The Romantic Rush Blog's Reviews > Tragic Lies

Hands down L.A. Cotton's best book to date! Deliciously angsty, tantalizingly forbidden, and vibrating with rich emotional complexity- I could not put this sexy and heartfelt love story down! I am so in love with everything about Peyton and Xander.

I am a bit of an age gap junkie- it’s my favorite trope, and LA beautifully and deliciously highlights the forbidden and taboo aspect here with the titillating thrall of the illicit student-teacher dynamic. It’s yummy and complicated and so very angsty. But what I loved most about this book is the emotional dynamic between Peyton and Xander. They have plenty of push- dynamics keeping them apart- but the pull comes down to their shared grief- how their broken souls understand each other in ways that no one else who loves them truly can. Two people who learn to embrace their scars, love them even, because they see parts of themselves in the other.

“The strongest glass usually shatters the most.” Oh sweet Peyton- she’s so strong, and so shattered. I love Peyton so fiercely. The vibrant, energetic and joyful girl we met has lost herself after tragedy. There is a kinship amongst those of us who've watched a loved one self-destruct in the way her mother did, a kinship I’ve belonged to since I was her age. I felt parts of my own emotional chaos over the death of my father singing off the page. LA so vividly and delicately adds the emotional layers to her character- her guilt, her resentment, her anger, but most importantly, her loneliness and isolation. How lost she is in her pain, a solitude only accentuated by the normalcy surrounding her. Her friends and their families show up for her in big ways- but no one understands truly. Until Xander. And after fate enables Xander to connect with her in another extraordinary way, there is NO denying their link- like one soul living in two bodies.

And Xander- swoon. He’s so complicated and broody and broken. He finds himself as Peyton’s unexpected hero, a role he never wished to play. He’s no one’s hero- he’s done nothing but mess up. But this enigmatic bad boy is in fact a hero. He’s growly, sure, but he’s also protective and empathetic and so loving- he just hasn’t had a place to put all his feelings. Like Peyton- he’s just longed to be loved and accepted, and who knew a girl 10 years his junior would have the emotional strength to heal his heart.

Their connection is intense- emotionally fragile but somehow unshakeable. Their chemistry is passionate, raw, turbulent, ANGSTY, and so beautiful. LA fuses heartbreaking and healing so lovingly- I was captivated by them. And I LIVED for them- the beauty of their woundedness, their tragic beauty, ways in which they heal each other. Two lonely hearts, shattered by tragedy, shuttered emotionally. Two souls who believe happiness doesn’t exist- until they find each other. From turbulence comes peace, from damage comes beauty.

I always love LA’s stories of young love, speckled with heartbreak and angst and deep and powerful first love connections. But, I’ve never been moved by a story in a way that I have this one- this is so much more than first love. She leans into the complexity, the damage and darkness, the melancholic sadness that engulfs these characters- the tragedy. But she also breathes life and truth into them- their story is so raw and vulnerable. My heart broke in places, soared in others. Life is full of unexpected tragedy and pain, but it is also full of unending love and hope. Love is sometimes messy and born out of tragedy, but as Peyton and Xander’s story shows, the right love can heal and restore. The right kind of love is worth the right- and fight they do. I could not love them more- and I can’t wait for more from this amazing world!