Thursday, April 3, 2014

Review: One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker

Title: One Tiny Lie (Ten Tiny Breaths #2)
Author: K.A. Tucker
Published: June 11th 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

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.

I knew going into this that most people didn’t find this better than Ten Tiny Breaths or anything near the goodness that was TTB. Since TTB was a little rough for me because I didn’t connect with Kacey that much, I was seriously scared to read One Tiny Lie. Those negative-ish and 'meh' reviews didn't really help the cause. Oh, well, let's get on with it and hear what I had to say


“Life has a funny way of creating it's own tests. It throws curve balls that make you do and think and feel things that are in direct conflict with what you had planned and don't allow you to operate in terms of black and white.”

The beginning was so good. The first chapter was completely random, because Kacey basically called Livie out on being too stoic and not having fun and enjoying herself and, of course, the always weird Dr. Stayner. HOW DOES THIS GUY EVEN OWN A LICENCE?


There is no way this guy would be working if he was an actual, real person. Ok, ok, this is fiction, yes, but still, I’m not a fan of his. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks this guy is a total creep? O.o Anyhow, the second chapter had me laughing out loud and that happened a lot before Kacey went home from the uni Livie starts classes at. Then everything basically fell apart.

Livie was a good student before and I’m not opposed to exploring one’s wild side, especially during college. Ashton was pretty great and even though their chemistry was sizzling hot, I found their actions to be something along the lines of wtf. You see, Ashton has a girlfriend. Even if the girlfriend is half across the world and it’s basically a façade on his part, still, he has one. Livie gets a boyfriend—Ashton’s best friend (and lol, I didn’t see the best friends relationship between them at all. If it wasn’t for mentioning it, I could not have guessed they were best friends). Still, they try to resist their attraction, but of course they cannot help themselves and I did not appreciate the cheating in this case.

The plot was almost non-existent what with Livie learning how to party and drown jell-o shots one after another, the chemistry build-up and cheating? It just wasn’t for me, to be honest with you. I did appreciate the epilogue—that was a nice touch. I hated the way Livie and Ashton were together together during their first time, or rather how it all lead to that. Livie was so out of character for me and it literally made me sick. Even if you love someone and they love you, it’s never okay to do that to other people (like the guy’s girlfriend and your own boyfriend). It was just all sorts of “wtf whyyyyyyy are you doing this I don’t understand??!!!”

The few good things about this novel were: the mentioning (and few showings) of Trent, Kacey and Livie’s relationship, the beginning (with the exception of the first chapter), the writing and the epilogue.

All in all, it was hot, yes. It was sweet and by the end of the novel Livie had grown into a different person, and not necessarily a bad one, but the actions that lead to the epilogue were just plain random and made me all kinds of frustrated. There wasn’t much of a plot and the college world was pretty much under developed, plus the middle part just dragged since we all knew what was coming anyway. All in all, pretty much disappointed in this book since I expected so much more.

Overall rating: 2.3 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★

Meet the author

Website Facebook Twitter Goodreads

20 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry that you weren't able to enjoy this book as much as you'd hope Siiri. It was basically like a love square in this book! lol so I can totally understand why this would frustrate you, also Connor and Ashton are meant to be best friends? It doesn't even give the impression in the blurb, so I can see why you would find that baffling too. You did amazing actually sticking this book out, as I think I would have been hugely annoyed in parts :( I hope your next read ends up being so much better! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Uh oh. You said cheating Siiri. That's the kiss of death for me, I just cannot handle it, so I will be staying far, far away from this one. I also don't deal well with people that try to completely shed the person they were before and become someone new (in a negative way like Livie does with all her partying), it just frustrates me. So, in conclusion, obviously not the book for me just as it was clearly not the book for you ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is actually the only book I haven't read (well listened) to in this series. I actually didn't love TTB, but i did love FSTL. I still want to read this one before the next one is out. I don't shy away from cheating in books so I don't think that should bother me. Sorry you didn't like this, have you read book 3?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, I have read the third one. At first I felt like even though I was disappointed by the anticlimatic ending of Four Seconds to Lose, I enjoyed it more than One Tiny Lie, but when I got down to write my review? Um.. I got so angry that I had to lower the rating and.. oh, well. You'll see the review sometime soon, hopefully.

      Delete
  4. My first K.A Tucker book was actually four seconds to loose which I read a few weeks ago and LOVED and i thought about reading the first two books but now i'm not so sure! urgh. I'm reading a few reveiws like yours lately! I'm sorry you weren't able to like this one but yeah i'm not a fan of cheating so i doubt i'd be able to get into it either.
    thanks for the warning! Although i do recommend FSTL for you because it is SUPER good and nothing like the sounds of this one!
    Lily @ Lilysbookblog

    ReplyDelete
  5. I actually enjoyed One Tiny Lie more than TTB. A lot. And the relationships didn't bother me either.

