Love & Lies: Marisol's Story
by Ellen Wittlinger

    LOVE & LIES: MARISOL'S STORY by Ellen Wittlinger
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  7/8/08
    Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
    Reviewed by:  Jaglvr
    Rating:  5 Stars


    In HARD LOVE, the reader got to meet Gio.  Gio fell in love with Marisol Guzman, to no avail.  Not that Marisol
    didn’t like Gio, maybe even love him.  But not in that way.  For Marisol likes girls.  Now, Ellen Wittlinger gives the
    reader a chance to get inside Marisol’s head.  This is Marisol’s story.

    Marisol has decided to defer Stanford for a year.  She’s got the idea that she’s going to write a novel.  And she can’t
    do that if she’s worrying about her schoolwork at the same time.  So she moves out of her parents’ house and into a
    grungy apartment with her best friend, Birdie.  With some under-the-table financial assistance from her mother,
    Marisol works a waitress job at a small coffee shop while trying to write her novel.  

    She signs up to take a Saturday morning writing class to aid her in the endeavor.  There, she first encounters her old
    friend Gio.  Things were left unsettled between them after a falling out in the spring when Gio revealed his true
    feelings for her.  Hopefully, they can begin again as friends with a firm understanding between them this time around.  
    Marisol has truly missed Gio, but she knows she never led him to believe anything else would happen between them.

    As they settle into their seats, in walks the most beautiful woman that Marisol has ever met, their teacher, Olivia
    Frost.  From the first moment, Marisol is struck and becomes obsessed.  Marisol begins to imagine being with Olivia,
    and before she knows it, Olivia is returning the attention.

    But life isn’t perfect or easy for Marisol.  Olivia is hiding something and none of Marisol’s friends trust her.  Added to
    that, Marisol has befriended Lee, a shy girl that has begun to hang out at the coffee shop after school.  Lee has
    recently announced to her family and friends that she’s gay, and things haven’t been easy for her.  Marisol tries to
    encourage Lee in her new world, without encouraging her affections.  She can see the situation turning into a repeat
    of her troubles with Gio in the spring.

    As Ms. Wittlinger crafts her story, Marisol is forced to deal with her own issues and struggles to stay who she is as
    she struggles with her need to be loved.  It’s only after Marisol loses what she truly needed that she realizes what she
    has to do.  

    LOVE & LIES: MARISOL'S STORY is a great continuation to HARD LOVE.  Fans of the first one will definitely
    love this one just as much.  And for those that have never read HARD LOVE, they will easily pick up the flow of the
    story and want to join the crazy bunch of people that are Marisol’s friends.