Upon requesting this novel, I did not realize that it was the second book in a series so I stopped reading it rather quickly.

Lies That Bind (Anastasia Phoenix #2)
Diana Rodriguez Wallach
Book Review: ♥ ♥ ♥❣

Lies that bind is the second book in the Anastasia Phoenix series. It is a continuous story, however, I haven't read the first book and this one made perfect sense. It has catch-up info and the story is easy to follow.

Department D is the enemy. The organisation is the root of all Anastasia's problems. Her love interest Marcus wants her help finding his brother, Antonio. Department D is back in the visual.

Antonio worked for department D but didn't know what was going on. Antonio wants to join Marcus and his friends and leave his past behind.

They can't seem to shake their troubles and it soon catches up with them.

Lies that Bind is described as being like the Bourne Identity meets Italian Job. I agree that this is a good way to describe this book. It's corrupt and you have to be careful who you trust. It's aimed at the young adult audience 16+ (UK). Spy
Kids just a little older.

3.5 stars out of 5. Predictable but an okay read.

*ARC Netgalley. My review is honest and fair.



Paperback £7.99 or Kindle £7.59, 300 pages
Expected publication: March 6th 2018 by Entangled: Teen

Spy mystery, International thriller, or scavenger hunt could all be used to classify Lies that Bind. Anastasia Phoenix has lived a very unconventional life. With the death of her parents, Anastasia and her sister realize their life has been much more than they thought. Lies that Bind do all the things a second book in a series should do. It builds on the revelations of the first book while expounding on the relationships. Particularly between Anastasia and Marcus while on the hunt for his brother. This book also mimics the plot of book one to an extent which was a little tedious, but overall I enjoyed this spy mystery.

Lies That Bind starts off right where book one left off.  Anastasia and her friends are trying to figure out if her parents are alive or not, and also trying to figure out how to stay safe from Department D.

This time, they look for help from other kids from Department D, hoping to find proof that they can use to bring them down.  Everyone is back including Marcus' brother, Antonio, whom Anastasia has trouble trusting.  It gets to the point where she has trouble trusting most of her group.  Especially when another friend is killed.

This book is great for anyone who likes spy/espionage mixed into young adult.  It had a good pacing, but I did find that I liked book one better.  I still enjoyed it and wanted to know what happened.  I'm looking forward to finding out how it all ends in book three.

I gave this one 3  1/2 stars (rounded up to 4 on goodreads).  I received a copy of this book from Entangled Teen for review.

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: Did wow me but it was ok.

Check out author's other books? Maybe
Recommend this book? No

Notes and Opinions: This one picks up where book one left off I would have to say that I am not a fan of the instalove in this one. Although for some stories it works out in some they don't. Unlike book one this one was very cheesy and very predictable. I really wanted to love this one like I did book one but it just fell very far from the bar I was expecting.

Go Into This One Knowing: Predictable, Cheesy

There weren’t really any gripes that I had with this book, but there also wasn’t anything that led this book to stand out for me.

This book picks up right from where the first book left off and it follows Anastasia as she is trying to find out where her parents really are which takes her on a romp around the world.

I’m still not the biggest fan of the relationship because it is soooo instalovey and not realistic at all, but it works and I think Anastasia and Marcus worked well together

There were so many cheesy lines throughout this book that it had me cringing at moments, and the book was pretty predictable.

All in all though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the novel it also wasn’t bad and that’s why I chose to give it a 3 star rating.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review,  so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
This book is about Anastasia and her friends that are ready to uncover the truth behind her parents death and her sister’s kidnapping. If your like me you hate cliffhangers, had i known i would have waited for the next book to comd out so i could binge read them.  Im conflicted on my feelings with this book.
This was my first book by this author, however I did enjoy it. It was fast paced and just alltogether an easy read. I give this book a 3 star rating!

“Lies that Bind” picks up where book 1 left off with the Anastasia and the gang all together and ready to uncover the truth behind her parents apparent death and her sister’s kidnapping and once it starts it doesn’t stop leaving us with a cliffhanger for what’s sure to be a great showdown.

This series always reminded me of a sort of “The Blacklist” but for a more younger crowd and while I enjoyed this book on a surface level and in connection to the first, it didn’t have anything to it that made it memorable. A lot of the story was a combination of planning something, having it fail, in group fighting with miscommunication for angst, plot twist and repeat and a lot of them ended up being somewhat predictable which was a bit of a disappointment.

I have to say I always enjoy The Truth sections at the end and how real life events where spliced into these books to create this other layer of intrigue and suggestions of underground workings of a secret government enterprise and LIB continued with that little end of the book treat just as well as the first.

**thank you to netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**