Book Review: Why Must I Lie by M. M. Lake

Title: What Must I Lie
Author: M.M. Lake

Number of Pages: 426

Published: March 28th 2012 by Michele Losa

Source: Author (paperback)

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Reading Level: Young Adult

Goodreads | Purchase

Flying smack into a new existence, literally, sophomore high school student, Mia Frare, finds herself able to alter her body at will to that of a 3½-foot-tall bird. WHY I MUST LIE is a two week chronicle of Mia’s transformation and induction into a hidden spiritual world. While adapting to her new abilities, such as amplified hearing, acute eyesight, and what Mia refers to as, “freakishly strong feet”, she finds herself drawn to three other students in her overcrowded high school. Possessing supernatural talents of their own, Gabe and his two sisters befriend Mia and invite her along on their rescue missions. Although Mia’s growing closeness to Gabe poses difficulties he can’t ignore, it’s evident that the four are meant to join forces in averting tragedy and seeking the truth regarding Mia’s emergence.

Sixteen year old Mia has a pretty nice life. She has wonderful parents, a supporting  big brother and a new baby brother and sister who are twins. Mia has a BFF Amy and does well in school. But not all things are as perfect as they seem. Mia has a secret. One she doesn't want anyone to know. It all happened one night when she went to sleep and when she woke up she was not in her bed anymore but naked in the middle of the forest. The question is how she got there. Was it a dream or a nightmare? When Mia decides to go back into the forest to see if she can figure out what happen she finds her answer and fast. Her whole body begins to transform and lifts of the ground. The next thing she knows is she is flying. How is this possible?  Was she dead? Mia wants to find answers as to why this bizarre change is happening to her but what she comes to find will blow her away. The path she takes to understand more about what's happening to her lead right to a boy named Gabe. Not only does he know who or what Mia is Gabe and his family are much alike...

Want to know what happens next? Well you will have read the book for yourself.

The Good:  

The story itself was very fascinating. I truly did enjoy it. I love the idea that Mia could transform into this creature and fly whenever she wanted to. The meaning behind why Mia can transform, who or what she is and descends from really gives the story so much life. I wanted to know more about who Mia really is and what she was capable of. Although she was going through so much so fast Mia always remained strong willed; a very likable protagonist.  I think of the best thing I liked about the story besides the plot itself was Mia's home life. A lot of times in books you find the main character has only one parent or no siblings. Mia had both Mom and Dad as well as brothers and a sister. She was always so helpful with the chores and taking care of the twins even after her life changed so drastically. A very refreshing and rare thing to see in YA books. 

 All of the characters were likable and they all had their part to play throughout the book. Mia and Gabe's relationship grew from friends to each of them wanting more. I loved seeing both of them grow and change with each passing chapter. M.M Lake did a beautiful job with her first novel and really wrote a story I feel many urban fantasy readers will enjoy.

The Bad: (or not so good)

There are a couple reasons why I did not give Why Must I Lie a higher rating.
HUGE AND LONG book! Yep, its a chunker. With over 400 pages it took me sometime to read it. Now don't get to wrong the story was great but I felt that a few parts just tended to drag on a bit. The dialogue "reading flow" was a little slow and wordy.  Another thing is the chapters are long, but with many breaks "~" <-- (like this) in between paragraphs. For me I would have liked to have more chapters and less of those breaks in the paragraphs. 

All in all Why Must I Lie was quite good. As a self-published author M.M. Lake did a beautiful job on her first novel. She wrote a very unique and engaging novel I feel fits well into the Urban fantasy genre. Even with the few things I found problems with I would definitely read the next addition to the story.

 3.5 Cupcakes 

I liked it a lot. Would recommend.

Author Guest Post w/ Sara Dailey and Staci Weber | YA Paranormal Romance: Pack of Lies

Hello my darlings. Today I will be sharing with you all a wonderful guest post from authors Sara Dailey and Staci Weber. They have co-wrote the "Pack of Lies" which is a Young Adult paranormal romance novel. Along with their guest post I will be sharing info about the book as well as the authors themselves.

I don't know about you but I love learning about new and upcoming books and Pack of Lies sounds delightful. A mix of romance, shapeshifters, and werewolves. Oh My! 

I hope my readers will enjoy this post and learning about Pack Of Lies.

Pack of Lies

by Sara Dailey and Staci Weber

The last thing Allison Wright ever expected when she moved to Red Ridge, New Mexico was to come muzzle to muzzle with the wolf of her dreams.
Seventeen-year-old Allison Wright is convinced she’s losing her mind. Uncontrollable mood swings, hot flashes, and the urge to punch anyone who gets in her way are suddenly becoming everyday occurrences. Before her erratic behavior gets out of hand, Allison’s mother finally comes clean about her dark secret. Mom is a werewolf, and soon Allison and her brother Aiden will suffer the same fate. When Allison reaches her breaking point, the family leaves their life in Texas to move to Red Ridge, New Mexico where they rejoin the pack that Allison’s mother left behind almost 20 years ago.
Unfortunately, not everyone in Red Ridge is thrilled about Allison’s arrival, especially when she attracts the attention of the very handsome, very taken, soon-to-be alpha, Cade Walker. Little does Allison know, her mere presence is causing a rift in a once unified pack. Not only has Cade been forbidden from being with Allison by his father, the pack’s alpha, Cade’s girlfriend, Kendall Stuart, will stop at nothing to get Allison out of the picture. Well on her way to becoming the next alpha’s mate, Kendall expects to rule the pack by Cade’s side even if it means teaming up with a rogue werewolf with an agenda of his own. Determined to get rid of Allison permanently, when Kendall and the rogue join forces, all hell breaks loose and no one in the pack is safe, especially not Cade and his true mate.

Purchase Pack of Lies: --> Boroughs Publishing Group 

Sara Dailey & Staci Weber – Our Favorite Place to Write


Thank you so much for letting us stop by the blog and tell you all about our favorite place to write. Let’s see if you can guess it. It’s cold most of the time; it smells divine, and it full of colorful, wide-awake people. Give up? We always meet at our local Starbucks.


There is just something about the energy of a Starbucks that gets the creative juices flowing (or maybe it’s just all the caffeine). We tried writing at other places in the beginning, but we always ended up back at Starbucks. It wasn’t long before we were considered “regulars.” We knew everyone and everyone knew us. There were days where we didn’t get much done because of that. Our first two novels were entirely written there. Of course edits and rewrites and stuff like that were typically done on our own, but nearly all the writing was there.


We both have very busy lives, like all moms, so most of the time our homes are not the most calm and quiet places to write. Starbucks is not necessarily quiet, but no one yells out, “Mom, can I have a pickle?” Let me tell you, the image of a seven year old with a giant pickle jar kind of ruins the flow. It is much easier for both of us to schedule time away from our loved ones to write.


Meeting and writing outside our homes also gives us time to catch up with each other. We get to sit back, enjoy a black tea latte or a shaken black tea (depending on the weather), and write. Who could ask for more?

Thank you Sara and Staci! 

BTW, I so cracked up about the pickle part. hehe =D

Both Sara Dailey and Staci Weber are avid readers, English teachers, friends, wives, and soccer moms. They have been teaching together for the past eight years, and writing together for four. Pack of Lies is the second young adult novel for this duo and they are hard at work finishing the next book in the Red Ridge Pack series; the expected publication date is September 2012. 

Find Sara and Staci @ 

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter: @srdailey80, @WeberStaci

Thank you Sara and Staci for the lovely guest post and to everyone who read this post to learn more about Pack of Lies. 

Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesday: #18 // Moon Called

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

The Rules:

•Grab your current read

•Open to a random page

•Share two (2) or so “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

•Share the title &  author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

This week's teaser comes from Moon Called written by Patricia Briggs.

We stopped and got enough fried chicken to feed a Little League team--or two werewolves, with a little left over for me. 


[and one more sentence...]


Adam wiped his fingers carefully on the damp towelette that had come with our chicken--apparently he didn't think it was finger-lick'n good.

(Both taken from p. 113) 




What was your teaser for this week? I would love to know. :)