Lee  Winter

The Awkward Truth

Lee Winter

Australian crime reporter Maddie Grey is out of her depth in New York, miserable, and secretly drawn to her powerful, twice-married, media mogul boss, Elena Bartell, who eats failing newspapers for breakfast. As work takes them to Australia, Maddie is goaded into a brief, seemingly harmless bet with her enigmatic boss--where they have to tell the complete truth to each other. It backfires catastrophically.A lesbian romance about the lies we tell ourselves.

The Brutal Truth

It blows my mind that this book started out as a dwp fanfic, because it is SO GOOD. Of course, the characters are very similar to the ones from the movie, but I fell in love with them nonetheless. Maddie has such a charming and clever personality and Elena… where do I even begin with Elena. The ice queen had my heart in a very tight grip. Maddie and Elena have insane chemistry, both physically and emotionally. Easily one of my best sapphic reads so far. 

Tabea

Izza

Renee

Superb! 
This is my second time reading The Brutal Truth, and it still stands as one of my top three favorite lesbian romance stories. I love the amazing chemistry between Elena and Maddie. Besides their physical attraction, Elena and Maddie's relationship consists of a captivating sense of familiarity, eagerness, and attention to small details. One can only fall in love with Maddie's genuine and contagious personality. Because of her notorious reputation, complex personality, and cryptic responses, Elena "Tiger Shark" Bartell is a perfect example of an Ice Queen. Even the picture of her on the audiobook version of the story sends shivers down my spine. And that sex scene? Hot. Steamy. Sizzling. Passionate. All you would expect from a slow burn romance.

Tess

Lee winter and Angela Dawe. My author/narrator dream team. 5 stars.

Lucia Correa

5 Stars!

When I read the synopsis and the reviews, I thought this sounds familiar and definitely an uber Devil Wears Prada (DWP) fanfic. When I bought it and put it in my Calibre Library I realized I actually read the fanfic about two years ago and it was written by RedCharcoal who I found out is Winter's pseudonym. I sorta remember that it was OK and never reread it. I decided to not look at the fanfic before reading the published novel. 

After finishing the novel, I went back to re-read the fanfic version. Wow. Now this is how you convert a fanfic into a published novel. Winter took the fanfic as the backbone but really filled it in with character development. In the DWP, the readers do not need an introduction to the main characters- Miranda, Andy, Emily and Niles, so Winters jumps right into the story and in the Chapter 1, she writes about the wager between Miranda and Andy. A bet that if Miranda wins, Andy will have to tell the "Brutal Truth" for 1 day, if Andy wins Miranda will have to tell the truth for a week. In the novel, the bet doesn't take place until Chapter 11. The fanfic is 16 chapters (52k words), the novel is 36 chapters (113k words). The novel does not feel long at all.

The first 10 chapters of the book, Winter's tells us about Elena Bartell (Miranda) a beautiful, 40 year old who was already the head of a publishing empire of magazines and newspapers. Nicknamed Tiger Shark for her ruthlessness and gobbling up companies and spitting them out. Madeleine or Maddie Grey (Andy) is a 26 year old Australian who relocated to New York City to become a journalist. She is working the graveyard shift at a small, failing newspaper. She considers herself as a crime journalist but is floundering in NYC and is missing her hometown of Sydney, Australia. She so wants to return but not as a failure.

One addition I really loved is the blog Maddie writes (Aliens of New York by Maddie as Hell) which opens each of the first 10 chapters. It is beautifully written as Maddie describes NYC through her eyes - her loneliness, her homesickness, the people she encounters, riding the subway, etc. I so wished it could have been continued for the whole book but I understand why it couldn't. 

I can't fail to mention Felicity (Emily). She is all Emily in the novel, her snarkiness and loyalty to Elena is there but so much more. She works for Elena, but as she reminds Maddie she is not Elena's PA. Great character. 

I decided to have a Best of 2017 shelf. This will be going on it.

Aussie crime reporter Maddie Grey is out of her depth in New York and secretly drawn to her twice-married, powerful media mogul boss, Elena Bartell, who eats failing newspapers for breakfast. As work takes them to Australia, Maddie is goaded into a brief bet-that they will say only the truth to each other. It backfires catastrophically.

5+ Stars 
This is a re-read, this time for the audiobook. Check out my review for the ebook.

I thought the book was great when I read the ebook, but this is one book that is even better as an audiobook. It's because of the excellent narrator, Angela Dawe. Maddie's Aussie accent really added to my enjoyment although I can't vouch for the authenticity. All the characters voices were well done. There was one exchange between Maddie and the uptight Felicity. Maddie tells Felicity - 

"You act like you’re better than everyone else, and you talk like a repressed English nanny, but when you’re upset, you leak your secret Midwest accent.”
“That’s just… That’s… I do not.” Felicity slumped and rolled her eyes. “You know, I paid a top British elocutions expert to get that beaten out of me. Mrs Allsop will be most unhappy.”

And Dawe proved Maddie's point by dropping in a Midwestern twang to a few of Felicitiy's words as she argued with Maddie.

