ARC Review: Lies & Lullabies by Courtney Lane

Title: Lies & Lullabies
Author: Courtney Lane
Series: none
Genre: dark read, mafia, crime

On the weekends, she’s Sugar, a woman free of the pretty prison constructed by her domineering father, who combs the dangerous streets in search of something she never quite finds. During the week, she’s Simone, the good girl and the illegitimate daughter of the most powerful and hated man in Los Angeles.

Catch—aptly named for his “career” choice—is a man shrouded in mystery with one dangerous purpose. After a whirlwind encounter, Catch draws Simone into his dark and tangled web.

A dangerous game ensues, lives are lost, truths are exposed, and one man may shatter the foundation of a powerful organization on the brink of extinction.

The game of truth or dare won't end until Catch and Simone strip each other of their façades and uncover the reality of who they were, and who they are fated to become.

Amazon US | Amazon UK

FLO'S REVIEW

Lies & Lullabies by Courtney Lane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4 STARS

You can alway trust Courtney Lane to deliver a crazy ride that is just a little on the edge of too twisted and morally questionable. Lies & Lullabies is her newest standalone, this time around she went a little less dark than her previous books...if you can believe it...there is still so much crazy going on that it's probably more risque than your average dark read. It’s just tame for Courtney’s standards.

The story from the blurb was very intriguing to me. Sugar, a.k.a Simone leads a double life as kick-ass underground fighter on the weekends and a more socially acceptable executive assistant during the week. She has secrets and her life is mostly dictated by her mob boss father. It's all a bit of a mess. On one of her nights fighting she meets the very mysterious Catch, and once he has his eyes set on her things turn from bad to worse in a blink of an eye.

Absolutely fascinating story set-up and in true Courtney Lane fashion she did it quite brilliantly, once I really started to understand what was going on. I have to be honest, the prologue made no sense when I first read it. It didn’t really click until the last twenty percent of the book and that really bugged me for the longest time. It made me feel like I was missing something. Just a tip for potential readers, go with it and don't try to understand who is who. It will make sense in the end. In fact, when you are done go back and read the prologue again...carefully...doing that actually bumped up my rating.

Now for the main characters. Both Simone and Catch are wonderfully messed up, like I expect them to be in a Courtney Lane book, but that was also a bit of a problem for me. Don’t get me wrong I love the author and I really enjoyed the book, but I have read the kind of crazy in her books before. I feel bad for writing this, but her characters aren't as unique as they used to be. There is a bit of a pattern in her brand of the unexpected. Nothing really shocked me. Especially the voice of Catch and his antics sounded like some of her previous heroes to me. Maybe that’s just in my head, but yeah...that's my opinion.

Now to the interesting part. Courtney apparently plans on stepping away from the genre, going back to her roots. She plans on writing some PNR in the future and that excites me to no end. I do think she is such a gifted writer, she can grip me like no one else and I really wish she will give us some unique new material.

All in all, a very enjoyable mafia story with a twist. Excellent writing, gripping story, mysteries and questionable morals.

That’s all. Thank you for your time.



**ARC very kindly provided by author in exchange for an honest review.