The Lies We Tell

I needed something different. I started a book that had good potential but didn't finish it. I started this one ("The Lies We Tell" by Alex J. Adams), and at first, I wasn't sure (60% in I still wasn't sure), but it really started to pick up between 65-70%.

["Nate
My marriage was done. The criminal I was chasing was giving me the runaround. I was doubting everything, wondering where my life was going.
I’d given everything to the job, but it had cost me everything, including my family and my home.
When Oliver Farnham gave me the lead I’d been looking for, I couldn't pass up the chance to put a murderer behind bars.
I’d promised to protect him, and I always kept my word. If he would give up his life as he knew it, to get justice for a man he never knew, I’m sure I could do what it took to keep him safe.
What I didn’t expect was to love him and if that meant giving my life to keep him alive, it was the price I’d pay. 

Ollie
How much was my life worth? That was the question I asked myself. Was it worth losing everything for? Damn right it was. I’d give up my identity if it meant keeping ME safe.
Witnessing a murder and running away from the life I knew, it should have been a difficult decision, and if my ‘boyfriend’ knew that I was the one that had given him up, I’d have a target on my back for the rest of my very short life.
Then I met Nate. He’d sworn to protect me in exchange for my testimony, but the closer we became, the more I realized I’d give it all up to be with him.
I just wondered if he’d do the same for me. "]

I appreciated the POV from Ollie's perspective a lot more. Yes, he went back and forth from bratty to serious, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (trauma). Nate was just...he was a little flat. I honestly didn't 100% like his characters.

The two of them together? The protector and the distressed? The witness and the cop? The age gap? The bi-awakening? The life-or-death situations? That was interesting and dynamic and developed. I finished this book for the plot alone, basically (and the romance).

But I'm not entirely opposed to checking out some of Alex's other stuff in the future. ;)

Trigger warnings: abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, attempted murder, murder, violence, death threats, kidnapping, torture, assault, and more

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