Seventeen-year-old overachiever Coretta White begins a blog, Little White Lies, based on breakfast conversations with her parents. The blog goes viral. When Coretta is unable to handle her many extracurricular activities, college applications, and the blog, her best friend, Rachel, suggests that she get help and knows someone who could supply it. It arrives in the form of Karl Ristoff, a forty-something ghostwriter. The blog continues to gain readership and results in a TV deal for Coretta offered by twenty-eight-year-old twin business moguls Karin and Anders Skool. Coretta, uneasy about duping her public with a ghostwriter, admits her fraud, about which the Skools seem unconcerned; however, on her debut show, they humiliate Coretta and ask Karl to host a follow-up show. A similar humiliation occurs on his debut, after which Coretta and Karl wonder if and why they were specifically targeted. The premise of Little White Lies is difficult to believe, and the end seems rushed. Coretta’s boyfriend, Mike, who dumps her when her troubles begin, is suddenly revealed as a talented computer hacker and uncovers extensive “dirt” about the Skools, which also defies belief. Coretta’s and Mike’s parents do not resemble normal parents in any sense. The relationship between Coretta (seventeen years old) and Karl (forty-something), while innocuous, still seems skeevy. References to past and current entertainers and movies will do little to enhance the enjoyment level of the teenage girl target audience. This is a discretionary purchase. ( )

Little White Lies is the story of Coretta White, a senior in high school who starts a blog called Little White Lies on a whim. Her very first entry about her parents’ little white lie, “Dante de Blasio, the fifteen-year-old son of New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, should, ‘really shave that Afro down if he knows what’s good for him and for his father’s campaign’ “unexpectedly goes viral. She begins getting messages from readers asking for her advice about anything and everything – hundreds of them. And she feels like should answer them all. Between that and trying to write and post a new blog entry every day, she quickly becomes overwhelmed. Her school work starts to suffer and she needs good grades to get into the college of her choice. Her best friend Rachel has the perfect solution – hire a ghost writer! Rachel connects her with Karl, an experienced ghost writer who works for AllYou, a company that specializes in pairing up ghostwriters with clients. Karl has already ghostwritten several books and should have been used to working anonymously. However, when a post he writes for Little White Lies about Beyoncé becomes the blog’s most popular post, he is upset that he can’t take any credit for it. Eventually, Coretta’s secret comes out and her world is turned upside down.

Little White Lies requires some suspension of disbelief. It’s a YA novel – I’m not sure if a teenager would be more able to overlook some of the plot holes than I was. For instance, there is a very convoluted money laundering subplot that I could not make heads or tails of. And I am a former CPA so you would think I would be able to understand it.

I thought the premise of this book was original. My 10-year-old, who reads at the high school level, thought it sounded interesting after reading the blurb on the back and wants to read it. I think it would be appropriate for him. Coretta has a boyfriend but they don’t even kiss and there are few, if any, curse words. Overall, I enjoyed this book. ( )

I did not like this book. I wanted it to be over soon. So I pushed through. The plot sounded very interesting. A young black woman, Coretta starts a blog, Little White Lies. She amasses a huge number of followers and is overwhelmed with the amount of time, and creativity it takes to maintain it. So she hires a ghostwriter, a forty-one year old white guy with plenty of education and no ambition. She begins to feel ashamed and confesses. I thought this sounded intriguing. A young woman with a moral dilemma.

But it did not feel like this book was centered on that at all. Gossip, clothes, revenge, youth entertainment idol and whole mish mash of stuff and crazy opinions seemed more the theme to me.
There seemed to be a great well of shallowness.

I am not of the younger generation but I have read YA books that I loved for the creativity in them and but this book makes me despair! There was a plot that was difficult to follow, conversations that made me want to hurry through them. In summary the initial idea was great but the execution of the idea was a mess.

I received this Advanced Reading Copy by making a selection from Amazon Vine books but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review. I also posted this review only on sites meant for reading not for selling. ( )