Has me in tears by end 

I thought this would be funnier.

I kept almost laughing, almost finding it funny, but it never quite made it there. Some of this might just be that it is remarkably mean humor throughout--I'm not convinced this woman likes anything in the world--but it's also all so very heavy-handed that it feels meaner than it is probably meant to feel.

Everything she complains about is turned up so far past probable that instead of getting that laughing "Yes, I think that, too!" response or even the slightly-ashamed-but-still-laughing, "Oh, that is horrible! I thought that was just me!" response, I found myself just staring blankly at the page in distaste wondering if any of this could possibly be true and hoping not.

That's not the worst reaction to have to a book, of course, but it's definitely not the reaction I am hoping for going into any kind of humorous memoir.

I won't be picking up anything else by her and I'm not sure I could really recommend this to anyone else, either. It wasn't the most terrible humor I've ever read, but it just never quite managed to get anywhere funny, and that's almost worse.

 **SPOILER FREE**

While I liked My Life Next Door, her second book fell short for me. Halfway through the book I really didn't see a point for it being written at all. I didn't really feel anything for any of the characters.

Gwen Castle lives on an island in New England and works in her fathers restaurant and with her mother cleaning houses for the vacationers. Its your typical working class girl meets a rich boy, and then they defy what other people think about them. Cass Somers takes a job as a yard boy and suddenly they are constantly running into each other. 

The problem I had with this book was that it was way too long without much of a plot happening. Another issue I had was the flash backs. You never knew when they were going to happen and they got a bit confusing.

At the end of the story I took the title "what I thought was true" to mean  that Gwen reevaluated everything she thought about her friends, social classes, herself and the relationships she has with her family and friends. 

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the acclaimed author of My Life Next Door comes a swoony summertime romance full of expectation and regret, humor and hard questions.

Gwen Castle has never so badly wanted to say good-bye to her island home till now: the summer her Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, takes a job there as the local yard boy. He's a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of fishermen and housecleaners who keep the island's summer people happy. Gwen worries a life of cleaning houses will be her fate too, but just when it looks like she'll never escape her past—or the island—Gwen's dad gives her some shocking advice. Sparks fly and secret histories unspool as Gwen spends a gorgeous, restless summer struggling to resolve what she thought was true—about the place she lives, the people she loves, and even herself—with what really is.

Review:

I loved My Life Next Door and was excited to read another book by Huntley Fitzpatrick, however I was quite disappointed.

I was expecting this to be just as enjoyable and full of drama as Huntley's first book but what I found was that it was actually quite boring. Throughout the book nothing major happens. There are little things thrown in there to keep you reading in the hope it will lead up to something big, but it didn't. The storylines never develop into anything but just fizzle out.

This book wasn't terrible it just wasn't very exciting. Here we have a poor girl and a rich guy and the cliche'd storyline of said girl not being accepted by the rich boys family wasn't even touched on. All the drama or problems that arised just worked out, there were no big altercations or dramatic scenes which is needed to keep the story interesting.

This would be a nice summer read if you're looking for something to pass the time or want a bit of light reading. Although I didn't love this book, I am still interested in reading Huntley Fitzpatrick's new book The Boy Most Likely To as I'm hoping it will resemble My Life Next Door.

If you’re looking for a plot oriented book, this is probably one to skip.  However, when it comes to characters What I Thought was True succeeds big time.

That and it’s very atmospheric and relaxing.

I literally felt like I was on the island when reading this book.  It’s true it wasn’t the most exciting book, but it wasn’t the most exciting place to be either.  And the characters, as I said before, were nice enough for me to decide I liked this nice sleepy little book.

Let’s talk about said characters:

Our main character is Gwen.  I like her.  She’s not perfect, but I really got a sense of self with her.  And I liked that she had a life outside of boys.  Her family life particularly affected her personality.  I like the fact she comes from a busted up nuclear family and it doesn’t seem so awkward like many YA books do.

Yes, her parents are no longer together.  But instead of it being like a typical YA divorce, the relationship that Gwen has with her parents seems fairly realistic.

Also, got to love her granddad and baby brother.  Her grandad is awesome because he likes old movies.  Sort of reminds me of my own grandpa.  And I love the fact that he makes Gwen’s little bro watch Fred Astaire movies and its some sort of tradition between the two of them.

That’s  just awesome.

As for Gwen’s parents.  They act like parents do.  Both of them have their faults, but their not horrible people.

The love interest is also fairly decent as well.  Not egotistical and the relationship isn’t that instantaneous.  The one thing I do have to complain about them, is their relationship before the summer.  The use of flashbacks often seemed confusing to me.  So, better transitions in the future might help with that in future books.

But overlooking that, Cass and Gwen did seem to work together.

Besides, the awesome characters and setting, details helped make the novel as well.   The influx of bad romance novels that are described throughout the book made me smile.  Let’s just say, I want to be like Mrs. E when I’m her age and still reading filthy bodice rippers.

What didn’t work though, was the plot.

Yeah, it was non-existant and given how long this book was it was in need of a good trim.

Some people are really more character people than plot people, and I think this was the audience that Fitzpatrick was going for.  I’m sort of in the middle.  I do like having a plot in the novel, but if the characters are well done…I’m okay with character driven pieces.

With What I Thought Was True, I feel sort of in the middle about it not having a plot.  In a lot of ways it worked, but at the same time with its long length I was like why?  Why are you writing such a long book if nothing is happening?

The good news is, that I  enjoyed these characters and their island home enough to finish the book with relative enjoyment.

Overall Rating: A solid B. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I liked it.