Books for Christian Girls: "Tell Her No Lies" by Kelly Irvin

About this book:

“As children, Nina Fischer and her sister were plucked from foster care in Florida and brought to Texas by a wealthy uncle they’d never met after their mother went to prison for selling drugs. Now, as an adult, Nina loves her adopted father and wants to please him, but she’s chosen her own career path as a photographer and poet—choices state district court judge Geoffrey Fischer can’t appreciate. When she finds him murdered in his study on a night they’re home alone, she’s the prime suspect and has to prove her innocence or face her own prison term. Is she her mother’s daughter, after all?
The two men in her life want to help, each for their own reasons. Can she trust her on-again, off-again boyfriend, attorney Rick Zavala, whose political aspirations seem more important than Nina’s tragic loss? Can she trust her friend, photographer Aaron McClure, or will he use their friendship to break the biggest news story of his career?
While cleaning out her father’s things, Nina discovers a box of old letters and photos, revealing the secrets her father had been concealing for so long. When her biological mother makes an appearance at Geoffrey Fischer’s funeral and asks to be welcomed back into her daughters’ lives, Nina is even more determined to find the truth about her past. Following the evidence leads her on a journey of discovery about her father’s shocking masquerade as a law-abiding, family-loving Christian. Unlocking these secrets could prove deadly, but it’s the only way Nina will ever be able to trust love again.”

Series: As of now, no.

Spiritual Content- Exodus 20:12 at the beginning; A few Scriptures are mentioned, remembered/repeated, & talked about; Prayers; Talks about trusting God; Nina has trust issues & finds it hard to believe about a loving Father or trusting anyone named ‘Father’; Aaron is a believer & tries to witness to Nina; *Spoiler* While it’s never blatantly said that Nina has prayed/committed her life to God like most Christian Fiction books, by the end, she is mentioning God and praying more *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of God & Christians; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches & church going; A few mentions of hymns; A mention of a good Samaritan;

*Note: a ‘Thank God’ is said by someone who most likely doesn’t mean it; A mention of someone having a master’s in Eastern religions.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘biddy’, a form of ‘crap’, a ‘crummy’, a ‘dumb’, a ‘give a flip’, a ‘kick-butt’ (used to described something), a ‘little poop head’ (when referring to a cat), a ‘shush’, a ‘sissy’, a ‘suck it up’, a ‘wuss’, eleven ‘idiot’s, thirteen ‘stupid’s, sixteen forms of ‘shut up’; Curses are said, not written (by Rick and Melanie) & mentions of curses; Eye rolling; Finding a body of a loved one murdered, blood, & seeing how it happened (semi-detailed); Finding another body that was murdered, blood, & seeing how it happened (semi-detailed, *Major Spoiler* Rick was the murderer for this murder, and while we do not see it happen on the pages, we see his view after the shooting when he is remembering *End of Spoiler*); Being Punched & Blood/Bleeding (semi-detailed); Being pushed down the stairs & Pain (semi-detailed); Being held at gunpoint, aiming guns, guns are shot, & a setting up for a murder who look like a fight (up to semi-detailed); A car accident/crash & pain (up to semi-detailed); Rick has a hangover & remembers drinking; Rick remembers when he did drugs & wishes for a line of coke; All about many mentions of murders, how they happened, who did them, & blood (semi-detailed); Many mentions of gambling, taking bribes, & hiding it from a spouse; Many mentions of alcohol, alcohol addictions, drinking, drunks, hangovers, bars, & parties; Many mentions of cigarettes, tobacco, & smoke; Many mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of all the deaths Aaron has filmed (including a person being run over, a body that was stabbed, horses who were abused, and children dying from a car crash, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of assassins, hiring one, & killing adults and minors; Mentions of a car running someone over & the murder/death; Mentions of morgue humor & jokes about dead bodies and deaths; Mentions of shootings, gunshots, injuries, & deaths; Mentions of being punched, injuries, blood/bleeding, & intruders/burglars; Mentions of someone being hit in the face by a gun (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a police officer shooting his partner (more details on how/why is not given); Mentions of wars overseas, fighting, & PTSD; Mentions of threats & blackmail; Mentions of prison/jail; Mentions of rehabs; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of drugs/pot, drug users/addicts, & drug sellers; Mentions of divorces & wives wanting one; Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of throwing up; Mentions of tattoos; Mentions of a threat of shooting a pet; Mentions of hunting; A few mentions of accidental deaths; A few mentions of graffiti; A couple mentions of mothers who lost their children from drive-by shootings; A couple mentions of a car accident & deaths; A couple mentions of deaths from cancer; A couple mentions of Rick getting beatings from stepfathers when growing up; A couple mentions of gangbangers; A couple mentions of being hateful & hatred; A couple mentions of DUIs & being a designated driver; A mention of a singer who was killed by a fan; A mention of a gang selling meth; A mention of grave robbers; A mention of a club; A mention of poker; A mention of seeing something like a pit ball mauling a kitten; A mention of someone passing gas;

