Love Songs & Other Lies by Jessica Pennington

Narrated by Dan Bittner & Laurel Schroeder

Synopsis (via Goodreads): It’s summer romance and second chances, the songs that stay in your head, and the boy you’ll never forget.

Two years after rock-song-worthy heartbreak, Virginia Miller is looking forward to a fun, carefree summer. Her friends just landed a spot on a battling bands reality show, and Vee is joining them for her dream internship on tour. Three months with future rockstars seems like an epic summer plan. Until she learns she’ll also be sharing the bus with Cam. Her first love, and her first heartbreak.

Now Vee has more than just cameras to dodge, and Cam’s determination to win her forgiveness is causing TMZ-worthy problems for both of them. With cameras rolling, she’ll have to decide if her favorite breakup anthem deserves a new ending. And if she’s brave enough to expose her own secrets to keep Cam’s under wraps.

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I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

“Sometimes you don't know what you want until you just do. It hits you like a wave, knocks you underwater, and when you surface, all you want is this one thing. It's like gasping for air.”

I don't know why it took me so long to start Love Songs & Other Lies, but I really enjoyed it! I ended up borrowing the audiobook from Hoopla (my new favorite way to listen to books), and thought Dan Bittner and Laurel Schroeder did a wonderful job narrating. I immediately fell in love with Vee and Cam, and liked how the author alternated between Then and Now to tell their story.

If you know me, you know I really hate it when a book's main conflict is a secret. I completely understood why Cam didn't want to talk about his past, but once he and Vee reached a certain point in their relationship (sleepovers and the L word), he should have come clean about his history. He lied to everyone, so it wasn't like the secret was solely kept from Vee, but it was still something he was willing to lose her over. The pain of his loss eclipsed everything else.

One of my favorite parts of the book was when Vee's mother explained what happened between her and Vee's father. Vee had always assumed the worst, but the truth made her realize something about her own relationship with Cam. I also really liked the musical elements, and the songs Cam and Vee wrote for themselves and each other. They had entire conversations within their lyrics.

The relationship between Cam and Vee starts slow and stays pretty steady. There are no hot and heavy moments, but they have a sweet and endearing romance. Cam tries to help Vee come out of her shell (when it comes to performing in front of others), and Vee gives him the space he needs to breathe. She knew he had secrets, and that there were things he repeatedly avoided talking about, but she never pushed him to share more than he wanted to (even when it was super obvious things didn't add up). I appreciated how mature their teenage romance was, and that two level-headed lovebirds made it work despite the holes and misinformation.

I also liked Logan and the rest of the band, but we don't see too much of them outside of performances and rehearsals. Vee elaborates on how she and Logan became friends (would love for Logan to get his own story), and there are other interactions with people, but the focus was on Cam and Vee. Alternating between the past and the present didn't leave a lot of time for secondary character development, since it's mostly about how the two of them met, what happened between them, and how they're currently dealing with their unexpected circumstances and close proximity.

Love Songs & Other Lies was a wonderful story about love (new and rekindled), unimaginable loss, and how relationships ebb and flow over time. It was really lovely, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading more books by this author! (★★★★☆)