Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars, Book 1)

Often described as a mix between I Know What You Did Last Summer and Desperate Housewives, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS by Sara Shepard promised to be an exciting and suspenseful read. Sure enough, it met and exceeded all of my expectations. The first thing that I will say about this book is that I was

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really expecting something a little more superficial and juvenile. I had never read anything by Ms. Shepard before, so I didn't know what to expect. What I received was a book that would be great for any teen and most adults I know. Ms. Shepard's writing is far from juvenile and made for a story that had me hooked from the first few lines. Allison, Emily, Hanna, Aria, and Spencer are best friends. Okay, maybe they're really good friends. Well, wait. What definition of friends are we using here? Allison is wildly popular and completely gorgeous, so it's no surprise when Emily, Hanna, Aria, and Spencer practically fall over themselves trying to be her friends. Although Allison can be mean at times, she's their friend, right? Sure, she may not a few dirty secrets about them, but she'd never tell. Friends are in it until the end. All bets are off, however, when Allison goes missing. First torn apart by their grief and the awkward rebuilding of their personalities that follows Allison's disappearance, the girls later discover something deeper within themselves; an almost pleasant acceptance of Allison's disappearance. At least now, each of their dirty little secrets is back to being safely hidden.Sounds good right? Girl goes missing and eventually her friends get on with their lives. Well, if this were the end of the story, the book would be about seven pages long. No, Ms. Shepard isn't going to let you off that easily. Tossed into the chaos right from the beginning of the book, the girls each separately start to receive mysterious text messages signed by "A". As they attempt to figure out who "A" is, the messages get more and more disturbing, some hinting at secrets that only the missing Allison knew.Cue the suspenseful music!So really though, if I could have had a suspense soundtrack playing while I read this book, I'm fairly certain that I would have jumped out of my seat in shock a few times. This was a beautifully crafted book with a well thought out plot line that easily hooks readers and then draws them in. The complexity of the story was what really made this a great read and I can't imagine the amount of time and planning that went into crafting the various plot twists and turns that pop up throughout the pages. Think you know something about someone? I can pretty much guarantee that by the next page you'll be proven wrong. When everyone is suspect, who can you trust? Ms. Shepard answers that one for us - nobody.One part of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS that may trip a few people up are the varying points of view throughout the story. Each chapter is really told from a different girl's point of view although they all aren't necessarily labeled by girl. Still, I found it fairly easy to figure out who's chapter we were in and didn't really notice too much of a disconnect between the four stories when reading. Ms. Shepard does an amazing job with her consistency; although each girl's chapter takes place in different places and settings, they tie together well and occasionally we even see just a little bit of overlap. The last part of the book that I briefly need to discuss is the character development. In a book like this, especially for the first in a series, character development is vital to a successful story. Ms. Shepard did this wonderfully. My proof is in the way that the characters, Spencer especially, still roam through my mind, picking at my brain when I have little else to do.I highly recommend PRETTY LITTLE LIARS to any fans of drama or YA fiction out there. Looking for a good thriller? I would definitely point to this book. Although filled with topics that young adults can relate to, I don't see much here that would turn an adult off from the book. Indeed, I think adults too will very much appreciate the adrenaline rush this book provides.

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This book had no plot resolution. Why, oh why, did I just waste my time reading a book that was merely setting me up to read the next (several) book(s)?! Aaaargh. I understand series (I read fantasy, after all) but there's usually some reason that a book ends where it does; some sort of resolution,

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some sort of time constraint (e.g. freshman year), SOMETHING. This had nothing. I was left extremely dissapointed (can you tell?).

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Imagine you are BFF with the most popular girl in school. Everyone else wants to be you. Of course you love the power you have that so many people are envious of you, but secretly you truly wonder if being her BFF is a blessing or a curse. Now imagine it's the start of the summer between seventh

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and eighth grade and you and your BFF are celebrating by having your annual summer sleepover. Things don't go quite as planned and the two of you end up fighting and she walks out of your house. The very next morning you hear from her mom and you just know something terrible has happened. Suddenly days turn into weeks and before you know it the summer has ended, school has started and still no word from your BFF. She just simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Although you do not wish her any harm, you have to admit, there's a part of you that's relieved that she's gone. You start to feel freer and less burdened because all the secrets she knows about you, have vanished along with her. Horrible to think, some might say, but if they knew what she knew about you, they might feel exactly the same.

