One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker

One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker
Series: Ten Tiny Breaths #2
Published by: Atria Books on June 11, 2013
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 336
Source: Purchased
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Rating: ★★★★½

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

Something crazy happened while reading One Tiny Lie. I had just finished reading Racing Savannah and it was 1:30am. I figured I’d just get started on One Tiny Lie and read for maybe 30 minutes. Well it’s quite possible that I read until 4am so I could finish the book.

That’s right, One Tiny Lie was addicting!

This book was so easy to read. I breezed right through it. There was never a dull moment and something always had me drawn in, wanting more!

I have to admit, at first I was unsure about One Tiny Lie. Livie’s therapist and sister basically encourage her to drink obscene amounts of alcohol and go out partying every night, even though she’s not even legally allowed to drink. I know teenagers do anyway, but… a therapist telling her that? Seriously? I thought it was pathetic. But then View Spoiler » [we find out that the therapist was really just waiting for Livie to say, “No! I’m not going to do that because it’s wrong and I shouldn’t have to!” So it was all part of some therapy “game” I guess. Maybe that still doesn’t make it okay, but it made it easier for me to accept, because it kind of made sense. « Hide Spoiler]

I loved all the characters in this book! I think one of the things I loved most was the contrast between Livie + Connor and Livie + Ashton. Connor is a great guy, there’s no questioning it. But Livie and Connor have no chemistry, whereas Livie and Ashton are OVERFLOWING with it. That made me really able to appreciate the awkward situation Livie found herself in near the end. View Spoiler » [It must suck to have to break up with a perfectly nice guy. It’s easier to do it when the guy has done something clearly wrong.. but when the reason is just “you’re not right for me”, that makes it so much harder. Sometimes you just don’t click with a person.. that doesn’t mean the person is a bad guy or a bad boyfriend, but it makes it hard to break the news to them! « Hide Spoiler]

Here’s the thing about Ashton: he starts off looking like an ass. Based on what I’d heard about the book, I went into One Tiny Lie expecting there to be more to Ashton than meets the eye. So when he cheats on his girlfriend (something I HATE!!) I repeated my mantra to myself: “There’s got to be an explanation.. there’s got to be an explanation.. lalala.” Normally cheating will immediately make me hate a character and/or a book. But I kind of tried to brush it off because I just wanted to hang in there and see if there truly was an explanation at the end.

And yes, there is kind of an explanation. So hang in there, ladies! Whether or not you think that explanation justifies his actions is up to you.

I think the one thing I didn’t love about One Tiny Lie was how Livie and Ashton never seem to have a real relationship. Livie is actually dating Connor for like 90% of the book, so Livie and Ashton are just always awkward around each other. They rarely ever hung out or talked for real, and they never even date properly. So although I did really like Livie and Ashton together, I think their relationship could have been so much better if they spent some real time together actually trying to date.

But I ended up loving One Tiny Lie. It was one of those books that just EXCITED me!! I think the book has the potential to be controversial because of the excessive drinking and the cheating. Some people will hate the book because of those things, which I TOTALLY understand. But if you somehow manage to brush them off like I was able to (which is surprising for me!) then I think you’ll love the story.

The Verdict