I really love Kody Keplinger's work, and I really enjoyed this one as well.

Just not as good as it could have been, and I was kind of annoyed with Sonny a few times throughout the story.

So happy to see all of those cameos from her other book characters!

I loved the importance of non-blood related family.

Having already read The DUFF and being surprisingly impressed by Kody Keplinger’s writing style and moxie. I was really excited to sink my teeth into the companion novel LOL.I think what impressed me most about Keplinger’s style is just the amount of sass she puts into her stories and her characters. At the minute in YA fiction there is a macabre trend of stories about incurable illnesses or suicide so it is refreshing to have a story that is about solvable problems that are still real and relevant. This is exactly what you get with Keplinger’s writing and it is no different from her latest offering – LOL.

In Lying Out Loud, our protagonist Sonny has a problem. She is a bit of a liar. She has learnt that she is a quick thinker and can make up excuses on the spot. However, sometimes her lies can’t get her out of real life desperate situations she manages to get herself in.

In a Cyrano de Bergerac-esque novel Sonny responds to the amorous emails from new student Ryder. As the conversation flows, Sonny realises that she likes him. One problem, she is replying on her best friend Amy’s email account. Ryder likes Amy, not Sonny. Sonny begins to weave a crafty web of lies to make Ryder fall for her instead but eventually her perpetual mendacious behaviour catches up with her.

LOL is a really great read that is hard to put down. It deals with themes of unrequited love, friendship along with deeper issues such as abandonment and poverty. It definitely should be a part of all young adults’ libraries.

Hamilton High: Lying Out Loud: A Companion Novel to The Duff by Kody Keplinger is available now.

Follow Kody Keplinger (@Kody_Keplinger) on Twitter.

Got it on my ereader off Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really liked the novel! Can't think of any actual criticisms right now, it just wasn't mind blowing so that's why it's not a 5.

Here is the full-length review: https://blubimnotafish.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/lying-out-loud-by-kody-keplinger/

4.5 es genial pero necesito más. Solo por eso le quite 5(?

First I was surprised to see there was a sequel of The Duff. Lying Out Loud came already out in April, but I haven't heard anyone talking about it but then I saw it on Netgalley.

I've read The Duff at the end of 2013 and I started my blog in 2014, so I don't have a review up for that book, but I liked it. I have a rule that if I've read the book and there is a movie, I want to give that a shot as well, so I did. I watched the movie at the end of May this year and I loved it even more than the book (I gave The Duff 3 stars as well, but the movie is a 4 or maybe 5 star to me). So I remembered the story so I decided that is was perfect time to read the sequel as well (the paperback comes out on July 2nd, in case you prefer that to hardcovers!).

The sequel (or you might say companion) was good as well. Just a reminder: a 3 star rating isn't a bad rating for me! When I give a 3 star rating it just means it's a bit cliché, didn't surprise me but it's still worth the read. It has a great moral in it, but I think I could've enjoyed it more if I was much younger. However, if you've read The Duff and like that one, you'll also like Lying Out Loud. You can also read Lying Out Loud if you haven't read The Duff, because it's companion novel, so with other characters (but some side characters are main characters in The Duff, so basically the same as the Anna and the French Kiss trilogy).

Cute, but definitely not my fave. I didn't really connect with the characters or the story all that much.

3.5 LOL stars!

Kody Keplinger is an author I turn to whenever I don't know what to read. She has such a great voice as an author, laced with wit and humor and I always enjoy her books. Lying Out Loud was a fun read, but not my favorite by her. Not because of the writing, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Lying Out Loud is the story of teenage girl Sonny who is a compulsive liar. It's been a kind of survival technique for most of her life when avoiding the bigger issues. Now as a senior in high school, she's crashing at her best friend's house because her mom "kicked her out" (or so we are told). When Sonny accidentally IMs a guy using her friend Amy's account, she finds herself stuck in another position where she is lying to them, even as she is falling for him.



This book was good, I just didn't love it. Mostly because I felt the main character was a really shitty friend, and while I understand why, it really bugged me. For someone who was so affected by the actions of others, she didn't think about how her own actions affected others, most of the time in a negative manner. Plus, I didn't love the romance aspect of this book, it could have been more developed.

Like I said before, I did enjoy the book and the writing style, but this would probably be my least favorite of all of Keplinger's works I've read so far. Not even the cameo of Wesley could bring this book up more.

4 out of 5 Stars

The Duff was a fun and enjoyable read. The Duff was the first book by Kody Keplinger that I have read and it won't be the last. I loved Bianca and Wesley.

Book 2 for #THEREADINGRUSH!

Cute easy read, not much to the plot but it was still entertaining :)