Breaking free of expectations and limitations (Hollywood, California on one contemporary day): What happens if you can no longer tell a lie? Not even a fib not to offend?

Lucy Green wakes up on her 30^th birthday and discovers that even when she tries her tongue, physically, won’t let her say anything but the truth. On the surface, Nothing But the Truth has a light-hearted, straightforward premise – outlandish, witty, romantic – yet that’s not everything going on. How could it be when the author, Holly James, is also a psychologist?

Honesty has psychic consequences. Which explains why James brings more to her debut novel than literary and pop culture smarts. As a psychologist for both academic and corporate worlds, she’s created a protagonist who’s intensely career-focused, showing us she understands how a woman’s mind and heart work in high-powered, cutthroat business environments.

Lucy loves her junior publicity job at a “Hollywood institution” that promotes movie stars and smooths over celebrity scandals, J & J Public. Lucy is really good at her job, so much so that the top two things out of four on the list she’s drafted that will make her milestone day “perfect” are job-related:

• “Lock down Lily Chou,” the “hottest new scarlet in Hollywood” with the “Oscar buzz,” so she can
• ”Secure promotion” to senior publicist. A slight problem to foil her plans is her do-anything-to-get-ahead agency competitor, “Supervillain” Chase, is courting an even potentially bigger client, an NBA Laker’s superstar.

How corporate leaders and decision-makers create a culture that can have a major influence on our happiness, comfort, and success on the job is just one of a number of today’s news stories Lucy grapples with when she turns thirty.

An extraordinary day. A day even her immediate boss, Joanna – one of the J’s in the firm’s name – summarizes when she describes the nature of “celebrity publicity” in Tinseltown: “Never a dull day in this town.” As in, never a dull moment in this novel. A day in which so much happens it consumes an entire novel, charming us on one level and resonating on a deeper one.

For Lucy, the litany of out-of-the-ordinary, absurd things that happen to magically transform her into the most honest person you may ever meet feels like a lifetime. Being honest is not just with herself. It’s with everyone she interacts with: her mother; her best girlfriend from college, Nina; her colleagues (though her relationship with her best friend at work Oliver seems delightfully to have already been pull-no-punches, authentic before this day); her mentor/boss, Joanna; and the CEO of the company – the other J in the company name – Jonathan, Joanna’s brother.

Overarching all these relationships is how Lucy in particular, many women in general, go about their daily lives reflecting cultural and gender expectations of what a woman should or should not do. Lucy knows what that means and feels like. Today is the day she revolts.

In doing so, James has written a feminist manifesto disguised as a bewitching novel that’s a self-help roadmap for finding the strength, courage, and conviction to help free women of the stereotypes, unwritten rules, bad and unhappy decisions that seek to limit them in many arenas. Since Lucy’s career means so much to her, dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace is a dark, silenced undercurrent that’s been contained – until this be-honest day.

How a woman’s appearance should look to get ahead, physique and fashions, as if these were the important things that determined a woman’s “value” James makes a point of saying, is part of the story. So is the ticking-time-hormonal-bomb of getting married and when to have children.

Fundamental to all of the above is being honest with yourself as to what you want in life and how you want to be treated in your relationships: parental, collegial, platonic, and romantic.

What Lucy also discovers is that being honest with herself and others has life-altering consequences. Everything isn’t black-or-white when it comes to truth-telling. In theory, abiding to a moral code should always be virtuous. But you need to be prepared for what might come, for instance, when you spout out to your mother when she calls to wish you a happy birthday, adding a recurring comment that strikes at Lucy’s anxieties, that maybe she’ll never be a grandmother. Who said she must have kids? Mothers will likely get over the disappointment of shocking declarations, but rejecting the head of your company’s sexual power plays are likely to result in losing your job, certainly not getting that promotion you’ve worked so hard for and deserve. Telling truths may be the ethical path to follow, but in real life not necessarily in your best interests or others you either care about or need in your corner.

In the face of Lucy putting up with Jonathan’s abusive transgressions that victimize her, she’s become a pro at “chaos management” – damage control, “babysitting,” cleaning up a megastar’s unseemly, scandalous behavior – but on this day she learns of a younger co-worker distraught over being sexually exploited. Combined with truth-telling, today marks the day silence is no longer an option.

Lucy isn’t all black-and-white either. Specifically, #4 on her birthday list, indicates she’s a modern woman who wants to have it all. She’s hoping, hmmm expecting, her boyfriend Caleb will “finally” ask her to marry him. Does she get what she wants? That depends on whether you think having a not very dull day means enchanting or fated. Expect both.

Lucy kicked off celebrating her birthday the night before by stepping into a bar not far from her office, where she’s served a “lavender-colored” cocktail by a handsome bartender with a “killer smile.” Subconsciously she didn’t notice him, occupied by dreamy thoughts of Caleb, but she did take away one thing the bartender said: his concoction would be “life-changing.”

Today is also the day Lucy asks: why torture herself to the physical misery, the intensity of the “Ken Doll” instructor, the too-tight tights, and the starving breakfast when Nina picks her up for their scheduled spinning class? Nina complies since it’s a special day, so they go out for a “bagel gooey with cheese.” Why not indulge? Why a social transgression? This spreads to rebelling against all the fakery of getting ready for work: the uncomfortable “costume,” make-up, hair fussing, Spanx Shapewear. Lucy’s sentiments echo today’s headlines after the comfort of remote work during the pandemic. Why not dress as our “true selves”? James asks.

So this becomes the day Lucy turns heads at work dressed like something’s wrong. Of course, that’s going to be the least of it. At one point, Lucy starts to blame everything on that lavender drink. Was it spiked, “cursed”? When she returns to the same bar and bartender, whose name she learns is Adam, he tells her being honest is a gift.

In her gracious Acknowledgements, James says she hopes her novel “can make anyone relate, laugh, reflect, or find a voice they didn’t know they have.” Looks like her wishes have come true. Will Lucy’s?

Lorraine