*Note: Many mentions of singers & songs; Many mentions of brand names and designers; Mentions of TV shows, movies, characters, & actors; Mentions of car brands; Mentions of painters & paintings; Mentions of social media platforms; A couple mentions of Girl Scouts; A couple mentions of Starbucks; A couple mentions of Hallmark & Lifetime; A mention of GQ.

Sexual Content- two cheek kisses, a forehead kiss, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, three (unwanted) semi-detailed kisses, and a detailed kiss; Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to kiss; Touches, Shivers, & Embraces (barely-above-not-detailed); Noticing; four ‘babe’s; Rick hugs Nina once when his hands going down her back into “forbidden territory”; Rick also forces three kisses on Nina and hints to wanting to do more with her (while the kisses are said to give her a burn, Nina says she does not want to bring children into the world that she couldn’t care for. Aaron comments on one of the kisses that Rick was groping her); Mentions of Nina’s sister getting pregnant out of wedlock (they later got married, the slang of her getting knocked up is said twice); Mentions of Rick’s past flings (including Melanie commenting that he always liked her bedroom); Mentions of kisses, kissing, & seeing others kissing; Mentions of dating, girlfriends, & boyfriends; Mentions of romance books (the Hallmark kind); A few mentions of Nina’s biological mother bringing different men to her room; A few mentions of a man’s crush on a married woman; A couple mentions of a man (Rick) looking at a woman’s well-endowed chest and figure & the woman looking at his backside; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of Nina’s biological mother getting “knocked up” and pregnant out of wedlock with Nina; A mention of Nina’s biological mother not having any idea who Jan’s father was; A mention of a man not being hinky with women; A mention of a man’s seduction moves; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A mention of her sister’s curves that Nina always wanted; A mention of Jan’s attributes that make men pay attention to her; A mention of a woman’s amazing body (from Rick’s perspective); A mention of not meeting intruder while just wearing underwear; A mention of a woman’s cleavage showing; A mention of another woman having work done on her face and chest; A mention of getting a butt out of bed; A mention of someone who is a pain in the butt; A mention of butting heads; A mention of hauling someone’s butt to a police station; A mention of a baby’s butt; A mention of someone being a horse’s patootie; A mention of prostate cancer; A mention of someone having assets up the wazoo.

-Nina Fischer, age 27
P.O.V. switches between Nina, Rick, Aaron, & Melanie (x1)
330 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Older girls interested in criminal justice may add up to a full star to the Oldest age category.}

That was 330 pages of intense action and an insanely dysfunctional family.

I knew that this book would be either a hit or a miss for me, and while I definitely wasn’t a fan of the majority of the content (I mean, there’s murders and a jerk), I did really like Nina as a character with her passion for film photography and people experiencing homelessness, but she also had her flaws that were very noticeable.

This book teetered between a two-star rating because of Nina and the film photography parts and a one-star because of the obvious content and the content of Rick (which I strongly disliked him, his forced kisses, and the lack of a restraining order that Nina should have done on him). I did have a bit of trouble with the writing style a few times as a handful of parts felt choppy or used a lot of slang/abbreviations. This was a roller-coaster of a book, but because of different content, the ratings are low for this suspense book.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!