Book Review: The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Title: The Lying Game (Lying Game #1)
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: 12/07/2010
ISBN: 0061869708







Having read & loved Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series, when I got the chance to review her newest series I was over the moon. As soon as I received this book in the mail I ran off to read it & finished it in one night. It was that addicting of a read.

Emma's always bounced around from foster home to foster home, never finding a great place to live & often living with people who either held her at arm's length or tried to take more liberties with her than they should. When a mysterious & violent video shows a person that's identical to her, Emma researches it to discover that there's someone out there with her face. A sister she's never known, Sutton Mercer, invites her to visit with her, only for Emma to discover that there's more going on than she ever could have guessed. Sutton is dead & someone is intent on making Emma pretend to be her. As Emma uses her skills to investigate Sutton's murder, she begins to realize that she can't trust anyone in Sutton's seemingly perfect life & that everyone's a suspect. Little does Emma know that her sister Sutton is watching over her, equally in the dark about who killed her & hoping that Emma will bring her killer to justice.

I'll just say this: if you loved PLL, you'll love this book. It's got more of the same things that made the other series so fun to read: mean girls, dirty little secrets, rivalries, & of course- a hard to solve murder. Readers will love the character of Emma, being able to commiserate with her as she goes from elation at having a sister to horror as she begins to feel the threat hanging over her head.

I didn't really have any complaints over this novel- it was slickly written & trust me, you'll be addicted to this book just as much as you would PLL. I was initially a bit worried that the idea of a complete stranger slipping into someone's life (that she doesn't know) would be a bit hard to believe, but Shepard addresses this in a believable way.

This book is going to be one of the must reads of December & with the second book coming out in July, you won't have to worry about going too long without your next fix.

(Review copy provided by amazon vine)