Blog Tour: Lies That Bind (Anastasia Phoenix #2) by Diana Rodriguez Wallach #Bookreview & #giveaway

Title: Lies That Bind
Series: Anastasia Phoenix #2
Author: Diana Rodriguez Wallach
Publisher:  Entangled: Teen
Published Date: March 6th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary, Spies, Undercover, Mystery
Page Count: 322
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
The Italian Job meets Bourne Identity meets Spy Kids in this sequel to Proof of Lies.

What if saving yourself meant destroying everyone you love?

Still reeling from everything she learned while searching for her sister in Italy, Anastasia Phoenix is ready to call it quits with spies. Then she and her friends learn that Marcus’s—her kinda boyfriend—brother, Antonio, has also gone missing. Luckily, they track down Antonio in a fiery festival in England, only to learn he has been working for the enemy, Department D, the whole time. But Antonio wants out. And so does Anastasia.

But before any of them can leave espionage and their parents’ crimes behind them, a close friend turns up dead. No one is safe, not while Department D still exists. So Anastasia and her friends embark on a dangerous plan to bring down an entire criminal empire, using every Dresden Kid they can find.

As their world becomes surrounded by spies, and the children of spies, Anastasia starts to question who she can really trust. Including her best friends…

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 My Review:

"You do stupid things for family, like chase after assassins."

Thank you to Entangled Teen and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Last year I read Proof of Lies and absolutely loved it, it is one of my favorite undercover mystery adventure type books I've read.

Lies That Binds starts pretty soon after Proof of Lies ended. Anastasia and the group have been in several different European cities since we last saw them, and now they are in England looking for Marcus brother who is missing now as well. After that happens we get to see Charlotte, Julian, and Keira and how the group has changed slightly since we last saw them and has continued working on taking down the organization that had ruined all of their lives in some way. The dynamic in this book is a little different because Anastasia isn't having to search for Keira and is able to instead focus on the bigger picture along with everyone else working on the same thing. There were also some reality checks that didn't happen in the first one and were now having to be addressed before they created a rift in the group.

"At the end of the day, Keira was right - none of us were spies equipped to deal with this."

Overall I really loved this story even more than the first one. We get to know the characters so much more and we get to see their motives for why they are trying to take down the organization. This one had so many twists and turns that I was not expecting, and surprised me so many times. A few new characters were added in as well which was nice to see, and I liked learning there stories as well.

"These are spies, Anastasia, assassins. They're playing us. Playing you."

The heartbreaks, the betrayal, and the surprises that happened throughout this whole book were amazing and had me constantly needing to find more time to read it. I felt a lot of the same feelings that Anastasia did as well when it came to certain people and trusting them. I'm also so proud of her for not letting people change her view on things and stuck to her gut just like she did in the first book.

"Bad things happen, and they're not your fault. You can't control everyone."

This book didn't have middle book syndrome and held its own and I actually liked it a little more than the first one. I cannot wait for the final in this book and I am so sad we have to wait a full year for it.

"None of this is about you, Anastasia. You or Kiera. They get that. And we will bring them down."

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