White Lies and Custard Creams

White Lies #1

by Susan Alison

All Liz Houston wants is to keep her head above the financial white waters of her life. Somehow, though, other people, including ex-husband Hugh, repeatedly get in the way.Hugh just wants a quiet life and to be there for the people he cares about. Caring for Liz does not lead to a quiet life.Moocher, Liz's Border Collie, wants to be where all the crumbs are, he wants to keep all his paws, but most of all he wants to keep Liz company as she rides the rapids of her life.Add in odd-shoe-wearing lodger Simon, Git-next-door, a lost brother, an illicit fortune stashed away decades ago, a trio of part-time thugs, kidnappings, a tree-climbing tortoise and a dog-flap with a story of its own, and it becomes apparent that a few white lies (and custard creams) between friends are the least of Liz's problems.Jill Mansell (internationally best-selling author) said of this "Susan Alison has written a lovely, quirky romp packed with off-the-wall characters - original, intriguing and great fun!" Susan Alison is the Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner for 2011. She has won competition awards for short fiction and sold numerous stories to commercial publications. Her fiction concentrates on the relationships humans forge with each other (and quite often with their dogs). She is a freelance artist.

Genres: Romance, Fiction

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 25, 2009

About the author

Susan Alison paints pictures and writes stories for a living, and her cafetiere is always hot.

Dogs tend to enter into the pictures, and the prose, quite a lot, Susan living under the paw as she does.

Monty and Rosie (and Jeff-Dog now too) are her Border Collies - they keep an eye on her artwork to make sure she keeps earning kibble, and every now and they they round it up and post it to her artwork blog here.

Reviews

[Penny Grubb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually read romance, but I was having a bad day and a friend twisted my arm into buying this one. I'm so glad she made me do it! White Lies & Custard Creams left me with a smile on my face and I even thought, aaaaahhhhhh at the end. The only trouble is, that I want a dog like Moocher, and I suspect there will never be another like him in the history of the world. I will definitely buy Ms Alison's next book!

[Danielle Bade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was not what I was expecting at all, but it was very good. I really enjoyed all the twists and turns and did not expect the things that happened to happen, can't say much as it would give the story away. The only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars was because I don't think the final chapter really brought anything to the story at all. I would definately recommend this book.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, to describe it as 'just' chick lit is a doing it a disservice, it's chick lit, romance,comedy,thriller and spy novel all in one entertaining package. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good read with a bit more bite than your normal romance novel.

[Aunty Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this light read. Good old fashioned farce (in a good way!) and the part where Moocher the dog is bathed made me laugh out loud. I got a bit confused with the characters as it moves at quite a pace. Jolly good fun!

[Laurie Grove · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read! I couldn't put it down. It was refreshing, funny, quirky, and inventive. I love Susan's style and can't wait to read her next great adventure, which will no doubt be filled with more true to life characters and their zany pets.

[Talli Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quirky, humorous and fun, this is a great read that made me laugh out loud.

[June Churchill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A farce of a story. Ok if you like farces, I don't

[Alan Holdgate · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good in the end a few twists still worth a read though

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took a little while for me to get into it, and even though I made it to the end I didn't find that I could "get" the characters.

[Rhoda Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up when it was on special offer because I liked Susan Alison's cards that she does for the RNA conference each year and was curious about her books.

I loved it! I'm struggling to think of how to describe it. The words 'madcap' and 'caper' spring to mind. I laughed so much I managed to snort by breakfast as one point.

The plot was convoluted and the twists were completely unexpected. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on, but then Liz, the protagonist was just as confused, so that was okay. I loved the way all of Liz's friends, neighbours and lodgers all viewed the world through their own crazy-tinted glasses.

It's not meant to be a deep and meaningful sexually charged read. It's meant to be light and funny and a delightful escape from everyday life. A bit like The Ladykillers, but with a proper appreciation of biscuits. Brilliant.

I'll have to buy the rest of the books.

[Georgina Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little confusing in places....one of those situations where if you were watching a film and blinked you would miss something. Found myself having to go back a couple of times as felt like I had missed a paragraph but I hadn't. All in all an enjoyable read, all the different characters do become a bit confusing too but the book does have a good storyline . I would definitely read another of the authors books another time.

[Ellie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't go into this expecting a great literary experience. Go into it expecting it to be what it is; a light-hearted, rom-com. As the latter it's an enjoyable breakaway from real life, marred only by the author's overuse of a tendency to merge three words together as one - 'manohman', 'boyohboy' etc begins to grate after a while!

[Bobbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit confusing and really not to believable.

[Gaynor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit long winded and had to work at getting into it.

[Liz Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved the book