I just finished reading the National Book Award Winner What I Saw and How I lied by Judy Blundell. This is one of those books that stays with you even after you finish reading it. There are so many things to think and wonder about. It is the best book that I have read this year—of course, as you can tell from my blog, I haven’t read that many books this year!This book is set in 1947 right after World War II. Evie’s step-father Joe has just returned from the war and started his new appliance business. Joe refuses to talk about the war and neither Evie, nor her mother, push him. However, one day he starts to get strange phone calls and he tells someone on the phone that they have the “wrong Joe Spooner.” Soon after, he loads Evie and her mother in the car and they head to Florida for a vacation. Evie has never been outside of New York and she is excited. When they arrived in Palm Beach, things are mostly boarded up, but they find an open hotel and begin to enjoy their vacation.
All is great until handsome 23-year-old Peter Coleridge shows up. He was a soldier that served with Joe in Europe, but Joe doesn’t seem to want anything to do with him. However, he immediately charms 16-year-old Evie who promptly falls in love with him. She becomes so absorbed in her feelings for him that she ignores the secrets and lies that seem to fallow him around. But when a tragedy strikes, Evie discovers that she must choose between her family and her love for Peter. Suddenly nothing is what it seems and she doesn’t know who to believe: her devotion to Peter? Her wonderful step-father? Or her mother who has been the one constant in her life? Her choices could destroy her and her family forever!
