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Pretty Little Secrets (2012)

by Sara Shepard(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0062125915 (ISBN13: 9780062125910)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

HarperTeen

review 1: Set between Unbelievable and Wicked, the book is told from the point of view of the second "A", Alison DiLaurentis, as she spies on the girls during their Christmas vacation. The novel is divided into a series of four short stories, with each one focusing on the exploits of a specific girl.Spencer: Spencer and her family go to Nana Hastings mansion in Florida, and Spencer falls in love with a tennis player named Colin at the country club. Melissa seems to be helping Spencer win Colin's heart, but Colin ends up taking an interest in Melissa. During the trip, Spencer and her mother also run into Mrs DiLaurentis several times, and Spencer is confused by her mother's strange behavior around Mrs DiLaurentis. Spencer also decides to fight for Colin. After Colin dumps Melissa to ... morego out with her, Spencer discovers he actually has a wife and child, and he is 33 years old. Spencer and Melissa decide to team up to get revenge on Colin by putting crushed Viagra in his Aminospa vitamin water right before his important tennis game. In the end, they all have a fun vacation, but Spencer worries that someone has been following her. Melissa and Spencer seem to briefly make up in this, hence the sisters' wary friendship in Wicked.Emily: Emily is asked to go undercover as Santa Claus at the new mall, in order to catch 4 girls who work as elves there, who are suspected of vandalizing Christmas decorations around town, including Emily's mom's baby Jesus ceramic figure. The 4 girls, who call themselves the "Merry Elves", take a liking to Emily, and it is revealed that one of the girls, Cassie, was close with Alison. Emily accompanies the girls on their biggest prank yet, but Emily's mom uses her phone to track her, and the Merry Elves get caught. Eventually, the elves forgive Emily after she bails them out of jail. In the end, everyone realizes the true meaning of Christmas, but Emily can't shake off the weird feeling that someone is following her. It is revealed that A is blonde (she will later be revealed as Alison) as Emily sees a blonde figure run off.Hanna: Hanna joins a boot camp after thinking she gained too much weight at a holiday party. She develops feelings for the instructor, Vince. She also develops a rival, Dinah, another girl who also likes Vince. After competing for Vince's affection, she and Dinah become friends after catching Kate making out with the mall's new Santa (prior to Emily), something which Hanna also photographs. After agreeing to stop chasing Vince, she celebrates by going out for drinks with Dinah, where Dinah admits she knew Alison. Hanna goes home drunk, causing her to oversleep. As she arrives at boot camp, she discovers Vince and Dinah kissing, revealing that Dinah only pretended to be friends with Hanna to have Hanna let down her guard. Hanna flees the scene, devastated, and is confronted by Kate, who, after receiving a tip-off, followed Hanna around, taking unflattering photos of her at boot camp, which she threatens to put on Facebook. Hanna counterattacks by showing Kate the pictures of her and Santa, causing Kate to back off. Hanna also improves her relationship with her father, who gives Hanna her grandmother's Cartier locket for Christmas. Hanna has a happy Christmas, despite the fact that she thinks someone other than Kate has been watching her every move. Some of what Dinah said may be true such as she knew Alison. But it is likely she made most of it up to get Hanna's trust.Aria: Aria goes with her father and Mike to Bear Claw Resort, but leaves to go back home after finding out that Byron invited Meredith along as well. Upon arriving at home, she is surprised by her boyfriend from Iceland, Halbjorn. Halbjorn tells her that he's running from the Icelandic police who are after him because he protested against the demolition of a puffin sanctuary. Unfortunately, his travel visa only lasts for a week. Aria proposes the idea of marrying him, and the two head off to Atlantic City to get married. At the hotel, they attend a magic show involving two panthers, which angers Halbjorn, who cares a lot about the environment. After getting married the following day, which requires Aria to forge her mother's signature and lie about her age, they go to the place where the panthers are kept. After convincing Halbjorn not to release the panthers, they go back to the hotel. The next morning, Aria wakes up to find Halbjorn gone and his clothes missing as well. On the lobby's TV, Aria sees that Halbjorn released the panthers after all. Aria goes to the courthouse and confesses to forging Ella's signature, making the marriage null and void. Upon returning to Rosewood, she is joined by Mike and Byron, who know nothing about her marriage. As they watch TV, it shows that Halbjorn has been caught, and it also shows that he has done these things in the past, including trying to blow up a demolition office. Aria is satisfied with breaking up with him, but is paranoid about someone following her. In Wicked it is briefly stated that Aria and Meredith did converse about the baby.The book ends with a sign-off from the new "A," (as always) who says that the Liars' lives are going to get a lot worse. All of which comes true...
