‘The Truth and Lies of Ella Black’ – Emily Barr

I’ve loved the other books by Emily Barr that I’ve read, but this didn’t quite work as I’d hoped.

The premise sounds great.

Seventeen year old Ella has a perfect life. There’s hints of a dysfunctional personality when she refers to herself as Bella (Bad Ella, the one who says what she really thinks) and some details that are given to make more credible what is revealed later. One day she is taken out of school and whisked off to Rio by her parents. There she makes some pretty startling discoveries, and it launches a rather incredible series of events.

Ella seemed a little caricatured initially, and this split personality is part-explained later but it doesn’t really fit together. Once in Rio she doesn’t really push for answers, being more content to pursue the hot American staying in her hotel. Of course, they fall in love and he supports her in spite of the kind of chaos that would have most people running a mile! There’s a few near misses, but nothing too awful happens and Ella just happens to bump into kind-hearted characters who all help her out.

I can’t understand why so many reviewers have said they didn’t finish this, but it isn’t a particularly believable story and there isn’t enough detail about the characters of most interest to me.

Still, thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication.