Tell Me No Lies

May 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Tessa Hart returns and is no longer @EricThornObsessed, because she's in relationship with the singer and living in an old VW van in Mexico with him. In fact, they are hiding because Tessa has just escaped a life-threatening encounter with her stalker, who had caused her agoraphobia. Out of the confinement of her room but with the comforting presence of the one she loves, Tessa is working on being less paranoid but still cannot shake the feeling that Blair, her stalker, is out there. When Tessa and Eric are forced by his manager to come out of hiding and fulfill his contract, Tessa hesitantly becomes Eric's Coordinator of Social Media-typing tweets his manager writes. She tries to hide from Blair in plain sight-until she spots him posing as a paparazzi at one of Eric's sold out concerts. Something has gone wrong again, and the details are slowly revealed to readers with transcripts of police interviews intermittently included in the story. In the style of Follow Me Back, this sequel also features a mystery that unfolds slowly, keeping teens guessing right to the very end. VERDICT This book will be enjoyed by mystery lovers and pop star enthusiasts alike.-Sara Jurek, Children's English Library, Stuttgart, Germany

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018
It's one month after the events of Follow Me Back (2017), and police think pop star Eric Thorn has been murdered by obsessed fangirl Tessa Hart.The truth: Tessa and Eric, now a couple, are living in a VW van in Mexico after framing Tessa for Eric's "murder." Dismissing Tessa's valid fear of social media as distorted thinking, Eric sets up an anonymous Snapchat account to communicate with formerly pretend-dead idol Dorian Cromwell, who says he can help them. He helps them--right back into the high-profile life Eric desperately wanted to escape. For several reasons, Tessa can't publicly come out as Eric's girlfriend, so the young lovers decide to communicate via Snapchat (because that turned out really well in Mexico), and chaos and confusion ensue. Tessa's agoraphobia seems to have cleared up overnight (running away from home after staging a murder will do that to a person?), but she still suffers from extreme anxiety triggered by male stalker Blair, who is still on the loose. Tessa and Eric make one bad decision after the next, making it impossible to feel bad for them. The story is somewhat exciting at times, but its predictability and convoluted supporting plot elements don't do it any favors. It seems everyone is white.This sequel requires a read of its predecessor to understand what's going on, and even then, the most dedicated fans will still be lost. (Fiction. 14-adult)

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May 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 Though it reneges immediately on the promise made by the ominous cliff-hanger from Follow Me Back (2017), this sequel delivers on the action. Once housebound, former fangirl Tessa Hart is on the run with ex-pop star Eric Thorn, who, against all odds, seems to be the love of her life. Eric is desperate to escape his stifling fame and be with Tessa, while Tessa, having recently escaped the clutches of her cyberstalker, is more than a little camera-shy. In flashbacks, they fake Eric's death and flee the country, leaving their lives and, for the most part, their social-media profiles safely behind. In the present day, however, they sit in an interrogation room: someone is dead, the police want answers, and the past they ran from has a way of catching up. The melodrama is at soap-opera levels, but this duology conclusion handles mental illness more carefully than its predecessor. Readers left hanging by the first volume will be intrigued to see how this story ends.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)