Review Detail

DARE YOU TO LIE by Amber Lynn Natusch is a young adult suspense novel that follows Kylene after she moves back to a small town, the place she left after nude photos of her were spread through her high school. When it happened, she suspected six football players, including her ex-boyfriend, but no one was ever charged with the crime. Her father, on the other hand, was unfairly convicted for a separate incident and sent to prison. Kylene is determined to prove her dad’s innocence, but realizes she needs to find out who did her wrong first. With the help of a lawyer, her mom’s best friend, and an FBI agent, her father’s old partner, Kylene starts searching for the truth, but the closer she gets, the more dangerous it becomes.

I love Kylene’s character. She’s a witty, sarcastic, modern-day Nancy Drew. She’s too angry for her own good, which tends to get her into trouble, but her smarts save her time and time again. She also has wonderful people around her that have her back. I have a soft spot in my heart for Gramps, and Tabby is a compelling character, who I would have loved to see come through in more resourceful ways like she does in the parking lot scene. After that, Natusch relegates her to the yappy, upbeat sidekick, and we the audience, lose out on all she has to offer.

The book itself is a very enjoyable read and I was invested in the story, but with that being said, so much happens in such quick succession that I never felt the lingering effects of fear. As a result, though entertaining, it wasn’t necessarily a page-turner. It was a book I had to digest in sections.

I would have liked this book to be a standalone, or at least for both crimes to have been solved by the end. It felt like it took a little while to really get the ball rolling. However, I am happy that there’s potential for a sequel, so we can see Kylene put her sleuthing skills back to the test.

Overall, DARE YOU TO LIE is timely, delivering a relevant political message with sass and ingenuity.