Girl of Lies Tour Stop!!

Andrea Thompson is smart, assertive and beautiful. She’s also desperately lonely. Raised in Europe by her grandmother, she struggles knowing neither of her parents wanted her, and she has no idea why.

When Andrea receives an urgent call from her older sister Carrie, she agrees to fly to the United States to help. Carrie’s newborn daughter Rachel needs a bone marrow transplant.

What Andrea doesn’t know is that her return to the United States will launch a chain of events that will uncover secrets hidden for decades. Secrets which will rock the Thompson family and ignite a political firestorm.

Secrets that some will kill to protect.

When I start a new Charles Sheehan-Miles book, I’m always a little trepidatious for a couple of reasons.  One is because he’s one of those rare writers that can reach in, grab your heart and either rip it out or fill it so full of happiness and joy that you think it might burst.  Which one it will be is always a toss-up.  And two, because I always seem to think that the last book I read by him just can’t be topped.  Will this one be just as good if not better?  Well, he keeps topping himself.  I feel like he needs his own CSM rating system just so other authors don’t feel bad.  This book was a topper…a one-upper in the book world.  It exists in order to make other books feel mediocre. 

Andrea is the one Thompson sister that we know little about.  She was raised in Europe by her Grandmother.  She doesn’t know why her parents didn’t raise her with her other siblings.  At 16, she is sharp and assertive, and not to mention beautiful.  Things are chugging along in her lonely life when she gets a phone call from her sister Carrie telling her she needs her to come back to the USA in order to be tested to see if she’s a match for Carrie’s infant daughter, who needs a bone marrow transplant.  She returns to the USA and from there, things begin unravel and strangely come together all at once; answering questions about not only her past, but the whole family. 

I know a lot of people expect this to be a love story and I will say it’s not, not yet anyway.  This is only the first installment, so who knows where it will go.  I have read all of CSM’s books and I know that he’s just as gifted a storyteller in the thriller/mystery/political genre as he is in romance, possibly better.  He manages to give you the nuances of a character that lead you not only to feeling very connected with them, but also understanding them and the choices they make.  I think that’s critical to any good story.  What I really loved about this book is that it almost has a Hitchcock quality about it.  It is so suspenseful, I was unable to put it down until I finished. 

As much as we learn about Andrea in this story, we also learn about the entire Thompson clan.  Being a fan of the Thompson sister’s novels, I was happy to revisit characters that I have come to know and love.  In a sense, this really isn’t just Andrea’s story.  She is the catalyst for the events that take place in this book, but it is told from alternating points of view which I thought added a lot to the story.

I basically must hound CSM until he puts out the next installment of this series, because if this book is just the set up for the rest of the story, then I believe my mind will be blown.  The writing is, of course, excellent and flowing.  Political intrigue, suspense, mystery…it really has it all.  If I had to recommend one book for you to read this year, this would be it; storytelling at its finest, people.  5 stars.

 

Charles Sheehan-Miles has been a soldier, computer programmer, short-order cook and non-profit executive, and is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, including the indie bestsellers Just Remember to Breathe and Republic: A Novel of America's Future. 

Find out more at http://www.sheehanmiles.com

 

   

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