Pretty Little Secrets by Sara Shepard

It's that time! A new review for the most recent Pretty Little Liars book by Sara Shepard

Pretty Little Liars: Pretty Little Secrets
Author-Sara Shepard
Published- January 3rd, 2012
HarperCollins
450 pages
Purchased on my own

An exciting addition to Sara Shepard’s #1 bestselling Pretty Little Liars series, Pretty Little Secrets is a collection of four all-new Pretty Little Liars novellas contained in one fabulous book. Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer have been hiding these scandalous stories since winter break of their junior year.


Rewind to a winter break no one has ever heard about. Alison’s supposed murderer is in jail—but the Liars just can’t stay out of trouble. 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. Poor, naughty, little liars. They should have known to be nice—because A is always watching. ---Goodreads

First off let me say that if you have yet to read this series I highly recommend it to all! Because this is the eleventh book in the series THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! Just warning you!

I will say this series is getting a bit tired. I can see the writing starting to fade a bit as the plot is repeating itself. I think it is about time to wrap up the series. I will continue to read the books, but they definitely don't hold my interest like the first few did.

So, the book is separated into four sections by each girl and their escapades during Winter Break. I will start with Hanna's novella first as she was the first story in the book.

The book starts off as Hanna is adjusting to living with her new "family." Her step mom Isabel and her daughter Kate take up residence in Hanna's mother's house while she is in Singapore for work. I will say this was my least favorite character to follow in this book. I thought her view was a bit pointless and overused. I thought her love interest was a major jerk and I did not connect to him at all. To say the least, she visits the gym, meets a boy/ trainer who convinces her to join his boot camp. Little does she know she will be battling it out with another girl in the boot camp for his love interest. By the way, I took this other girl to be a major whore (no offense to her or anything, but man was she just repulsive) Personally, this left me feeling a bit blah. I didn't really feel like picking the book back up again after her segment, but I did anyway. If it were me, I would have flip flopped another girl to the front of the book to catch the reader's interest right off the bat. That's just me.

Next up is Emily. While her story is a bit better, it still isn't as great as I was hoping for. Emily's segment starts off with her family gearing up for the holidays. Her mother is distraught when one of her antique yard decorations is stolen from the church. The director of the church suspects a group of four girls, called the "Merry Elves", stole the baby Jesus. Emily's mother convinces her to get a job as Santa at the the mall where the four girls are working as the elves. The rest of the story follows her trying to break into their group and get them to confess about the crimes they committed. I thought the beginning and middle were just OK, but I really loved the ending. I guess it just left me with a happy feeling, and I wanted to continue reading. Emily really dug into the minds of the other girls and I loved hearing their take on things.

The third girl chronicled in this book is Aria. Now I must admit, Aria is my favorite character in both the books and TV show! The story starts off with Aria on the way to the Poconos Mountains, the same mountains that months earlier real Ali tried to kill them in. I found this way creepy and I was very surprised that Aria didn't really act all that disturbed. Anyway, she is with her dad, Byron, and brother, Mike, on the way to a ski lodge to celebrate the Winter Solstice as their kooky family always does. When they arrive, Byron drops the bomb that his pregnant love interest Meredith will be spending their vacation with them. Apparently this rubbed Aria the wrong way and she left to go back home to Rosewood. Upon arrival she finds her Icelandic boyfriend Halbjorn at the door. Personally, I loved this segment of the book. I thought it was fast paced and kept me guessing. Once you read the story you will feel like a bomb was dropped on you. I did! Some of the things the author threw in fantastic. I'm not going to mention them as I don't want to spoil the entire book, but WOW! Definitely my favorite of the four parts of the book.

The final liar followed in the book is Spencer. Her story starts off with her on a plane to her Nana's house in Longboat Key, Florida. Her family is in a midst of turmoil as always and she is happy to just get away. Little does she know their is some major drama ahead. She meets a potential love interest/ tennis star and falls head over heels. That is until someone close to her steals him right out from under her nose! I loved how this story had one of my favorite things, a love triangle! I definitely enjoyed Spencer's telling of the story and it was definitely not boring. The ending completely threw me for a loop! Man, I did not expect that in the least! I hate to tease you with the details, but go buy this book!

Overall, Pretty Little Secrets was a great addition to the ever growing series. I look forward to her next book, Stunning, which is set to be released on June 1st.

I will be giving this book four stars-



-McKenna :)