Pretty Little Secrets: A Pretty Little Liars Collection by Sara Shepard

Pretty Little Secrets was more than just a little disappointment. Taking place during the winter break between the end of Mona's reign of terror and the beginning of Alison's, the book shows Hanna battling her body image issues yet again, Emily is desperate to replace Ali's friendship in her life, Aria puts herself in a vulnerable and dangerous position in her quest to feel needed and loved, and Spencer, true to form, competes with Melissa for the affections of a guy in order to mask the pain of not having the affection of her family. The Liars' motivations are true to form, the trouble they find themselves in because of their emotional pitfalls on par with everything else seen in the series, but there are two differences, and these differences are exactly what separates Pretty Little Secrets from the rest of the series... and not in a good way.

Whereas all the previous books had the girls interacting together, Pretty Little Secrets consisted of four contained storylines. Without picking favorites, this blending seen in previous works is necessary to balance out the characters' flaws and make the Liars less frustrating. It also lends the series a sense of camaraderie, especially because the readers can feel as though they are a part of this close knit group of friends. Without it, this book seemed more shallow. Secondly, there were no consequences to their secrets, their lies. The issues were resolved, and, though Alison was aware of them, it's far-fetched to believe that she would never have exploited those secrets, only the personality traits which caused them. This lent the book a lack of credibility. Plus, it did not feel as though it was written during the time frame in which it was set. What would have improved this was if the novel had been told from Alison as A's point of view. Not only would this have provided insight into a very influential character's motivations, but it also could have explained Alison's non-action, perhaps even humanizing her somewhat. After all, it's not like her identity needed to be protected in this work; her duplicity had long since been revealed in previous books.

Two out of Five Stars

The Pretty Little Liars series has been divided into three sets of novels, each featuring a different A. What makes this third set of books stand out from the others is how... uninvolved and hands off the final A is (so far). Rather than attacking Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna – making them do things and doing things to them, this A simply sits back, occasionally taunts, and allows the liars to do all his or her A work on their own. Because of their checkered pasts (to put it mildly), the four girls are paranoid and ripe for harassment, but what does this say about the third A? Perhaps it says that the girls' latest and last enemy is smarter than the others, but this style of attack also isn't as exciting or nerve wracking. In addition, readers surely become frustrated with Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna. Not only have they not learned their lessons from A's past assaults, but their impetuosity is frustrating. If the girls would take a moment to think about their actions, to question their feelings and instincts, if they would simply use caution and common sense, then they wouldn't open themselves up to A's mischief nearly so easily. Restraint is certainly not their strong suit.

Take for example the relationship woes featured in Ruthless. Despite fearing the repercussions from their actions in Jamaica and having a new A to look out for, all four girls embark on new relationships in this tenth book of the series... or, in Aria's case, revisit an old flame. As Aria's former English teacher reenters her life, Spencer embraces her inner thespian... and her fellow thespian... in an attempt to solidify her Princeton acceptance. Meanwhile, Hanna impulsively begins a new romance with the son of her father's political rival, and Emily embraces her inner bad-girl, eventually crushing on the very same person Spencer suspects of being new A. And these dalliances aren't just passing fancies... or, at least, in the girls' eyes they aren't; they're the star-crossed, soulmate kind of love... for all the 2.5 seconds that they last. One of these instant relationships, however, was more frustrating than the others.

Unlike on Pretty Little Liars, the show, the Aria-Ezra romance was a passing storyline in the books. It was short lived and quickly dismissed in favor of more appropriate and more compelling entanglements for Aria. Unfortunately, Ruthless saw a return for the disgraced teacher. Initially, it was aggravating to see Aria so blinded by Ezra again, to see her making the same mistakes again, but Ruthless did something interesting: it showed Aria realizing just how wrong she and Ezra were together, perhaps even serving as Shepard's commentary upon the television series' portrayal of the relationship as well. Either way, the character of Ezra is gone and hopefully for good as Aria and her friends continue to fall further and further under the third and final A's wicked spell in the upcoming eleventh novel: Stunning.

Four out of Five Stars

It has been a year since the house fire at the DiLaurentis' cabin in the Poconos – the house fire that the real Alison set in order to kill Spencer, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Melissa, but the friends still don't feel safe. In fact, the girls aren't even friends at this point. They're older, though – seniors and applying for college, but the four Liars are certainly not wiser. They're still making those same mistakes which got them in so much trouble in the past. Spencer did something underhanded to get into Princeton; Aria's jealous streak is rearing its ugly head again; Emily is keeping an important part of herself not only from her family but from the whole world; and Hanna's sticky fingers are blackmailed into emerging once more. Oh, and then there's also the event which triggered their separation: Jamaica. But with A back to haunting and terrorizing the girls, what happened in Jamaica won't stay Jamaica for long.

