This book is an absolutely powerful one, an obvious page-turner with a gripping plot and narrative. It took me 5 hours to read this book, and trust me, I read it with so much enthusiasm and anticipation. The story is not brand-new, but stories like this must be portrayed every now and then.

The book is about a teenager, Cecilia (Seelie) Stanton who calls 911 from the horse barn she has locked herself in and reports that Shane Mayfield has attacked her (cut her face, and stabbed her leg, to be precise) and she has hit him on the head with a mallet. She is rescued by the paramedics and treated at the hospital, but it turns out that Shane Mayfield is dead. What follows is a trial against Seelie, while she is physically and mentally scarred by Shane.

What I loved about the book:
The Writing: The book is narrated with Seelie’s point of view, and let me tell you, the writing is really smooth and engaging. ‘The air was dead with the stench of blood.’
Wouldn’t you grip the plot with a starting line like this? The first chapter is convincing enough for you to keep reading the book to know what happens next.

The Friendship: Seelie has a group of friends, who call themselves as ‘the faction’. When there was nobody on Seelie’s side, the faction was. They were there, no matter what. They stood up to the people who tried to bully Seelie, vandalize her belongings or called her a murderer. This makes me think that the quantity of friends doesn’t matter. The Quality does.

The Subplots: Along with the main plot revolving around Seelie, there are subplots relating to the faction’s background, which makes the characters relatable and familiar.

The portrayal of teenage agony: Teenage is an embarrassing stage of most people’s lives, and occasional mood swings and peer pressure makes things harder. When most of the students are worrying about what to wear in the Winter Gala, Seelie had to deal with being called a murderer and getting through with an investigation a trial. This shows how you cannot judge a person without knowing them. You may never know what is going on with someone’s life, till you be in their place.

The Revelation: This book is named “My Whole Truth” for a reason. It turns out that Seelie did not tell the cops or her friends ‘her whole truth’. The readers know the truth before anyone else, and it is quite predictable but really dark.
What I did not like about the book:

Underdeveloped characters: I think there should have been more depth to the characters, especially the protagonist and her friends. The book would’ve been catchier that it is, with deep, and explained characters.

The Relationship between the protagonist and her mother: I know we aren’t supposed to like the protagonist’s mother, but I was disappointed that the author didn’t explain ‘why?’. I really hoped to have a backstory on the bitterness of this mother-daughter relationship.

There was a hint of LGBTQ in the book, but it did not turn out to be a major part of the book.

Overall, this book was really good, as it has an incredible message for the teenagers about how to deal with depression, and how sometimes you have to be your own hero.

<i>My Whole Truth</i> is a nice quick read, with an interesting plot. I would recommend this book to folks who like YA mysteries. It would be a good book to take to the beach or on vacation.

Seelie Stanton got the short end of the stick in life. Her mom is too busy at the restaurant to notice (or care) what's going on in her daughter's life, and when she does, it's an act for the Martyr Mom Show. The kids at school notice too much, making fun of her brutally. The only ones she can count on are her Faction: Alyssa, Ashlyn, and Finn. And she's going to need them now more than ever.

Because Seelie is in trouble. She's been branded a murderer. Never mind that she *had* to kill that boy to survive. Never mind that she was left bleeding and broken in the aftermath of a terrifying attack. It's not enough that she has to struggle with the images of what she did to him, with what he did to *her*. Now she's got to justify fighting back, making sure he couldn't get up and finish the job.

This book... was amazing. It jumped right into the action, and kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen to this poor kid. Left me seething at the injustice in the world, and at parents who are clueless and thoughtless. The plot was, at times, hard to stomach, but was well written, and well executed. I really only have one complaint, and that's (view spoiler)

I'm honestly not sure how true to life the legal aspects are, but they *seem* well researched, and realistic. I'm just not committing to saying it for sure, because I'm not in the know on such things.

Really, really well done book. Cannot recommend it enough if you like a bit of mystery, a good fight (not physical, although... I guess that's technically there, too), and friends who mean the world.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A solid 4/5 stars for My Whole Truth.. I started reading this to break myself out of a reading slump, and I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours. I skipped dinner and breakfast, left laundry undone, and ignored the outside world all morning just so I could finish it. To me, that is the true indication of a good book. MILD SPOILERS MAY BE BELOW.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual assault/rape, violence, victim blaming, bulling.

