Lies & Liars

11/6/2018

Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

That’s not just a fib, Sawyer Ann. That’s a lie.

Sawyer Taft isn’t exactly debutante material. Working as an auto mechanic, she has managed to keep a roof over herself and her oft-times absent mom.
Grandmother Lillian Taft arrives and offers her a contract: a five hundred-thousand-dollar college education trust fund in exchange for living with Grandmother for one year and participating in the annual Symphony Deb Ball. Sawyer decides to sign up.
Her primary motivation is certainly not for all the trappings of her grandmother's southern society life. She wants to learn the identity of her father.

It turns out to be much more than she bargained for. Beyond the formal luncheons, facials, glittering ballgowns, and charity functions is a world of dark secrets. Sawyer finds herself wondering. Who is her family? Who can she trust?

we don't have friends...we have alibis

Barnes has ingeniously set the story within the context of two alternating time frames: Sawyer's record of nine months leading up to the Symphony Ball and a narrator's account of events transpiring during two hours on April 15th. This framework expertly ratchets up the tension as important pieces of information are revealed, leading to a stunning conclusion with more than a few unexpected plot twists.

Little White Lies may feature debutantes with elbow length white gloves and exquisite ball gowns, but the debutantes' lies are anything but little. Think theft, kidnapping, entrapment, planting evidence.
This is one compulsive read that kept me up and reading way past my bedtime. Bless your heart, Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Bless your precious little heart.