Novel Review: Perfect Lies (Mind Games, #2) by Kiersten White

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: YA Paranormal Thriller Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen (HarperCollins)

Release Date: February, 2014

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday. Wishlist Thursday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.

The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.

But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other - but that may not be enough to save them.

The Cover:

This is not my favorite cover in the world, but it's not bad, and works with the book pretty well; also, it goes well with the first cover. It represents the books well, and that matters a lot, at least.

Quotes:

• "'Silly man, doesn’t he know money is imaginary?’ It’s paper that turns into numbers on screens. It’s there, then it’s gone. I put it places, I take it out, I move it somewhere else. Imaginary. Most things are imaginary, when you think about it. Sometimes I think I’m imaginary.” (Hardback, pg. 12)
• "'She told me only people we love the most can destroy us, because no one else has that kind of power.’” (Pg. 118)
• "Is this how friends feel, this give-and-take, this sharp fear tempered with hope?” (Pg. 153)
• "Once upon a time, I was a little girl with a mom and a dad and a sister, and the only monsters in the world were imaginary. Then I became one of the monsters.” (Pg. 211)

Review:

I love Kiersten White’s stories. Everything I’ve read of hers so far has been fantastic. I will read anything of hers at this point.

This was a great continuation and conclusion to the series. It went by really fast, and is rather short, too.

I like both Annie and Fia, a lot. Their development was really nice, and some of it was surprising. It all really needed to happen, too. The ending for them was perfect, very fitting for each of them. Annie needed to take charge, not be taken care of; she always had it in her, she just needed to do it. Fia needed a break, badly. Time to find herself, grow into herself, be away from everything and everyone. Especially after what happened in this book.

I’m really happy for Annie. And I really like Cole.

I feel really bad for Fia. At the beginning, I wasn’t expecting what happened with James. By the middle (maybe even earlier, actually), I was starting to wonder, but hoping I was wrong. It’s frustrating, though, and sad.

This was a great book. It was exciting and intense, the development was fantastic, the characters are great, the writing was fantastic. It was a great conclusion, and now I really want to get my hands on White’s other books (The Chaos of Stars, which I still haven’t gotten, and her next books). 

My one only complaint would be the lack of explanation of the previous book. There was absolutely no explaining what happened in the first book, and it really could have fit if only for meeting the minor characters on Annie’s side. Given that I read the first book this time last year, a lot of the characters were blurry for me. I got over that, but it still would have been nice.