With the intrigue of Pretty Little Liars and plenty of romance, bestselling author Sarah Strohmeyer weaves a story of secrets and lies—set in a funeral parlor.
Growing up in a house of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between them—something Erin definitely did not like.
But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.
So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily’s and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship—which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous—makes them both suspects.
As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.
ABOUT SARAH
Sarah Strohmeyer is the award-winning, nationally bestselling author of fifteen novels one of which, THE CINDERELLA PACT, became a Lifetime Movie, LYING TO BE PERFECT.Her first mystery, BUBBLES UNBOUND, won the Agatha Award and THE SLEEPING BEAUTY PROPOSAL was nominated for a prestigious RITA™. Her books have been translated into German, French, Italian, Turkish, Taiwanese and a bunch of others.
Her first young adult novel, SMART GIRLS GET WHAT THEY WANT, will be published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins, on June 26, 2012.
Jaime’s Thoughts
The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
I’m positive it’s the year of the suspense book because I don’t remember reading this many last year. And among all that I’ve read, I’d put The Secret of Lily Graves right in the middle of the list. Strohmeyer creates a story that is filled with mystery and suspense and I found I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
Lily Graves lives in a funeral home… she’s grown up there and plans to follow in her family’s footsteps, but it doesn’t come without some consequences. At school, she’s viewed as the class freak. When Matt, the class jock & Mr. Popular starts paying attention to her, things take a turn for the worse on a social level. His unexpected break-up with his long-time girlfriend, Erin, who is the epitome of the word perfect doesn’t help either.
When Erin confronts Lily in the graveyard one afternoon about her feelings for Matt, things turn violent and she walks away with scratches and feeling a bit confused. All of that means very little until Erin is found dead and no one really knows what happened or who may have killed her. But Lily’s relationship and friendship with Matt make them both viable suspects, only Lily isn’t going to stand by and watch her world crumble around her. She’s determined to find out the truth and that means she’ll have to uncover more than she bargained for and just maybe everyone will see that the perfect Erin, wasn’t as perfect as she made everyone think.
So while Lily is determined to clear her name when she becomes a suspect in Erin’s death, she also doesn’t want to believe that Matt may have been involved in any way. But when the everything starts to unravel and secrets are found out, she isn’t really sure who she should believe and trust… and that is ultimately what kept me interested! The Secrets of Lily Graves definitely had enough twists and turns to keep up the suspense. I found I really enjoyed Strohmeyer’s writing style and for the most part her characters… at least the ones I connected with. I liked Lily… she was definitely not your typical contemporary character and I found myself smiling or chuckling at the way she didn’t quite fit in with everyone around her at school. That said, she was really the only character you truly get to know in this story… the rest of the characters were very surface personalities for me… which didn’t work as much as I would have liked. I feel like I didn’t really connect to the romance aspect of this story for that reason. I like to get to know my swoony boys, and while Matt had potential, by the end I just didn’t know him enough to really care enough about the Lily / Matt ship.
Overall, the story was entertaining and a fun read… but if I have to be honest here ( and I do) it’s somewhat forgettable. Something I enjoyed while I was reading it, but promptly forgot about once I was done. Nothing made this stand out in a unique way for me and that’s why the three.five star rating. I think if you’re looking for a quick read that has some twists and turns and definitely has mystery and suspense, you can’t go wrong with this title.
Thank you Harpercollins & Edelweiss for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts!
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