"Pretty Little Liars" by Sara Shepard

I have heard great things about the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard.  However, I'm not sure if they are quite for me.  I plan on giving the next one or two a shot, but based on how I felt about the first book, I may not see this series out.

The first book opens with a sleepover that goes horribly wrong.  Alison leaves the sleepover and never returns- anywhere.  The novel then picks up three years later. Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Emily have grown apart since Alison's disappearance.  The majority of the novel focuses on each girl individually and they only reconnect at the end of the novel when they find out that all are receiving messages from someone identified only as "A" and that someone knows all of their secrets.  I thought that the idea for the novel was kind of interesting.  However, I felt like there wasn't quite enough character development for each of the girls.  I found myself referring to the summary several times just to keep straight who was who (granted, I am used to stories that have multiple points of view having both male and female characters- maybe having four female leads was just too much for me).  They each had unique storylines, but I couldn't help but feel like they were just one person split into four separate stories.  And each of them had a little bit too much drama for my taste.

I am a little intrigued and would like to see this story out- and find out who "A" is, but I get the feeling that these books may be a little too soap opera like for my tastes.  It was nice to see that Shepard is not afraid to tackle difficult topics- missing persons, bulimia, underage drinking, are just a few things included in the first novel.  I certainly see the appeal of these novels and am really going to try to keep reading them, but we shall see.

Happy Reading!
-Melly

"The Pact" by Jodi Picoult

This book is pretty much what you would expect from Jodi Picoult.  A touchy subject, characters experiencing the rawest of emotions, and ans ending that wasn't really expected.  In The Pact we meet the parents of Emily and Chris.  The mothers met shortly before giving birth to their children.  They quickly became best friends- as did their children.  Emily and Chris have been inseperable their entire lives.  They grew up spending more time together than apart.  So it's no surprise when they reach their teen years and become a couple.  However it does come as a surprise when each set of parents gets a phone call informing them of the nights events- Emily has been shot and it appears that Chris was behind it.  Chris claimed that the two of them had made a pact to commit a double suicide, but the evidence doesn't do much to support his claim.  The rest of the book focuses on finding out the truth and is intermixed with periods prior to this horrible night, starting with Melanie and Gus' first meeting leading up to the teens' final night together.

This was only the third Picoult novel I have read (I read Between the Lines right after this one) and I have become accustomed to what I assume to be her normal writing style.  I have found that I typically start to get lost in stories with a lot of prominent characters.  It seems that most authors can only juggle so many characters before their story lines start to blur together.  This is not the case with Picoult's writing.  Even though this book doesn't have only one or two dominant characters, it was easy for me to keep up with who was who.  There is just something about the way Picoult writes that keeps me completely engaged and not at all confused.  She creates characters and situations that are believable (though we may not always want to believe that such situations could exist).  I have made it a point to not go on a spree of reading her books.  As much as I love them, they really put a hold on my emotions.  It is sometimes difficult to grasp everything I am reading and I feel that reading several of her books in a row might be overwhelming.  No other author has done that to me, but I appreciate it.  She is one of those authors that I feel everyone should try at least one of her books.  I will definitely make my way through the rest of what she has written.

Happy Reading!
-Melly