Tell Me Lies

Jennifer Crusie

Macmillan, Jul 11, 2004 - Fiction - 384 pages

If you think small-town life can be boring--think again. There are complex social rules: there are certain people with whom you fraternize and those you don't, and, of course, there is the all-powerful gossip. Everyone knows everything about everyone else. Don't they? That's what Maddie Farraday thinks until she finds a pair of black crotchless panties in her husband's car that don't belong to her. That's it; Maddie's had it. She's ready for change, and the first thing she's going to do is divorce her no-good, philandering husband Brent. But then everything goes haywire: Brent turns up dead, Maddie's daughter wants a dog, her best friend is suddenly acting very strange, and Maddie's secret boyhood crush, bad boy C. L. Sturgis, arrives in town after a 20-year hiatus--and he's as sexy as ever. You may laugh out loud at the wild and crazy antics in Jennifer Crusie's exceptional novel, but you'll exclaim with delight over the sizzling, dynamic, passionate affair between Maddie and her first love, C. L.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Dawn772 - LibraryThing

This story was rather absorbing although it led me all over the place, sometimes humorous and other times very serious. The heroine varied between a flighty pushover and a strong sensitive woman but I ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Capnrandm - LibraryThing

Though this was on my "Read" shelf, I could swear this is the first time I met C.L. and Maddie. This may be the very best of Crusie's heartbreak-and-heist type stories, with a believable plot to ...

Contents

• Section 1: 1
• Section 2: 19
• Section 3: 40
• Section 4: 55
• Section 5: 73
• Section 6: 89
• Section 7: 110
• Section 8: 127
• Section 9: 145
• Section 10: 167
• Section 11: 192
• Section 12: 214
• Section 13: 231
• Section 14: 249
• Section 15: 266
• Section 16: 273
• Section 17: 282
• Section 18: 302
• Section 19: 326
• Section 20: 351

Popular passages

Page 4 - What was that?" Em stared at her, her brown eyes huge behind her glasses. Maddie stared back stupidly for a moment. "What?" "That thing." Em came closer, sliding her hip along the yellow counter as she moved, bouncing over the cabinet handles. "That black thing.‎

Page 70 - All he had to do was close his eyes and she was there, saying, "I want that boy to stay with me.‎

Page 109 - Maddie?" and she put her hand on the back of his head and drew him down to her, running her hand down his shoulder as he bent into her.‎

Page 112 - I've had good sex before, but this was nirvana. Was it the car? I'll buy one. I swear.‎

Page 326 - He rolled her over so that he was on top of her, all heat and weight, and her pulse beat quicker, kicked up by the music that still blared from the radio. "Now," she said, and his hands slid up her sides until she shivered.‎

Page 68 - CL remembered wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, his other hand going up to his ripped shirt, trying to brush some of the dust off.‎

Page 34 - Maddie felt her eyes grow hot and steeled herself. She was not going to cry. She was not going to sit in her best friend's kitchen and be pathetic.‎

Page 86 - Mel looked like she wasn't sure she should say what she was going to next. Em got a funny feeling about that because Mel never cared what she said to anybody. "There's something else,‎

About the author

Jennifer Crusie was born Jennifer Smith in Wapakoneta, Ohio in 1949. She received a bachelor's degree in art education from Bowling Green State University, a master's degree in professional writing and women's literature from Wright State University, and an MFA in fiction from Ohio State University. Before becoming a full-time romance author, she was an art and English teacher. Her first book, Manhunting, was published in 1993. Her other works include Strange Bedpersons, What the Lady Wants, Charlie All Night, Anyone but You, The Cinderella Deal, Trust Me on This, Crazy for You, and Maybe This Time. She has received several awards including the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Contemporary Single Title for Bet Me and the RITA Award for Best Short Contemporary for Getting Rid of Bradley. She wrote several collaboration novels including Don't Look Down, Agnes and the Hitman, and Wild Ride all with Bob Mayer, The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes with Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart, and Dogs and Goddesses with Anne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich. She also wrote a book of literary criticism on Anne Rice, published under the name Jennifer Smith.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Tell Me Lies; Jennifer Crusie 2004
• Author: Jennifer Crusie
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2004
• ISBN: 0312932820, 9780312932824
• Length: 384 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy; Fiction / Romance / Suspense