Book Review: THE LIE by Karina Halle

The Lie by Karina Halle
Book Series: The McGregors
Publication Date: February 15, 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance

Purchase: Amazon US – iBooks
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Their love led to a lie
Their truth led to the end

Brigs McGregor is crawling out from the ashes. After losing his wife and son in a car accident and his job from his subsequent downward spiral, he’s finally moving forward, getting a prestigious teaching position at the University of London and a new life in the city. Slowly, but surely, he’s pushing past the guilt and putting his tragic past behind him.

Until he sees her.

Natasha Trudeau once loved a man so much she thought she’d die without him. But their love was wrong, doomed from the start, and when their world crashed around them, Natasha was nearly buried in the rubble. It took years of moving on to forget him, and now that she’s in London, she’s ready to start again.

Until she sees him.

Because some loves are too dangerous to ever indulge.
And some loves are far too powerful to ignore.
Their love just might be the life and the death of them.

REVIEW

RATING: ★★★★★

“I knew. I knew, the moment I laid my eyes on Natasha, that I was gone and there wasn’t a single thing to hold me in place.”

Well I knew, the moment I laid my eyes on The Lie, that I was gone and there wasn’t a single thing to hold me in place, too. Before starting this book, I didn’t know what to expect, as this was my first novel ever from Karina Halle. What I did find, was so AMAZING. The Lie contains an emotionally fueled and heartbreaking second chance love story. Though, it’s not any second chance love story, because it’s so much more. The quality of Ms. Halle’s writing is of a magically high level, that together with all those twists and turns created a lot of emotions, feelings and some angst in the broken world of Brigs and Natasha. A story that captivated me from page one and a story I just couldn’t seem to put down. After reading this book, Karina Halle is automatically one of my favorite author’s. From now on, she is part of my small group of go-to authors.

“I am glass and in your hands and I am breaking.”

Brigs and Natasha are both finally ready to put the past behind them, overcoming the guilt, shame and grief that exists because of the horrible things that happened to them. It all started with a very wrongly timed, yet incredibly beautiful lie, that eventually led to the big devastation of their worlds. They are ready to have a second chance at living their lives, after being in a black hole for four long and painful years. Brigs managed to obtain a professor job in film study in London. While Natasha received a second chance to finish her master’s degree in film in the same city, at the same university.

“Maybe my mind is so battered, so bruised, I conjured her up. A real life ghost. A figment of my imagination.”

Their reunion gives feelings a chance to come crawling back to the surface. Those awful feelings of guilt, shame and grief. Feelings they nearly had a chance to forget about, forgive themselves for. But also the strong feelings of love they once felt for each other. Even though they tried their hardest to forget about one another, that connection and bond between them never severed. It never lessened in strength. Their attraction might even be higher than it ever was. Is this their time? Is there a chance for them to finally be together? Or don’t they deserve a second chance at something this exceptionally great?

“Because love shouldn’t be ignored. Or shunned. Or buried. If you’re lucky enough to feel it, you need to indulge it. Give it wings. Let it course through your heart and soul, unfiltered.”

I loved everything about this book. I completely lost my heart to both Brigs and Natasha. I felt everything with them. The devastation of everything they lost, especially Brigs, the heartbrokenness that came with accepting that their lie could never be a truth. But also the happiness and warmth that came with them reconnecting, with the easy way they just fell back into each other. It was very hard to see someone like Natasha, happy, carefree, and full of live, to be broken into pieces. And Brigs who was able to sacrifice his own happiness for the most important person in his life, and then he finally having that courage to see that for that person to be happy, he needed to choose his own happiness. And seeing his whole world crumbling down because he decided to go with the truth. I don’t know how she did it, but Ms. Halle succeeded in breaking my heart into a million little pieces with this gripping story. Luckily she also made sure to not only rebuild the love between the characters and finally giving them everything they deserved, she also made sure to glue every last damn piece of my heart back together.

“Oh god. This kiss. This is wildfire. This could so easily consume us. Until there is nothing left. We’re going to fucking burn this world to the ground. And there’s no better way to go than in the flames with him.”

The way that woman writes, I seriously have no words for it. Her writing is well-crafted and exceptionally brilliant prose. She also has the incredible talent to create a world that doesn’t shy away from taboo subjects like infidelity and forbidden love, in a way that makes you understand, just a little bit, and that doesn’t give you the opportunity to judge, but only lets you empathize with the characters and to just FEEL. Everything. I can’t put into words how enthralled I am by this emotionally charged and captivating story told in The Lie. The only thing I have left to say is, I highly recommend you to grab your phone, laptop or tablet, to one-click this beast of a novel and start reading right away. Let yourself be carried away by the magical words and just let yourself feel.

“What Natasha and I shared surpasses all expectations and dreams. It’s difficult for me to wax poetic about it without sounding flowery or clichéd. But I guess the word transcendent could work, even though a single word could never say enough. I doubt all the words could.”