Bea Reviews Psychic Lies by Sara Daniel

Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Series: Wiccan Haus #5
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 25, 2015 
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Blurb from goodreads:

What if you could read minds during sex? What if the government wanted to exploit you for your ability?

Fiona Vetter has spent her life hiding her sexual mind-reading power, pretending to have normal, safe powers like the rest of her family. When her charade results in the death of an innocent woman, her life of lies unravels. With nowhere else to turn, she retreats to the Wiccan Haus.

To expose her as an enemy of his government, Armando Verdad follows Fiona to the Wiccan Haus. Her beauty dazzles him, her personality seduces him, and her web of lies intrigues him. But with his career and the safety of his countrymen on the line, only the truth matters.

The harder Fiona tries to keep Armando away, the more she falls for him. When enemies come searching for her, she is forced to trust him to protect her life and her psychic lies, but nothing can protect her heart.

Bea's Thoughts:

I've always been fascinated by the idea of psychic abilities and love reading stories about them so I jumped at this one. The premise of Fiona's ability is different - when she has sex, she can hear her partner's thoughts. That hasn't always been pleasant for her. Armando's ability is different; when he touches someone, he can tell if they are lying when they speak. Now put the two of them in bed and imagine the results. Yep, that bad.  :D

Initially, I didn't like Armando; he was arrogant, deceptive, aggressive, and somewhat stalkerish. I this scene, he was so aggressive and obnoxious I wasn't sure Daniels could redeem him:

But her spunk thrilled him, encouraging him to continue his annoying behavior. He didn't have any interest in meditating.

He followed her to a meditation class, runs roughshod over her attempts to dissuade or ignore him, and manages to touch her, even though she doesn't want to be touched. Not exactly hero or good guy material. I should point out that he was unofficially investigating her, undercover, for the police force he works for, against the wishes of the island's owners. So it's to be expected he'd be aggressive but for me, he crossed in to asshole territory.

Then we have Fiona. She's kept her psychic powers a secret while pretending to have a different power (her natural ability is highly valued and sought after, but not in any good way). That pretense may have led to the murder of a woman and she's the prime suspect. She's trying to hide on the island, buried in guilt for her part in the murder, and convinced that Wicca Haus's famed healing won't be able to help her. She just wants to be a hermit and somehow rid herself of her natural power.

Slowly, Armando grew on me. He really won me over during a sex scene, when Fiona was aggressively pursuing him while not actually wanting to have sex. He knows, thanks to his power, that she's lying, and much to her frustration, he listens to her thoughts instead of her spoken words, and slows things down. I loved that, unlike earlier in the story, he truly listened and respected her.

The road to Armando and Fiona's love and HEA is a bumpy one filled with misunderstandings, lies, truth, a little mystery, passion, and even some political intrigue. I was alternately angry, thrilled, weepy, hopeful, and  delighted. I liked Fiona; her kindness, her sweetness, her courage. She could be timid but it was with reason and she pushed past it. She tried so hard to do the right thing, even at cost to herself. Armando at first was so focused on his mission that he suffered from tunnel vision and was arrogantly convinced that his way was the best, no matter what anyone else said or did. But slowly he realizes his mistakes.

"Psychic Lies", despite it's short length, had some slow moments and Armando was an asshole for about the first 30% of the book, and it got really confusing at one point; I had to re-read several times to figure out what was going on. But it's also a sweet story, with strong characterization. I like the glimpses of the series regulars, Myron, Cemil, and Rekkus. Darn I wish Rekkus wasn't taken.