    It's so funny how differently we all Sed the same books!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry you didn't like this one so much Siiri. I don't know how I would feel about the whole cheating thing, but it doesn't really sound like I would enjoy this one. I do want to check out the series, but the fact that it didn't really have a plot is a turn off as well. Great review!

    Janina @ Synchronized Reading

    ReplyDelete
  7. I hate cheating in books and I hate love triangles, but somehow this worked for me. I think I got where both Ashton and Livvie were coming from so I didn't condone their actions but I could understand. I hated the first few chapters of this read and the fact that kacey was encouraging her sister to party and get drunk and make mistakes pissed me off. What's wrong with being a good girl? What kind of sister encourages that sort of behavior? Anyhow, I can understand why you had issues because cheating is a tricky subject that requires the author to somehow convince us that even though the character made unwise choices you still can empathize with how they got themselves into that situation.

    Great honest review! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'd love to read this book, I think I'll be receiving my copy shortly but oh to hear sweet Livie really embracing the college life, nooo! It was bound to happen though. Thanks for the lovely review, I'm glad we still get to hear about Trent and Kacie.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sorry to hear that this book didn't meet your expectations because that just makes it doubly disappointing. I'm already on the verge of a reading slump thanks to my current novel, so I'm going to steer clear of this one. Thanks for the honest review.

    Carmel @ Rabid Reads

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is going to sound so bad, but I'm actually glad you didn't like this all that much. Hear me out, lol.

    Everyone raved about this book and everyone raved about the first book Ten Tiny Breaths. So I read the first book, naturally. And I DNF'd. Basically everything you said about this, I thought about the first book. There was no real plot and I just wasn't feeling it. Plus the romance was boring and cliche and like you, I also could NOT connect with Kacey.

    It made me totally not want to read One Tiny Lie, but everyone kept saying they loved it and I kept thinking 'oh, man, I'm going to have to read this one day just to see what everyone is fussing over'. But knowing you didn't' like the first book all that much aaaand that this one was 'meh', means I'm not the only person in the world who doesn't get this series haha. And I will not be forcing myself to check this one out any time soon ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Girl I didn't enjoy TTB that much so actually I didn't bothered to read this one. I'm happy for it as I really dislike creeps and I don't want to read them. I think that Mr Fifty ruined that for me totally. Needless to say cheating, nooo I don't like that either. You know, I'm glad it was sweet but I'll stay away from it. Great review, Siiri :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Aw, sorry you didn't enjoy. Great point though about the non-traditional doc

    ReplyDelete
  13. I haven't read Tiny Little Breaths but this review for its sequel isn't really encouraging me to give this series a shot. I hate it when second books fall prey to middle book syndrome /: It can make me re-consider my rating for the first and make me dislike the remaining books in a series. Ahhh, cheating in a book usually doesn't work for me at all /: Unless the person getting cheated on is like super evil, I'm talking murderer level. I doubt that was the case in this story lol. When the main character cheats on/with somebody it just really does make me lose respect for them.

    Lovely review! (:

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh nooo, Siiri - it sucks that you didn't enjoy this. The premise of the novel actually sounded really good, and the quote you shared really hit home with me. BUT THE CHEATING. UGH. I hate any sort of cheating in novels, and I get that it's a plot device because it shows a turning point for the characters..but still...yuck. I haven't read Tiny Little Breaths before, so I'm not sure how different Livie has changed, but I don't like her already just for her actions. :/

    Thank you for the brutally honest review lovely, will probably not be picking this book up any time soon. xx

    Joy @ Thoughts By J

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ungh. I just (no lie) earlier today read a review that made me want to move this up my TBR list (b/c I've had it for freaking ever), but NOPE. They totally lost me at "cheating." Cheating is my #1 rage button. I mean, how hard is it to break up with someone, if you don't want to be with them anymore. WAY easier than dealing with the guilt and fall-out of cheating (IMO).

    Great review, Siiri! Sorry this wasn't for you (or me either).

    Jessica @ Rabid Reads

    ReplyDelete
  16. I hate cheating books so I don't think this series is my type. I've heard quite a lot that not much happens in this one.

    Lovely review, Siiri! <33

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really liked Livie so always been curious about this one, cheating is not my thing in books either so might have to wait on reading more of this series since I just recently read a book about cheating and em like...gah

    ReplyDelete
  18. *Sighs* Sorry you didn't like this one as much as you hoped you would Siiri! Books with cheating relationships always get me enraged, so I don't think this would be my type of read either. Thanks for sharing, and, as always, BRILLIANT review! <3

    ~ Zoe @ The Infinite To-Read Shelf

    ReplyDelete
  19. I totally agree with you! I was a fan of Ten Tiny Breaths but I hated One Tiny Lie. One of the major turn offs for me was the cheating. I had actually like Livie in the first book and this whole "change" that Kacey and everyone else wanted in her was ridiculous. I didn't even find Ashton that swoon worthy. The way he treated Livie was awful and I hated the way all the blame fell on her shoulders. Anyways, hope you enjo your next read Siiri! :)

    Janhvi @ The Readdicts

    ReplyDelete