Hide and Seek by Sara Shepard

So, I have a bit of an addiction for these books…And I think another one comes out soon, so I definitely needed to catch up and make sure I was ready for the new one. I think I decided I’m going to give it some time before I continue with Shepard’s other series: Pretty Little Liars, mostly because I love the show and the slight differences of the book compared to the show were kind of confusing for me, and by kind of, I mean a lot. These books on the other hand are so different from their show, The Lying Game, that it sort of feels like something completely different.

The previous book in the series ended with Emma clearing all her friends’ names in the involvement of the murder of her twin sister. (Quick recap: Emma is pretending to be Sutton, the wealthier and more popular twin who was recently murdered. Pretty much, Emma has to pretend to be Sutton or she will be killed too. And while it’s fun for a foster kid to suddenly have family, friends, money, a good school, etc. it’s also sometimes really hard to pretend to know how Sutton would always behave. Also, Emma is hoping to figure out who killed the sister she wished she knew she had earlier and dead Sutton is stuck following Emma around everywhere, unseen by everyone).

While her besties all have honest alibis, it turns out that Sutton’s sister, Laurel has a nice chunk of time unaccounted for on the night of Sutton’s murder. So between all the faked and strange conversations with Sutton’s visiting grandma, some crazy revelations about her father, weird things happening with the birth mom, a giant birthday party, and of course some lying game pranks, Emma is looking for serious evidence to pin on Laurel.

I feel like that with all the sneaking and lying involved in these books, Emma would be just a little better at well sneaking and lying…She always seems to get caught. There are also some new girls at school who pin a stupid prank on the lying game girls, and well revenge needs to happen. Plots of revenge that just happens to mix with a secret, forbidden party adds for some awesome drama!

There’s a bit of a love triangle forming. There’s adorable dates with Ethan (Emma’s new boyfriend) and a lot of confusing moments with Thayer (who doesn’t get why Sutton would just all of a sudden not be into him any more…poor guy can’t tell that Sutton is someone else). And Sutton (the dead twin) slowly keeps getting flashbacks of the night she was murdered, of course none of which show the killer.

Some family secrets are found out in this one, and I love secrets that are found out! Also, I loved the drama. These books are always sure to bring the ultimate amount of teen drama, and frankly, I expect nothing less from them. Also, I’m liking that Emma is becoming tougher. She is not the same nice, innocent girl from before, and while she sees this as loosing herself and becoming too much like Sutton, I see it as her starting to grow up and grow a back bone.

My one major problem with these books is the repetition. I’m getting a little tired of the same story happening over and over again with different suspects. Each books involves Emma suspecting someone new and digging for clues until she can prove that they are innocent. I’m sort of tired of her proving everyone innocent. And I’m definitely tired of Emma always jumping to conclusions. She moves on to the next suspect with never the slightest bit of doubt. Wouldn’t she have to learn to doubt by now? I want something new. New story arc, please! Or maybe I’d just like to see Emma putting that brain of hers to harder work, instead of just repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

I still read this really quickly. I will definitely be purchasing the next in the series. This isn’t because the books are so good, as so much as they are addicting and I just have to know things, like right now. I give it a 7/10.