Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera – A Really Good Audiobook!

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“My life vastly improved once both those men were gone. Men don’t protect us, not really. They only protect themselves, or each other. The only thing men ever protected me from was happiness.”

Summary

In a tiny Texas town, Lucy and Savannah “savvy” are two best friends living picture perfect lives. Lucy is married tp a handsome a wealthy man, while Savvy is the social butterfly. 

Until Savvy is murdered, and Lucy is found covered in her blood. Even though Lucy was declared not guilty, she’s since fled to LA to start over. But her past won’t seem to leave her alone.

Podcaster Ben Owens brings interest back to Savvy’s cold case, interviewing the townspeople, and getting their interesting perspectives on both Lucy and Savvy. 

Lucy soon finds herself drawn into Ben’s world and the two begin working together to uncover the truth, no matter what other ugly truths it might bring up. 

Goodreads / Storygraph

Thoughts on the Plot

The premise of this story is pretty straightforward. The amnesia trope is strong with this one. 

Things move a bit slow at first. We meet Lucy while she is still in LA, before she heads back to her small hometown in Texas. 

Once Lucy goes back home, the pacing really picks up. There are some lulls where I wonder what the point of this characters narrative is, but I liked that once it got moving, it kept moving. 

Despite it being a murder mystery, nothing really felt urgent. To be honest, it sometimes only felt like Ben was the only person interested in getting the truth.

I also really didn’t like the romance. It felt unnecessary and fed into the toxic behavior every single character (except for you, my sweet Beverly) exhibited in this book. 

I do also want to note; I listened to this book as an audiobook and it might be one of my favorites! This audiobook is so well-produced. The music for the podcast, the narrators keeping the story engaging, the fast-paced nature of the book. 

Despite it being a 9 hour read, it felt like I finished the book in a matter of hours while at work. 

Thoughts on the Characters

Let’s start with Lucy. I really liked her at first. Her dark, self-deprecating humor really resonated with me. 

But then it didn’t stop. Neither did the voice in Lucy’s head. It became grating and irritating to hear pop up during the book. 

Lucy also seemed too passive, and okay with being called a murderer. I thought she wanted the truth? It seemed more like she just wanted to get out of dodge and move on with her life. 

Which is kinda shitty lame when you consider Savvy was told to be her best friend. 

Then there is Savvy. And listen, I am all for women’s empowerment, but how is being bent over a stranger’s car hood while they rail into you, empowerment? 

Savvy is spoken about like she is a spotless good girl who could do no wrong. But the real Savvy was dark and troubled. 

I understood the ways Lucy and Savvy protected each other by the end of the book, but it also showed that they were victims of the abusive/dysfunctional relationships in their small town. 

Lucy’s grandmother, Beverly, is probably my favorite character of the book. She seems to be the only person rooting for Lucy and believes her when she says that she didn’t do it. 

Her sarcastic humor was a much-needed contrast to Lucy’s dark humor. (Also, my grandma’s name is Beverly, and that made me like her even more.)

I really liked Ben at first too. The problem with Ben is that gets really unprofessional. I absolutely hated how his relationship with Lucy begins as a “let’s work together to solve the murder mystery” to “let’s build a life in LA together after this is all over” type of vibe. 

I don’t have too many thoughts about him, to be honest. He was probably the most realistic, “bland” character in the book. 

Primarily because he is a stark contract in personality to the men in the small town of Plumpton, Texas. 

Overall Thoughts

I think my favorite part of this story was listening to it as an audiobook. 

I really found myself drawn in to this book from the start. It unfortunately started to go downhill as the story went on. 

I think the premise started off interesting but fell flat to the town full of characters who just couldn’t seem to keep it in their pants. 

Would I recommend it? Only as an audiobook. 

I think I definitely would have DNF’d this book had I read it vs listened to it. 

Listen for the Lie gets 3.5 out of 5 stars from me. 

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