Review: The Thing About the Truth by Lauren Barnholdt

The Thing About the Truth
Author: Lauren Barnholdt
Genre: Young Adult

SUMMARY
(From Goodreads)


In this humorous love story from the author of "Two-Way Street", an unlikely romance is the best sort of surprise—but the wrong secret can ruin everything. Kelsey’s not going to let one mistake ruin her life. Sure, she got kicked out of prep school and all her old friends are shutting her out. But Kelsey’s focused on her future, and she’s determined to get back on track at Concordia High.

Isaac’s been kicked out of more schools than he can count. Since his father’s a state senator, Isaac’s life is under constant scrutiny—but Concordia High’s his last stop before boarding school, so Isaac’s hoping to fly under the radar and try to stay put for a change.

When Kelsey and Isaac meet, it’s anything but love at first sight. She thinks he’s an entitled brat, and he thinks she’s a stuck-up snob. So it surprises them both when they start to fall for each other. Kelsey’s happy for the first time in months, and Isaac’s never felt this way about anyone before. But nothing’s ever completely perfect. Everyone has secrets, and Isaac and Kelsey are no exceptions. These two may have fallen hard, but there’s one thing that can ruin it all: the truth.

MY THOUGHTS

I really enjoy the writing by author Lauren Barnholdt.  She seems to capture the language of teens and it comes across as real to the reader.  The problems I had with this story were actually rather minor, but they were things that ended up lowering my rating for the story.

First when we look at the cover we assume it is Isaac and Kelsey.  They are the main characters and they have alternating POV chapters.  The cover is sweet and gives the reader a small hint about them.  So here I am reading a book thinking the guy is going to have dark hair and the girl is going to be blonde.  I have the character all set up in my head because of it.  Then while reading the story, the actual descriptions do not fit what I see on the cover. The characters are completely different than what we see on the front.  I understand that the cover art department does this and that the author has nothing to do with this. If this sort of thing bothers you, well then you have been warned.

Now for the story itself.  The story does jump from present to past and back and forth again.  I think I would have enjoyed the story better if it was beginning to end.  I loved the slow building of the romance between Kelsey and Isaac.  These are two people with two different lifestyles and somehow they end up working on a project together.  Those few sentences would have been perfect for a sweet young adult read.  When the author brought in the secrets and lies, I think that is what was suppose to make it so dramatic.  Unfortunately, I felt the whole thing was a pretty weak one.  You have the amazing book and you are reading about them trying to figure out a way to work together and become friends.  After the big day where everything goes down, I still don't see much of a fallout because of it.  They end up reconciling right afterwards.  I also never could really understand the reason Kelsey did what she did to her ex-boyfriends car.  To me it seemed a little extreme and just used as a plot point to move the character from one school to the new school.

By the time the book came to a close I had to realize that the conflict for the climax of the story was brief and didn't hold much of an impact.  I just never could get the characters to connect with each other. Overall, this was an easy and fluffy read to pass the time.  It was okay and enjoyable,  but also not one I would want to be jumping through hoops to read again.

MY RATING

Okay book, but it left me wanting more!

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