review 2: Set between Unbelievable and Wicked, the book is told from the point of view of the second "A", Alison DiLaurentis, as she spies on the girls during their Christmas vacation. The novel is divided into a series of four short stories, with each one focusing on the exploits of a specific girl.Spencer: Spencer and her family go to Nana Hastings mansion in Florida, and Spencer falls in love with a tennis player named Colin at the country club. Melissa seems to be helping Spencer win Colin's heart, but Colin ends up taking an interest in Melissa. During the trip, Spencer and her mother also run into Mrs DiLaurentis several times, and Spencer is confused by her mother's strange behavior around Mrs DiLaurentis. Spencer also decides to fight for Colin. After Colin dumps Melissa to go out with her, Spencer discovers he actually has a wife and child, and he is 33 years old. Spencer and Melissa decide to team up to get revenge on Colin by putting crushed Viagra in his Aminospa vitamin water right before his important tennis game. In the end, they all have a fun vacation, but Spencer worries that someone has been following her. Melissa and Spencer seem to briefly make up in this, hence the sisters' wary friendship in Wicked.Emily: Emily is asked to go undercover as Santa Claus at the new mall, in order to catch 4 girls who work as elves there, who are suspected of vandalizing Christmas decorations around town, including Emily's mom's baby Jesus ceramic figure. The 4 girls, who call themselves the "Merry Elves", take a liking to Emily, and it is revealed that one of the girls, Cassie, was close with Alison. Emily accompanies the girls on their biggest prank yet, but Emily's mom uses her phone to track her, and the Merry Elves get caught. Eventually, the elves forgive Emily after she bails them out of jail. In the end, everyone realizes the true meaning of Christmas, but Emily can't shake off the weird feeling that someone is following her. It is revealed that A is blonde (she will later be revealed as Alison) as Emily sees a blonde figure run off.Hanna: Hanna joins a boot camp after thinking she gained too much weight at a holiday party. She develops feelings for the instructor, Vince. She also develops a rival, Dinah, another girl who also likes Vince. After competing for Vince's affection, she and Dinah become friends after catching Kate making out with the mall's new Santa (prior to Emily), something which Hanna also photographs. After agreeing to stop chasing Vince, she celebrates by going out for drinks with Dinah, where Dinah admits she knew Alison. Hanna goes home drunk, causing her to oversleep. As she arrives at boot camp, she discovers Vince and Dinah kissing, revealing that Dinah only pretended to be friends with Hanna to have Hanna let down her guard. Hanna flees the scene, devastated, and is confronted by Kate, who, after receiving a tip-off, followed Hanna around, taking unflattering photos of her at boot camp, which she threatens to put on Facebook. Hanna counterattacks by showing Kate the pictures of her and Santa, causing Kate to back off. Hanna also improves her relationship with her father, who gives Hanna her grandmother's Cartier locket for Christmas. Hanna has a happy Christmas, despite the fact that she thinks someone other than Kate has been watching her every move. Some of what Dinah said may be true such as she knew Alison. But it is likely she made most of it up to get Hanna's trust.Aria: Aria goes with her father and Mike to Bear Claw Resort, but leaves to go back home after finding out that Byron invited Meredith along as well. Upon arriving at home, she is surprised by her boyfriend from Iceland, Halbjorn. Halbjorn tells her that he's running from the Icelandic police who are after him because he protested against the demolition of a puffin sanctuary. Unfortunately, his travel visa only lasts for a week. Aria proposes the idea of marrying him, and the two head off to Atlantic City to get married. At the hotel, they attend a magic show involving two panthers, which angers Halbjorn, who cares a lot about the environment. After getting married the following day, which requires Aria to forge her mother's signature and lie about her age, they go to the place where the panthers are kept. After convincing Halbjorn not to release the panthers, they go back to the hotel. The next morning, Aria wakes up to find Halbjorn gone and his clothes missing as well. On the lobby's TV, Aria sees that Halbjorn released the panthers after all. Aria goes to the courthouse and confesses to forging Ella's signature, making the marriage null and void. Upon returning to Rosewood, she is joined by Mike and Byron, who know nothing about her marriage. As they watch TV, it shows that Halbjorn has been caught, and it also shows that he has done these things in the past, including trying to blow up a demolition office. Aria is satisfied with breaking up with him, but is paranoid about someone following her. In Wicked it is briefly stated that Aria and Meredith did converse about the baby.The book ends with a sign-off from the new "A," (as always) who says that the Liars' lives are going to get a lot worse. All of which comes true... less

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Reviews (see all)

marie

I really thought this was going to be a fun in-between novella. So wrong. It's broken down into 4 novellas, one for each girl (Hanna, Emily, Aria & Spencer), and turns out to be longer than any of the first 4 books. Each novella looks into how the girls are spending their Winter breaks. None of them intertwine, and each seems to be completely boring, or so far fetched & ridiculous. (Aria?! Seriously?!)I read this pretty fast, but only because I was hoping it would get better at some point. I definitely could have skipped this one since it re-capped everything that'd happened so far into a few short sentences, and I'm sure we'll be finding out in book 5 that there's another A lurking around the corner.

itstaylorroseee

OK, it's official - this is the last Pretty Little Liars book I'll ever pick up. As I mentioned in my review of book 4, I really did not think highly of books 1-3. Book 4 was the only one that had some potential, and this one (4.5) was just really bad. I found myself feeling constantly irritated with the characters and the unbelievable situations they were getting themselves into. Finally, I asked myself: why am I reading this? Reading for me is associated with enjoyment not torture. Thus, I am hereby saying good-bye to this series. We had a troubled and short relationship and now it's officially over.

St8fangirl

*3.5*

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