4 Star
Imagine standing in line at Harvey Nichols waiting to buy the most gorgeous silk Gucci dress. The only minor problem? You can’t afford it, it’s a size smaller than you are, and you have absolutely no place to wear it.
Meet Natalie Flemming: a twenty-something woman working in London for a fabulous shoe-designing firm, but the only thing they let her touch is the company’s tax forms. She has decided to give fate a vacation and takes the task of finding the man of her dreams (or Johnny Depp if he would just return her calls…) into her own hands.
She craves adventure, spontaneity, passion- or will just settle for a decent date.
I have to admit that I found Natalie irritating for the first few chapters of White Lies. I was very worried that I would never be able to take her seriously so thank goodness she showed her sensible side in the work place fairly early on in the novel. I realised then that she was simply a bit off the wall in her attempts to find a date (or husband)! Her job as head of the accounting department for a fashion shoe company made her seem less flighty and I separated the Natalie “in charge of financing” with Natalie “looking for a man”. Her quirky mistakes and funny little internal dialogues made her endearing and I was rooting for her all the way.
I absolutely loved her team in the accounting department – they were what we all wish our co-workers would be like: efficient at their jobs, supportive when you’re having a rotten day and good friends when you’re being loopy – perfect really. Their respect for each other and their boss Natalie was a great touch in the story development and made our main lady realistic and warm. I also became particularly attached to the creative department and their despair at having to make shoes for the “normal” woman, ie Natalie. In my head they were tiny little shoe dictators (something like the elves in The Elves and the Shoemaker) – stomping their feet at the horror of the task in front of them. Loved it!
Now I’m not going to pretend that I was shocked by the outcome of her searching, but I was pleased I became attached to not only Natalie but the images I formed in my head of the office co-workers and the environment in which they worked. Harper painted a great picture while keeping White Lies funny and fast paced.
Thank you to Emily Harper for our review copy. All opinions are our own.
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