ARC REVIEW: The Truth About Air & Water (Truth In Lies, #2) by Katherine Owen

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AMAZON / BARNES & NOBLE / KOBO

Author's Page:

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Genre:

Contemporary Romance

Summary on Goodreads:

From the bestselling author of This Much Is True, book 1 comes Owen's latest novel, The Truth About Air & Water, book 2 in the Truth In Lies Series. 

Tally Landon and Lincoln Presley share an epic love. The famous couple is poised to begin their married life together after his baseball season ends at the World Series and before her fall ballet season begins, but then a single moment changes everything and a life together that seemed so certain is now shattered. The ballerina learns that you never love the same way twice while the baseball player learns that starting over may be the only way to return home. You only think you know how this love story goes, but do you really know how an epic love can end?

“There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.” 

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

She is living color, and I’ve been in a black-and-white world for far too long without her. 

Powerful stuff. It surrounds me. I’ve felt it since I first arrived. The forcefield of her. The magnetism of her. The power she wields over me. I’m alive again because of her, like a dying plant that finally gets some water. I’ve got it bad for this girl. 

Reality dawns. 

The light comes through the darkness and shines on me.

She’s my water.

-Lincoln Presley

The truth is I breathe with him. He is my air. Raison d’etre.

-Tally Landon

Author's note: This novel, The Truth About Air & Water, is part of theTruth In Lies series but can be read as standalone. This Much Is True is book 1 in the series.

MY RATING:

***REVIEW***

~Arc provided by the author in exchange for honest review~

"...The darkest hour has arrived..."

You might have thought you have seen it all from Tally & Linc in This Much Is True (Truth In Lies, #1), but you were wrong. You might have thought that this young couple has been through so much pain, lies, secrets and loss already that they more than deserved their HEA in the 1st book, but Katherine Owen says guess again and brings you The Truth About Air & Water, #2 where they face one of the biggest challenges so far in the way of their happiness- wedding or better say weddings preparations...gone terribly wrong.

"Marriage is a life-time commitment, not these one-day affair costing up to fifty grand where the world stops for a few hours, watches the two of you get photographed, and feed each other cake."

I was so excited when I got the arc, because I loved This Much Is True (Truth In Lies, #1)- My Review, but then I read the blurb and my first thought was: Katherine Owen, what did you do again? o_O Remembering the way the 1st book made me feel I braced myself for the emotional roller-coaster I felt is about to come and dived in, but the masochist in me knew that I'll probably love it.

Gripping,  poignant & deeply emotional.

K. Owen is at it again people- breaking our hearts into little pieces and then excruciating slowly mending it together again. I became an emotional mess after only a couple of pages. We all know how stressful and exhausting wedding preparations are nowadays, but imagine how stressful it must be for a famous baseball player and ballerina whose every step of life is exposed and followed by the media eagerly waiting in every corner for them to make a wrong move in order to get their 5 minutes of fame. Add to that overbearing and "well-meaning" family and spokesmen who always know what's best for you and you have a recipe for a certain disaster. You just want to live your life and be free, but you can't, because it isn't only your own.   

This story made me feel so many different things: melancholic, anxious, frustrated, perplexed, angry and then blissfully happy. It made me cry. It kept me awake the whole night. It was that good.

It is told again from both, Linc's & Tally's povs, through at times poetic and evocative writing what is one of the main reasons I liked it this much. In comparison to the first book where my feelings about Tally were complicated; at times I liked her and then, there were times I didn't, in this installation she won me over completely . Yes, she isn't quite the type of main character I usually prefer; she is a fighter deep down, but a little more flawed and insecure, but that is what made her more real in my eyes. Knowing her personality and background from the 1st book I could completely understand her insecurities and worries in this one.

No, the person who was mostly on my shit-list this time was Linc and his profession. He broke my heart with that little confession when whey were talking with the priest at the beginning of the story and I saw that as the main trigger for disaster that was about to come. But then again, in the end,  he was the strongest one of the two of them when it came to their relationship. A rock on which Tally could always rely on when her insecurities and doubts hit, so he had also some of those redeemable & swoon-worthy moments too.

Their story is not an easy story. It's complicated, frustrating, heart-breaking and touching and there's a lot of drama, but less than in the first book. A true masochist treat. And the ending??? Well, I loved it! That's all I'm going to say.

Highly recommended to fans of authors like Megan Hart, Tarryn Fisher  etc. who have a weak spot for  emotional reads.

Yes, this book could be read as a standalone, but still, I recommend starting from This Much Is True. Only then will you truly be able to understand this imperfect, at times tragic, but above all epic love story.

Big thank you to the author for giving me an arc copy of this book! <3

"We are way past wicked.

We have passed up malicious and perhaps even evil.

We are in the midsts of Neverland with nothing of good in sight.

Rock bottom.

The darkest hour has arrived."

xoxo