3.5 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.
You can see more of my reviews at Carlene Inspired.

Taralynn has done everything her parents ever expected from her, but it's never been enough. She doesn't look like her mom wants her to, date who she should, or pretty much do anything like her mother thinks she should. It seems like no matter what she does, she's not good enough. Fortunately, she has a group of amazing guy friends who she wouldn't trade for the world, an amazing relationship with her brother, and a strong sense of independence that keeps her driven. Among her friends is Shawn, the one guy she's harbored feelings for as long as she's known him.

Shawn doesn't do relationships, he's the ultimate alpha male; he takes girls homes, he tattoos for a living, and he parties hard. Shawn likes sex with different women whenever he can, he likes the control, but somethings changed recently and he's giving more attention to Taralynn, the girl he knows he can't have. After years of easy friendship and being roommates, he's fighting against his want for her knowing he won't ever be good enough for her. Tragedy strikes though and Shawn finds himself doing whatever it takes to make Taralynn happy again.

This is quite a book, it took me a few days to get through it, because there is so much going on. There is angst, romance, smut, family drama, and so much yelling! I liked the character of Tara a lot, even though she was quite a conundrum of a character. She apparently screams innocent, but let me tell you, that girl is not innocent. She has a lot going on in her life, a heck of a lot is thrown at her, and you watch her grow through the entire book. Shawn, on the other hand, was probably my favorite POV to read from. I felt like he was the one character who really knew himself and overcame a lot of his own personal problems and habits to get to a better place. The two many characters have a lot between them and I enjoyed reading from both POV's. The storyline of this book has a lot going on, so the use of two POVs allows the reader to really get a feel for the situation, especially when you've got characters in two different locations dealing with the same problem. Getting into Shawn and Tara's heads made me really like this book a whole lot. There are definitely some smut scenes and I personally liked them, because it gave me more insight to who each character is, especially when I looked at who they were with.

There is a lot of drama in this book, a lot more than you'd expect for the number of pages. There was a lot more going on than my mind could keep up with, but I admit it kept me turning the pages. The family scenes didn't bring enough to the book for me, so some of the twists that happened due to each family really confused me. Plus, the minor characters weren't defined, some of the things they did made no sense, so the turmoil within friendship made for some plot line discrepancies. I love a good friendship turned love book, but I couldn't handle that every good moment was smashed by a bad one. The twists are huge, many completely out of left field, so my mind was left reeling after some scenes. There are major time jumps, over a year is completed within the book, with some chapters taking place right after each other and some jumping a few months. This left me feeling disjointed and like I had missed something.

More Than Lies was a good, dramatic (and smutty) read. I liked the storyline, minus some of the twists, and I enjoyed how long it kept me hooked. I hope that N.E. Henderson plans to give us more of the minor character's stories, because I am definitely interested where Tara's best friends end up, especially after the epilogue. ( )