Book Reviews: Love Me with Lies #1 and #2 by Tarryn Fisher

  I found out about this series through a fellow book blogger, rachel, from The Readers Den. And I am so glad I read her review because it led me to this heart-wrenching series! I'm a masochist that way, lol. And so I read the first two books in two days! :) check out my review, and who knows, maybe you'll get addicted with Olivia and Caleb too. Let me just mention that the series is self published by the author Tarryn Fisher, but she's really good and the story is good you won't even expect how great it is. 

Title: The Opportunist

Series: Love Me with Lies #1

Author: Tarryn Fisher

Self-published

Published on: November 14, 2011

Source: own copy
Warning: contains strong language and sexual content

Olivia Kaspen has just discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Caleb Drake, has lost his memory. With an already lousy reputation for taking advantage of situations, Olivia must decide how far she is willing to go to get Caleb back. Wrestling to keep her true identity and their sordid past under wraps, Olivia’s greatest obstacle is Caleb’s wicked, new girlfriend; Leah Smith. It is a race to the finish as these two vipers engage in a vicious tug of war to possess a man who no longer remembers them. But, soon enough Olivia must face the consequences of her lies, and in the process discover that sometimes love falls short of redemption.

My Thoughts:

It was good. It was freaking good. My eyes were tearing up from page 1. I am a big heaping sobbing mess. BIG SIGH. This is the kind of novel that you won't let go except to pee and eat. I did not sleep. And I am not gonna regret that later. Wow. Just. Wow. Tarryn Fisher knows her way around her characters. Her main characters have deep and carved characters. They evolved time and time again all throughout the novel, 

Honestly heartbreaking, every after paragraph my heart was torn, aching. My chest was cramping a lot, and boy was it painful. I haven't even felt this kind of pain for any boy in real life, and I am sure I don't want to experience what Olivia went through. To have loved and lost it is the most awful thing a person could ever experience. It will haunt you forever, or at least until your death. It could have a different ending, but different choices bring us to different paths. But I believe in second chances and working it out. Ugh. I agreed with everything except I just wished Olivia told Caleb her reason for leaving the second time. Just that.

But I was happy for Olivia in the end. Noah is a name that I've always loved, and I know why.

The Opportunist will move you, break you and wound you up thinking about it and haunting you even days after reading it. 

Title: Dirty Red

Series: Love Me with Lies#2

Author: Tarryn Fisher

Self-published

Published on: December 21, 2012

Source: own copy

Dear Opportunist, 
You thought you could take him from me, but you lost. Now, that he's mine I'll do anything to keep him. Do you doubt me? I have everything that was supposed to be yours. In case you were wondering; he doesn't ever think about you anymore. I won't let him go....ever. 
Dirty Red

My Thoughts:

This was the hardest book I've ever read. Imagine trying to read from the perspective of my most hated character (so far this year). It was awful. I literally forced myself to read and I was scoffing at the words on the screen most of the time.

Dirty Red is the second of the Love Me With Lies series by Tarryn Fisher, and it's told from Leah's point of view. Never had I imagined reading from the antagonists' perspective. She was such a conniving evil witch, with red hair. Lol. I was told that some people who, after reading Dirty Red, ended up softening a little for Leah. Maybe I did, only when she was telling her childhood days, but that was just for a few words, because the rest of the time I was disgusted with how she manipulated and blackmailed things just to have it her way. What she had was love coated in obsession, it was not even love at all. If she did love Caleb, she would be able to see that he really did not love her the way a man should love a woman, and she should be able and willing to let him go, that was love right? I was even thinking that if ever I was in Leah's shoes, I would have let Caleb go, from the very start, even if it hurts because it was clear that he was in love with another girl, but then of course I'm not Leah, I'm such a far cry from what she is,haha. In the Opportunist, I always hurt for Olivia, it was like every minute I was reading I was crying. But in Dirty Red, even if Leah's childhood was sad, I only pitied her for a while but I noticed my heart was not breaking, I pitied her that she's alone but there was no sympathy, no crying for her. I had some tears dropped only for the times I remembered Caleb and Olivia's situation (But at least now I understood why Caleb chose not to go back with Olivia. Ugh! Thinking about that scene in Rome hurts!!,)...:( yes, I am still voting for them, through and through. 

Being inside the mind of a master of lies was a different experience. Tarryn Fisher is an extraordinary writer, her words pulse through the pages and works towards the readers in ways I could not have imagined. It's deep. It's addictive. Not to mention highly original. The second book was certainly not a lousy excuse to continue the story. In some ways it was a filler in the story, because some of the scenes already transpired. And while it did not have the caliber like that of The Opportunist's- plot-wise, but it was written from Leah's pov so that we might know more of the story. A fellow blogger, Rachel, whose review inspired me to read the series in the first place, was right, this book really did soften the blow (for all the things that happened since the first book). And I am not shy to admit that I was smiling in the end. I so wanna do an evil laugh right now, hahahaha!