Version of the Truth Book

From the critically acclaimed authors of the #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller Literacy and Longing in L.A. comes the ultimate story for late bloomers of every exotic shade. And a quirky young heroine with a knack for reinvention and a flair for the unexpected no reader will ever forget.

Thirty, newly single, and desperately in need of a paycheck, inveterate bird-watcher Cassie Shaw finds herself doing something that goes against all her principles. She lies on a résumé to land a job and finds herself employed at an elite university working for a pair of professors as unique as the rare birds she covets. One of them is the sexy, handsome, cheerfully aristocratic expert in animal behavior Professor William Conner. Under his charismatic tutelage, Cassie begins her personal transformation into the person she was meant to be while meeting the kinds of people she has never met before. But when your entire future and your unlikely new career teeter on an unbearable untruth, the masquerade can’t go on forever. And when Cassie steps out from behind her mask it will transform her life—and the lives of those around her—forever.

Publishers Weekly

Narrator Tanya Eby is immensely engaging and likable in the first-person role of Cassie Shaw, a 30-year-old dyslexic nature lover who, desperate for a job, lies about having a college degree to score an administrative assistant position at a university, where she is immediately intrigued by her professor boss. Eby is perfect at conveying Cassie's quirky, well-meaning, self-deprecating and often insecure personality. Her delivery of amusing one-liners is pitch-perfect, and listeners will laugh out loud while rooting for Cassie. Eby also does a marvelous job with the other characters' voices, particularly Cassie's snobby co-worker Allison, whose dialogue fairly drips with smarmy condescension. This well-paced, entertaining story about finding one's place in the world while marching to a different drummer translates well to audio and is well worth a listen. Simultaneous release with the Delacorte hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 22). (Jan.)

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