Book Review – Give Me Your Answer True by Suanne Laqueur

Give Me Your Answer True (The Fish Tales Book 2)
This one was just as fantastic as #1 (just as BIG!!), and having a totally different perspective from book #1 made this story that much fuller. More complete. More real. More tragic. Allowed ALL of us to grow.

Marie:  I *love* watching people’s reactions when they read TMIL the first time. I say “first time” because it’s one of those books you keep going back to for your favorite parts. When you read GMYAT, you almost want to have both books open at the same time… Not that I ever did this. I’m posting for a friend. (cough)

Rosie: Yeah, I have a friend who might have read them side-by-side, too 🙂

Hayling: The second is just as beautiful. In terms of writing, it might actually be better. No sophomore slump, that’s for sure. I thought re-reading the college years from Daisy’s POV was fascinating. Suanne’s really careful to re-tell scenes only if you learn something new from them, or go deeper into a moment. And then in the…um….”Adele years”, it’s a totally different and new book. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it!

Maryse: The “Adele” years. YES!!!! PERFECTLY SAID. LOL!!! 😛 I’m so excited. The Adele songs come to life! 😀

Suanne Laqueur, Author: Can I TELL you when Adele released “Hello,” I nearly passed out?!?!?

Maryse:  it’s the PERFECT song. It’s SO BIG, just like the book. LOL!!!

Michelle: The writing is so real. Feel like I’m sitting next to him , experiencing and seeing what he is. The writing reminds me a little of Making Faces. One of my all time favorites.

Maryse: They are saying this one’s even better. I’m gonna love it ’cause I love “being the girl”. LOL! 😀

Sadie: Well I highlighted the first sentence if that gives us any indication

Suanne Laqueur, Author: True story: I wrote the first line last.

Sadie: i love that line. And so many others!  “There he was. It was him.” *chills*

Suanne Laqueur, Author: God, I want to be like sitting in your lap while you’re reading. God, that’s wrong. I’ll just sit next to you. I’ll stand behind your chair and lurk over your shoulder, how about that?  (I’m going now)

Maryse: LOL!!! I just SAW these!! You are hilarious. You write heart wrenching, uncomfortable scenes and yet you are SO freaking funny!!!! 😛

Sadie: I lost my freaking mind over this book the other day! maryse I need to tag you in my quote spree

But most of all, HER POV (this one) was SO needed. Gave us so much relief, but not before it gave us the ultimate heartache. I cried.

Daisy swallowed hard. She had never known such weary sadness. A despair that was hollow and decayed like a rotting tree.

The intensity of the emotions in this story? Incredible!!!!

P.S. Here is my review for book #1 (Book Review – The Man I Love by Suanne Laqueur), which was originally supposed to be the only book, but we got lucky!!! 😀 The author expanded their world into the one I HAD to live. By the end of book one, I was desperate to be her. You’ll see why.

If you haven’t read book #1 yet, I recommend you skip… or maybe skim this review lightly. I’m going to short form this as I need to tell you what I experienced, and not so much “what you’ll be reading”. Because what you will be reading, will affect you deeply if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Which is… real life.

Real life and real people (albeit a little “magical” in feel, due to this being a ballet troop, with all that theater beauty dusting the scenes with ballerina fairy dust 😉 ), But this is mostly college life… and then adult life. Real love, real friends, real tragedy, real mistakes, real reactions, real consequences, real drama, real pain, real victory.

Stuff that some right here, if I dropped a few keywords, might shy away from. But don’t. It’s intense. It’s an experience. It’s unforgettable. This is an epic love story. Romance? I dunno… guess it depends on who you ask? Love story for sure!!

HEA? I dunno… well actually I do. 😉 And it is SO worth the journey, no matter the outcome, but OMG the outcome was WOW!!!! Especially in THIS book.

*sigh* 🙂

While both books can absolutely be read as standalones, they also 100% compliment each other, as they are both from two different POVs, from both main characters. Both are equally as good as the other, these stories are best experienced going in blind. Even the blurb of the original book (in my option) gave something away (that YES!!! Was an absolute eye-catcher and would have made me want to read the book BECAUSE I wanted to go through what they went through), but going in blind meant I was sufficiently shocked. I didn’t see it coming and was able to experience this book that much more.

There are a few things that sufficiently shocked me in book #1, so to experience those things again, in book #2 (but from a totally different perspective)… well. Wow. Just… WOW!!! THIS kind of story, with this kind of “living” is what makes books with one event, but two POVs, worth reading.

“All right, honey. Don’t worry. It’s never as bad as you think.”

Ohhhhh yes, it was. 🙁 *sniff sniff*

And lemme tell you, both POVs, while they reflect many of the same events, also have a TON of different “living” in them. Trust me on that.

And even during the “same scenes” the experience and thought process going on with both characters was SO different. Complementing or absolutely opposing but expanding upon, and exactly what you’d expect and want from two books focusing on a time period shared by two people. And not just that… this is one of those that spans years… and in years is growth, failure, love and loss, and still… that connection that ties them both. That ties them all.

So what’s it about?

Well… if you start with this one (and you can), it’s about students in college, in a theater major, with ballerinas (and ballerinos? LOL!! What do we call male ballet dancers, anyway?), that become friends as the sessions progress. Juniors and seniors and some that are up and comers and about to take the ballet world by storm. And some back stage technical “hands” that fall head over heels in love with some of ’em.

“You smell like sugar and you’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen in my damn life and I don’t know why it makes me act like such an a**hole.”

Best friends, roommates, newcomers and teachers alike. They become an unstoppable team. Until something stops them ALL.

“…when she glanced up, she saw only a broken little brother. And in spite of her anger, it cracked her heart.

Oh at first the obvious is the only thing we’re thinking about. And even when it looks like all will work out… that which we didn’t even consider becomes from row and center as these “friends” cope as best as they can. Together.

A nervous twist in her stomach. A feeling this was the price she paid for something. But she couldn’t remember what.

And betrayal, absolute incredible heartache and self-loathing destroy them all. Or does it?

“I was bleeding, with scratches all up and down my back and my arms bruised with fingerprints. And my next thought should have been how terrible I looked. That it was horrifying. But no, I thought it made me look…complete. Balanced. I don’t know what I mean.”

“Like your outsides finally matched your insides?”

Daisy closed her mouth up in a hand and nodded through tears.

OMG WOWWWWW!!! That scene… that realization. That personal, agonizing truth.

“I don’t understand. Who has he become?”

A sweet boy with a bitter palate, Daisy thought.

AND THAT, my friends, is the journey. This is no sweet candy “fluff” read, all wrapped up in a bow. No matter how exquisitely written, this gets ugly.

You have to be all right. Don’t scream. The men you love cannot bear it.

If you can’t be it, act it. 

Scream inside. Smile outside.

This gets destructive. This gets uncomfortable. And despite it all, this is SO beautiful.

“It matters. Deeply. But you can let your sorrow accompany you on the road of life without letting it be the road itself.”

OMG I almost feel like THAT quote is the key (or at least one of the BIGGEST <— ;)) keys to life, right there. An epiphany. Perfection.

While I think I liked it even better than #1, I did find it to drag a bit in the last third (I can’t say exactly what, due to spoilers of the experience as a whole), but none of that matters in the long run.

Her tentative joy was studded with the sharp edges of broken glass and her dreams began to twinkle with it.

GAH!!! The writing is so beautiful!!! It’s a love story that I won’t soon forget, and #3 will be coming out shortly. Even though neither book ends on a cliffhanger (so you won’t be furious upon finishing) ;), I just love these characters, and I can’t wait for more.

4.5 stars for this one too!