"I wouldn't waste a day, not an hour, not a moment. Take what you want and damn caution. Live, enjoy. Feed ravenously. Or the biggest regret you'll have at the end of your life is wasted time."

Eve Benedict is a Hollywood icon from the Golden-age of Hollywood. When she decides to write her memoirs she hires biographer, Julia Summers to help her. Julia and Eve form a mutual respect and admiration for each other as Eve begins to tell Julia about the significant people and events in her life one by one. She even tries to encourage a romance between Julia and her stepson, Paul Winthrop. But many of Eve’s contemporaries are unhappy that she has decided to spill all of their secrets and bring their scandals to light. Julia starts to receive threatening messages but Eve is mostly amused by the threats until they start to escalate. Eve decides to lay all her cards on the table and reveals her biggest secret which leads to murder. Julia and Paul, in a great enemies to lovers story, have to work together to solve the rest of Eve's mysteries. A great story featuring strong female characters, complex family and friend relationships with tons of glamour and scandalous secrets. To hear a full discussion of Genuine Lies listen to Season 3, Ep. #2 "Nora Roberts: Genuine Lies" of Romancing the Shelf, a Nora Roberts podcast: https://romancingtheshelf.libsyn.com/

It wasn't bad, but I had a number of problems with it. The book wants to be a thriller, and does a decent job and the beginning and end, but the middle is straight cheezy romance for me. She used "sleek", "slick", and "silky" repeatedly, to the point where I was feeling greasy. It's dated. It didn't have to be as dated as she made it (VCRs galore! And brightly colored numbers with shoulder clips or something). In that middle part was a convention used multiple times where she'd summarily say "I see no reason to include you", and his standard response was to force himself on her.

Don't get me wrong, it is overall a well written book. But the first few pages were a major turn off, and it was a struggle to convince myself to keep going. It was also my first Roberts book, probably not the best candidate for that.

Acting legend Eve Benedict has decided to write her memoir and contracts with biographer and single mother Julia Summers to develop the story. With a career spanning decades, four ex-husbands and countless lovers, Eve’s the keeper of a lot of secrets and a lot of people are nervous. But, at least one of them is more upset than the others as Julia is receiving some ominous notes that can be interpreted as threats.

I’m a fan of sagas and this is an unusual one where the past is revisited in Eve’s recollections to Julia for the book. She’s a fascinating character, one I liked immensely, who had a colorful career and wielded a lot of power. Julia was also an interesting woman and her developing relationship with Paul Winthrop, Eve’s former stepson and child of her heart, is the romantic angle of the story.

Though the story is a little dated (published in 1991), it holds up extremely well because of the strength of the plot and characterizations. I guessed the big reveal early on as well as the likely culprit behind the threats, even though there were some really strong alternative suspects. It didn’t alter my enjoyment in the least because of the heft of the other elements. While Julia and Paul’s romance wasn’t my most favorite, I liked both of them and theirs was a nice distraction to Eve’s tumultuous ones. I enjoyed the story and there’s a timeless quality to it despite its age.

Gosto sempre de voltar a Nora!!
São leituras descomplicadas, que começamos a saber que vai acabar tudo bem, mas que me dão imenso gozo!
Gostei muito deste livro, embora tenha previsto o desenlace bastante cedo, adorei ler o desenrolar da amizade entre Eve e Julia, a simplicidade de Julia e o facto de Eve ser tão excêntrica e especial!
Recomendo sem reservas, uma leitura leve e descontraída!

Perfect summer holiday trash with enough twists and turns to keep the pages turning. They don't write 'em like this any more..!

An engaging, complex story about Eve, a writer tasked with writing the biography of Julia Summers, a legendary actress with a colorful past full of secrets.

Eve moves in to Julia's mansion with her young son and slowly discovers the story behind the glamorous actress's life, her regrets, the love of her life and the people and events that shaped her. The more time they spend together, the more they come to respect and love each other, and the book becomes more than a job for both of them.

A lot of people are unhappy about the secrets that are about to be revealed, however, from an abusive ex, to an actress who is afraid that her image will be ruined, and Eve soon starts getting threats to abandon the book, but both women are determined to see it through no matter what.

Paul, the son of one of her ex husbands and son of her heart, is skeptical about the book and Eve at first, but soon becomes intrigued by her professionalism and her seeming indifference to him. It's not long before he starts pursuing her, and slowly gets past Eve's defenses, but their romance is not the focus of the story.

There are a number of people who could be behind the threats, and all of them become suspects when Julia turns up murdered, but the main suspect is Eve, who

Spoiler

has just learned that she is the child that Julia gave up in secret. She doesn't take it well, and their loud fight lands her at the top of the detectives' list.

In the end we find out that the murderer was none other than Julia's assistant, who was the daughter of someone from Julia's past who felt that Julia owed her for her father's fate, and ended up working with a gangster with a grudge against Julia for rejecting him

.

Engaging story, if a little long and dated, with colorful, flawed characters and an intriguing mystery.

While on vacation I flew threw three of NR's early books....and you could tell they were her early works. The story went on far to long without the fully developed characters that I am used to in her later work. Not a must read at all.