The Awkward Truth by Lee Winter ~ my review

Thank you, Lee Winter for writing about homeless people and their pets!

“The Awkward Truth” is a “The Brutal Truth” world story, as some say a “sidequel”.

Felicity was a side character in “The Brutal Truth” featuring Elena Bartell (Ice Queen of all ice queens) and Maddie.

In “The Awkward Truth” Felicity and Cooper are the main characters, while Elena and Maddie are side characters.

The title: the awkward truth somehow emulates the brutal truth mocking these adorable ice queens, as Felicity wants to be just like Elena and even imitates her in the way to climb on the career ladder until the top of the tops.

Felicity got her own story and what a story this is.

Felicity Simmons is a corporate lawyer at Bartell Corp’s. She has learned and worked all her life to impress her father who abandoned her family for his secretary, even if that ment keep a not so close relationship with her wonderful mother and sister who still lived at home in Pinckney. She wanted to be just like him, so she grabbed all that Elena Bartell gave her and worked hard for even more. In Elena (from before Maddie) she saw more than a mentor, she saw someone she wanted to be, a goal to achieve, a role model. After Elena met Maddie and changed and she announced she is leaving for Australia and wants her to be the Bartell Corp’s next COO, Felicity finally got what she wanted, yet still…she couldn’t tell her father and there was none to share it with…and more than that Elena sends her on a personal mission: Elena donated a huge amount of money to a charity called Living Ruff New York and she wants to know why the charity is closing and where did her money go.

And, so the show begins.

Felicity is more than out of her comfort zone and above all she likes the cute vet from Living Ruff.

Lee Winter plays with all the ice queen “tools” against Felicity: she needs to show compassion, for how long can she deny she loves animals and she even meets a woman who had a wealthy life previously ending up on the streets (Kristie) and she falls for a woman she feels attracted to, not the regular corporates she dates.

It is so hilarious, I totally love the new Felicity and her road to get there with all the big mistakes she will make.

Dr. Sandy Cooper loves animal and always wanted to be a vet. Her dream came true when she joined Living Ruff New York because she could both help animals and homeless people and their pets. She is caring, sweet and totally lovable.

Cooper is flawless in her goodness. She always wanted to be.

When she meets Felicity, she finds her awkward and doesn’t understand why she is here, nor why she hides behind the façade of a career climbing ruthless professional who doesn’t care about anyone or anything else. Why doesn’t she show compassion? Why doesn’t she show she loves animals? Why doesn’t she pet her dog Britanny? And why won’t she admin Loki (Felicity’s neighbour cat who visits her often) is her pet?

Well, with Elena’s little help by sending Felicity on this personal mission, all this will change dramatically for both Felicity and Cooper. With every day that passes by Cooper’s side, Felicity finds herself in front of many cute animals she can’t help to cuddle, she sees more terrible cases of people that ended up on the streets and their pets are their only support, how they can’t stay in shelters with their pets and so much more.

Felicity wants to find out what happened to Elena’s money and she discovers so many entangled issues, but she is determined to find out the truth and Cooper.

She can’t help falling for Cooper either. She is tall, red-headed with strong ties, so not Felicity’s slender corporate type. It is really funny. I liked their encounters, their banter and their lovemaking. Felicity finally gets warmth and love and her change is palpable and beautiful.

Felicity after

But, then she does a mistake: she thinks Cooper should aim for more in her career, while Cooper loves exactly what she does. That would be the turning point.

The plot is really good, Felicity’s investigation reveals something all right, I won’t reveal the outcome, because is tooo good.

The themes touched in these book are strong : homeless people’s lives, homeless people’s pets, how they choose to live together on the streets because they can’t take their pets in shelters overnight,#meetoo and women condition in society(Felicity thinks all women should be slim and she doesn’t understand why her mother and sister don’t have higher aspirations, she is totally wrong of course, because they are really happy with what they’re doing), a girl with father figure issues (Felicity’s father left the family for his secretary ~ loved the real outcome on that).

I adored the pets in this book and their homeless owners have really sad stories : Loki, Britanny, Ruby (Kristie’s dog), Lucille (Norma’s cat), Daisy (Car’l dog), Jasper (Daniel’s dog),

I liked the side characters a lot: besides Elena and Maddie, Mrs.Brooks, Harvey and Rosalind, Felicity’s mother Louise and sister Heather.

Rosalind & Harvey