Tell Me Lies

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Maddie Faraday grew up in Frog Point, a small town of where everyone knows everyone and who your people are is as important that who you are. All her life Maddie has been a "good girl" and done what was expected. She married Brent, her high school sweet heart, she stays home to raise their daughter while her husband is part owner of a very successful construction company. Maddie should be happy, but ever since Brent cheated on her a few years back, she just can't seem to get that loving feeling back. In fact, she's pretty sure she hates Brent at this point and the only reason she's still married to him is their daughter, Emily. When she finds a pair of black crotchless panties stuffed in seat of his car she decides she's had enough. She's going to end their marriage once and for all. She just hopes he can do it without causing too much of a scandal. The last thing she needs to hear right now is that the boy who's car she climbed in the back seat of the one night in high school she's decided not to be a good girl is back in town.

C.L. Sturgis was given up by his mother and taken in by his aunt and uncle in Frog Point. No one in town expected any good from him on account of who his mother was. He was always getting in trouble whether he actually did something wrong or not, so why not just be the bad boy they all thought he was? When he was in 5th grade, Maddie Martindale was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, and when she tried to defend him to a teacher he was hit with the biggest crush, but since he and Maddie were worlds apart he never even had a chance to be her friend. In high school, when Brent cheated on her and Maddie decided to get back at Brent by climbing in the back seat of his car, C.L. found himself once again crushing on Maddie. Unfortunately they call them crushes for a reason and the next day in school Maddie crushed him by walking away and pretending nothing had ever happened between them. She got back together with Brent and C.L. was left to move on. Now, a successful accountant with a good job in a big city, he's back in town to help his ex-wife and take down Brent. He did not expect that seeing Maddie would bring back that ridiculous crush he's had on her all his young life. He also did not expect Brent to turn up dead and Maddie to be the prime suspect.


I absolutely loved C.L., but Maddie and her constant worrying over what people were going to think drove me up the wall. I'd hazard to say that most men wouldn't have stuck around and put up with all conditions Maddie put on their relationship, no to mention the way she was all over him one minute and telling him to stay away the next. She couldn't make up her mind what she wanted and even when she did, it took her forever to find the damned backbone to go after it. Once she decided to be free and forget what the town thought, she made one crazy decision after the other just because she could. Her daughter, Emily, was well written. She knew she was being lied to and she didn't take it lying down. I was more impressed with her than I was her mother. Maddie's best friend Treva needed to be slapped. When Maddie's life is going crazy Treva decides it's the best time to start venting her life long resentments about Maddie always being good and perfect. And this is your best friend?