Review: The Safest Lies by Megan Miranda

The Safest Lies
By Megan Miranda
Release Date: June 6th, 2019
Publishers: Penguin 
Genre: YA, Thriller 
Source: For Review
Pages: 352
Goodreads: Add to TBR

 

From the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and The Perfect Stranger comes a captivating psychological thriller about a girl who must face her darkest fears - but can she outrun the past?

Kelsey has lived most of her life in a shadow of suspicion, raised to see danger everywhere. Her mother hasn't set foot outside their front door in seventeen years, since she escaped from her kidnappers.

Kelsey knows she's supposed to keep a low profile and stay off the grid for their protection, but that plan is shattered when her dramatic car accident and rescue by volunteer firefighter and classmate Ryan Baker sparks media coverage.

A few days later, she arrives home to find her mother missing. Now, to have a chance at a future, Kelsey will have to face her darkest fears. Because someone is coming for her. And the truth about the past may end up being the most dangerous thing of all.

The Review: It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book by Megan Miranda and I remember it was amazing, so I was more than happy to dive to The Safest Lies which is a YA thriller and it’s one I enjoyed.

The Safest Lies follows teenager Kelsey. All of her life she has lived under her mother’s strict rules for privacy and safety. Her mother was a victim of kidnapping years ago but she managed to escape and has never got over what happened to her. It’s when Kelsey is involved in a car crash and is rescued by a student from her school that the events hit the news and therefore putting Kelsey and her mother in danger. Kelsey’s mother has been taken once again and this time, they want Kelsey as well. 

I started the story really not knowing what to expect but I was honestly really surprised. I’m not a big thriller reader. I love my romance stories so I always tend to stick with the same reads. So this was a nice change. And it mainly came from just having read another thriller story, so two together was a big thing for me. But this is the kind of story I like. It had the right amount of suspense, secrets, action and romance for me to keep me turning the pages. Kelsey and Ryan were great to get to know. I enjoyed their story and there romance was super sweet and their moments together were ones to look forward to.  

There is one major twist to the story though that really flipped this story upside-down. Did I like it? Maybe. No, I don’t think so. I spent the first part of the story sympathising for Kelsey’s mother. Her past was horrible and I could understand why she was the way she was. I do think she could have dealt with things better – for the sake of her daughter. But by the end, I couldn’t help but dislike her. I really won’t say more because it will honestly spoil the story for others but the twist for me definitely changed how I felt for her. 

In all, The Safest Lies was a good turn paging reader and one I think many will enjoy and I will definitely be adding more of Megan’s book to my TBR pile. 

Thank you to Penguin for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. 

                                                                  Rating: Liked it - 3 Flowers 

A Review for Fracture by Megan Miranda

Posted by Donna
Expected Published Date: January 5th, 2012
Finished Date: December 27th, 2011
Publishers: Bloomsbury
Source: ARC, For Review
Format: Paperback
Pages: 261 
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The Blurb from Goodreads:  Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

The Review: “If you had one day to live, what would you do?”

As soon as I heard about Fracture I knew it was a book I wanted to read. I’ll be honest though, I was a little unsure of it because it says it’s for fans of Gayle Forman’s If I Stay. Now, I didn’t like If I Stay so you can see why I was unsure to start with but let me tell you; Fracture is a heart-stopping, dangerous and thrilling ride and a fantastic debut novel by author Megan Miranda.

The blurb above pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the plot but what it doesn’t say is expect to be thrown into a captivating story from page one. From the get go I was completely fascinated with the story; it was everything I was hoping it would be and so much more. It was intense, heart-breaking, spine-tingly and what surprised me the most was the romance which was completely heart-warming and a fantastic edition.

The characters were lovely to read about. I loved Delaney, she was a normal girl who was very down to earth and had a normal life. When she dies, things change for her. She realises she is just going through the moments and that her family life isn’t as perfect as she once thought. Her best friend Decker, who is also the love interest starts acting weird around her and when he starts dating a girl named Tara, Delaney and Decker can’t help fighting with each other. They love each other but find it hard to talk about their feelings but their scenes together are very intense and you can’t help root for them from the start. And yes, I fell for Decker! How can you not? He is amazing!

There were also so many aspects of this story that I just adored, even though some of them weren’t the happiest of times but I just loved the world that the author created. The idea of someone coming back to life and then having the ability to feel other people dying but not only that, also creating someone else with the same ability was just brilliant. It was kind of like Good vs. Evil; Delaney being good and Troy being bad. You can’t have one without the other, like yin and yang and I adored the combination of it in this story.

Overall, Fracture was a fantastic read. Megan Miranda did an awesome job and I can’t wait to see what comes next from her. I’d highly recommend this to any reader but especially to people that weren’t fans of If I Stay, like me because it may just surprise them.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for giving me the opportunity to review this book.