As soon as Betty Dawsey decides to leave her fiance, Thom, she packs up her things and walks out of their condo just in time for it to blow up. Betty doesn't understand why people are trying to kill her until Thom shows up and tells her that he is an operative for a privately funded black ops organization that is assigned to help people all over the world. For the first time, all of the times Thom has gone off and left her alone begin to make sense, but now she is on the run with him because someone in his organization is trying to kill them.

Lies is a crazy spy novel reminiscent of the movie, True Lies. The over the top nature of this story requires the suspension of disbelief at several different points throughout a plot that is filled with fast paced action and adventure. Due to the short length of this book, the characters are left underdeveloped, which makes it difficult to feel a connection with them but their banter is fun and their arcs come to a satisfying conclusion by the end of the book. If there was ever a book that would have benefited from an illustrated cover, Lies is it because the current cover is very misleading. Overall, Lies is a zany action romantic suspense novel that is just a downright fun read. ( )

This was fun. Lots of action. I liked the hero who was trying to have a "normal relationship" he researched and found out that on average a woman only orgasms with her partner about a third or so of the time. I forget exactly. So he made sure to have mostly bad sex with her. Haha! The heroine was well written and relatable. I wish Ms. Scott would write faster! ( )

Betty Dawsey is moving out of the condo she shared with Thom because she doesn't feel their relationship is working. He doesn't prioritize time with her and he's sort of boring. but then the condo explodes, she's kidnapped and her picture of Thom changes drastically.

Thom has been living a double life. He's an operative for a secret organization when he isn't acting as Betty's mild-mannered fiancé. But rescuing her from her kidnappers forces him to let Betty into his secret life. This really isn't a good time. Someone is hunting and killing the operatives in his organization and it looks like there is a traitor in their ranks.

Betty and Thom go on the run both to keep Betty safe and for Thom to find the traitors. Along the way, Betty gets a good look at the real Thom and discovers that he is not at all boring. In fact, she falls in love with him -- after she gets over the fact that he's been lying to her for the whole of their relationship.

The story had a nice helping or romance and was rather spicy. The suspense part of the story was also fast-paced and exciting. The narrator did a good job with the voices and the pacing of the story. ( )

This book is really, really good.
Very different.i liked that they are together for all of the book except the very brief start.
The reader is unsure of Thom's true feelings for Betty at first. He's lied about almost everything so even when he says he cared for her you not sure if it's true or how much he cared.
Betty is a strong heroine, she tells him exactly how she feels.
Some parts are very funny.
Excellent secondary characters with potential for stories of their own.
The reason I didn't give it 5 stars was I would have liked something from Thom's POV, I understand why the author didn't give us his thoughts early on as he's a bit of a mystery but I would have loved to have an odd chapter at the end or some authors have done an epilogue from the Hero's POV.
Also Thom says he liked who he was when he was with Betty but there is a hilarious conversation about their sex lives but can we honestly believe he was happy with it, esp as it could obviously have been more. I was sceptical about that point.
No intimate scenes with anyone other than.
Small hint in heroines mind that someone they meet could be an ex dalliance though it is never discussed.
No cheating.
Possessive, brooding Hero.
I loved that she saw a whole new side to him and rediscovered him.
HEA.
Epilogue. ( )

Very engrossing romantic suspense
4 stars

I rarely delve into the world of romantic suspense and it’s this kind of book that makes me wonder why I don’t read them more often. We get a bit of everything - action, romance and a touch of humour. All the good stuff. The whole storyline of them being together and then kind-of not, also gave this a second-chance vibe that I totally got behind.

This particular book features Betty and her dull, soon to be ex, fiancé, Thom. It’s written in first person present tense and it’s 100% in Betty’s POV. By writing it this way, we’re just as in the dark about Thom’s true character and motives as Betty. It’s infuriating and very, very clever. We’re all in with Betty in this book and that’s no bad thing as she’s a great character. A curvy florist thrown into a very bizarre and dangerous set of circumstances while dealing with the equally bizarre ‘transformation’ of her formerly dull, maybe ex, fiancé. She’s real and likeable - and at times, hella funny. We also get very few ‘Bettys’ in romance so it was refreshing - and really fit with her character who had a very 50s style vibe.

Then we have Thom. And why oh why does having that extra ‘h’ in his name make him all the hotter? He’s a bit of an enigma but I immediately liked the way he was dedicated to Betty and really wanted to convince her to give their romance a try. He was obviously smitten even if Betty herself couldn’t see it. Of course, the kick-ass, super spy thing was just icing on the cake!

I was a wee bit confused why Thom felt he needed to temper his feelings for Betty while they were in their relationship before the events in the book. There was some excuse of ‘I have to maintain my cover’ by having sub-standard sex with you which baffled me no end. I was kind of under the impression that people who are not super-spies are also capable of hot sex but maybe I’ve been wrong all this time! Betty also had problems about her feelings for Thom as the book went on. Understandable - but she told him she loved him for the first time during the events of the book. She agreed to marry a man she didn't love? Weird. But hey - the book was fast paced, interesting and I was really enjoying the excitement so these were just tiny things that confused me.

Up until about 80% this was a solid 5-star read for me. And then something happened in the conclusion of the book that knocked it down a star for me, unfortunately. I’m not going to spoil anything for anyone… but the whole way that Betty resolved her issues with Them towards the end of the novel was just too ridiculous and far-fetched for me. And that’s after all the kidnappings, gunfights, deaths etc etc etc. I also simply didn’t like what she did. But please don’t worry - this book still concludes satisfactorily and it’s a happy ending. Phew!

This is the first book by Kylie Scott that I’ve read and I enjoyed it a lot. It was interesting, compelling and with a storyline that was easy-to-follow yet very engrossing. I’m not sure if this is the start of a new series but I’d love to read Bear, Crow and even Fox’s stories and will look out for other books by Ms Scott in the future. A very high 4 star read. ( )