Review: To Be Perfectly Honest by Sonya Somes

Fifteen-year-old Colette is addicted to lying. Her shrink says this is because she’s got a very bad case of Daughter-of-a-famous-movie-star Disorder—so she lies to escape out from under her mother’s massive shadow. But Colette doesn’t see it that way. She says she lies because it’s the most fun she can have with her clothes on. Not that she’s had that much fun with her clothes off. At least not yet, anyway…

When her mother drags her away from Hollywood to spend the entire summer on location in a boring little town in the middle of nowhere, Colette is less than thrilled. But then she meets a sexy biker named Connor. He’s older, gorgeous, funny, and totally into her. So what if she lies to him about her age, and about who her mother is? I mean, she has to keep her mother’s identity a secret from him. If he finds out who she really is, he’ll forget all about Colette, and start panting and drooling and asking her for her mother’s autograph. Just like everyone always does.

But what Colette doesn’t know is that Connor is keeping a secret of his own…

Holy mother of unreliable narrators, this takes compulsive liars to the brink! I was a little bit wary going into this book because I've never read anything in verse before but Sones masters it - the verse is perfect and reads so well, only going into noticable verse at some points which worked really well. I was totally sold on the idea of an unreliable narrator and I was expecting this book to be a bit heavier. This book does deal with some heavy issues but it deals with them so well, I loved watching Colette's growth and seeing how she matured throughout the novel. The last part of the book was fantastic, when Colette realises that she needs to stop lying and face up to her life.

To start with I really liked Connor, he seemed really genuine which I guess is why Colette liked him so much as well, but then the reader begins to see through him. I was screaming for Colette to get a grip and realise what was going on! Despite the fact that she was an unreliable narrator, I really did like Colette - she was a unique character but she has her issues in life and deals with them the best that she could. I absolutely loved little Will, he was a joy in this book!

To Be Perfectly Honest is a short book and so it doesn't go too deep into any of the characters or the issues, but I really think that it does what it intends to - nothing less and nothing more. It was a fun book that dealt with some less than fun issues and it's executed very well.

Book released:  August 27th 2013 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review (Edelweiss)