WHAT I LOVED:
-The hook. "The air was dead with the stench of blood." I mean, holy cow. If that first sentence does not leave you wanting more, then I don't know what will. And this book definitely kept you hanging on to every word all the way through. There was a moment where I was getting slightly less engaged...but then they yanked you right back in with another twist. This book was a total page turner and a quick read.
-The representation. POC, LGBTQ, and one of the friends is of Japanese descent. Not to mention that our heroine is heavier set and never once described as beautiful (a rarity in YA novels). While these representations definitely could have been more fleshed out and brought more to the forefront, I appreciate any book that includes these reps.
-The message(s). While a little heavy handed at time, My Whole Truth was definitely not lacking messages, which I appreciated. Without giving too much away, the two heavy hitters were: when it comes to friends, quality is definitely better than quantity, and sometimes you have to save yourself.

WHAT I DIDN'T:
-The mom. I know we weren't supposed to like her, but I found this slightly unrealistic. Any mother that works as hard and as much as she does to support herself and her daughter definitely cares about her daughter. I was disappointed that the author never chose to bring this to light, or to develop Seelie's character arc enough to reach a place where the mother-daughter relationship was less strained. Seelie's mother was pretty much absent for entirety of the novel, except to swoop in like the Wicked Witch of the West on occasion. I would have liked to have seen a little bit more growth on Seelie's part, instead of just a sullen teenager who never learns to get along with her mom.
-The character development: I already kind of touched on this, but the character development wasn't great. I liked Lys, would have liked to have seen more insight to Finn, and I definitely connected with Seelie, but it all felt a little bit underdeveloped. In the case of Ashlyn (whose name I literally just had to look up because she was so forgettable), her only purpose seems to be to offer the pro-life view in one scene halfway through the book.
-The book was fairly predictable. While I was engaged and absorbed throughout, I definitely guessed pretty much everything that came my way.
-The cops and doctors were so unrealistic that I wanted to bang my head against a wall. NO ONE asked this girl if she was sexually assaulted, even though there were red flags everywhere, and that is just not realistic in the slightest. Not to mention, the cops going to such extreme lengths to protect Shane was also slightly unrealistic. This aspect of things really could have done better.

All in all, 4/5 stars for My Whole Truth, mainly because I truly enjoyed the read. It was super engaging and really sucked you in, even if the writing was somewhat juvenile and predictable at times. I'm looking forward to future work from Thrace.

My Whole Truth releases on October 2nd, 2018.

My review is already posted on my Goodreads account (https://www.goodreads.com/pinotandpages) and will be posted on my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/pinotandpages247/) and my book blog (https://pinotandpages247.wordpress.com) later this week (no later than May 1st). I will post the review on Amazon as soon is the book is released.

This one took a while to get into - once I did, I couldn't get enough of it, but it took a while to reach that point. I am not sure if it's the writing style or something else entirely. An interesting premise, but unfortunately one that sounded better on NetGalley than it did in my hands. I think it is well-suited to younger readers, and maybe this is one of those times where YA just doesn't sit well in my 29 year old hands. All together, an interesting - if improbable - story.

My Whole Truth – Mischa Thrace
Release Date – 2 October 2018

Rating: 4/5 stars

** I received an eArc from Netgalley. This in no way impacts my review**


My Whole Truth is a YA novel centring on a seventeen-year-old girl, Cecilia (Seelie) Stanton, who has committed an act of self-defence – she has murdered a twenty year old man who attacked her at the stables where she works and rides.
What follows is an intense story about how she fights for her freedom and innocence, while also dealing with the fall out at school.
The plot is weaved intricately, with a number of small subplots such as Seelie’s growing feelings for one of her best friends, one of her other friends dealing drugs (which impacts the impending trial).
It’s woven so eloquently and I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
I loved the friendship group in this book. They are always there for each other and have each other’s backs no matter what. They have unwavering support for each other and this was great to see.
This story chronicles the events leading up to and including Seelie’s trial. It shows the bullying that results from the murder of Shane Mayfield, with students at her school even going as far as to vandalize Seelie’s car.
We also see Seelie’s relationship with her mother and I’m going to admit right now that she is very self-absorbed and an awful person. Seelie deserves so much better and every scene that has her mother in, I just want to punch her. It was great to see how accepting Lyssa’s parents are of Seelie though.

The pacing of this book was great and the writing easy to follow. I’ll definitely be buying a physical copy when it’s released. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to try the crime genre in a YA setting.

Holy crap this read.. Nothing short of a rollercoaster, Seelie is taking us on one bumpy ride through one of the most hellish things that could happen to someone.
My Whole Truth is a story about that; uncovering the truth, even though it’s difficult. And one about unending friendships.

If you’re looking for a book that takes you by your reader-balls and doesn’t let go until the very last page.. this book is for you!

