Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Web of Lies
SERIES: The Goode Life Book 2
AUTHOR: Isla Olsen
PUBLISHER: Self Published
RELEASE DATE: April 13, 2021
LENGTH: 171 pages
BLURB:
Jesse
My little brother is getting married and I couldn’t be happier…
Well, maybe I could if I hadn’t just been dumped by the boyfriend I thought was about to propose, kicked out of my New York apartment, and, worst of all, lost one of the pediatric patients under my care at the hospital where I work as a nurse.
With the current sh*tstorm that is my life, who could blame me for going a little overboard on the cocktails at the bachelor weekend in Vegas?
Me. I could blame me. Especially when I wake up with the hangover from hell and the memory of marrying my arch-nemesis, Webster Goode, in a ceremony caught on camera by the reality show Real Vegas Weddings.
There’s only one clear path forward: get through my brother’s wedding, get an annulment, and get back to New York and my normal life. All without anyone finding out what Web and I did in Vegas.
But it turns out correcting that big mistake won’t be as easy as I’d first thought, and keeping our secret from the Finchley gossip machine could be damn near impossible…
The truth is, the more time I spend with Web, the more I start to realize there might be a very thin line between love and hate…
Come visit Finchley, CA, where the sun’s always shining, the locals are always gossiping, and you won’t walk two steps without bumping into a member of the Goode family. If you’re lucky, you might find gold; or, even better…true love.
REVIEW:
Isla Olsen consistently produces lighthearted, fun, irreverent, sexy stories. Web of Lies, the second book in her The Goode Life series, falls squarely in that bucket. Webster “Web” Goode, cousin, BFF and business partner of Slater Goode from Book 1 Clean Slate, and Jesse Cartwright, older brother of Zack, Slater’s fiancé, are long lost loves. Best friends until the year before high school when an ill-timed confrontation blew everything to hell. Web and Jesse have proclaimed themselves “sworn enemies” ever since.
Web of Lies is a crazy romp through Vegas where the Goode family and Cartwright clan have gathered for Slater and Zack’s wedding. Jesse and Web are co-best men, forced into close proximity. Helped along by some alcohol-infused courage, they engage in a game of chicken intended to “test” Web’s sexuality and purported “homophobia”. They plunge headlong into their own Vegas wedding, immediately followed by some hot AF sex to seal the deal. Now they’re secretly married and everything they thought they knew about each other is turned on its head. Web and Jesse try to navigate these changing circumstances, while acknowledging those long-held feelings towards each other.
When I reviewed Clean Slate (you can see that review here), I noted some apprehension about The Goode Life series attempting to recreate Ms. Olsen’s fabulous Love & Luck series without introducing much that is new. Indeed, all of the things that made L&L work so well are recycled again in Web of Lies. However, the novelty is long gone and the execution isn’t on-point like it was in the L&L stories.
This is not to say that the book isn’t fun, funny, or easy to read and enjoy. It certainly is all of those things. Web of Lies is a sweet, sexy story, featuring a couple with tons of chemistry that sparks both in and out of the bedroom. The smorgasbord of other characters from the Goode and Cartwright families, their friends and other Finchley residents, complete the picture. Ms. Olsen even reproduces her hallmark, hilarious group texts in the form of the “Finchley Locals Community Hangout” private Facebook group. But for me at least, it didn’t come together in a cohesive way.
Web and Jesse’s story patterns Slater and Zack’s, if you think about it. Childhood best friends until high school when it fell apart due to a misunderstanding that then festered for 12 years for Slater and Zack, and almost two decades for Web and Jesse. That’s way longer than it ever should have continued. It’s way longer than it plausibly could have continued, given the close connection between the families and the small town they live in. Finally, a life event (a funeral in Clean Slate; a wedding in Web of Lies) brings them back into close contact. Their relationship picks up again with an “I hate you/I love you/no I really hate you/maybe I do really love you” dynamic. But an inexplicable lack of communication between them renders it impossible to clear up the devastating misunderstandings held on to way too long.
Maybe because Web of Lies had such an overwhelming feel of “sameness” to me, I found that the hilarity surrounding the implausible circumstances didn’t strike the intended note. The relationship between Web and Jesse, even during their time in Vegas and after, widely vacillated in a way that just didn’t make sense to me, as did the continued, inexplicable, extremely frustrating lack of communication between them. Even the group texts didn’t resonate for me this time. They weren’t related in any meaningful way to the events of the story.
Notwithstanding, this is a fun, no angst, quick, enjoyable read written in Ms. Olsen’s signature style. If you like her prior books (I do), you likely enjoy this one too (I did). I just didn’t enjoy it as much as her prior books. I suspect a good number of readers will disagree with my assessment. But I personally don’t think Web of Lies is a true representation of Ms. Olsen’s writing prowess. I’m hoping the next installment will pick back up with a slower, more developed romance that’s given time to settle. Think: something old – Ms. Olsen’s successful L&L story framework – infused with something new; less of something borrowed from L&L, and more on novel content created in Ms. Olsen’s signature style that’s tried and true.
RATING: 
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