Review: What I Thought Was True

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

     What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick is a summer romance about the somewhat interesting life of Gwen Castle. I was really excited to read this book. The classic tale of shy, ordinary girl meets rich, hard to get, handsome boy was very promising. Instead, I was presented with one of my most disappointing reads. Like, this book could easily make its way on my Top Five Worst Books. 

     First of all, let me just say that I found this book to be extremely boring. Most of the time, nothing was happening and when something did finally happen, it lasted a total of a few pages. Also, I found it extremely annoying how we kept reading about the so-great-mistake that Gwen Castle made with Cassidy Somers but we only got to learn about that mistakes to a couple of flashbacks that lasted forever to get to. I understand that the author did that to probably create some sort of mystery to the book, to why Gwen wanted to stay as far away as possible from Cassidy and to make us all hold our breaths, but by the time we finally learned what had happened between the two of them so very long ago, the book almost came to an end and we barely got to see what was happening in the present time. 

     Another issue I had with this book were the characters. I felt like they were boring, dull, and totally uninteresting. I don't even know how I managed to finish reading this. I usually like to finish the books I start but never before have I read something so boring. I felt like there was nothing appealing to any of the characters. I can't say that I loved one, hated another, or that one of them was funny while another one was annoying. However, like Gwen's friend, Viv, pointed out at some moment, I did find it extremely annoying how Gwen only ever talked about Cassidy, about her and Cassidy, or about what Cassidy thought of what she was doing, wearing, saying, etc.

     I don't know why, but it took me forever to read this book. It took me forever to even read a few chapters of it. It was just so slow and uneventful and lacking in...everything? There was too little of everything, not enough of anything. By the end of this book, I was both frustrated and relieved. Completely frustrated because I had high expectations of this book that were definitely not met. Completely relieved that I had finally finished it and that I didn't have to bother with trying to convince myself to keep on reading it in hopes that something interesting might happen. Because it doesn't.

     Having said all this, I cannot rate this book higher than two stars. I definitely did not like it, but I won't give it one star because I do believe that there are worse books than this one. I am not trying to sound harsh, this is simply my honest opinion. I am sad to say that What I Thought Was True was one of the worst books I have ever read and also one of the most disappointing. Unfortunately, I do not recommend this book to anyone. Just don't waste your time with it, for it is nothing but boring. However, I am willing to overlook all this, erase this unpleasant reading experience and give the author's debut novel a try, in light of all the praise it has received.