This book was a very fast read. It kept me on my toes and was everything I needed in a book. It’s the teenage book I’ve needed since I was a teen. The characters are super easy to love also.

This is a well-written novel with a page-turning plot, and others are sure to sing its praises.

Great opening lines, a great foursome of friends who call themselves The Faction, and plenty of social issues pack this YA novel with topics for discussion. However, the 17-year-old heroine never lightens up in her attitude toward her widowed mother. Dad, who died of cancer, was the girl's go-to person; Mom is a workaholic who just isn't there for Cecelia/Seelie, to the point that every scene with this mother/daughter duo is unpleasant. And it never gets better. Seelie never seems to make that character arc from self-absorbed, snotty teenage daughter to wiser, older daughter who discovers some breathing room with her mother.

As a mother of three, not a teenager reading YA, my viewpoint on this may be irrelevant. But if my daughters were still teenagers, I wouldn't want them reading YA novels that reinforced the idea of high school girls being wiser than their mothers.

I've heard teenage girls say they don't like novels about heroines who are overweight, unattractive, or lacking in personal charm. Cecelia seems to strike out on all three counts. Add to that her apparent lesbianism, and still more girls will likely pass this novel over for another Edward and Bella story. Which is sad. "Twilight" didn't really tackle social issues like "My Whole Truth" does.

Some of the plot devices annoy me as much as snarky teenage attitude does. I can believe the police are sufficiently incompetent not to ask for certain types of DNA evidence, but medical staff, too, overlooking some critical evidence when a beaten, bleeding girl comes into E.R. ... and what happens later... there was already more than enough unpleasantness in the story without this added scene of tension and deeply personal decisions.

The debate about crimes committed due to the influence of certain illegal drugs also missed the mark. Granted, I know nothing about PCP or other drugs, but I've heard from EMTs that bullets won't stop an attacker who's high on meth. You have to take out the hip joints and legs to immobilize the attacker. At close range, as Seelie would have been, without a gun, the inexplicably available mallet had to be employed, repeatedly, to get the attacker to stop moving.

That mallet. I grew up on a farm, not a horse farm, but who keeps mallets under the hay in the upper loft of a hay mow? That one just had me shaking my head. Too many things like this pull a reader out of the novel and make it hard to stay engaged, to keep caring about the characters.

The Faction, a guy and three gals, ultimately had me no longer caring as much about them as I did in the opening pages. Their bad choices range from trivial to catastrophic, and I'm just too old to read stories that aren't more fun-filled and triumphant. I've read enough tragedy, most of it in the form of historical fiction, and too much of it in genre fiction. It's almost enough to drive a woman to read chic-lit and romance novels.

Almost.

I would have liked to see more evidence of the heroine's love of horses and some scenes of healing, which could have happened, if Cecelia had listened to Elaine, the horse owner who's hired her for the past three years. The horses got nowhere near enough attention, in my opinion. Teen readers may disagree with me on that.

Two minor characters deliver some surprises, one the victim's brother Trevor, the other a girl who hand-writes a note and slips it into Cecelia's locker. In a fast-paced narrative, any potential for character growth is swept aside. Nobody seems to do the growing up I would expect of characters in a YA novel.

Again, this is a well-written novel with a page-turning plot and plenty of social issues worthy of a classroom discussion, but it's not the soaring, triumphant sort of tale I turn to these days. It's dark and brutal to the bitter end, with a victory that just doesn't

I loved this book. It was a fast paced read and I felt like I was right there with her as she went thru all the struggles. I feel like this is something that could have happened in real life which mad it even more instresting to me.

I'm still having a tough time on my feelings with this book. On one hand, it was good, on the other hand, it felt underdeveloped.

I can't call this a thriller because there wasn't anything thrilling about it. The incident happens in the very first chapter and it starts after Seelie is running away. It's not a mystery because we know what happens. There's mention in the synopsis that she has feelings for her best friend, but it's not really explored, so I wouldn't put it in the LGBTQIA category. There's some small mentionings here and there and one very small situation, but I wouldn't say there is any angst or any big moment. Her feelings for Lyssa and vice versa feel almost exactly the same as her feelings for Ashlyn and Finn.

This is one of those books where I'm trying to figure out the purpose. Seelie was just a huge brat who made bad decisions the whole time, so I didn't even feel like there was a good strong female message in there. She was terrible to her mom, but in all fairness her mom wasn't exactly the greatest either. There was no resolution with that so, again, I don't understand the point of the conflict. Everything was centered around her "faction" and even the angst that developed from that was overcome very quickly. I guess I could say the message in the book is about great friendships?

