Review: Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger

Title: Lying Out Loud
Author: Kody Keplinger
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: Hachette Australia via NetGalley
Goodreads

Revisit Hamilton High in this MUST READ for all fans of The DUFF - co-starring Bianca and Wesley.

Sonny Ardmore is an excellent liar. She lies about her dad being in prison. She lies about her mom kicking her out. And she lies about sneaking into her best friend's house every night because she has nowhere else to go.

Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with - secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross.

Ryder's the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can't stand - a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed.

But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually 'like' him. Only there's one small catch: he thinks he's been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she's the girl he's really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing her both Ryder and Amy?

The DUFF is a New York Times Bestseller and a major motion picture starring Bella Thorne, Robbie Amell, Mae Whitman and Alison Janney.

Review by Nara

When I discovered that this book was going to be released I was super excited. I mean, a book where Amy Rush appears? Surely that means that a certain couple from another of Kody Keplinger's books would have to make a cameo at some point. Of course, that wasn't the only reason I wanted to read the book. Kody Keplinger is a great author, and what I was expecting from this book was a drama filled high school romance. That's basically what I got.

The romance seemed a little fast, but that might be because there are some time skips. I feel like it almost bordered on complete obsession, with Sonny even hatching plans like making Amy flirt with someone else while Ryder was there so that he'd be put off her. Seriously, the things she'd make Amy do were just ridiculous.

In fact, Sonny was very flawed in general. I don't even know that I really liked her as a character. I kind of hate it when characters lie. I don't have problems with white lies, but I feel like lies about big things are seriously just unnecessary and will only ever come back to bite you. Of course, though, a character doesn't have to be likeable to be interesting, and Sonny was definitely one interesting character. I feel like it's good to have a more flawed character every now and then to keep things fresh. Can't always have the same likeable characters.

I kind of feel like my favourite parts of the book were the cameos from Wes and Bianca from The DUFF, one of Keplinger's other books. There was an appearance from Nathan and Whitley from Midsummer's Nightmare as well. I seriously love it when standalones have little cameos from characters you know in previous novels, because you can see what they've been up to and things.

I wasn't really expecting to get any sort of feels from this book (I mean, it's pretty predictable and a straightforward plot), but there were some sections where I got perhaps a twinge of feels. Nothing major, but certainly unexpected.

Basically, Lying Out Loud was kind of what I expected and kind of not. It's definitely worth reading if you enjoyed Kody Keplinger's other books, if only for the cameos.

Really liked it

Ratings
Overall: 7/10
Plot: 3.5/5
Romance: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 2/5