The opening sentences certainly catch your instant attention: One hot August Thursday afternoon, Maddie Faraday reached under the front seat of her husband’s Cadillac and pulled out a pair of black lace underpants. They weren’t hers. Stricken, Maddie tries to calm down and be rational. What helps in this situation? Eat chocolate. Frantic, she attacks a frozen chocolate brownie from the freezer, hacking it with a knife, desperately toasting it and gnawing at its frozen edges. The answer to everything is always chocolate, when it’s all said and done. Anyway, as if things weren’t already complicated enough, her first secret love, sexy bad boy C.L. Sturgis is back in town and displays an obvious yen for her. What to do? Maddie wants to get even with her husband but she wants to keep her reputation too.
Fantastic sex in the back seat of C.L.’s car is not going to help. Even if it is great sex and even if everyone finds out about it. Poor Maggie ends up trying to juggle Brent, her gossipy mother, her suddenly secretive best friend, her confused daughter, C.L., and the entire small town who’s thriving on all this deliciously unexpected and salacious gossip. When Brent suddenly disappears, Maggie becomes the focus of the scandal. Hot, sexy, and crazy, with the unmistakable Crusie domino style of this-this-this-this-this-this-that happens, Tell Me Lies is a wild roller coaster of a book and you never quite know where it’s going to end up. Take note of the relationship between Maggie and her daughter. Written with insight, this demonstrates a beautiful mother-daughter love during a very tricky time. Bravo, Jennifer. Oh, and C.J. is hot!