Monday 13 January 2014

Review: Lie Lay Lain by Bryn Greenwood


Jennifer has a great job and a go-getter fiancé. She’s on track for success, until she witnesses a fatal hit-and-run. Mistaking Jennifer for someone else, the dying victim extracts an impossible promise. Jennifer’s fiancé wants her to forget the whole incident, but when she closes her eyes, she can still see the bloody face of the woman who asked for her help.

Olivia is in a rut. Burdened with caring for her brain-damaged brother and already feeling like a spinster at 27, she’s desperate to escape. In a moment of weakness, she tells a lie that draws an unsuspecting paramedic into her life. As she struggles to expiate the lie, a horrible act of violence will test her resolve to be honest.

Where Jennifer’s promise and Olivia’s lie intersect, their lives begin to unravel.


Paperback, 375 pages
Expected publication: April 3rd 2014 by Stairway Press      

Terri's Thoughts:

I received this ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read for me and I am struggling to nail down exactly how I felt about it. I enjoyed both the story of Jennifer and the story of Olivia perhaps favoring Jennifer's story a little more.

Jennifer:  I identified with the character of Jennifer in many ways.  Trying to balance a demanding career and personal life (in fabulous shoes) is something that I am intimately acquainted with.  I felt that her reaction to the aftermath of the hit-and-run was an honest and realistic reaction.  Her need to fulfill the promise she made to the dying victim was impactful and kept me wanting to read more.  I will say that the events that occurred in her personal life were predictable and I guessed it early on in the book

Olivia:  While Olivia's story was interesting I found at several time throughout the book that I was wishing that she would get a backbone and stand up for herself.  Her love story fell a little short of believable for me however I enjoyed how it started to build her self confidence.

For both girls they faced an act of violence within the pages and the story was how they learned to cope and deal with the fallout of these actions.  This would be the main theme of the book.  Both girls were not the same at the end of the story as when it began and the middle pages told the story of how they came from point A to point B.

While I enjoyed this read and it did not take me long to get through it my biggest criticism would be the length of the book.  I felt it took a little too long to tell the story and that it could have been told with more impact if it was told in fewer pages.  Some of the scenes could easily be cut out without losing the feel or plot of the story.


About the Author

(as per Goodreads profile)

Born in Oklahoma, I've spent most of my life in Kansas, with brief stints in Florida and Japan. (I was just following the sushi.) I'm back to Kansas now, where I live in a house of chaos with two naked cats and two boxers.

Website: 
Twitter:  bryngreenwood

 


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