Truth, Lies, and Second Dates by MaryJanice Davidson is a fun, quirky, sassy, and enjoyable book that is part contemporary romance part mystery.

I enjoyed reading the interactions and relationship with Ava Capp and Tom Baker. Their characters were both realistic and imperfect, but yet like able. I loved the banter, sarcasm, and witty commentary the most. Quick one-liners that were dispensed throughout made me literally laugh out loud several times. The plot and pacing were quick, light, and satisfying and I was easily able to devour this book in two days.

A great book for anyone looking for a light read, humor and a little romance and mystery.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I read a lot, and have cried while reading, but never have I ever laughed so hard, that I was in tears! I seriously didn't want this book to end because the characters are hilarious, and so relateable.

Great book to put you in a good mood!

Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is predictable story, but it's written in a way that's fun and makes it a book that is very easy to use to escape the world for a while.

I devoured this novel in a day.

First, I just LOVE that the main character is a strong female pilot. Even though it is a romantic comedy (with mystery elements), the fact that Ava is a professional in a man-dominated profession makes it a unique twist on the usual prototype of a rom com. From the narrative, it is also clear that Ava is very intelligent and *real* with past traumas, worries and regular-people-problems. She definitely made this book for me, and I would like to see move of Ava in possible further installments (please!).

I have seen other reviewers commenting on the fact that this book was much more of a rom com than it was a mystery. This is definitely true, and this is the expectation you should have when reading it - the mystery on its own is not that strong. It would have been a perfect novel if it was because I really seem to like the marriage of romance and mystery/thriller. However, the romance is very strong here, and it is funny, exciting, sweet, intelligent and gripping.

Any reader will be rooting for the badass main character Ava and melt from the romance, but while the mystery is a really fun spin, it is not the focal point of this book.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars

The cover look pretty, the synopsis looked interesting and funny.
However, it just fell flat even though I wanted to like it .
It isn't heavy on romance even though I liked characters but mystery isn't expected well.

*𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

Captain Ava Capp is a pilot with a man in (not quite) every port and a tragic backstory. When her past (and a murderer) comes back to haunt her, she'll have help from an ME called Dr Tom Baker (lol!). Ava's days of casual sex might be over - and possibly her life as well.

This cosy mystery/chick lit/spoof (I laughed at loud at some points, so if it's not a spoof then I consider it time well spent anyway!) was so unexpectedly fun and I had a blast reading it. Davidson combined many aspects that I enjoy about these sorts of books and blended it with humour and weirdness. Probably not a style I'd read often, but it sure put a smile on my face.

Light reading but a bit too flippant for me. I couldn’t get into the characters and decided not to finish the book.

Truth, Lies , and Second Dates by MaryJanice Davidson

Ava Capp is a Sexpot and makes no excuses for her lifestyle. She enjoys being single and having control of the aircraft because she had no control of the situation she left behind in Minnesota the state she hates! Her best-friend Danielle was savagely murdered and she questions her role in the death!

Tom the hunky guy from Morgue is he their to scratch her itch or help dissect her & put her life back to together?
The author does a exceptional job at drawing you the reader into the web of her own lists and the character! There are a lot of humorous twists and spicy twists that keep the plot flowing right into the climax! Get it? 😂 I hope you enjoy the book because at first I was not interested, but I kept going and then it just started happening and Ava and G.B. were a great team to follow and then the quips between Ava and Tom were hilarious! So, yes, the book is worth a read!

Thank you to the author and publishers who work hard producing books for us the readers!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and I am willingly giving my thoughts and opinions.

Davidson is a witty and sharp writer who delights in subverting typical romantic genres while simultaneously embracing them. Truth, Lies, and Second Dates is no exception to this rule.

Ava Capp has taken to the skies after the murder of her best friend. Dr. Tom Baker is set on solving said murder, and equally as set on wooing Captain Capp.

There are enjoyable turns throughout the book, but all fairly predictable - which I believe was an intentional homage to the genre. Fantastic read for those who want to poke fun at romance/murder mystery novels, but not recommended for those who use the genre to lose themselves for a few hours.

I love her books always and forever, but this one was not her best ever. (In some ways. In others, it was amazing, for example I haven't ever read a book with a demisexual male lead before so wow.)

Hopefully this one gets another editing pass before print because this one has a serious math/logic problem going on--the main character is 27? because her best friend was murdered when she was 17 and that was 10 years before. And that means she's been flying since she was 21, which is believable, but Tom, the love interest, is 5 years younger than her which means he's 22, and he's a doctor and medical examiner, and has been at this job for several years which while not impossible is unlikely/exceptionally noteworthy--he would have had to be graduating medical school by 20? And college in his mid-teens, which certainly would have been mentioned, given that Hannah's a prodigy. To me it feels very much like originally the book was set with this being 15-20 years after the death and then for some reason the timing was cut down to a decade without thinking about how that changed people's careers? And I just got to the point where Becka's age is discussed as 'early 20s' which is '8 or 9 years younger' than Ava, so yes, there's some serious math issues going on.

