Review-Perfect Lies

Last year I read Kiersten White's fourth novel and despite being so different from her Paranormalcy series I fell in love with it.  When I got a hold of the second novel I was really excited to read it, but thanks to my classes I almost considered it putting it down.  Thankfully I didn't, because once I actually got into reading page after page I didn't want to put it down.  Just like in the previous book there was a dual POV, and it worked really well.  The two voices were very distinct and honestly I'm wondering how Kiersten managed to pull it off.  The sheer amount of emotion that she puts into her writing, into these books in general, is just mind-blowing.  I was constantly surprised by the surprises that kept blindsiding me, one after the other.  I knew something had to happen but I wasn't sure what it was, and when it happened I was shocked at the sudden turn of events.  There were only two small things I had trouble with, one was the fact that there were names from the first novel that came into play in this one, and I couldn't remember who they were.  That isn't necessarily anyone's fault though, I've always been bad with names.  The second thing was the time frame that Kiersten decided to use, it was slightly jarring, the back and forth, but once I got used to it I was able to take it more in stride.  It helped once I figured out that it's really important to look at the time listed below each chapter, especially under Annie's chapters, cause otherwise things don't make a ton of sense.  Eventually everything falls into place though, so bravo to Kiersten for that, I'm totally impressed with what she pulled off.  Based on all of this there's no doubt in my mind that this book is going to be pretty split down the middle, you'll either love it or not, and honestly if you didn't enjoy the first one you probably won't enjoy this one.  Like I said about the first one fans of Shatter Me and that style will really enjoy these books, and the second one maintains the pace and tempo of the first.  Personally I fell into the group that really enjoyed the book, and while I was a little confused through part of the book it all made sense in the end.  I would love to see Kiersten write another novel like this one, but I seem to like whatever she writes, so I'll just be happy that she keeps churning out books.

Out February 18, 2014

4.5/5 dust spirits

*Thanks to Secret Garden Books and Harper Teen for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.