Twisted really felt like the series reinvented itself, like Shepard hit the reset button. It also felt like it was setting the groundwork for the books to come. After all, A – whether a miraculously still alive Alison or some new all-knowing presence in the girls' lives – has yet to really do anything to them. Twisted featured no blackmail, no spilled secrets on A's behalf, and, in fact, the novel was quite coy about what exactly some of the liars' biggest secrets are. Whereas readers had gotten used to knowing all about the less than savory deeds committed by Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna, Twisted, on many fronts, keeps its audience well in the dark, changing the series' entire dynamic. Instead of feeling like a conspirator with the girls, readers are now somewhat on the outside looking in. This certainly sets up well for the next book, inspiring intrigue and curiosity. Twisted also felt darker than previous novels in the series – the lies, secrets, and scandals racier and more dangerous. Yet, despite the horrible deeds committed by the four girls, Shepard still managed to engender sympathy for them. While this ninth installment might be twisted all right, readers should savor unraveling all the complicated turns and knots.

Four out of Five Stars

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Buzz books: sometimes they live up to their hype; oftentimes, they do not. In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's case, Larsson presents a work which is clearly divided into two distinct sections. The first half of the novel is background information. It sets up the mystery and the main characters, but little actual action takes place. The audience doesn't see the events occur. Rather, they're related to readers in a very dry, uneventful manner. Then, the second half of the novel begins when the two main characters finally meet and team up together. From this point on, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo becomes fast paced. Answers to the investigation begin to emerge, and, perhaps more importantly, character development occurs. However, the intrigue of the second half of the novel cannot make up for the dullness of the first half. Whereas I read the final 300 pages in a single day, it took me seven months to read what came before that. Larsson would have been better served to begin the novel mid-way into the mystery and then slowly reveal the backstory as the two leads investigated together, combining the action with the information.

With this said, what is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo about? First, there's Mikael Blomkvist – a disgraced journalist who has just been convicted of libel. He is approached by a wealthy ex-CEO of one of Sweden’s largest conglomerates to, as a front, write his memoirs while in all actuality Blomkvist would be investigating the disappearance/death of his employer's favorite great-niece, Harriet. Eventually, he is joined by social recluse and hacker, Lisbeth Salander, and together they uncover the shockingly sick and demented web of a sociopathic serial killer... or two. To make matters even more complicated, both Blomkvist and Salander's presents are shaped by their complicated pasts, and they must wade the treacherous waters of an extremely wealthy yet dysfunctional family while investigating Harriet Vanger's case. Then things really get interesting when Mikael and Salander sleep together.

This – their relationship – is by far the most compelling aspect of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which makes the fact that the characters do not meet face-to-face until the second half of the novel even more egregious of a mistake on Larssen's part. Complete opposites who are also separated by age and circumstances, Blomkvist and Salander, on paper, make no sense as a couple, yet they work. He helps her grow, proves to her that there are people in the world worthy of her trust, and she gives him back his edge – allowing Mikael to once again learn to trust himself. Perhaps this makes me a cliché – favoring a mystery novel's romance over its actual mystery, but consider this: whereas the dynamics forged between Blomkvist and Salander will be present in both the author's subsequent novels, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo resolves Harriet Vanger's case.

Speaking of the rest of the series, if someone would have asked me two days ago if I would read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's two follow up novels – The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest, my response would have been no. Now, one day and 300 pages of excellent writing which regrettably was not found throughout the entire novel later, and my answer has changed.

Three out of Five Stars

The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell

Familiar with what a body farm is due to reading Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan novels, I expected the title location to play a larger role in Cornwell's book. For example, perhaps the killer was using a body farm to murder and then hide his or her victims' remains. Instead, though, the farm was used to merely simulate the days following eleven year old Emily Steiner's death, a young girl who was shot in the head, sexually molested, and had pieces of her skin excised to remove bite marks, recalling one of the most haunting suspects Kay Scarpetta had ever crossed paths with during her career. Believing Temple Gault to have struck again, she, Benton Wesley, and Detective Marino head south into the mountains of North Carolina only to face an even more chilling nightmare and personal danger from a very unlikely source.

Just like the title of the book is somewhat of a misnomer, readers who approach The Body Farm looking for the traditional Cornwell procedural mystery will be surprised by the actual contents of the book – surprised yet probably not disappointed. During previous cases, Kay has often become quite personally involved with both the victims and the suspects, and this is certainly the case in Cornwell's fifth offering in this series. However, there is also a far greater focus on Kay's personal life as well: on her contentious relationship with her sister, on her unraveling partnership with Marino, on the maternal role she plays in her niece, Lucy's, life, and, perhaps most unexpectedly of all, the novel sees Doctor Scarpetta enter into a new romantic relationship as well. All this personal development means two things: one, the series' heroine becomes even more complicated, more real for readers, and, two, she also becomes more flawed, and, for a writer, character flaws are gold mines of possibilities. Perhaps The Body Farm wasn't Cornwell's most intriguing mystery to date, but it did more to further the series than any of the previous novels combined.

