Release Date - February 18, 2014
Publisher Website - Harper Collins
Publisher Social Media - Twitter/Facebook/SavvyReader
Pages - 232 pages
My Rating - 3.5/5
**received in exchange for an honest review from the publisher**
Here is the Goodreads synopsis
Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.How far would you go to protect your family? How much would you sacrifice? For Fia and Annie the answer is everything. Fia and Annie are willing to kill to protect each other. Mind Games showed us the strength of their bond. Perfect Lies tests it. A compelling conclusion to this duology that delivered fantastic character development, but left me desperate for more backstory.
The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.
But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other - but that may not be enough to save them
Annie changes quite a bit in this installment. As she learns to live for herself, and not be dependent on Fia, a strength emerges. It's something that was always there, but was unleashed when she realized it was within her. I felt like I got to know her character in a way that I didn't in the first one. She quickly became one of my favourites as we were let into her world.
Fia retains the qualities that endeared her to me in the first one. She's someone who follows her instincts, and worries about the consequences later. Seeing her hit rock bottom is crushing. The main thing you want for Fia is for her to depend on herself. She depends on others to keep herself together. Fia, and James are both used a crutch. The pain, and guilt she feels are just barely kept at bay with the coping mechanisms she uses. Fia's story is one that doesn't lend itself to a happily ever after, even if you wish she could have one, and her character captures this perfectly.
The romance in this novel is just as broken as you would expect. When secrets and lies dictate your life, any romance will be shrouded in the same. Fia and James exist on a knife's edge. Annie's tepid, and careful nature shows itself in her romance as well. Seeing Annie fall in love was one of my favourite parts of the story, because it helps her on the path to independence.
The school founded by the Keane Foundation, and the foundation itself, are still a tantalizing mystery. I wanted more details. I wanted to learn more about James' mother and her part in everything. I wanted to learn the beginnings of this school, and how it quickly grew into what it is for Annie and Fia. This was the only aspect that didn't quite meet my expectations. I just wanted so much more from this part of the story.
The ending is perfectly imperfect. It's an ending that fits not only the characters, but the story itself. It provides enough closure that you're content with it, but doesn't shove these characters into any boxes. If anything is clear, it's that these characters defy categories, and the ending keeps in line with that.
A novel that focuses on the strengths of sisterly bonds, and provides us with two broken, and compelling female characters. It provided enough character development to satisfy, but left me begging for more from the world building. Perfect Lies provides a fitting in to this duology, but left many questions unanswered.
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