Emily Meckler’s life is, in short, charmed. She’s going to a private boarding school where her father is the president, and she gets to live with some of her best friends in the dorm. But when her junior year of high school resumes after a short break, things that once looked perfectly rosy take a nose dive with the arrival of the mysterious and utterly magnetic Del Sugar. Her school never lets in students mid-year, and since she didn’t hear a word about this from her father during break, Emily begins thinking something very strange is afoot, and she wants to get to the bottom of it.

What sounds like a girl-meets-mysterious-boy story is actually much more layered: turns out that everything Emily has come to believe about herself and her family may be lies. And we’re not just talking little white lies: these are the sorts of lies that may change her entire life.

Jessica Warman’s Breathless was one of the titles I dove into last fall upon its release because of the premise of secrets, family drama, and a little prep school suave. Although I ultimately had some issues with the book (similar to what I had with this particular one), the writing here is top notch. Warman has a very literary styling to her writing which requires the reader to slow down and engage. And engage I did; I was immediately drawn into Emily who, on the surface, comes off as a typical girl who has everything. But the further I fell into the real Emily, the more I had revelations similar to her — everyone has a deeper story than what’s explained on the surface.

Where the Truth Lies is a companion to Breathless but it is not essential to read her first novel to read this one. Instead, it’s much like the smooth connection Wendy Mass makes between her 11 Birthdays and Finally: we have a character who is related to the previous characters. This connection gave me a huge ah-ha moment and made me think that Warman was pretty clever. But those who don’t have that moment will not be missing out on anything essential to the story.

Warman’s prep school drama has great appeal to fans of realistic and contemporary fiction. We are dropped amid a world of wealth, privilege, drugs, sex, and secrets; it’s everything you imagine this sort of world to be where teens are left to live in dorm rooms away from their parents. Emily will fall in love with the off-limits Del who can convince her of everything, including breaking and entering into her own home. But oh, this will have so many consequences for her, and we’re not just talking about the sort that requires time writing the same line 500 times.

As much as I dug the drama (and I did), there were some issues that I struggled with through this book. First, the pacing and time passage in this book, much like in Breathless is a bit wonky; we meet Emily part way through junior year, but somehow there is a pregnancy that doesn’t quite time out appropriately. The book ends near the middle of her senior year, I think, and it seems that there are periods of time between that simply don’t exist. While I appreciate that we weren’t dragged into periods of nothingness in the novel, there was a sense of some plot points missing that could have been worked up a little more. Likewise, some of the characters who were initially really compelling (including Franny) seem to drop out of the story too quickly for my tastes. It didn’t quite make sense to me why we knew she had a hair pulling disorder if we never got much more of her. I also wish I had learned a little more why Emily became suddenly interested in a friendship with Renee, a known drug user/seller, after initially writing her off. Perhaps this is for a second volume or a third book that pulls these characters in again.

Where the Truth Lies will appeal to fans of Nina de Gramont’s edgy prep school story Gossip of the Starlings. These are darn near perfect readalikes for me, as both are full of scandal, unraveling secrets, illegal activity, and quite lovely writing. Fans of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep and even Tom Wolfe’s I am Charlotte Simmons will find a lot to like here, as will fans of books along the lines of Gossip Girls, Pretty Little Liars, and Anna Godbersen’s The Luxe series. This is for more mature readers, for sure. I think this book will also have wide appeal to adults.

While I rarely comment on book covers fitting the book (haha), I just want to say that this is one of the most perfect captures of how I imagine the main character. Emily is a red head with long messy tresses, and she strikes me as a bit of an artsy dresser. In addition, the smoky element of the sky fits in perfectly with the smoke and water images that haunt Emily at night. Well played!

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*Review copy received from BEA, but this post is part of the Bloomsbury Tour.