Ink & Cupcakes, Inc. Little Lies (Alternative Cover)

Fantastic. Very different from her other books, but uses the same characters. Gut wrenching at times because some of it is from a child’s perspective but still a great read.

Little Lies is the first book in a new series by Helena Hunting writing as H Hunting. It’s a New Adult, angsty, college romance with links to the Pucked and All In series. Lavender is the daughter of Alex and Violet Waters from Pucked and Forever Pucked and Kodiak (Kody) is the son of Rook and Laney Bowman from a Lie for a LieLavender has transferred to college in Chicago in her sophomore year. She is living with her brothers and constantly surrounded by her cousins and family friends. She and Kody used to be close. He was her saviour and safe place and she developed an unhealthy attachment to him. Kody suffers from anxiety too but has learned to deal with it more effectively. An incident 2 years ago means that the two are not friends anymore but rather enemies. When there is a fire at Kody’s house he moves in to the spare room in Maverick, River and Lavender’s house and they are forced to deal with the events of their past.I devoured this book in one day! It’s an angsty slow burn but when we get there... oh my goodness. So hot! The flashbacks will rip your heart out but also make to appreciate the adults that Lavender and Kody become (even if Kody is frustrating at times) It was great to see how much Lavender has grown. It is sometimes difficult to reconcile the sweet little boy with the grown up Kody but he has his reasons for being the way he is. I really loved that Lavender ALWAYS calls Kody, Kodiak.I really liked the relationship between Lavender and Violet and I absolutely loved Mav. He’s the only one who really treats Lavender like he treats everyone else and he’s just hilarious. I have been looking forward to this book since I read A Secret for a Secret. I love the second generation and I’m excited for more stories from these characters. Although I did feel connected to these characters through the Pucked and All In series, Little Lies can definitely be read as a stand alone.Also, oh my... this cover 🔥🔥🔥

I was drawn to Little Lies by the hype for it on instagram, and when I finally got my hands on a copy to read for myself, there was a lot I enjoyed about the books. What resonated with me the most was the attention to detail with the Lavender and Kodiak's experiences with anxiety. The way Hunting describes the anxiety spiral, how overstimulation of the senses can trigger it, being stuck on things and wondering how they could have been done differently, and the techniques that people can use to pull themselves out of it was great. As someone who lives with an anxiety disorder myself, those scenes rung true.To an extent, anyway. There were a few situations where things felt too easy, such as a scene where Kodiak essentially puts himself on the centre stage in a classroom despite his severe anxiety. It would have been nice to see more in depth on pushing through anxiety to do what he did because pushing through anxiety can be done, absolutely, but it's a process.There were also some conflicts that felt very easily smoothed out when I expected there to be more bumps, especially since we were set up to feel like there would be. However, from a literary analysis standpoint, it could be argued to be a part of anxiety, which has a keen ability to build things up when they're really not that bad in the end. Thinking about it now, I think this book would be an interesting subject for some analysis like that.Overall, I enjoyed this book. :)

I will read everything this author is selling, love that she is Canadian as well

helena is my favourite author i’ve read almost all her books but was a bit disappointed with this one i expected more chemistry and romance since they only got together in the end, but overall super happy with my purchase