A review by bananatricky
How to Tell a Lie by Delphine Dryden

3.0

I felt I was missing something with this novel which is why it only rated three stars.

Allison is a college professor researching how people lie and how to detect lies. She is conducting her research in online gaming and her character's name is Aeiou. For the past three months she has been gaming as part of a group, one member in particular has caught her attention as he writes in full sentences and, to her knowledge, has not lied online, his character's name in Notmyrealname.

I really liked the sound of this story - a woman who shies away from commitment after a failed relationship meeting someone online and creating a connection. Unfortunately, for me, there was not enough development of the online relationship. All too soon Allison and Seth are having a private online conversation and realise that they are both professors at the same college - in fact they can see each other's windows in the quad.

As I have said, this wasn't quite the novel I was expecting, which may just be me misinterpreting the blurb. There was a tad too much sex (although reading the blurb for the next two books that appears to be the author's 'thing') and I frankly found Allison's two cousins/ friends pretty annoying. I really didn't understand why they were so irritated by Allison - perhaps I empathised with her too much (sharing a name and all) or perhaps there wasn't enough background to explain their frustration.

Allison and Seth fall prey to instalove (yeah, I know they've been online gaming for months but you don't really get an impression of the two of them gradually spending more time together and talking etc.

Anyway, if you are looking for a novel about two college professors who meet in an online gaming room and have lots of sex while she sorts out her feelings - this is the one for you.