Well... I hate to admit this but I think The Lie was the weakest installment of the McGregors series. I think I got stymied with the plot being illogical at times as well as the characters being on the boring side. Our leads, Brigs and Natasha, just weren't engaging enough to really get me into their story. I was only in like with them, not in love. 
 The premise is a second chance romance. Brigs and Natasha met four years ago and fell in love. The problem was that Brigs was married at the time and he so decides to leave his wife. When he tells her she flips out, gets drunk, and gets in a car wreck that kills both her and their two year old son. (By the way, this is how the book starts. Wow... that was a bit much right off the bat!) So Brigs and Natasha feel guilty and don't see each other for four years until they happen to run into each other again. I suppose you could call that "fate." The story was told in both the present and in flashbacks. I really wasn't feeling the flashbacks. Every time a chapter started and it said "four years ago" at the head I literally groaned out loud. I just wasn't getting much out of reading about how these characters used to feel. I guess it all really turned into more of a "show" me don't "tell" me kind of situation. 
 Also, this is a romance that started as an affair. Luckily, Karina Halle was at the helm to tell this story. The great thing she does is she never asserts her own opinion on the issue. She neither demonizes nor romanticizes their actions but allows the reader to form their own opinion as the story unfolds. While I fully think cheating is incredibly wrong and their actions in the beginning weren't in either of their best interests, I was also able to sympathize with them. Brigs and his wife are in a pretty unhappy and loveless marriage to begin with and sometimes things just happen that are out of your control, like falling in love. So, strictly from a narrative standpoint, I really enjoyed the choice to leave this a bit morally ambiguous. 
 I mentioned earlier that at times I found the plot to be illogical and this was mainly due to Natasha's roommate Melissa. (Warning: this is going to get spoilery...) My hackles got raised the second I met Melissa. There was just something so incredibly off putting about her. I was honestly thinking that this was going to turn into a Single White Female kind of situation. 
 While I understand how a crazy, jealous, friend may have a place in a story I don't know why one was in The Lie. Melissa just wants Natasha to be miserable because, according to Melissa, Natasha doesn't deserve the life she has. So she basically just holds their relationship hostage but for the life of me I can't figure out why. Who does this bitch think she is? I just don't think this aspect of the story was developed any further than for an element of drama in the story. I think this whole angle should have either been scrapped entirely or retooled into something much more sinister. As it is, it was just so weird and stupid. 
 So I guess over all, I'm sticking with my comment that I'm in like with The Lie but not in love with it. I think I just wanted some more spice, some more laughs, just more. But on the other hand, I really did enjoy the epilogue and it finally succeeded in giving me a real laugh out loud moment. I was happy that everything worked out ok in the end for Brigs and Natasha. Also, the smut was pretty stellar. Even though I wasn't that impressed with this one, I will still continue on with the series with The Debt.