This is how it is for Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily. Alison, Ali, disappears during their slumber party. After her disappearance, the four friends gradually drift apart until no one can even recall they were once friends. It's now three years later and the teens are about to start their junior year. Spencer is very anal, in competition with her older sister about everything (and a certain someone); Hanna is now the new "it" girl, but carries a terrible secret about her drastic makeover; Aria is back from Iceland with her family and has a crush on a new boy, unfortunately she just found out he's her new English teacher; and Emily is the all-american good girl doing what she can to please her parents, that is until she meets Maya...

All four have secrets, secrets that they want to stay buried. Secrets that only one other person knows about: Ali. During the first week of school, each start to receive texts about their secrets, threatening to expose them. Each text is simply signed "A" and naturally the girls think Ali is back. But is she? Not only does "A" haunt them with their past, "A" knows what they are hiding now. It's as though each girl is being watched.

I really enjoyed this first book of the series and devoured it in one sitting. It's fast-paced, with short chapters and you just want to keep reading to learn more about what each girl is hiding. The story goes back and forth between past and present, but it's not confusing at all. After each girl receives a text, the author will go back to the past to explain its relevancy. Actually, I thought it added to the suspense.

Although this is a young adult novel, I have reservations about preteens reading it. There are mature themes discussed in the book and if younger children read it, I suggest the parents read it as well and have a conversation about these topics.

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It was really good. The characters really popped out. It seemed realistic. I didn’t want to put the book down. AHS/LV

Summary: It's the summer of seventh grade when, back-stabbing/queen bee/best friend/popular, Allison goes missing. She disappears without a trace and that's when the friends split up. Spencer, Emily, Heather, and go seperate ways, and they hit high school. When a certain "A" begans to haunt them,

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suspicion arises in the group. Who's watching them? And even worse, why do they know all their secrets? It couldn't be Allison.....she's been dead for years! It could never be her right! Right.....right?
Review: A really good book I NEED to read the second one!!

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5 girls used to be friends, but one went missing and the rest of them drifted apart. 3 years have gone by, and the 4 are now receiving notes from someone who knows all the secrets their missing friend knew. Secrets they don't want known....
Parts of the book were good, and they really left it

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hanging at the end. A lot is predictable, but then Shepard throws in some twists you aren't expecting, and I do kind of want to read the sequel.

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This book was a really great book because it talks about girl problems. This book talks about 4 girls and their life. All of the girls had very unique problems. I thought it was a wonderful book. Mysterious and sad at the same time.

This is a YA book which I picked up because of the positive review I read somewhere. Initially it was teenage chick-lit overdose for me but the infusion of mystery and murder kept me reading. And the cliff-hanging ending is tempting me to pick up the second title in this four-part series. I'm

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intrigued to find out who is A and how she knows all their dirty little secrets. If you love Gossip Girl you will love this!

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This book was an easy read that reminded me alot of the "Cliques" series. Everyone has secrets they don't want shared with the largest of all being a missing student mystery. The strengths of this story would have to be the plot and characters. Both were outlined in the beginning of the book making

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it easy to follow. The weakness of this book, to me, would have to be the settings and the similarity to the "Clique" series. The settings jump alot making it a little hard to keep up with and as I said this , to me, seemed very similar to another book I have read.

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This book really kept me turning the pages. It was so interesting, especially when they started receiving the messages with information that only they had shared with Alison. It certainly did give off an air of paranoia and it was a bit on the creepy side. I also liked how one secret led to

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another, and to another to the point where everything is layered with secrecy. The girls do share one big one though called "The Jenna Thing" which is not really wholly explained, but from the small bits of information you get, it does seem like a real big ugly one.

Of all the girls in the book, I would say I like Hanna the most. At times I really do feel sorry for her as I don't think she really knows who she really is yet and I sympathize with her. I do feel sorry for Spencer as well, although she did ask for it and brought it on herself. However it's her family I really dislike since they do treat Spencer like dirt. The characters in the book aren't really that deep or well rounded, but then again this book is meant to be a light fast read and really all you want is to get to the bottom of the plot, not worry about character development.

