Where the Truth Lies
Author: Jessica Warman
Published: 2010
On Goodreads
My Rating: 
Rated I for non-stop inconsistencies that try too hard to be shocking.
Between the past and the future…
Between friendship and love…
Between pain and forgiveness…
…is where the truth lies.
Emily Meckler leads the perfect life, or so it seems. She’s the headmaster’s daughter. She takes care of her friends. But then secrets start coming out of the woodwork and she finds herself drawn to the new bad boy, Del Sugar. What starts out as a passionate, secretive relationship quickly leads to terrifying life-altering unexpectancies.
There’s just so much that doesn’t seem right and she has so much to deal with. She isn’t sure who to trust when everyone has something to hide, but Emily is determined to figure out what everyone is hiding from her even if it hurts her. That’s while trying to figure out how to handle her own secrets. What she discovers changes everything she knows.
Starts out sweet but quickly turns into awkward and strange not to mention inconsistent. Emily is a great friend, that much is certain, but the way she gets super into her friends’ business doesn’t feel natural but forced. And on a side note, the fact that she notices the underwear her friend wears mean absolutely nothing. The focus on it was deeply disturbing and weird and could’ve been omitted. It should’ve been omitted. Then there’s her other friend coming off as incestuous for her twin. I struggled to figure out what Warman was truly trying to get across with these two and with that being said, I really think she could’ve tackled emotional and secretive plot lines from totally different angles.
I truly couldn’t get into this book. Unrealistic and feeling like a forced drama, it just held nothing for me. Emily struggled so much with trying to find out what she couldn’t remember when she was younger and for a long time that was what kept me holding on to this piteous book. It fell a bit flat upon discovering the big reveal behind it all. Then there’s the relentless pestering from every angle in this book, and I mean from every fecking direction. If it wasn’t one character it was another. If it wasn’t over one subject it was another.
On a different note, the campus of which Emily and her friends attend school seems beautiful. I would never attend because snow and I do not get along, but still. Very well navigated as well. I could envision it quite clearly. It even reminded me a bit of my college campus.
Overall
This wasn’t really a book on drama and secrets. It tried, but it really didn’t come across that way. Inconsistent and pushy and not all that entertaining. It was just a mess. I struggled pretty hard with this one and I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this one. I really can’t.
Quotables:
“Del is my first kiss. He’s my first boyfriend, and my first love. It feels right that he would be my first everything.” (Emily, p. 110)
More to come soon…
-K.
P.S. Song today? Absence of Fear by Jewel.
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The Scarlet Reader 
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