All the Pretty Lies

By: Melissa Toppen

Narrated by: Anna Grace Cederdahl

Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Sham.
Fraud.
Hoax.
All words that describe my relationship with Callum Hanson.

It didn’t start out that way.
We used to be friends.
That is until high school, when Callum decided he was too cool to be seen with his less than popular next-door neighbor.
So, imagine my surprise when out of the blue, after nearly four years of pretending like I don’t exist, he offers to swoop in and save the day by promising to help me catch the eye of the boy I’ve been pining after for nearly two years.

The only catch....
I have to lie. To everyone.

Pretending to be his girlfriend turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would. I was surprised by how well I fit into his world, and how well he fit into mine.

Before long though, the lines between fake and real started to blur. I began to see Callum as more than just Norwood High’s star football player and manwhore extraordinaire. And the more time I spent with him, the more I wanted it all to be real.

But that’s the problem with telling lies. No matter how pretty they sound, at the end of the day they’re still lies.
I just wish someone would explain that to my heart.

*All the Pretty Lies is a complete standalone, fake relationship, high school romance.

©2021 Melissa Toppen (P)2021 Melissa Toppen

All the Feels

All the Pretty Ls by M. Toppen is astand-alone ya romance novel and tells Poppy and Callum's story. Both were friends but now that they're in highschool everything changed. The nobody and the sports star, they don't really fit, but they make it work. Read about the pains of growing up, the first love, first heart break.
A great read, entertaining, well written, wonderfully narrated by Anna Grace Cederdahl.

That Tangled Web

This audiobook sort of goes into a category all its own. But that may take some explaining...

The story itself is good, although it seems geared toward a young audience, so it would be best enjoyed as a YA or Contemporary Romance. It's got a fair amount of high school high jinx, games, and angst going on as next door neighbors (and former best friends) Poppy and Callum set up a rouse to make others jealous.

What makes this a truly unique listen is the narration. The narrator does a pretty good job with the voicing, but it's evident from the very first moment that the recording environment was less than ideal. I thought this was going to bother me a lot. Instead, it gave the audiobook a surreal, voyeuristic sense that made me feel like I was listening in to these crazy people spinning their webs of deception. It actually became kind of...intriguing, giving the entire story a whole new level.

As for Poppy and Callum. *sigh* Poppy's got issues because her home life is a wreck. That's pretty easy to understand. Callum is a bit more complicated. The short version: he's got issues because his home life is great. LOL It happens. At that age we're idiots sometimes, and this story brought that out. It also highlighted some wonderful friendships, loyalty, strength, and honor.

A Young Romance

I really enjoy Melissa Toppen's books. I jump at the chance to read her books. She writes well with great storylines and wonderful characters. This book is a high school, fake relationship, used to be friends but now enemies to lovers romance trope. It felt younger than her other books I've read. There are parts that made me scowl as well as parts that made me smile. Poppy was my favorite character and Callum proves himself worthy. We receive a sweet happy ending to the book.

Anna Grace Cederdahl has a young voice which works well with this book. The book is mostly read rather than preformed. At times it is well done. She sounds like she's in a well and it took time to get use to.

*I received a code for this audiobook and this is my voluntary and honest review.

Great distraction

This listen served as a great distraction for me while driving and I found myself invested in this story. While I found the narrator to be a little flat in parts she still did a decent job bringing this Story to life.

The story itself was a good story of high school kids trying to navigate all the feels and the pressure of friends. It was very easy to fall into this story with the authors writing style

The Narrator Is Awful

The book itself is average. Decent enough, but nothing to write home about. The narrator is terrible. She's OKish at female voices, and absolutely terrible at the male ones. The audio quality is also echoey and distracting. If you're going to read this, actually read it. The audio book is genuinely not good.