The plot is well done and very fast, it kept you going and kept you turning the pages until the very end, and even then it leaves off at a cliffhanger ending that makes you want to ask for more. The only thing I would have to dislike though, is the designer label name dropping that happens. It didn't occur much in the beginning but it started to become a more common thing through the end. That bugs me. It bugged me the most when for the second time in my life a bloody thong was labelled (and it's the same brand name too!) I wonder if both authors know each other and share tips on which kind of designer labels to add to their novels? hmm. I'm really hoping it's not going to be an issue in the second book because as in the Blood Blood series, I dropped reading them because of the excessive designer label description (that's one of the reasons why I dropped the series). I'm praying it won't happen for this series. I really do have high hopes for this one, as it grabbed my attention, I loved it for the mystery and the creepiness and I really want to know about The Jenna Thing.

Overall, designer labelling aside, it was a great page turner and I recommend this book for those that want an interesting YA read that can be finished in a day.

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Reviewed by Patricia (Class of 2012)
Four Girls-Ali, Spencer, Emily, Aria, and Hanna have shared a horrible secret since sixth grade-a secret that they thought was safe forever. Then the girls start receiving threatening messages signed by someone named "A" after Ali disappears at Spencer's

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sleepover. "A" knows everything there is to know about these girls-Emily's secret lesbian crushed on Ali, Spencer's family's dirty secrets, Aria kissing her mom's new boyfriend and knowing about her dad cheating with his college student, Hanna's weight loss secret, etc. Now their secrets-the big ones, the little ones, and even the long buried ones-no longer seemed so secretive. Suddenly, no one is safe in Rosewood.
I never like mysteries about stuck-up rich girls, but every book I read in the series (Pretty Little Liars, Flawless, Perfect, Unbelievable, Wicked, Killer, and Heartless) have all kept me on my toes. (found at Daniel Boone Library).

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Okay, I'm hooked. I started watching the TV show when it first came out, and likes it well enough. So I decided to see how the book series would compare.

This book follows a former group of friends three years after their leader, Alison, went missing. Now they are getting mysterious text messages

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from a person known only as "A". "A" knows secrets only Alison knew and trust me, these girls have plenty of them. Despite being only 16, these girls have more skeletons in their than the cast of "Desperate Housewives". The girls have to comfront secrets from their past while dealing with their issues of the present.

I liked this book perhaps more than I'm willing to admit. Its a guilty pleasure read for sure. The girls are each different and have their own personalities. Aria is the "free spirit" who holds the secret of her dads affair, while trying to hide a tryst of her own. Emily is the chaste jock who is questioning her sexuality and overall personality. Hanna is the new queen bee desperate to stay ahead. And Spencer is the competive over-achiever who is fruitlessly trying to please her parents.
I liked all of the girls, despite their faults. But I did remain unattached from them through out the book. The plot is full of twists and turns and I have absolutely no idea what will happen next.

I'm not sure whether or not I like the TV show or book series more. While they obviously have similarities, they have their fair share of differences, and I think they might be going in different directions. So as of now, I like them both.

Next installment please!

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If you haven't read the book and saw a promo for the new TV show that will air on June 8th 8/7c at ABC and caught yourself thinking... "Is this some type of a Gossip Girl wanna be?" I'm telling you right now. It's not. At this point it is really hard to say which show is more scandalous. Here are

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some Promo photos and promo videos shared by Meg Roberts of New Media Strategies.

Pretty Little Liar starts with five friends.. The "It" girls of Rosewood Day. A private school in Pennsylvania. Four girls bonded by their leader. Allison.After the "Jenna thing."

Everybody seems to love and worship Allison, even though her personality is a bit rotten. She sounded great. Pretty, fun to be with, full of life but she is also one manipulative biatch! Ger clique harbors a lot of personal secret that only she knew and promise not to tell, until she disappeared...

It has a Sorority Row and Gossip Girl feel to me. Pretty girl suddenly disappears, the rich and the bratty, and scandalous secrets. I think I like it a lot. Each girls have their own charming secret.

Spencer Hastings is extremely competitive, no matter what she do, she's always been second best at everything. And have this unfortunate attraction to her sister's boyfriends / ex-boyfriends.