Four out of Five Stars

Roswell High Book Two: The Wild One by Melinda Metz

Just as the first book in the series painted the lead alien, Max, as an outsider, Book Two also presented another extraterrestrial in a very familiar role: that of the rebel without a cause. Nikolas is new to Roswell. Mysterious, good-looking, and dangerous, Isabel is drawn to him, partly because of attraction and partly because he knows things he shouldn't. He's aware of her dreamwalking abilities, and he, too, holds their memories from their home planet. It turns out that Nikolas is also an alien, only he didn't stick around Roswell after he came out of his pod earlier than the other three. Now that he's back, though, he lives his life differently than Max, Michael, and Isabel. He views humans as a weaker life form – mere insects for him to squash. Nikolas does what he wants, whatever he wants, and he does not concern himself with the consequences. In classic high school fashion, Isabel quickly falls for Nikolas' bad-boy ways, giving in to his peer-pressure and alienating the rest of her friends and family.

Perhaps what Metz does best in her books is introduce her audience to science fiction in a way that readers can relate to. The characters, though they possess special powers, just seem like regular teenagers most of the time. Though there are auras, mental connections, and the aliens are able to manipulate molecules with their minds, the science is tempered by the emotions the characters feel and the relationships they share with one another. For a reader who has never tried science fiction before, The Roswell High Series would be an excellent place to start. Additionally, Metz also includes real consequences; by the time The Wild One concludes, it has become evident that the aliens, though an advanced species, are by no means indestructible. Plus, for good measure, Metz tosses a surprise revelation into the very last sentence of the book, a great way to intrigue readers into returning for the third piece in the series. Although the book could have benefited from more focus being placed upon its leads, Max and Liz, for a novel with less than 200 pages, quite a lot happened in this relatively short work.

3 out of 5 Stars

The Beach House by Jane Green



If a book could be a summer's day – slightly too long grass tickling skin as eyes gaze sleepily up at a cloudless sky, the soft smell of hydrangeas blooming nearby, then that book would be The Beach House. This isn't necessary a bad thing, but, just like with such a relaxing day, the novel lacks any real sense of urgency. As a once proud family matriarch struggles to retain possession of the one last thing which identifies her life: her Nantucket estate; as a newly-single mother realizes that, in becoming first a wife, then a mother, and then a divorcee, she lost herself; as a man torpedos his own life by having an affair with a woman he only realizes too late that he doesn't love; and as another man, after more than three decades, two children, and one wife, realizes he's gay, the story flows from one revelation to another, from moment to moment of growth and hard-earned wisdom but never once culminates into a climax. It's a deep sea but absolutely still, no waves. Green writes the story beautifully. The characters are real and sympathetic, compelling, and the story itself is character driven. It's even well-paced. Maybe its path is just too smooth, though – the angst too mellow, the romance not tempestuous enough so that, by the time the journey is over and the last page read, the entire effort just proves to be forgettable. If not read in a single sitting – perhaps during that previously mentioned summer's day, then The Beach House may just end up languishing half read, forgotten forever, never finished.

3 out of 5 Stars

It quickly becomes apparent while reading Evermore that the book is going to feature little originality. In fact, there are moments when one questions if they are reading something else, watching something else come to life on the page. After surviving a deadly accident which robbed her of her parents, her sister, even of the family dog, Ever suffers from and struggles with psychic abilities. She can read auras and know everyone else's thoughts... well, except for the mysterious, drop-dead gorgeous new kid's. Why is he different than everyone else, and why is Ever so drawn to him? This relationship is very much like the one created by Charlaine Harris in her Sookie Stackhouse novels... only Harris created a psychic whose powers are relieved by being in the presence of a mysterious, magical being long before Noel did. Then there's Ever's friend, Haven, who is quite reminiscent of the quirky, help-group addicted, emotionally needy, oddly dressed Marla Singer from Fight Club. Add to this a litany of classic teenage angst cliches: suffering a staggering loss, moving to a new school, making friends with the other resident outsiders, and Evermore feels like a dozen other books which preceded it all rolled up into one while, at the same time, lacking its own identity.

What's more, the book is poorly developed as well. Every single character is flat and predictable. The villains are bad, and the heroes are, even if misunderstood and slightly predisposed to acting out in typical, adolescent fashions, good. There is nothing gray about this novel... well, except for its mythology. Thoughts and concepts of this different world where immortality, Summerland, and the ability to manifest anything with the power of one's mind are all possible are tossed in at random without explanation... as though Noel needed something to explain earlier plot devices and elected to go with the first half-developed idea which occurred to her. As a result, the entire work seems poorly planned and even more poorly executed. This is the type of book which has the ability to give Young Adult fiction a bad reputation. I finished it simply so that I could be firm in my negative stance against it.

One out of Five Stars