If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

If I Lie by Corrine Jackson
Published by: Simon Pulse on August 28, 2012
Genre: Contemporary, Military, Romance
Pages: 276
Source: Purchased
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Rating: ★★★

A powerful debut novel about the gray space between truth and perception.

Quinn's done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey's not just any guy—he's serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.

Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she's vowed to keep—secrets that aren't hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she'll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

I’m confused as hell by this book. Or more accurately, I’m confused about how I feel about it. This book has a really interesting idea and story to it, but I think ultimately it left me a bit unsatisfied. It didn’t quite go the way I thought it would and I think I expected a bit more from it.

I think the biggest problem is that I didn’t love any of the love interests. I went into this book expecting a romance story that I’d love. But ultimately, it’s not really about that, and that disappointed me. The story is focused more on Quinn, the harassment she faces, and how she develops throughout the story. But even so, I wasn’t crazy about Carey—Quinn’s boyfriend—, and I wasn’t crazy about Blake—the guy Quinn kissed.

George was the one character I completely fell in love with. The scenes with George were the only ones that got me really emotional, and I actually did shed a tear at one point! he had so much depth to him and was such a unique character. He’s an old Vet at a Vet hospital, but he’s like the father Quinn never had. Their relationship is so beautiful, but a little awkward at the same time.

Another one of the big problems I had with this book, was that I didn’t really understand why Quinn had to keep Casey’s secret. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I won’t go into much detail.. But basically Quinn is being harassed because everyone thinks she cheated on Casey. The only reason she’s not denying that is because she promised she’d “cover” for Casey. She could have still kept his secret without pretending she was still dating him. I don’t understand why they had to say they were still dating in order for her to protect his secret. But this was basically the central conflict and whole point of the book, so for me to not understand it was really disappointing. I think it made me disconnect from the entire story a little. Quinn totally could have told people that she and Casey broke up. If they broke up, people wouldn’t immediately think, “OH MY GOD Casey is gay!!” As far as I’m concerned, there was no reason for them to pretend they were still dating.

I think the end is probably what disappointed me the most. I read it and just thought, “That’s all I get?” I just thought that after all the drama I would have gotten a more satisfying ending. The ending is definitely bitter sweet, but ultimately it felt short and rushed compared to the rest of the book. We spend the entire book learning about what really happened between Queen, Casey, and the cheating incident. Then everything gets wrapped up so quickly in like the last 15-20 pages. And on top of that, it wasn’t really the ending I was hoping for.

Okay, I just wrote a whole lot of negatives. This book wasn’t bad though; for the most part, I did enjoy reading it. I felt bad for Quinn, I hated her father, I hated her mother, I loved George, I love how Quinn develops. And I wasn’t bored while reading.

If I Lie was a pretty good book and I loved reading about a military town. It was a pretty enjoyable and entertaining read, with some strong messages. I think Quinn really changed and developed as a character and learned some valuable lessons at the end—that was refreshing! But ultimately, I just think I expected a little more from this book. I expected more romance (whether between Quinn and Casey or Quinn and blake), and more of a satisfying ending.

The Verdict