Review: The Lies About Truth by Courtney C. Stevens

The Lies About Truth by Courtney C. Stevens

Sadie Kingston, is a girl living in the aftermath. A year after surviving a car accident that killed her friend Trent and left her body and face scarred, she can’t move forward. The only person who seems to understand her is Trent’s brother, Max.
As Sadie begins to fall for Max, she's unsure if she is truly healed enough to be with him — even if Max is able to look at her scars and not shy away. But when the truth about the accident and subsequent events comes to light, Sadie has to decide if she can embrace the future or if she'll always be trapped in the past.

Publishes in US: November 3rd 2015 by HarperTeen
Genre: ya contemp
Source: Harper Teen via Edelweiss
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being free.
Series? no

My 5 star review of her 1st: Faking Normal

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    I wanted to read this one because I was interested in the premise of the car accident and scars, and to top that off, I loved Courtney's first book Faking Normal. 

    I absolutely adored this one. From the messy emotions of losing a close friend in a crash the she survived while in the same car, to the scars that adorn her whole body including her face. She is brave to me but she is self conscious of her appearance. She doesn't want to show skin or do much outside the house when people are around. But she begins to meet her goals by doing things like running in shorts at night, and then she makes so much progress when max comes back home.

    It is a complicated dynamic because he is her long time friend but also Trent (the dead friend's) brother. He looks so much like Trent used to and some of same mannerisms but he is his own person.. He had been in el Salvador with his parents but he has been emailing with Sadie the whole time. They found solace in one another and a safe place to share memories, and pain, and help each other heal.

   I loved their easiness together, the way they could communicate unspoken but could also say what was on their mind without worry of being judged. They are sweet together, and my respect level for Max in how he treats her is through the roof. He challenges her in a good way, but also realizes that she has limitations and he supports her and gets her out of holding her hand as an act of solidarity doesn't work.

    He sees the girl Sadie is and who she is on the inside. Sadies ex boyfriend can't even look her in the eyes anymore and cheated with Sadie sort of ex best friend. Grey tries to fix things but it is to far gone especially since he had a hard time sticking by her with her surgeries, rehab, and changed appearance.

   There is a mystery mixed in with all of this too. Sadie has a stuffed animal that she took the stuffing out and over the years she has written little notes in it-- everything from angst, to secrets. And someone has been typing papers that say verbatim things that she wrote and put in the stuffed animal. She isn't sure if its a taunt or if it is meant to be a comfort. That said, the character development and complicated relationships are what drives the story and what makes me love it. 

   I liked how much her parents were a part of Sadie's healing and life. They are friends with Max's parents as well, and the families spend time together. Sadie's mom is good at encouraging her, knowing when to push her and when to coddle and cuddle a bit. Along that lines, I also liked that she had other healthy for her relationships with other adults. Sadie's therapist had a positive impact on her, and she also spent time with a guy at the junk yard where Trent's car was kept and they would do scavenger hunts, and he helped her look differently at life, and was a constant presence and another that she doesn't mind if he sees her scars.

    I loved the ending and how everything wrapped up. The growth that Sadie had, what she realized about loving others, forgiveness of them and of herself, the importance of the truth even when it can cut like a knife.

Quotes I really liked that show things I love about the book:

"Maybe forgiving ... wasn’t letting go of what they’d done or dulling it down. Maybe forgiveness was giving the past less power to hurt me. Or even building new memories that were stronger than the painful ones. We’d done a little bit of that tonight."
"Max McCall keeps surprising me with his strength... I imagined a parallel universe where there was another version of me. That me had a Big, some excellent resolve, and wrote things like that about herself: Today, I surprised myself with my own strength."

Bottom Line: Emotional, powerful with a surprising look at all sorts of relationships and healing.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Have you ever been in a car accident?