Two Truths and a Lie (TLG #3) by Sara Shepard | Rating: ★★★★★

Picking up where Never Have I Ever left off, Two Truths and a Lie opens us up to a whole new can of mysteries and surprises. In this world, nothing is ever simple and with every answer comes a new question. You don’t know who you can trust and nearly everyone is keeping secrets. But who’s harmless and who’s a walking nightmare?

Still being pulled into a dangerous position by the hand of blackmail, Emma Paxton must successfully continue to live out the life of her twin sister, Sutton Mercer, all the while playing a twisted game with the anonymous person who killed Sutton. Emma has so far been able to impersonate her twin with grace and even has Sutton’s friends and family fooled.

The only person who knows Emma’s real identity outside of the killer is Ethan Landry, the cute and mysterious friend that Emma has sparked with from the start. Both Emma and Ethan have developed feelings for one another–but can Emma pull off having a relationship and solving her sisters murder?

Things are about to get even more complicated with the return of Sutton’s ex-boyfriend, and Madeline’s brother and Laurel’s best friend, Thayer Vega. With his return comes more memories of Sutton’s, more tension and more answers. Emma is spooked and suspicious by Thayer’s behavior more than once, and he instantly becomes her number one suspect.


But what does he know? And what is he hiding? Everybody loves a bad boy… but is he bad to the core? We’re given glimpses into who he is as a character as well as his dynamic with Sutton, Laurel and Mads. It’s also known that he has quite the temper, he becomes so suspicious perhaps that even Sutton begins to suspect him in her afterlife thoughts.

While Emma and Ethan continue to search for the truth, Emma struggles a bit with tension between herself and Laurel and Mads. Both girls clearly blame Sutton for Thayer having left and there’s a lot of petty drama throughout. There’s also a lot of jealousy from both girls for Sutton being the first person Thayer came back for.

And just because Emma has fooled everyone else, doesn’t mean that she can continue to fool Thayer into believing she is Sutton–especially if he isn’t the killer.

We explore vivid memories from Sutton as she watches Emma uncover more. Piece by piece, the lost memories are coming together and hopefully this means they are close to solving her murder.

Fortunately for us, tension does ease up between the girls bit by bit. Ethan is targeted by the Lying Game and Emma has to make a decision on how to stop them from pranking him--we also learn that this isn't the first time he has been a target. Mads and Emma are friendly again by the last chapter, although Laurel is growing more and more suspicious in Emma’s mind. And with Thayer released, it’s obvious things are about to get more complicated for Emma.

Emma has Ethan, though, and now that they are officially a couple in the eyes of everyone she feels slightly more comfortable. Although they have some issues to resolve towards the end of the book, Emma believes that she is truly fortunate to have someone who knows her identity and is offering a helping hand in the case.

(Cough.)

Sara Shepard once more tugs us in all directions, plays with our hearts and leave us in a messy pile of ‘what just happened?’ as we await the truth. I’m so glad I was able to finally continue with this series, because Sara always captures my attention and keeps me on the edge of my seat. I’ve been waiting years to read this installment–I read the series out of order a while back–and it certainly didn’t let me down.

I have so many questions!

How much longer can Emma play along?

Who killed Sutton?

Could it have been Laurel? Or is there more to this story?

And most importantly: what’s next? I look forward to seeing more and more of Sutton and Emma’s stories unravel. It’s bound to be exciting.