Emily Fields, swim champ and the most demure of them all but is seems like she might be a lesbian. In a suburban town which her parents might also be a racist, not good.

Aria Montgometry struggled to fit in and like normal Rosewood boys, after being a resident of Iceland, European culture has changed "Identity crisis Aria" into "Icelandic Aria", bold, fearless and seductive. It shouldn't be a problem when she met this guy named Ezra at a pub and made out with him but the shock of finding out that he is her English teacher, not as cool.

Hanna Marin. She was the chubby girl of the group until three years later. She transformed herself as this popular and perfect girl in her high school. But that does not come without a price. Along with her fabulous physique is an eating disorder, and occasional shop lifting at high end clothing and jewelry shops.

I like it for the most part. I kept an excited face in the prospect of reading about "Jenna thing", only to be disappointed that it is not all there. Only vague references that it is something really big. And Who the hell is the "A" person that keeps sending them text messages, IMs or e-mails about their most guarded secret. I'm pretty sure it is not Allison because of the last chapters of this book. So who is it then? Ahh the suspense!!

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I thought the very beginning where it showed them as middle schoolers was really dull, and it almost made me put the book down. As soon as it went to them being in high school things picked up and it was actually pretty good. It kept me reading and interested. The only thing that really bothered me

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was that it was hard for me to always remember which girl was which. Other than Aria, their names were a little boring and forgettable, so it was hard to remember who was who.

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really, really, good, but you have to like drama and creppyness!!

I really enjoyed this book and can not wait to read the others in the series. I would have to say that I related a little to all of the girls in this book. Even Alison who disappears. All of the girls are best friends until Alison vanishes and they drift apart from each other. I related to this-not

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in the whole friend missing part-but with being in school and putting up with all of the drama and not talking to a certain friend for a while or getting a whole new clique and starting over.
Spencer was the girl who always seemed to get the attention of her sisters boyfriends, and they wanted her too. I can related to Spencer, Not that I had an older sister, or any sister at all, but of being young and seeing all of the older hot guys.
Aria is the girl who has the "thing" with her English teacher. I really enjoyed her part of the story. I had a huge crush on the boys gym teacher at my school. I thought he was, and still is sexy! :)
Emily had the crush on the new girl at school. I can't related to this part of the story, but I know how it was being confused and not sure on what to do.
With Hanna I can truly relate to her. She is the bigger girl in school who goes to drastic measures to lose weight. But I do know what it was like being a little bigger than some girls in my school and not feeling as pretty as I should have. I still feel this way sometimes, and I am sure other's can relate to this.
I even related to Alison, the friend who likes to be in control and order others around. My fiance would probably say I am still like that. :)
I really liked this book, I finished it in a day. I found myself feeling sorry for some of the girls and just in shock of some of the others.
The next book in the series is called Flawless. Their was a little bit of the first chapter in the back of the Pretty Little Liars book and book two goes back in time. To the time of the whole Jenna thing, and to the time before Alison went missing. I was really looking forward to how Aria's relationship with her teacher goes from this book and how Spencer's goes with her sister's ex. I am thinking book two may be slow, but it might surprise me!

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Five best friends until the night that Ali disappears. Then the other four go their separate ways.

Two years later, a new family moves into Ali's house. When a tennis court is being dug up, there is Ali -- at least, her bones.

But who is sending notes to Hanna, Emily, Aria and Spencer and signing

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them with an A? And how does A know all their dirty little secrets?

A real mystery and very popular but. . . the crime is not solved in the first book (nor the second) and probably not for a while yet, as the series continues.

Can it be part of the list? I think so

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Ali has been missing for over three years now. One night, in the midst of a sleepover with her five best friends, Emily, Hanna, Spencer and Aria, Ali steps outside, and doesn’t come back. That’s when the girls fell apart. Now, that they are in high school, and they are all back in the same

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classrooms, strange stuff starts happening.

All four girls start getting text messages, IMs, emails and notes with secrets that each girl only told one person… Ali.

Spencer’s secret has to do with one of her sister’s ex-boyfriends. Aria’s secret is about her dad. Emily’s secret deals directly with Ali. And Hanna’s secret has to do with her transformation from a “little piggy” to one of the school’s hottest.

