Lies will come back to bite you
3 out of 5 stars

“Live a Little” is the third book by Lisa Green. Her previous books include “Is That a Moose in Your Pocket?” and “Paging Aphrodite”.

Raquel Rose is a wife and mother of two teenagers when a routine visit to the doctor turns into a terminal cancer diagnosis. Raquel goes through a range of emotions when she is given the news and her family is shocked as well. They don’t want to believe it and life is not quite the same.

Then a month later the doctor tells her it has all been a mistake and she is not the Raquel Rose that has breast cancer. After riding the emotional roller coaster she is back on it again but this time knowing that she is fine and how does she tell everyone that it was all a mistake? She tries to give her family the good news over a nice dinner, but they don’t believe her. She is flabbergasted and doesn’t know what to do to convince them that she really is ok.

So she doesn’t. After all, she is getting the royal treatment from the family that took her for granted…or so she thought. Raquel goes along with the deception and while living a lie manages to find her true self in the process and that she isn’t just a housewife and mother, that she is inspirational and a true artist.

I had the full range of emotions regarding this book, I went from hating it in the first 30 pages (so much I wasn’t sure I was going to finish the book) to thinking that the character deserved what she got to admiration for admitting the truth in the end.

While I know that this is a work of fiction, I am a breast cancer survivor and know what women go through when diagnosed which is probably why I hated parts of the book, primarily Raquel’s deception. While it is a fictional character, Raquel had people feeling sorry for her when there was nothing wrong. She took advantage of the situation just for a little fame. Then when Raquel’s friends and family found out that she really didn’t have cancer, I felt like she deserved what came her way. In the end, she made amends and I felt like the story tied up nicely and it all happened for a reason and perhaps she realized that you don’t have to tell lies to get attention, after all it will come back and haunt you.

Reviewed for RebeccasReads (11/08)