Dangerous Lies

August 31, 2015
After 17-year-old Stella walks in on a murder, she moves from Philadelphia to rural Nebraska as part of the witness protection program. Leaving behind her boyfriend and drug-addicted mother, Stella tries to eke out a new life under the watchful eye of a retired cop. Over time, she takes a liking to the simple life and her new friend Chet, just as her past threatens to catch up to her. Fitzpatrick’s (Black Ice) brand of page-turning, plot-twisting suspense is conspicuously absent in a narrative that focuses more on Stella’s emotional turmoil than the threat of being hunted down. That may be why the climax feels more like a pit stop on the way to a happy ending. It’s inevitable that Stella will have to face her past, but a revelation regarding the depth of her lies is lackluster and the resolution too tidy. Essentially a feel-good romance masquerading as a thriller, with an unlikely ending in which the bad guys get what’s coming to them, and the good guys get their happily ever after. Ages 14–up. Agent: Catherine Drayton, Inkwell Management.

September 1, 2015
After witnessing the aftermath of a murder, a girl assumes a false identity to hide from the drug cartel that wants her dead. Estella Goodwinn comes home one night to find her drug-addicted mother passed out and one of her dealers shot dead. She implicates Danny Balando, a major player in a drug cartel, whom she sees fleeing the scene. She, her boyfriend, and her mother are swiftly placed into witness protection. Estella's whisked away to Thunder Basin, Nebraska, a town that couldn't possibly be farther away, culturally, from her home of Philadelphia. Now, she's Stella Gordon, living with a retired cop as a foster child. The transition is painful; she can't contact her boyfriend and is completely out of her element. Enter handsome country-boy Chet Falconer, and suddenly things are looking up. Stella initially rebels but quickly sees that Thunder Basin offers welcome stability. But the threats she left behind eventually manifest; a local baseball hero beloved by the community knows Stella's hiding something, and it's more than just her secret identity. Though the book is billed as a thriller, Stella's time in Thunder Basin is actually all simmering summer love and coming into her own. Readers won't mind-they'll be too engrossed by Stella's steady, although reluctant, fall into the arms of charming Chet. A swoonworthy romance that doesn't really need the promised thrills. (Thriller. 14-18)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Stella Gordon isn't her real name, she's not from Tennessee, and her parents aren't dead, but to everyone in Thunder Basin, NE, that's her story. As part of the Witness Protection Program, Stella has to spend her summer incognito in the middle of nowhere with a retired cop. She's impatiently awaiting her upcoming 18th birthday, hoping to rejoin her boyfriend. Both witnessed a murder and have sworn to testify against the member of a powerful drug cartel. With their lives in constant danger, they are being kept separated and warned against any attempts at communication. Stella is finding it hard to adjust to small-town life under the watchful eye of her strict guardian. To escape the boredom, she takes a job at a local restaurant and spends her free time flirting with the handsome Chet Falconer. But when flirting leads to serious attraction, Stella finds herself questioning her choices and her future. From an unlikely source, she discovers the lie she's living now may be nothing compared to the lie she was unwittingly living before, and in her desperation, she makes one crucial mistake that could prove fatal. Each of the main characters is harboring a secret that will keep readers guessing to the end, but what should be the tension-building specter of ever-present danger gets lost amid quaint descriptions of rural living and Stella's repeated (failed) attempts at loyalty to her boyfriend. VERDICT A good read for romance fans, but crime drama enthusiasts should look elsewhere.-Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2015
Grades 9-12 Like Fitzpatrick's Black Ice (2014), this is a solid romantic thriller. Seventeen-year-old Estella is a witness in a murder trial implicating a high-ranking member of a Philly drug cartel. To keep her safe, she is put in witness protection: she's sent to a tiny Nebraska town with a new identity as foster kid Stella Gordon, while her druggie mother is placed in rehab. Stella would prefer never to see her mother again, and she is certainly not about to accept mothering from her strict foster mom, Carmina. Nevertheless, Stella adjusts to small-town life and falls for hardworking, gorgeous Chet, who makes her long to tell her dangerous secrets. Romance features heavily in this thriller, with crime elements relegated to the background until the end, when the inevitable confrontation with the cartel's hitman surges forward. Despite the predictable formula and rushed ending, Stella is a self-reliant, capable heroine, and while her romance with Chet is satisfying, the real winning relationship is between Stella and practical, protective Carmina. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Well-known for the best-selling Hush, Hush Saga, Fitzpatrick's fans will be eager for this new title.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)