Rating: 3 stars

Katie Burelli sits in the courtroom listening to endless testimony of her husband’s murder; with each witness’ account of the incident, Nick is taken from her all over again. Silently, Katie counts out the seconds it would take to reach the defendant and cause him harm before she could be detained.

A deep sense of loss gnaws at Katie as she mentally replays the past few years of their marriage and what became the beginning of the end, just a month before the shooting when Nick left her. Now Nick is gone forever, shot point blank by Jerry, a mentally challenged man with the IQ of a 10-year-old, whom the Burelli’s loved like a son.

Katie aches for Nick. The hole in her heart in competition with the void left in their home; all the time knowing they were there well before Nick died. From the beginning, Katie lost herself in who Nick was, giving everything up for his love, dedicated to loving him. Lacking her own direction, Katie’s insecurities and low self-esteem was tinder for Nick’s private skeletons of doubt; resulting in vicious verbal attacks that later turn into pleas of forgiveness and passion.

By the end of the trial, Katie will learn more than she cares to know. Eventually realizing what she thought was swimming was simply treading water. Jerry may have pulled the trigger, but Katie may have had more to do with the death of her marriage and Nick’s final breath than she wants to admit.

Boyajian’s debut is well-done. It’s both a loving portrait and a cautionary tale of marriage. Lies of the Heart illustrates the importance of knowing who you are as an individual before linking yourself as a couple; as the price of losing yourself in someone else can be a high one.
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Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult (April 15, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0670021314