So these secrets, which the girl’s thought went to the grave with Ali, are obviously not in the grave. Someone knows about them and they are threatening to make them public knowledge.

I have had my eyes on this series for quite a while, but now that the TV series is starting in T-2.5 hours, I knew I had to read it before I watched it. I watched Gossip Girl before I read it. I didn’t like it. I felt like the first book and the first episode were verbatim, and I didn’t like reading it after I’ve already seen it. I’m a read then watch kind of girl. With that said,

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I started it around 1am on Monday and finished shortly before midnight, yes, less than 24 hours later. Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. The book kept me reading and guessing, and 100+ pages into the second book, Flawless, I still have no idea who “A” is, writing all of these secret notes. And let me tell you, it infuriates me! LOL

I have formed bonds with all of the characters, for different reasons. I understand the lives of Emily and Spencer because they are sports nuts, and Spencer is a brain ( I was smart, but not a brain). I connect with Hanna because we both have divorced parents. And Aria, well, she just sounds awesome. She finally found herself. And I feel for all of them. I know what it’s like to keep secrets. It’s hard, you feel guilty, but you are scared to let people in on it.

As much as I would like to keep going on this rave, I have to log off immediately, I want to get through more of Flawless before the show comes on Yes friends, I’m addicted to this series and I’m only through one whole book! The show comes on at 8EST on ABCFamily!

I give Pretty Little Liars 5 bookmarks! I’ll have a review on the series premiere after I watch!

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I think my favorite thing about Pretty Little Liars is how real these girls are to me. I can relate a little bit to each girl, as they are all going through issues, that I can remember dealing with myself as a teen.
I am surprised by how much I enjoyed this first book in the series. I was sure it

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would be juvenile and lame, but I was totally wrong. I cannot wait to start the next book!
Murder, mayhem and mystery surround the girls, and I am lovin them, and their secrets. The most intriguing secret is who the hell is "A"? Is it Alison, communicating from the grave? Is ig someone who means them harm? I can't wait to find out!
Overall, I loved the book. It is exciting, interesting and leaves the reader wanting more. I recommened this book to anyone who loves a good mystery

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I admit it - I watched a few episodes of the TV show, and my curiosity was piqued. I was interested to see how author Sara Shepard depicted these characters in her novels, where there is greater ability to get inside their heads, etc.

I was interested enough to read the entire book, but I'm not

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really interested in what happens next. The book ends on a cliffhanger, the characters are interesting -- but the actresses portraying the characters on TV make them MORE interesting.

I'm not fond of Shepard's writing style. I think the issue is that I find a lot of the ideas interesting, but I just don't feel like the writing is quite what it could be. Shepard writes about important issues that affect a lot of teens in a sympathetic, understanding way. At times, however, I just felt like the book had not been adequately revised.

Don't read it expecting a masterpiece. Like the characters it deals with, this book has many flaws.

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I decided to read this because of the new show on ABC Family, 'Pretty Little Liars.' I was definitely pleased with both the book and the show. There are quite a few differences between the two, but that is expected. I love the characters, especially Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna. They are the four

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main characters. I also love the secrets they all have. Overall, it was a really good read.

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Four friends (Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily) live in fear of their other friend/group leader, Alison. After she goes missing, they all drift apart--except three years later, they start getting weird text messages taunting them about secrets that nobody knows about...except for Alison, who is still

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missing.

This is going to be a TV series, and I'll definitely be giving it a try because it's got a good premise.

But...I really didn't enjoy this book very much. It ended on a cliffhanger and I still don't want to keep reading.

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I love this series. It's just like watching your favorite high school drama on the television, but better. This group of girls were just aweful to everyone - until their best friend, Alison, went missing. With Alison gone, the girls slowly stopped talking to each other, and tried to not be so nasty

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to everyone. But the past comes back to haunt each and every one of the girls, and each has her own dark secret to hide from the others. Just like watching a really good and aweful high school drama.....I can not stop myself from reading the rest.

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Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna were best friends in middle school until another friend, Ali, disappeared. Now they're stating their junior year of high school and they've grown apart. They all have secrets, some of their own and some from when they were all friends. Suddenly they start receiving

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mysterious texts from someone who signs their name "A". Is it Ali or someone playing a cruel joke? And who else besides Ali would know all their secrets?

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