Still, that's not the point. It was good and funny, and while I would have liked it more if my brain hadn't been stuck on the ages so much, it was a light comforting read and makes me want to read more of her. (Like always)

As always I enjoyed the book This one was a nice surprise. I thought it was beautifully written. The attention to detail, was great. The twists and turns this story took were unexpected and kept me on the edge of my seat. I never expected the outcome!

This was a great book to veg out to! I found myself waiting to leave work so I could rush home and read more of MaryJanice Davidson’s writing! I loved reading about self-aware characters and Ava fit that description perfectly. I especially loved how natural the dialogue flowed in this book. I will be recommending!

This book is full of tropes and some are fun and some are exapserating cause that's the way the trope cookie crumbles. I feel like as much as I loved this fun filled rom-com with all my favorite parts of stories together it felt too full at times. Maybe all our tropes aren't meant to go together all in one story. Overall, I enjoyed and was irritated by the plot of Captain Capp's life in equal measure.

This was a fun little short read, it was a little slow paced in some parts and that really made the book drag for me. But overall It was not a bad book. Thank you Netgalley and publisher

I really enjoyed the humour in this book, making what could have been a very serious and dramatic plot into a lighter and more fun read. Don’t get me wrong the plot was also great, but the little snarky comments ere great, and the nots at the end of each chapter were both insightful and funny too. Makes me want to read more from the author and also the story!

I received an ARC of this novel from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I should start by saying that I really wanted to love this. A badass female pilot and a quietly ripped ME on the spectrum has the makings of a perfect romance. And, I think this book is very close to being there? I know ARCs aren't necessarily finished copies, but this felt like an early draft of a really fun novel rather than a close to publication copy.

Through a series of unfortunate events Ava Capp ends up trapped in her hometown just in time to attend the memorial service for her best friend who was murdered ten years prior. Then the killer comes back. It's an okay plot on paper, but the mystery isn't really executed well. There is next to no foreshadowing when it comes to the ending and the pacing is all over the place.

I really liked the characters and the banter, but the plot cut into my enjoyment of that.

Life lesson learned - this just isn't my style of book. I went into it excited by the premise, but the writing style just doesn't work for me. I know that this will work for lots of readers. I just wasn't one of them.

Ava Capp may or may not be a little messed up. Ten years ago, her best friend Danielle was brutally murdered. Traumatized, Ava took to the skies...literally. Now a pilot, Captain Capp avoids anything resembling emotion beyond some lighthearted flirting and easy friendships. Caught by an old crush, she has no excuse to avoid attending Danielle’s ten year memorial. Something happened and the next day—nine hours before she needs to report to pre-flight—Ava is stuck getting interrogated and has to relive the exact event that she’s been trying to forget all these years.

On the other side of the interrogation is Dr. Tom Baker who, coincidentally, also happened to make out with Ava last night. He’s straightforward and honest (almost to a fault). He’s set his mind on solving the murder and bringing the perpetrator to justice. He’s hoping to do this with the help of a particular pilot who he finds attractive (even if she could be a suspect).

This wasn’t my favorite book. There was nothing necessarily “wrong” with it, but the storyline—although a murder mystery with romance—did not really capture my attention. A third of the way through I decided to continue because I had already gotten that far. I don’t think I would recommend this book, but if you need another checklist to read, this will do the trick.

Thank you so much to netgalley for sending me a copy of this book. I was really looking toward to it but I ended up not enjoying it. You might like it.

I probably should preface this review with the fact that I usually hate mysteries. It is one of my absolute least favorite genres right of there with men’s fiction. Instead of being turned off by this book, which is defiantly more mystery than traditional romance, I was thoroughly delighted.

The writing was a hoot and a half. Seriously, it’s funny (half the notes I saved are just “lol”. The constant third person writing style did take a bit to get used to but once I caught the rhythm I didn’t mind it. I loved the foot notes at the end of each chapter though I did find that I missed a lot of the ones featuring the * and would have to go back and find them. The chapters were short which made me feel like I was making progress and fit into my read for 5-10 minutes before falling asleep lifestyle.

Since the book isn’t coming out for 6 more months I don’t want to give too much away but I will give some of my favorite quotes with no context (quotes subject to change between the version I read and publication):

“Blake was awake and was doing that thing where he ran a finger up and down her spine like an erotic chiropractor.”

“That’s the building where the accountant was strangled with his ex-wife’s bra.”

“You napped in one of the (morgue) draws again, didn’t you, Doc?”

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.