Little White Lies by Katie Dale (review)

Nineteen-year-old Lou Shepard has changed her last name for her first year at college in order to escape the notoriety of a crime that left her beloved cousin in a coma and her uncle in prison for killing her suspected assailant. Lou’s alias also facilitates her real agenda: to track down and destroy the attacker’s alleged accomplice. With the help of one old friend, hacker Kenny, and one new one, aspiring journalist Vix, Lou infiltrates the life of Christian Webb, aka Leo Niles, the guy she thinks got away with murder. Pretending to be Christian’s friend turns out to be easy, but as the two spend more time together, fighting the desire to be more than friends seems impossible. Soon Lou realizes that Christian might just be innocent, but violent vigilantes are still on his trail looking for justice. This powerful suspense story succeeds largely on the strength of its plotting. The slow, deliberate reveal of clues, both to what Lou thinks happened and what really happened, will draw readers in, while a series of unexpected plot twists will keep them guessing right up until the end. Christian/Leo is a little too earnest and forthright, undermining the believability that he ever seemed guilty, but Lou is intriguingly, authentically erratic, torn between grief, guilt, rage, and her unwanted affection for the guy she wants to hate. The rest of the cast is equally enigmatic in the best way, each with their secrets, lies, and hidden agendas. A worthy addition to the growing field of New Adult, post–high school fiction, this well-crafted mystery-romance is sure to please the sophisticated young adult crowd as well.