One Tiny Lie (Ten Tiny Breaths # 2) by K.A. Tucker Review

Name: One Tiny Lie (Ten Tiny Breaths # 2)
Author: K.A. Tucker
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: June 11th, 2013
Format: E-book copy
Buy the book on Amazon
336 pages

Summary:

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

Goodreads

My Review:

Every once in a while you read a book that makes you want to pick it up again and re-read it literally two minutes after you put it down, and boy, was this one of those books.  I loved the first book, Ten Tiny Breaths, but K.A. Tucker absolutely blew me away with this sequel!

Livie walks into college as the perfect girl--she's smart, she's pretty, and she never does anything wrong--but at the same time she is perfectly innocent; innocent, as in, not only had she never kissed a boy or been to a party, but she rarely even talked to boys at all.  At her first night in college, her sister Kacey drags her to a college party, creating a wild night filled with Jell-O shots, tattoos, secrets, firsts, and the gorgeous and teasing Ashton, a night that is mostly gone from her memory when she wakes up the next morning.  What isn't gone, however, is her attraction to Ashton.  Hot, arrogant, sweet, and a bit of a man whore, Ashton is exactly who Livie knows she should stay away from, from the moment he wakes up the next morning calling her "Irish" and refusing to tell her what she said when she was drunk to inspire that nickname.

I loved the way Livie and Ashton acted around each other, especially in the beginning of the book.  The two were constantly dancing around each other, especially because there are real, true reasons why they can't be together: Livie is sort of seeing his best friend, the courteous and charming Connor (though I was never really particularly a fan of his), and Ashton has some really, really sad and difficult home problems that he doesn't tell anyone about, including an out-of-town girlfriend who is not going anywhere.  The love triangle, however, didn't really bother me; that may have just been because it was obvious which boy was perfect for Livie from the first chapter, though.  At any rate, I thought it was a bit rude of Livie to keep dragging on both boys throughout the whole story, but it was difficult for her, as the "perfect" girl, to not want both boys to be happy.

Although I loved just about every scene with Livie and Ashton--K.A. Tucker, by the way, has a way of just completely breaking your heart in one chapter and then putting it seamlessly back together in the next--I also enjoyed how Livie really found herself in college.  Though it was quite difficult for her, she eventually broke out of her shell: she stopped following the path that she had set for herself since she was very, very little, and found out what she wanted and, more importantly, who she wanted to be.  Finding herself was just as important in the book as was finding the right boy, though I did enjoy the latter much more.

Overall, One Tiny Lie was an excellent, electric, exciting, and any other amazing adjective you can think of that starts with an e, book!! If its 4.43 star rating on Goodreads (and that's with over 3 thousand ratings!) doesn't make you want to read this book, then I really hope my review does.  Trust me-- this is one new adult book that you do NOT want to miss!

My Rating: