You can definitely tell this was written by a man that has no idea how women think. It was so annoying to read about how obsessed the main hatscter is with being skinny. That pretty much ruined the entire book for me. Hard pass.

I was provided this book by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. The first half of the book was a real struggle, the second half got considerably better. Overall, I did not love this book.

A gentle, easy read with no surprises. The intrigue of an artist painting a stranger continually into his work was resolved quite quickly and the love story meandered along in a satisfying way until the end. Not a mind-blowing finale but a satisfying ending.

Mona lisas and little white lies ⭐️

Ryder is a struggling artist, this is until he meets Lily. I liked the prologue but then we follow Lily and i was completely Not invested in her life at all. I didnt care for her perspective or her friends which makes for a very dull story when you dont care about the main character.
Ryder continues to follow Lily and learn more about her and her secrets and she cant help but fall for him as well...
I didnt enjoy this. I liked the art aspect but I didnt get enough of it. As soon as they got together it was just them and nothing else.

Thank you so much to Segue Blue via netgalley for sending me an ARC copy of mona lisas and little white lies by john herrick. This will be released on march 19, 2019.
All opinions are my own.

This had a nice relaxed pace and the characters had a sweet vulnerability to them.
Though the naivete became slightly redundant as the book progressed, it still felt organic.
It reminded me of the movie Serendipity, but less intense and a little more desperate.
Thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for my copy.

Mona Lisas and Little White Lies by John Herrick

Stars: ✦✦✦✧✧

+1 | The idea itself is clever and interesting

+1 | The characters in the book were well though out, each with layers and flaws

+/-1 | The writing was almost lyrical with descriptions, but not always adding to the plot thus making it slower

- 1 | It had no surprises nor mystery to it. A good story, but nothing too different

I just loved this book. I admit I'm a sucker for a good romance, and this fit the bill.

The story was told from both points of view, which I love. It was a wholesome romance without being overly sweet. I was drawn into the characters and their lives.

This was my furs t book by this author, but it won't be my last. In fact, I'm off to find another book by him....

This was an extremely quick read. I enjoyed it though there wasn't anything new and exciting about it. Very predictable but it puts a smile on your face. It was your standard easy beach read/chick lit.

The big climax I thought was a little dramatic and got a little sloppy in my opinion. The whole thing with her guy friend ended up confusing me a little bit. But still enjoyed it.

Romance is not my usual go-to genre but I was intrigued by the synopsis of this novel. After a random encounter, a commercial artist is so struck by a stranger that he adopts her as his muse and paints her into many of his works. Like Pygmalion, he falls in love with the woman depicted in his works. What will happen if they meet up in real life? Lily is not as glamorous as the person as the woman in his painting but tries to mold herself to that expectation. Can they fall in love for real? This was a light easy read. I would have liked to see more depth to the novel. Fans of Nicholas Sparks would probably enjoy this book.
Thanks to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and the author John Herrick for a digital review copy. This book was first published March 19, 2019.

It's been a while since I've read a good old fashioned romance. This book was for me like a modern day Cinderella. Lily who is an auto mechanic is seen by Ryder as the love of his life and by painting her he keeps her image alive for him. It is when they initially meet that some sparks fly. I really loved the story as well as the characters. The author has the ability to keep you as the reader glued to the pages until the very end. I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for a bit of romance.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it fell short in many ways. It seems quite obvious it was written by a man who doesn't understand women at all and instead turned his protagonist into a walking contradiction. She doesn't understand makeup or clothes and says she never feels beautiful. On the other hand, she is so obsessed with her figure and appearance, the book makes several mentions of her diet and the limited foods she eats to keep her figure. Also, the protagonist lives in a major city, yet is shocked by pad thai?! Along those lines as well, her reaction to finder out Ryder went to Thailand is so outrageous. I hardly doubt someone deciding to travel to a foreign country is really such an unbelievable idea to someone who lives in a modern city with access to the internet.

There are too many other better romance stories out there to waste your time on this one.

