Review: Pretty Little Secrets

Title: Pretty Little Secrets

Author: Sara Shepard

Release Date: January 3, 2012

Format: Hardcover ($17.99 US)

Rewind to junior year in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, to a winter break no one has ever heard about. . . .
Fat snowflakes fall onto manicured lawns, quilted stockings hang over marble fireplaces, and everyone is at peace, especially Hanna, Emily, Aria, and Spencer. Now that Alison’s murderer is in jail and A is dead, they can finally relax. Little do they know there’s a new A in town. . . .
Rule number one of being an effective stalker: Get to know your prey. So I watch these liars day and night, keeping an eye on the trouble they get into, the messes they make, and the secrets they keep. Hanna’s desperate for a very personal session with her gym trainer. Emily is number one on Santa’s naughty list. Aria’s old flame from Iceland is about to land her in hot water. And Spencer’s resorting to some backhanded tactics to get what she wants.
What happens on holiday break stays on holiday break—right? But guess what. I saw. And now I’m telling.
Taking place between "Unbelievable" and "Wicked," "Pretty Little Secrets" is a very special "Pretty Little Liars" tale revealing the liars’ never-before-seen misadventures over their junior-year winter break.

Review

It kinda sucks that I'm bad at gushing, because my mind while reading this was nothing but gushy thoughts. I mean, one of the girls gets married, for Pete's sake. (I know, right?) Am I the only one who found that a bit sudden?

Oh, well. Now onto the book itself. The thing that surprised me about Pretty Little Secrets was that Shepard had turned off the switching narratives, and we got a solid 110-120 pages of each girl by herself. It was weird to read this way, because at the end of each chapter, I'd catch myself going "Wait . . . who's up next?" only for it to be more of the same person. It took a while to get used to, and once I did, I liked it even more than Shepard's original style of writing; it just seemed to flow faster, and it made the book unputdownable.

The first story in the book is Hanna's, and this story is the longest of them all (120 pages), but it didn't feel like it. At no point in this story was I stereotypically looking at my watch and tapping my foot on the floor and tapping my fingertips rhythmically. The only thing I actually remember doing throughout this entire thing is turning the pages, which I guess is pretty good!

Next was Emily's. In her story, her mom loses a Christmas decoration that she thinks someone (or a group of someones) have stolen. She is sent to the mall to work as Santa (a girl Santa? Unbelievable) to investigate, because her mom's friend thinks the thiefs work there. This story was one of my favorites, because it was cute watching Emily interact with the children.

Aria's story was the third, and it was definitely the most wild of the three. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. It was kind of odd to me how she just brushed it off after she was done.

Spencer's story came last and it was the most dramatic of them all. Her and her sister were fighting over boys (as usual) and their occasional patch-ups were cute.

I really don't feel like saying much more (and I have loads to do before school tomorrow), so I'm going to sign out how. I hope you all enjoy this book!

Five Owls