Rating: 2.5 stars
Buy Links: Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel
Truth or Lie was a sweet romance with just a hint of the paranormal. While I felt the story itself did not evolve and broaden as I had hoped it would, if a quick insta-love type romance is what you are looking for, you need look no further.
The story revolves around Anthony, a schoolteacher and son of the pairing of Artemis, goddess of wisdom and Socrates, the Greek philosopher. As a result of his lineage, Anthony is like a divining rod—able to tell if someone is lying to him. On “bring your Dad to school” day one of Anthony’s students invites his uncle, his father having died in battle.
There is an instant attraction between Uncle Travis and Anthony, but both men have been burned in previous relationships and Anthony is doubly wary about the idea of falling in love again, knowing he will be able to see any lies Travis puts out. But Travis is that rare breed of man who not only demands honesty, but gives it as well. Now Anthony is faced with the decision about whether to be truthful himself and reveal his powers to Travis.
Truth or Lie was a fairly straightforward read with few plot twists or really spikes in action to keep the reader involved. Unfortunately, I felt that the romance element was a bit too predictable and the characters not nearly interesting enough to hold my attention. While the romance aspect was sweet, it was all a bit too easy and the paranormal element just a bit too unbelievable. I kept trying to gage Anthony’s age and try to figure out how he had managed to get hurt by previous relationships when he was so astute at catching lies. Overall, I found his character to be a bit whiny and much less strong than I felt he should be.
Travis was the more likeable character but being deeply closeted, I felt the sense where he opted to hold Anthony’s hand and even kiss him in public to not ring true to his near obsessive hiding on the job. Along with this, I felt it was a stretch to find a man who spoke the truth absolutely—it just seemed unbelievable to me that he was so seemingly perfect.
In the end, Truth or Lie was a nice story that required me to stretch my imagination just a little too far to have it be a novel that held my interest. However, this was my first Lynn Lorenz novel and I would definitely want to sample her work again. She is a good storyteller; unfortunately, this novel was just a miss for me.
