Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

What I drank: well hello white wine. real humblebrag, iv’e become a complete white wine snob since visiting new zealand

What its about: 18yo Sawyer Taft grew up broke af, since her mom got kicked out of the house as a pregnant teen, but her grandma shows up with promises of money and Sawyer’s dad’s identity if Sawyer spends the next year doing her deb season. So of course she accepts and gets sucked into a world of secrets, money, drama, and a whole extended family. We’ve got mystery, outsider to society, and coming of age in a tidy package. (a lot of people made gossip girl references, i’d say elevated gossip girl.)

Thoughts
– this is by far one of the meatiest YA books I’ve read in ages. The pace def moves but isn’t breakneck, sawyer’s character development is good, and the groundwork is well in place for book 2.
– For the mystery part, the misdirections and twists are on point and not ridiculous (i mean some are, but not for what this book is)
– The boys could have used more substance, but female characters (both teens and adult women) were wellwritten and had development AND YAY FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS. I feared GREATLY sawyer would be a “i have one friend and it’s a boyyyyy can a girl even have female friends.” Instead Sawyer’s a self-reliant, understandable loner who opens up and makes both male AND female friends, AND bonds with some of the adults in her life.
– Wished I had more background on where they live–like did i miss it or did we never really establish the setting other than “the south”–and bigger descriptions of what the parties are like and what they wore.
– it’s not a particularly diverse cast of characters but it’s also a southern privileged society (again, is this in Virginia or South Carolina or Kentucky, because i feel like there’s some nuance to the differences?), so no points off there

What I gave it: 4 sets of pearls. I had some issues but i thoroughly enjoyed myslef

What I would pair it with: GREAT question. Either some basic bitch chardonnay (i was told down undah, basic bitches are “bogans” and chardonnay is “chardie” like shar-dee) or my grandmothers society-bred drink of choice scotch, neat.

FBGM,

linz