Bottom line, I would have liked the book a whole lot more if it wasn't NA/YA and didn't have all the baggage that entails. If you love all that stuff then you will probably like it as much as everyone else.
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