Dangerous Lies

Fitzpatrick, Becca. Dangerous Lies. 2015. 416p. 616 mins. ISBN 978-1-48142492-9. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Stella has just moved to Thunder Basin, Nebraska. It is the middle of nowhere, with not much to do. She used to live in Philadelphia, but she can’t tell anyone. Stella is not her real name. She’s in the witness protection program because she saw a dangerous drug dealer and the head of the local cartel murder another dealer right in her house, in front of her drug-using mother. And that dealer then severely beat Reed, her boyfriend. With the dealer and his crew looking for her, the U.S. government is protecting them both in exchange for their testimonies. While in Thunder Basin, she will live with Carmina, a retired police chief, and cannot communicate with her boyfriend, nor reveal her true identity.

With nothing to do, Stella quickly finds a job at the local diner, and begins to meet new people, pretending to be a foster care kid from Tennessee. Stella also meets Carmina’s neighbor, nineteen-year-old Chet Falconer. Stella finds herself attracted to Chet, but since she doesn’t plan on being here very long she sees no need to become friendly with him. As days, then weeks pass, however, and Reed never communicates with her through their secret email account she accesses at the local public library, Stella becomes worried at the prospect that the dealer’s men found him. At the same time, her attraction to Chet continues to grow, and Stella feels torn between the two of them.

Meanwhile, local high school baseball captain and sure major league prospect Trigger, who also happens to be the town bully, has set his sights on Stella and makes her life miserable. Plus, he looks familiar to Stella, and he also looks like he recognizes her from somewhere. With Trigger lurking around her, drug dealers chasing her, and Chet’s dark secrets, danger is lurking everywhere. As she’s about to discover, dangerous lies could get her killed...