Tag: Ella Monroe

Review: Secrets and Lies by Ella Monroe

Posted December 12, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: Secrets and Lies by Ella MonroeReviewer: Rowena
Secrets and Lies (Capital Girls, #2) by Ella Monroe
Series: Capital Girls #2
Publisher: Macmillan, St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: November 13th 2012
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 304
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Jealousy, rivalry, and dark secrets threaten to tear the girls apart in this sizzling follow-up to Capital Girls: Secrets and Lies by Ella Monroe

It's the start of senior year, and Excelsior Prep is on Code 3 lockdown. Secret Service agents swarm the halls searching for the First Son's girlfriend, Jackie Whitman. Outside a SWAT team hunts for the man who's been threatening the First Family for weeks. Only this time he's singled out Jackie, leaving a menacing message on the school's voicemail. Jackie's safe for now, but for the Capital Girls—three privileged kids who live in a political fishbowl in the nation's capital—every day is filled with tension and thrills. Though, even for them, a raid on the school by AK-47-toting marksmen is a standout.

And a stalker isn't Jackie's only problem. Still shattered by the shocking news that Andrew cheated on her with Taylor the night Taylor died, Jackie's whole world has fallen apart. Not only did the love of her life betray her, so did her best friend and idol. What made Taylor do it? Who was she really? On top of it all, Whiteny Remick is plotting to take Taylor's place, and Jackie will do anything to stop her.

First thing that I noticed about the cover of this book is that all of the girls look like they’re Latin brunettes but as I got into the story, I realized that Jackie (one of the main characters) is actually a blonde.  So where is she and who are those girls on the cover, I wonder?

Curious minds want to know, or not really.

Anyway, on with the review.  I went into this book, not really knowing what to expect.  I didn’t read the first book in this series and I didn’t know any of the characters so I spent a lot of the book, wondering what happened in the first book.  If you haven’t read the first book and are interested in reading this one, I’d suggest you check out the first book first.  Maybe then I would have warmed up to the main characters more or maybe I’d understand the way that they acted and all of the secrets that they kept.

There are, or were four Capital girls that hung out together.  Jackie, Laura Beth, Lettie and Taylor.  Apparently, Taylor died in the first book but before she died, she slept with Jackie’s boyfriend Andrew and Jackie, who has a lot of crap on her plate right now is dealing with that betrayal on top of a stalker threat and a girl that she hates is trying to break her way into Jackie’s friendship circle and Jackie wants none of that to happen.

So this book is part of a series and I shouldn’t be mad at the way that this book ended and I’m not but I hated the ending to this book.  I get that there’s another book and that book was baited in this book but I didn’t feel like anything was resolved.  Not one thing, it’s not like in a romance novel series where the issues of the book are resolved and new issues for the next book are introduced.  In this series, the issues from this book continue on into the next book and I just wasn’t a big fan of the way that this book ended.

I have loads of questions and I’m itching for answers but I didn’t feel like I got any in this book but even though I’m a little peeved about it, I will say that Monroe really did weave an interesting story about teenagers living in the midst of the American politics world and considering we just had our Presidential election, I found that whole world intriguing.  I thought that Monroe did a great job of sucking the reader into the story and making them want to know more about what’s going on and what really happened the night of Taylor’s death and even though I didn’t like the way that this story ended, I enjoyed the story overall.

I wanted more Scott.  I’m interested in finding out more about Daniel and Sol? Well, Sol didn’t really register with me.  He was more like background noise than anything.  Having to live your life in the spotlight, the way that these girls do isn’t easy and this book tells their story.  Monroe gives us a glimpse into the life of political teens and while it wasn’t the most perfect of books (Jackie got on my nerves, Laura Beth was hard to take at times and don’t even get me started on Whitney), it was still enjoyable and I did like it enough to check out the other books so while I do recommend this book, I must warn you guys that the characters aren’t perfect and sometimes, that’s okay.

…and that’s your scoop!

This book is available from St. Martin’s Griffin. This book was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Buy the book: B&N|Amazon|Book Depository
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com

three-stars


Tagged: , , , , , , ,