Review Of The Innocents by Lili Peloquin

Book Title/Author: The Innocents by Lili Peloquin
Publisher/Year: : Razorbill October 16 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary Mystery
Series: YES!
Other Books From Author: None!

Amazon| Goodreads | The Innocents Facebook
I received this ARC from the publisher and, while appreciated, this did not sway my opinions in any way.

Sister’s Alice & Charlie have always been close — best friends even. When their mom gets remarried to a very wealthy architect, the girls get uprooted from their small home and the life they’ve always known and are move to their new stepfather’s mansion and are thrust into the lives of the rich where scandals and secrets abound and where the allure of it all could threaten their bond. Charlie easily embraces her new rich life while Alice rejects it and falls into a web of secrets that could put an even bigger wedge between her and Charlie.

Oh this book. I have confusing feelings. I didn’t hate this book by ANY MEANS but it just wasn’t fully what I was hoping for unfortunately. I could see something compelling and intriguing just bubbling under the surface but unfortunately it never came into fruition until about 75% of the way in and the BIG SHOCKING REVEAL (really the only BIG one to be honest ) that I kept reading for was something I predicted so very soon in the novel. I expected at least something else CRAZY to go along with it.

I mean by the end we are left with SO many intriguing things to find out — what Tommy’s big secret is, how Camilla found out — and so many things we KNOW are going to go down as a result of events — like how Charlie is going to find out the BIG SECRET or her confronting her dad about things. To be honest, I WANT to read the second book for all the potential mystery, suspense and crazy huge drama that this book set up for — seems like it really could be along the lines of Pretty Little Liars meets Gossip Girl meets Revenge. THOSE kinds of awesome dramas with secrets and crazy plot twists and rich families.

But that’s mostly what this book was for me — a tease for what’s to come — because seriously I couldn’t even figure out where this story was going for like 50% of the book and then it didn’t start getting REALLY compelling until 75% of the way through like I mentioned. It just seemed it was, prior to becoming engaging to me, all  “hey this is a story of two sisters who are uprooted when their mom marries a wealthy architect and they have a hard time adjusting to rich society and they both fall in insta-love and one is super paranoid that there is this conspiracy and I don’t quite know why.” TRULY that’s all I was getting in the beginning. That’s all it seemed like and I was just DYING for some drama and mystery and twisty turns that would induce gasps of shock and horror. But when it got good…it was GOOD. Really good. I felt like I was MEH until the 3/4 mark and then the rest of the way I’m breathless and turning the pages like a madwoman. Wished that feeling had been stretched out evenly during the book and not contained to the last part. Like I said, I so WANT to find out what happens in the next book. I just hope it’s better for me than this book.

I had my difficulties with Alice among many of the characters. Firstly, she starts sleuthing around based on really nothing. She has all these theories and things (which clearly they are founded) but most of the book it doesn’t seem like there is any basis to any of her theories. She just has these hunches but none of them seemed like obvious red flags until she gets digging around a bit. It just seemed like her suspicions came nearly from thin air. Also, she’s really quite a tightwad? Harsh perhaps but OH MY GOSH she was rather abrasive at times. She was always thinking everyone was slighting her or out to get her.

I think this series will be popular amongst the Pretty Little Liars fans as well as for people who like shows like Gossip Girl, 90210 & Revenge. It’s got the potential for major mystery and suspense, drama and those oh so seductive twists, turns and family secrets amongst rich society members that has me tuning into ALL OF THE ABOVE shows each week. Unfortunately for me, all THAT came to late in The Innocents. I was barely intrigued or engaged until 75% through in which I was left with an OMG ending that was packed with all the ingredients that make me love those shows. This book didn’t do it for me but I am going to book 2 a chance because 1) This book set up for some potentially awesome storylines and 2) Peloquin’s writing is quite good.

For Fans Of: Pretty Little Liars series, contemporary YA mysteries involving scandals & rich society
** An FYI for anyone wondering about content issues — a fair amount of cursing, alcohol, weed & such. Just so you know **

Let’s Talky Talk: Have you read this one? Heard of it? What did you think if you have read it? Was I the only one who found it slow until 3/4 of the way through? ALSO, I want recs for books like this and the Pretty Little Liars series!