Review: What I Saw and How I Lied

Title: What I Saw and How I Lied
Author: Judy Blundell
Pages: 281
Rating: 5/5

When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.

As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between her loyalty to her parents and her feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is . . . who (powells.com)?

I bought this book for one reason...the cover.  Something about the 1940s Hollywood look hooked me and I had to have a copy.  Once I sat down with the book, I read it in one setting (with a newborn so this is an awesome feat).  I also gave this book five stars.  I was thoroughly taken with this book and can't say enough about it.

What I Saw and How I Lied is a mix between a really good mystery and a coming of age novel.  The book hooks you within the first few pages, foreshadowing of events to come:

We never went to the hotel dining room now.  They knew who we were; they'd seen our pictures in the paper.  We knew they'd be saying, Look at them eating toast - how can they be so heartless (pg 2)? 

From there, the story is told through flashbacks.  Evie's family is together again after the war, but one night after a mysterious phone call, Evie's stepfather packs the entire family up and takes them to Palm Beach, Florida.  Immediately, I thought something fishy was up - otherwise, why the made rush, and why the mystery.  What was Evie's stepfather hiding.

Once the family arrives in Florida, Evie meets a young war veteran named Peter.  She almost immediately falls in love with (as did I...Blundell created one of the most enticing male characters in young adult literature).  Peter fought in the war with Joe, Evie's stepfather, however, Joe wants absolutely nothing to do Peter.

From this point forward, the reader is caught in a rollercoast of lies and mistrust.  One thing after another begins to fall apart, and we as the reader, get to experience it first hand.  I personally couldn't turn the pages fast enough.  And once at the end, I wanted to start over again from the beginning.  That is how much this book hooked me.

Blundell has a new book out called Strings Attached about a young girl in 1950s New York.  I can't wait to get my hand on it and read it.  I'm hoping it is just as good, if not even better than What I Saw and How I Lied: