Suspicion by Kate Brian
I was sent this review copy for free by Simon & Schuster Children's Books for the purposes of providing an honest review.
Reed Brennan thought that a winter break in the islands with some of the Billings Girls, old and new, was just what she needed to recover from her traumatic last term at Easton. At first everything is perfect; relaxing, fun and elegant. But then things take a more sinister turn and suddenly Reed finds herself in danger once more. If Reed wants to survive her fateful vacation she must discover who is after her and why, before it's too late. From Amazon UK
When I was sent this book to review, I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy it. The Private series is aimed at the fans of Gossip Girl, and from what I’ve heard about Gossip Girl, I’m pretty sure it’s not my time type of thing; I’m not one for popular, superficial girls, it just doesn’t entertain me. I thought I would give Suspicion a go anyway, to see if I would be surprised. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.
Suspicion is the 11th book in the Private series, but it’s readable as a standalone; the plot is self-contained, and even though you come across characters that have obviously been in the previous books, and events from previous books are mentioned, if you can over look that you don’t know about the things being referred to, as they’re not entirely important to this story, it’s fine.
However, I just didn’t enjoy it. I wasn’t all that interested in the main character Reed, and found her to be too wrapped in things I personally find very young and unimportant; for example, several times she wonders why one of her exes, who now has a girlfriend, hasn’t gotten in touch with her while she’s on holiday with the girls, even though she’s with someone new herself. There were just a lot of eye-rolling moments for me, and I didn’t relate to anyone. They were the type of people I avoided when I was at school; not necessarily the nasty girls, but just the type I had nothing to say to, and vice versa.
Despite the superficiality, there are some moments where I thought “Ahh, now we’re getting somewhere!” Unfortunately, they’d last a few pages, and then Reed would be back amongst her friends, or she would go to extremes about the things that were going to happen. Even though she was in quite considerable danger at some points, I found her damsel-in-distress ways a little grating. I guess I’m just used to stronger protagonists.
This is not to say the book isn’t good. It’s not awful at all, it’s just not my cup of tea. I’m sure there are a fair amount of people who would really enjoy Suspicion. It’s the type of book I think would work well as holiday reading, on a beach somewhere. It’s not a long book at all, I started and finished it today, and for its length, a fair amount happens. There is suspense and there is danger, pretty much like a sinister Mean Girls, and those moments kept me reading to find out exactly what was going on, despite not being a huge fan of the characters. I’ve got to say, I really liked Sawyer though, he was just a sweetie! Upton wasn’t too awful either, though I found him too English; the phrases he used aren’t something you would hear every day over here – but then again he is rich, and so probably posh. I don’t come across many posh Englishmen.
Overall, I think Suspicion would be a pretty awesome book for those who like stories about the Queen Bees of school, with some hot guys, parties, and a bit of danger thrown in. A quick, easy read for a quickie fix of lipgloss and attempted murder.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Children's Books for sending me a review copy.
Published: 4th February 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books
Oh this sounds a lot like the Gossip Girl series, I have one of Kate's other books in my tbr (Private) and I think I might add this one too. May be my cup of tea :)
ReplyDeleteGreat! I hope you enjoy the series when you read it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a seriously fantastic review! You paint such a thorough picture of this book. I've read other Kate Brian books so I know I'd like this, but I need to catch up some day as I'd like to read them all in order. Anyway, thank you for an amazing review that was so entertaining to read!
ReplyDeleteAww, thank you, Luisa! I'm really glad you liked my review, even though it wasn't exactly brimming with positivity. I hope you like Suspicion when you get to it, and the others in the series!
ReplyDelete*sigh* This book sounds way too superficial for me to enjoy it. That was an amazingly thorough, enjoyable, and honest review though, and I'll definitely suggest this one to my little sister (who's a fan of Gossip Girl and The Clique)! :)
ReplyDeleteAww, thank you so much Jenn, I really appreciate it! I hope you're little sister likes the Private series if she does end up reading them! :)
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head when you said beach reading! This certainly lacked depth but I found that I quite enjoyed the whodunit element to the story. True the characters are completely shallow but I really did like Sawyer. Upton! I thought he was a nincompoop!
ReplyDeleteUpton was ok! A bit of a guy, but he wasn't too bad! Sawyer was lovely, but I'd rather adopt him than crush on him, lol. Oh, I'm not a fan of mysteries on their own, but when a book has a whodunnit element, I like it t be a bit more complicated. There weren't that many people it could be, really. Ah well, I can't love every book!
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