I decided to give this book three stars instead of two because it was written really well. The similes and metaphors were interesting, the dialogue was fantastic, and it was structured well. For this to really be called a thriller, suspense, or mystery there needs to be more mystery. It was very, very predictable which made it a little boring at points. I think if the book was a little more thought out it would have been a really amazing book.

Despite all this, I am looking forward to other books by Misha Thrace, because like I said, she is really great at writing. While I don't necessarily recommend this book, I don't think anyone won't necessarily like it.

Wow.

I feel like I just spent the past few days binge watching a Nextflix show called “My whole truth: the Cecilia Stanton story” <-- (I would totally watch that!!)

This book was captivating. From the first chapter, I wanted to do nothing else but to keep reading to find out what happens.

Here are some things that I liked about this book:

- Strong female protagonist - Seelie had strong ideas about her self and her values. I liked that she wasn't looking for approval or easily influenced - especially in a time when social media is so relevant and self-value might be measured by popular opinion.

- The importance of having good friends that you can trust – quality vs quantity! yes!

- Being able to have a choice.

- The woman who answered the phone. (loc 2779 - at 71% of the book) She was amazing and she didn't even know it. She deserves recognition.

-The image of a tattoo of an open book with “there are other worlds than these” flying from the pages. Amazing. I want one!

- The truth. Even though I think it should have come out sooner, I appreciate the fact that it did. It will set you free.

The one thing that I didn't completely understand was the relationship (or absence of) between Seelie and her mom. Maybe that can be addressed in season 2...

I enjoyed reading this book. It was like a YA crime drama! I liked how the events unfolded as I got to know the characters better. I would recommend it!

“Too often we teach stories that have no connection to real life, especially for high schoolers. But literature is supposed to make us feel something, even something unpleasant. It’s a sign of life.”

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book.

The book begins with Seelie calling 911. She has locked herself in the tack room of a horse barn. Her leg is bleeding badly, and she can barely see. Her attacker is up in the loft of the barn, which she tells the 911 operator. When emergency personnel arrive on the scene, they have to break down the door because Seelie can't get up to let them in.

Seelie's friends surround her with support at the hospital. Her self-centered mother keeps remarking on the inconvenience of Seelie's situation, and it's several days before Seelie finds out that her attacker is dead. Seelie must then deal with the guilt of killing her attacker and the reactions of her peers.

This beautifully written story will appeal to a wide variety of teen readers. Although a tad predictable, Seelie's message is so timely and important. I will definitely be promoting this one with my students.

Oh my...this book...this one will stay with you for a while. There were times I wanted to throw this book down and not go back to it. So many things made me furious....the way things were handled. Seelie deserved more.

What I loved: The writing in this. It pulls you in. This line was by far my favorite of the whole book: "Minutes as long as days and as short as heartbeats slip by."
What I liked: I was pretty certain I knew the whole truth, but I liked the way it unraveled.
What I hated: Ugh... the Mom character. I know, I wasn't supposed to like her. I was supposed to not have much feeling for her, and I sure didn't. I just wanted more for Seelie...but she had her tribe, her faction.
Actual stars....4.5.

I read this soooo fast! The first sentence just grabs you until the end...and as much as I wanted to shake the main character a few times, the book ended really well.

A very enjoyable read and I was captivated all the way through by this page turner. I love Thraces writing and I can't wait to read more from this author, I would highly recommend it.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of MY WHOLE TRUTH by Mischa Thrace in exchange for my honest review.***

4.5 STARS

Seelie kills Travis to save her life. Too bad his father is a judge, because now she’s charged with murder. Her friends believe in and support her; her lawyer is great. Seelie’s widowed mom, not so much.

Debut writer Mischa Thrace hits a home run in her first at bat. Throughout reading MY WHOLE TRUTH, I had the same curiosity and interest in the pit of my stomach as I did reading Eileen Cook’s WITH MALICE and Abigail Haas’s DANGEROUS GIRLS with an imperfect narrator I wasn’t certain I could trust. Seelie misses her dad and resents her mother. Even when her mom tries to reach out and be helpful, Seelie is downright mean. I wish their relationship has been explored further. Seelie keeps a lot of secrets, to her own detriment often choosing secrecy over friendship. I loved attorney Cara and best friend Lyssa and her two dads.

Thrace gave Seelie a compelling voice with a balance of positive and negative attributes. At times I wanted to shake her. MY WHOLE TRUTH read like a fast paced thriller never letting up on the hold-your-breath feeling. I can’t wait to see what Thrace writes next.