27 year old Ryder is freezing with snowstorm outside. Hes staying at nice hotel selling his paintings . He teaches art classes at nearby community college.Ryder sees a beautiful bridesmaid at the wedding Lily.He comes back from the club and discovers Lily drunk and sobbing. He finds her friends and helps her get to her room.Lily becomes ryders muse.I love the names Lily and Ryder.Lily is a mechanic which makes me love her more

II will have to admit that I did not love this book. Truthfully speaking I would not have finished the book except for the fact that I had agreed to read it on NetGalley. One of the things that threw me right off the bat were the names in the book. Lily is a beautiful auto mechanic. Ryder is an artist who falls in love with her, even though he only interacts with her one time while she is extremely drunk. The unrealistic premise of the book is overwhelming. Not only does he paint her from his memory for years, he also manages to hold off any other long term relationships until she finds him.
I will admit however that the story does improve over the span of the book. The first half was not good at all, where the second half picked up the pace as well as the overall story. This is not a book that I would recommend to a friend.
I really wanted to like it. Thanks for the chance to read it.

A very good book, reminds me of sliding doors the film at times. A romantic story where lovers met from afar and their memory stays forever in the mind. An artist painting the same girl he saw long ago. Lovely to see happy endings.

This book was entertaining and kept me hooked from the first page. It wove through the characters well and the settings were written well. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thought this one was ok but nothing special. Lily's character bothered me a bit. She was so insecure and she ceaselessly ran through her insecurities about her job as a mechanic, about her looks, about her weight. It seemed a bit unbelievable to me that she let her relationship with Ryder get as far as it did without telling him about her real job. Wasn't a bad story to me but Lily's character makes me hesitant to recommend this book to other readers.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a gentle romance with a well written although ultimately rather passive female lead. Although Lily has unknowingly been placed on a pedestal by Ryder, she defies expectations by being a motor mechanic who is treated as 'one of the boys’ by the men she works mkwith. She seems to feel rather awkward in expressing her femininity, she doesn't wear makeup, finds it difficult to flirt and is obsessed with cars. Her date with Evan is an example of how awkward she feels, he takes her to an expensive restaurant where she is unsure of what she's wearing and how to behave. The author has a very delicate way of showing how Lily feels and who she is, she's a very nuanced character.

Lily was surprised at how simple it had become to ease deeper into conversation with Evan. Although some aspects of their date struck her as superficial, she discovered she could play the part rather well.

She's very passive during dates with Evan and she constantly worries about ‘keeping her slim figure’. Her relationships are unequal conversations are one sided. When she meets Ryder he doesn't ask her anything about herself except what she does which she lies about. When he asks her about her childhood dreams she describes wanting to be a beautiful doll.

Ryder had told her he knew everything he needed to know because he knew her deep down. He’d promised. Lily had tried to tell him more, but he didn’t seem interested in knowing more.

I think that the portrayal of the relationship could possibly be the weakest part of the book, probably due to Lily's self esteem issues. She just seems to spend her time asking her boyfriends about themselves and mentally not believing herself worthy. This is problematic as potentially she is looking for self worth by finding a boyfriend. There is part of me that wishes we could have had more of Lily discovering her fabulousness with Aaron and Brooke, but the novel was too short and focussed on the relationship with Ryder. It's a sweet, romantic novel but by no means that steamy. It gets a wouldn't make Grandma blush rating.

The synopsis was so promising and I was hoping to love this. But alas, I did not. . Lily's character is what did it in for me. I get she wanted to be skinny and stay skinny but it just kept honing into that constantly. First couple of times I was well aware as a reader that she wanted to keep her nice body, but after the fourth mention I struggled with the rest of the book. After awhile you understand that she has self-image issues and is struggling with her insecurities but it was a bit heavy. If it hadn't been for that pet peeve of mine though the story flowed really well and was a fun,quick romance.

A sweet romantic read. The characters are flawed, especially Lily. The story drags you in. There a few parts that are a bit slow, but overall it's a fun, light read. My biggest complaint was the way Lily's flaws are consistently on the pages yet, after the truth comes out, Ryder's actions and words at the car show are never brought back up. That felt like a plot failure because those actions had a big impact. Overall it's a good read.