Alessandra Torre – Black Lies

Black Lies by Alessandra Torre
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Source: Review by Request
ARC Provided by the Author
My rating: 6 of 5 stars

Brant:
Became a tech billionaire by his twentieth birthday. Has been in a relationship with me for 3 years.
Has proposed 4 times. Been rejected 4 times.

Lee:
Cuts grass when he’s not banging housewives. Good with his hands, his mouth, and his cock. Has been pursued relentlessly by me for almost 2 years, whether he knows it or not.

Go ahead. Judge me. You have no idea what my love entails.

If you think you’ve heard this story before, trust me – you haven’t.

Buy this book at the following retailers:
Amazon US | Amazon AU | Amazon UK | Amazon CA
Smashwords | Nook

Are you ready to hear what I’m about to tell you?
Brace yourself…

This is the best thing I’ve read all year.

There’s not even a close second right now.

Let me start by saying that you’ll find zero spoilers in this review.

I know what you’re thinking: ‘How can she rate a book 6 out of 5 Stars?’  Well, quite frankly, this is my Blog and I’ll break my own rules if I want 😉 In the entire history of The Smutsonian, only one other book has ever been rated 6 of 5 Stars, and that was Sex Love Repeat, another powerhouse masterpiece from Alessandra Torre, whom I’m starting to believe might be an alien, because surely no human can be this fucking talented.

Alessandra Torre is unique in many ways – she blends sex, suspense, and romance in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat. She is one of a handful of my ‘stop-drop-and-read’ authors who ALWAYS delivers high-quality books that leave me with massive book-hangovers. Black Lies was obviously no exception.

I am incapable of putting her books down.

They grab you from the opening lines and don’t let up. My responsibilities will be put off, husband will be ignored, my house could be on fire, Jake Bass could walk naked into my bedroom… Well… Ok, so I’d probably ask him to sit quietly on my bed until I was finished with the book 😉 But you get the idea!

I have learned how I need to read her books: Block off several hours because the book WILL be finished in one sitting.

Here’s the thing about books that have “The Big Twist” – Sometimes you see it coming from a mile away, which is infuriating and makes the main character(s) look like idiots for not figuring it out too… Never the case with Torre. I was shocked… There’s no other way to describe it.

Alessandra Torre dangles the twist in front of your face from the opening pages… This “Secret” that keeps Brant from being the perfect man… This mysterious yet monumental character flaw which leads Layana to obsess over Lee despite the fact that she’s madly in love with Brant…

It was so easy to become enamored with this glorious romance…
Intelligent & Intriguing Characters,
Amazing Dialogue,
Panty-Melting Sex,
…and all the while this unseen destructive force is lurking in the background.

Here’s the other thing about books that have “The Big Twist” – Sometimes the twist the only good thing about the book… Or worse, it makes the rest of the book bland in comparison – Ever go back by yourself and re-watch The Sixth Sense after you found out that Bruce Willis was dead the whole time? No? Can you remember anything else about that film other than this:

Anything at all? Nope. Me neither… But then again, I review books, not movies 😉

… Once again, this was not the case with Black Lies. While I was monumentally shocked by Brant’s Secret, I was glued to this book from beginning to end – more on that in a moment… The reveal made me reflect on everything which preceded it. It made me understand Layana’s motives with a clarity I couldn’t grasp before… And I was desperate to find out what would happen next!

This is a love story which will leave you completely breathless.

Absolute Mind Blowing Perfection.
Go read this. Right this second.

Let me tell you a bit about my experience reading this book…

I left the office at 4:30pm – Like most Bloggers, I work full-time in a non-book-related field…

I got an email at 4:42pm with an ARC attached. Ten minutes later Black Lies was on my Kindle tempting me with the book-version of bedroom eyes. “Shurrn, read me!” and I was all “No, book! I have a review to write, and emails to return (sorry Rob), and laundry to do.” But truthfully, I was already undressing it with my eyes…
Peeling back the cover…
Peaking at the first page…

I’m weak…

By 5:15pm I had walked my dogs, grabbed my iPhone, iPad, an iced coffee, and retreated to my bedroom – this is not an odd occurrence in my house. My darling husband is quite used to me “going into seclusion” when I have an awesome book in my hands… He also had the pleasure of seeing me read Sex Love Repeat last year while rocking back and forth on the couch like a deranged person… So yeah… I hide my insanity in the bedroom now… Fewer witnesses.

I spent the rest of the evening completely sucked into this book – eyes wide, pages turning frantically, my mind desperately trying to figure out what “The Secret” could possibly be…

At 7:10pm I finally hit the twist.
I yelled.
It was loud.
Through the closed door my husband hears me scream “OH MY FUCKING GOD!”  but he was unfazed. As I mentioned earlier, he has prior knowledge of my love of (and reactions to) Alessandra Torre…

I couldn’t sit down and read any longer.
I had to pace around the room clutching my iPad with a white-knuckled grip…

By 11:00pm I was completely finished. Emotionally exhausted. Social Media outlets were informed… And I was sitting in my bed trying to convince myself not to flip to the first page and read the entire thing again… Real Life (the one I had ignored all evening) was going to intrude on my post-book-reading bliss early the following morning.

I dreamed about this book.

I woke up the next morning and started re-reading Black Lies while brushing my teeth.

Did I mention that I’m weak?

It was even better the second time around… I got to pick up on the mountain of clues and breadcrumbs scattered throughout the text like glittering jewels…

Nearly 48 hours after finishing this book (The second time) it was still stuck in my head – I was having a drink with a friend, gushing all over my enjoyment of this book when she said, “Sounds like you’ve got a major hard on for another piece of Fiction…”

My response, straight faced:
“If this book had a dick, I would get down on my knees and suck it.”

So there you have it. I can’t think of a better way to tell you how awesome this book is…

Read it.
When you discover Brant’s secret for yourself, message me. I’ll be there to help you recover.

Alessandra Torre,

This book has been awarded the following honor by The Smutsonian. Click the star to see the full list of books who won awards in this category!