So if you want a new Audiobook to listen to - get this one. If you've already read the book and you are ready for a re-read, try the audiobook this time around.

One last quibble... I LOVE, LOVE the cover for the paperback and ebook. I really, really dislike the audiobook cover. That's not "my" Elena Bartell - one of the most beautiful and powerful figures in the publishing world. ;-)

Daniella Cuesta

This was stunning.

It basically was a sapphic devil wears prada where the characters of Anne Hathaway and meryl Streep eventually fall in love. BUT IT WAS SO FUCKING WELL DONE. Basically Elena Bartell (Meryl) owns a media conglomerate and acquires the newspaper that Maddie works at. Elena is notorious for acquiring media businesses that aren’t profitable, firing everyone, and giving it a makeover into a profitable business. Maddie is a Aussie midnight reporter who focuses on obituaries and is extremely homesick. They find each other in the most unlikely places where they both leave a poor impression on each other, but it was an impression nonetheless.

This story does not evolve into a romantic sense until we’re 50% into the plot and does some time jumps to follow the careers of these main characters but it was very well done in my opinion. I was just as involved in their careers as I was in their relationship. In that sense I felt it was so mature! not in a way that was particularly sexual but in the way that it evolved from companionship into love. 

AND THE WAY THEY FELL IN LOVE

I just loved this, but was the slow burn almost too slow? (and trust me I have experience in this I’m a slow burn queen) actually yes, it was, but it resolved itself at just the right time. 

So happy I read this!

loved the thoughtfulness into the industry and how the blog tied into the story, was rooting for the couple in the end, loved the slow burn 

Kristina K

KADY BURNS

The slowest of burns, but I love it so much. The audiobook is amazing and Angela Dawe may be my favorite narrator.

I don't know why this book felt so flat to me but I didn't love it like I love all of Lee's other work. I don't know if it was because I was apathetic towards Felicity in the other books and it just carried over, or if her being so detailed oriented she found the fraud but didn't get Elena and Maddie were dating. Just didn't vibe with this one like I wanted to

Jude Silberfeld

Do I really need to introduce this book? It’s Felicity Simmons’ story. Felicity, as in Elena Bartell’s chief of staff. If you’ve read The Brutal Truth, you know who I’m talking about. If you haven’t, read it. It’s not paramount to read these two books in order. Since this one takes place during the last half of the other one, the order doesn’t matter as far as the timeline is concerned. Reading The Brutal Truth first, however, will allow you to get the entire measure of who Elena Bartell is and why her approval is so important to Felicity.

The Awkward Truth begins with Elena asking Felicity, who’s about to become acting COO of the Bartell media empire, to investigate a charity tending to homeless people’s pets, that seems on the verge of closing down despite a substantial donation Elena made anonymously. In the process, Felicity meets gorgeous vet Sandy Cooper, who will change her outlook on life and priorities.

Humour is the most personal thing. We obviously don’t all laugh at the same things. The first third or so of this book has a slapstick comedy feel that didn’t really work for me. Now that’s a feeling I’m used to, missing the funny in a scene while everyone around is rolling on the floor. I grew up in a Marx Brothers-loving household. You can’t see me right now but my eyes rolled so far back in my head they might fall off (if my head was empty, which it’s not). Intellectually, I see the talent, I can tell it’s funny, but it does nothing for me. And that’s how I felt for the first third of The Awkward Truth.

Then it shifted to a different kind of comedy that’s a lot more my thing. More than once I was reminded of Katharine Hepburn, whose movies I adored growing up, before realizing how sexist they were. The last two thirds of The Awkward Truth have most of what I love in these films minus the misogyny, and that makes up for the doubts I had at the beginning. Also, a bisexual version of all these Hepburn characters? Teenage dreams do come true.

Lee Winter loves writing ice queens, and what makes me want to read her books is the range of shades she gives them. Felicity is different from Elena Bartell, Catherine Ayers, or Amelia Duxton (I still don’t see Elizabeth Thornton as an ice queen). She’s full of contradictions and Cooper can see right through them. Cooper on the other hand is consistent, in her kindness as well as her desires. I didn’t completely buy the conflict when it arrived, it seemed to me that Cooper was giving up a little too fast, which didn’t sound like her. I also didn’t completely believe what made Felicity cut herself off from feelings so thoroughly, but we all react differently to events, and who am I to judge?

Another issue for me was that most of the story happens over a week. I get that the investigation couldn’t last for much longer than that, but it’s an awfully short time to set a romance in. Even though I’m all for instalust and instalove, it felt rushed.

There are a lot of things I liked, however. Besides the MCs, I liked the mystery arc, which allowed Felicity to show off her smarts, dedication, and humanity, I liked the array of secondary characters, I liked seeing Elena Bartell from Felicity’s point of view, and, of course, I liked all the animals. I’m not sure I’d be able to leave empty-handed if I spent even ten minutes with a bunch of kittens crawling all over me.

I’ve read a few books recently that started as 3⭐️ and that I enjoyed more and more as I kept reading. The Awkward Truth is one of them.