Guest Reviewed by MsMiz (Tina)
Title: Innocent Lies
Author: J.W. Phillips
Hero/Heroine: Ethan, ‘E’ (not a hero), Dylan/‘Privy’
Genre: M/F Contemporary
Length: 280 pages
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: May 30, 2014
Available at: Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: **WARNING: This is NOT a sweet and sappy romance. It’s dark, twisted, and not for the faint of heart. If you prefer HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY this is NOT the book for you. Recommended for ages 17+ due to language and sexual situations.**
Most would view Dylan’s life as a living Hell, but she discovered what Hell really was.
Twenty year old, Dylan was minding her own business when twenty-six year old Ethan sat down at her table. All she wanted was peace from her past. He offered her the protection and calm she had never known. That was until she learned how much of that past he was a part of.
If life had taught Dylan Summers anything it was that not everyone gets a happily ever after.
Review:
The comedian Louis C.K. has a great monologue on dating. He basically states, that it takes great courage for women and men to go on dates. One for the man to muster the courage to ask, the woman has to be even more courageous to say yes. To say yes because the number one threat to women is men (you can see the monologue here, it is worth watching; Louis C.K.:Dating).
The above could not be more obvious for Dylan. The warning and the blurb set the stage for a sad tale about a girl who has had loss, pain, hurt, and basically anything that could go wrong did for poor Dylan. At age 5, her father dies. At this point her mother makes some very poor choices and Dylan is abused until at age 16 when she is given to 3 men to pay off debt. (These events are given to us in back story, as Dylan is 20 when we meet her.)
In the beginning of the story, Dylan meets Ethan in Sept of 2013. Ethan is a 26 year old Assistant District Attorney (he went to college, law school, and made Asst. DA all by the age of 26). They go on two fantastically creepy dates (as an aside – any self respecting woman would have never agreed to go out with him in the first place, especially someone who has spend 11 years of her life abused but Dylan got all giggly and heart-eyed over Ethan instantly). Then he abruptly leaves in the middle of date two and writes Dylan a really obsessive note saying good bye.
Fast forward 9 months to Sept. 20, 2014 (that to me is a year, but I am following the dates at the top of each chapter as well as the wording in the story). Ethan and Dylan meet again where he begs her forgiveness and tells her he left to protect her life. Right here is where I would have run for the second time in the book, but no Dylan can’t help herself when it comes to Ethan. For the next two months, we are taken on the ridiculous Ethan and Dylan train that reads like a bad Sopranos episode. Criminal activity, obsessive love, sex, running away, godfather types, drugs, and well, there is just too much that is revealed in this part of the story. The lies – oh the sheer volume of lies where we find out just how Ethan and Dylan’s past is intertwined.
In the end, you will feel the need to throw a pat on Dylan’s back with a big ole ‘ata girl’. However, for me it came too little too late. I had already written Dylan off as a credible main character and honestly this makes me angry with myself. Dylan was a victim in her past. Horrible, horrible things happened to her. She has been able to pull herself up and out enough to go to college, establish friendships, and even kind of date. I never want to feel this way about a victim. However, her entire existence with Ethan was her choice to say ‘yes’. She was complacent and continued to go along with him as all the lies are uncovered.
While this book can be considered a stand alone, the author has left the epilogue with enough room that it could be turned into a series. While the entire story was in Dylan’s voice, the author chose to change the voice to Ethan, who even in the end continued to be seen as a creepy stalker guy and ends with ‘NEVER THE END’. I would not continue to read this story line if it was made into a series.
Overall
- One word to describe this book: Incongruent – there were too many opposing thoughts and actions.
- Plot: Too quick of a timeline, too much too soon, I felt the need to fact check, and basically it felt like author was trying too hard to give us a shock. I have read shocking books. I have loved the heck out of shocking books, this was not one of those.
- Structure: Could use a better editor, the writing was a bit stiff, and it felt like there were a lot of superfluous words. Those of you who are not a fan of first person, this book will not be for you.
- Characters:
- Dylan was a weakly drawn character. When a character has gone through as much as Dylan has, I want to cry, I want to rage for her and with her, I want to hold her and make it go away. With Dylan, by page 70, I wanted to walk away from her. For a person who has been through so much, she has absolutely no self preservation. Someone asked me if she had Stockholm Syndrome. If so, that is not what I imagine the author was trying to have us glean from the story.
- As for Ethan, there should not be a single person on the planet that finds Ethan a hero. I like bad boys. Heck pretty much most women want dirty, bad, tortured soul types in their stories. Ethan came off as creepy, unsettling, stalkerish, and just a bad bet. His obsession with Dylan bordered on the offensive and should have included jail time. As the story unfolds, I can sort of see how a reader may find some redeeming qualities to him: He did save her from his family as they raped and beat her for four days – oh but you find out he is the one who sent them. He was sent by his family to kill her, but he didn’t – oh man that is just wonderful. When his family found out she was still alive, he was sent to kill her again, but he couldn’t since she was the love of his life, well that is okay then, go ‘E’! It just continues on and on. Every day she is with him new layers of the lie onion is revealed.
- Secondary characters – not strong enough or prevalent enough to care about nor spend time talking about.
Overall Impression: It was okay, but not good
*I received a copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.*
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