"Love Me With Lies" Series: Tarryn Fisher

So, I got a "new and for you" list that included a book by Tarryn Fisher that's a suspense/thriller and of course, I one-clicked that sucker immediately! BUT, then I decided "maybe I should read her earlier books, especially since they're on sale for just 0.99". Best three bucks ever spent!

You know when you read a book and you get sucked into the characters and their drama. Yah. Totally sucked in this weekend. The "Love Me With Lies" series focuses on three main characters: Olivia, Caleb, and Leah. The premise is simple: Olivia and Drake meet in college, she doesn't want him until she can't have him, he chases her, then doesn't. They end up together for a while, then it ends. Fast forward a few years, and Drake reappears with no memory of his past due to a car accident, including the past relationship with Olivia and his current relationship with girlfriend Leah.


The first book in the trilogy is The Opportunist, and told from Olivia's perspective. You learn her background and issues, through the "past" and "present" storytelling. Olivia is a book-worm and not interested in a relationship. Caleb is the campus hottie, athlete, and finds her grumpy and standoffish attitude refreshing. Bottom line, she doesn't drop her panties for him like all the other girls do. So it begins. The chase, the capture and the relationship. Then the relationship doesn't just end, but implodes. Bad. Fast forward four years to the present (although the chapters flow from past to present nicely throughout the entire book).

 "You can only give your heart away once; after that, everything else will chase your first love."

They have what appears to be a chance encounter. You feel her grapple with her emotions as she tries to decide a) should she tell him about their past, and b)  how far is she willing to go and start a relationship /get back with with this "new" Caleb .

 Enter Leah, who "helps" Olivia make a decision by blackmailing her, thus, forcing her to run from Caleb and establish a new life in another state. She moves on, and so does he. Caleb marries Leah, Olivia moves forward with a fellow lawyer. Then the lies come out. She explodes, decides to fight for her first love, chases him to fricken Rome, and yah. On the plane she meets Noah. Oh Noah. Such sage advice: "There is more to loving someone than just making yourself happy. You have to want him to be happier than you are."  MORE lies are exposed! She doesn't come home with Caleb. She does, however, begin to piece her life together again without Caleb.

Let me say this. I get Olivia. She has issues but they're not so heinous that they can't be fixed. She needs fixing, and Caleb is trying, but she's the fricken Berlin wall that needs to be broken down! You learn to love Olivia and all her flaws. You can relate to her. She has Daddy issues.

"I was a relationship retard. I kicked, shoved, and punched people out of my life, so they never had a chance to hurt me."  Yah, totally get you Olivia! LOL!
The first book left me with many questions that weren't immediately answered.

Side characters include Olivia's roomie Cammie, Caleb's parents, Leah's parents/sibling, Olivia's new dude Noah, and a few others that come in later books.

The second book, Dirty Red, is from Leah's perspective. You know that bitch you love to hate? That's Leah. She's an evil, red-headed whore. Trust me. I have experience with red-headed whores. In Vegas. It wasn't pretty. Let's not go there, okay?

Anyhoo - Leah is the opposite of Olivia. Conniving, manipulative, self-serving man eater. She lies to get what she wants, and what she wants is Caleb. Not just Caleb, but for him to love her, look at her, and worship her the way he does Olivia. Leah is not just a selfish bitch, but an uber-bitch. If there was a college course in Bitchology, she'd get an A+. Hell, she'd teach the class! From her voice, you learn just how far and how low she is willing to sink to save herself and her relationship. Evil whore. I hate you.

Of course, she gets mixed up in Olivia drama again as Olivia is now a laywer and Caleb hires her to save Leah's sorry-ass from some hard time prison sentence. You do feel a little sorry (just a wee bit) for Leah hearing her background. She's a bit of an outcast and is set up by her father. So, yes, she has her own issues with the padre, but hey, she didn't have to turn out THIS evil did she? *sigh* Angst. Turmoil. LIES! Omigod the lies they tell each other. Shameful and I could not stop reading! And talk about BOMBSHELL cliffhanger!! Of course, that meant I immediately jumped into the last book in the series.

The third and final book is from, yes you guessed it, Caleb's point of view. Thief is just a heartbreaking mess. The narrative focuses on answering some of those questions left from books 1+2, the Dysfunctional (with a capital D) relationship of Caleb and Olivia, the real reason he was with Leah, the back and forth of their interactions over the last ten years, the mis-understandings that make you want to scream. Other players (Olivia's BFF Cammie, her husband Noah, Leah and Caleb's daughter Estella, her manny Steve) that appear in the other books have roles in this one that provide insight into the roles they played in the C-O dramarama. One thing for sure -- Caleb can fight with the best of them and does not, DOES NOT back down.

Emotional roller coaster, drama, angst, heartbreak, laughs, redemption, evil lies, sweet secrets, mementos, hate, love. This series has it all! Go. Read it now!