Pretty Little Secrets by Sara Shepard

Pretty Little Secrets by Sara Shepard
Released: January 3, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Pretty Little Liars Companion Novel, Book 4.5
Page Amount: 450, US Hardback
POV: 3rd Person
Buy it here: Barnes & Noble•Amazon
OVERALL:
Plot-14/20
Characters-13/20
Creativity-10/20
Writing-15/20
Pace-4/10
Ending-6/10
=62/100 D
★★/5





SUMMARY:
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 . .Goodreads.com


REViEW:
When it takes you 3 months to get through a book you know there's a problem. I don't know why, but I sadly had some sliver of hope for this book. I'm still an avid Pretty Little Liar reader, but I think I will steer clear from any more prequels. The problem with this book is how irrelevant and unnecessary it is to the series. This book takes place after book 4. How many books are there now? 11. So why would anyone care about book 4? This book contributed nothing, just took away hours of my life and bored me to tears with stupidity. Hanna's story was decent. It was half-entertaining, but the others! Ph my gosh, every possible cliche and stupid thing Shepard could come up with was in this book.

Typically Aria or Emily is my favorite liar. Not in this book. Hanna's tale was definitely my favorite because it was actually realistic. It made sense because of Hanna's self image issues. On the other hand, the other liars' stories didn't even fit with their characters. Sweet and innocent Emily being a spy for her typically protective mother? Illogical and had such a ridiculous plot for why Emily had to "spy." Smart, independent Aria getting married? Yeah no, it was so stupid. And UPenn bound Spencer chasing after the same boy as her sister again? Already done. That was the last straw. I couldn't handle 500+ pages of sheer ridiculousness.

The best part of the ending was that the book was finally over. It really wasn't a resolution ending because of how the book was divided into 4 individual stories. They did not even intertwine so the ending had no true conclusion to it. Overall this book could have been 100 times better if it was published right after the 4th book instead of 7 books later.


My Favorite Part: The only story I almost liked, Hanna's.

ALL iN ALL:
Do I recommend this book? It's really not necessary to read even if your a big Pretty Little Liar fan.

Thanks for reading!

It's a Book Thing
Review by Macy ♥