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A review by pagesplotsandpints
Nothing But the Truth by Holly James
3.0
Read Completed 2/2/24 | 3 stars
Liar Liar meets The Devil Wears Prada (kind of) in this contemporary novel without the romance. (Well, there's a little romance in it but it definitely not a romance novel.) I picked this up after reading Holly James' latest release THE DEJA GLITCH -- which was a romance -- and I knew this wasn't a romance, but I was still hoping for the same kind of writing magic that I enjoyed in her other book. I liked the concept of Lucy being magically only able to tell the truth in a little magic / sci-fi twist like I enjoyed in THE DEJA GLITCH and have been loving in some other fun romcoms like THIS SPELLS LOVE and Ashley Poston romances.
This started off fun with Lucy making a wish the night before her 30th birthday to have a perfect day, and her perfect day ends up only allowing her to tell the truth, so she basically truth bombs her way through day, destroying everything but kind of in a good way? It was cute at first, and then the truths quickly lead up to dismantling her whole workplace due to sexual harassment and Lucy & others finally doing something about the horrible boss.
Look, I liked the message, but I felt like the author ended up beating us over the head a little bit. I mostly just didn't feel like the tone matched in the two halves of the book. The beginning was fun and light, like many romcoms are and the vibe that I was looking for when I started this book (yes, still knowing it wasn't a romcom). When we got to about halfway and Lucy started taking down her horrible boss for horrible things, it became all-consuming and kind of stopped being a well-rounded personal journey and just ended up being about work and this one thing. Again, not a bad message but I didn't always like the way the author handled it and I didn't always like the way Lucy handled it either. I liked that the truth made her speak up about it but I also feel like she kind of bulldozed everyone and while the concept was great and she was FORCED to speak up, other people weren't and they weren't even allowed to process things since the whole story happened in a day.
I just didn't love the second half and it didn't really match the first half in a lot of ways. I felt like too many things were forced and it didn't always feel like a good flow of a journey that Lucy went on.
Liar Liar meets The Devil Wears Prada (kind of) in this contemporary novel without the romance. (Well, there's a little romance in it but it definitely not a romance novel.) I picked this up after reading Holly James' latest release THE DEJA GLITCH -- which was a romance -- and I knew this wasn't a romance, but I was still hoping for the same kind of writing magic that I enjoyed in her other book. I liked the concept of Lucy being magically only able to tell the truth in a little magic / sci-fi twist like I enjoyed in THE DEJA GLITCH and have been loving in some other fun romcoms like THIS SPELLS LOVE and Ashley Poston romances.
This started off fun with Lucy making a wish the night before her 30th birthday to have a perfect day, and her perfect day ends up only allowing her to tell the truth, so she basically truth bombs her way through day, destroying everything but kind of in a good way? It was cute at first, and then the truths quickly lead up to dismantling her whole workplace due to sexual harassment and Lucy & others finally doing something about the horrible boss.
Look, I liked the message, but I felt like the author ended up beating us over the head a little bit. I mostly just didn't feel like the tone matched in the two halves of the book. The beginning was fun and light, like many romcoms are and the vibe that I was looking for when I started this book (yes, still knowing it wasn't a romcom). When we got to about halfway and Lucy started taking down her horrible boss for horrible things, it became all-consuming and kind of stopped being a well-rounded personal journey and just ended up being about work and this one thing. Again, not a bad message but I didn't always like the way the author handled it and I didn't always like the way Lucy handled it either. I liked that the truth made her speak up about it but I also feel like she kind of bulldozed everyone and while the concept was great and she was FORCED to speak up, other people weren't and they weren't even allowed to process things since the whole story happened in a day.
I just didn't love the second half and it didn't really match the first half in a lot of ways. I felt like too many things were forced and it didn't always feel like a good flow of a journey that Lucy went on.