Evie Spooner is done with being a kid. She longs to wear her mother's sinful red lipstick and practices smoking candy cigarettes with her friend. Evie Spooner is done with being a kid. She longs to wear her mother's sinful red lipstick and practices smoking candy cigarettes with her friend. She wants to be treated like an adult. But when her stepfather takes the family on an impromptu trip to Florida, Evie soon discovers that the glamorous adult world is more than just playing dress-up; it is a place full of dark matters and gray areas.



'What I Saw and How I Lied' by Judy Blundell is takes place a few months after the end of World War II. Evie's stepfather, Joe, has returned home from the war and has started a successful chain of businesses in Brooklyn. Everything seems to be going well, despite what her Grandma Gladys says, until Joe starts to get strange phone calls. After avoiding a call during dinner, Joe announces to the family that they are taking a trip to Florida. When they arrive in Palm Beach, they meet a variety of people at the hotel – Wally the bellhop, the rich couple the Graysons, and a handsome young man named Peter. Evie falls for Peter immediately but Joe warns her to stay away from Peter because he is not what he appears. But how can she resist his smile, his blue convertible, and the way he treats her - not like just some kid, but a woman.



It is hard to describe the rest of the book without giving away too much of the plot twists and turns (and there are many). The story takes the best things about tales of forbidden romance, noir mysteries, and a historical fiction, and mixes them together with a pacing that makes it a hard book to put down.