Release date: May 2014
Pages: 240
Publisher: Random House
Received for review: ARC from Random House
Overall Grade: A
From the back cover:
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends - the Liars - whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True Love.
The truth.
Cadence Sinclair Eastman is a member of the beautiful Sinclair family. In the Summer Cadence and her mother stay on the Sinclair's private island off the coast of Massachusetts. Other members of the Sinclair family spend their Summers there as well, including The Liars. The Liars, being Cadence, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. They are all close to the same age and all have birthdays in the Fall. The majority of the time they have spent on the island they have been in trouble.
The story begins during Summer Fifteen when the Liars are 15-years-old. Near the end of the Summer there is an accident. When Cadence returns to the island during Summer Eighteen things are different, not only because of her constant migraines. The Liars are acting differently and it seems as if everyone isn't telling the truth to Cadence about the accident. Soon her whole Summer is spent focusing on what actually happened during Summer Fifteen and she won't stop until she finds out the truth.
First, just let me say WOW. I couldn't believe the ending of this book. Now, I should have expected something outrageous since I've read reviews before reading it myself but nothing could have prepared me for that ending. For those of you who are avid E. Lockhart readers this book is more dark than her others, so be prepared for that. I must say I cried repeatedly. It takes a lot for me to cry during a book so that is saying something right there, isn't it? For the first few chapters I was confused as to what was happening since the book skips to stories from different Summers and then takes you back to the present. But it kept the story moving at a quick pace and kept me wanting more! Overall I gave this book an "A" since it was simply great. The writing was excellent as I had expected it to be since it was by E. Lockhart and I love her writing. The story flowed at a great pace and the characters were all great as well. One little part that I loved was how the Sinclair family had many Golden Retrievers. I am a sucker for those dogs :). I highly recommend picking up a copy of this when it is released in May, you will not be disappointed!
