Review- Lies My Girlfriend Told Me (Julie Ann Peters)

Synopsis

When Alix's charismatic girlfriend, Swanee, dies from sudden cardiac arrest, Alix is overcome with despair. As she searches Swanee's room for mementos of their relationship, she finds Swanee's cell phone, pinging with dozens of texts sent from a mysterious contact, L.T. The most recent text reads: "Please tell me what I did. Please, Swan. Te amo. I love you."

Shocked and betrayed, Alix learns that Swanee has been leading a double life--secretly dating a girl named Liana the entire time she's been with Alix. Alix texts Liana from Swanee's phone, pretending to be Swanee in order to gather information before finally meeting face-to-face to break the news.

Brought together by Swanee's lies, Alix and Liana become closer than they'd thought possible. But Alix is still hiding the truth from Liana. Alix knows what it feels like to be lied to--but will coming clean to Liana mean losing her, too?                    
  - Goodreads.com

My Review 

The book started out well. Right from the beginning there was a lot of emotion. After Swanee dies suddenly, Alix's feelings are so relatable and palpable. I could feel the emotion and heartbreak of the main character, putting myself in her shoes and imagining how I would feel losing a loved one.

Unfortunately, my feelings after this were mostly disappointment and disgust. Alix is not an easily likeable character. I know she’s a self-absorbed teenager finding her place in life and testing the boundaries etc. But the way she treats her family is just horrible. She lies, is deceitful and overall just disrespectful to her parents. Who I feel are trying to give her the space and time to adjust to Swanees death, but are also trying to keep her off the path of destruction.

In addition to this she alienates her best friend Bethany. Purely because while she was in a relationship with Swanee, she was jealous and asks her to stop hanging out with Bethany. Which is pretty hypocritical when you find out Swanees secrets from the grave.

Which brings me to Swanees character. Also highly unlikable, and deceitful, with very little to redeem her character. Spoiler (highlight) She's secretly dating Alix and another girl a town over, Liana, at the same time. Promising them both futures with her at university etc. Even going as far as getting ‘engaged’ with Liana.

Part of me actually likes the fact that the author wrote such complex and flawed characters. But there's a difference between being flawed and having almost no redeeming qualities. Unfortunately, most of the people in the book were the later. 

My rating: 3/5