Bookanistas: Celebrating THE LIAR SOCIETY

mood: befuddled
pandora/ipod: "lotus flower" by radiohead

THE LIAR SOCIETY by Lisa and Laura Roecker

Kate Lowry didn't think dead best friends could send e-mails. But when she gets an e-mail from Grace, she’s not so sure.

To: KateLowry@pemberlybrown.edu
Sent: Sun 9/14 11:59 PM
From: GraceLee@pemberlybrown.edu
Subject: (no subject)

Kate,
I'm here…
sort of.
Find Cameron.
He knows.
I shouldn't be writing.
Don't tell.
They'll hurt you.

Now Kate has no choice but to prove once and for all that Grace’s death was more than just a tragic accident. But secrets haunt the halls of her elite private school. Secrets people will do anything to protect. Even if it means getting rid of the girl trying to solve a murder...

Sourcebooks: March 1, 2011

I'm a lucky girl. I'll admit it. I was lucky enough that back before this novel was even agented, Lisa and Laura approached me - a newly agented writer myself - and asked me to read a partial of their manuscript.

I knew then that they had something special. An email from a dead friend. A family keeping secrets. A wounded yet tenacious heroine who just will not take "no" for an answer. I'd like to think I knew then what kind of success Les Dames Roecker would have with this novel. Truth is, I didn't know it would be this awesome.

THE LIAR SOCIETY fills a void in YA fiction. An old school, Agatha Christie-esque mystery that flirts at the paranormal yet is totally, 100% set in the concrete, realistic world.

The elements alone add up to WIN: prestigious boarding school, secret societies, long-buried mysteries, a puppy dog boy-next-door and a sexy bad boy. Win. Win. Win. But those elements alone don't make this mystery snap, crackle and pop. No, for that the Roeckers needed a smart, sassy heroine and Kate Lowry is just that.

Now I'll admit it - I'm drawn to wit. And Kate has it in spades. But she's more than a snark-filled main characters. At times artful and deceiving, at times vulnerable and broken, Kate is just barely getting by at the beginning of the novel, recovering from the death of her best friend Grace. I loved how Kate's new found mission to uncover the mystery Grace's maybe-not-so-much death transformed her, gave her purpose, salvation, and ultimately changed her in ways I never saw coming.

Plus an awesome love story! Although the love triangle is standard fiction fare, it never feels that way in the Roeckers' hands. While the tension behind the mystery of Grace's death swells, the sexual tension mirrors it so by the last third of the novel I was literally racing through pages, desperate to see how all the pieces would be resolved.

And I wasn't disappointed. What's a murder mystery without an awesome twist? An episode of Dateline. And Lisa and Laura deliver a punch I never saw coming. I wish I could say more but I'll utterly ruin it. Don't make me. Read it your-damn-self!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~

Want to read other Bookanistas reviews this week? Check them out!

Elana Johnson shines a light on Clarity
LiLa Roecker raves over The Rendering
Shannon Messenger loves 13 Reasons Why - with a signed book giveaway!
Shelli Johannes Wells joins The Liar Society
Scott Tracey is amazed by The Iron Thorn
Kirsten Hubbard raves over these March releases
Michelle Hodkin introduces some marvelous March books
Myra McEntire invites The Liar Society authors Lisa & Laura Roecker into the fort
Beth Revis is mad for Matched
Carolina Valdez Miller delights in Delirium
Jessica Kirby adores Across the Universe
Megan Miranda peers into Sean Griswold's Head
Bethany Wiggins marvels at Matched
Shana Silver is a super stop on The Liar Society blog tour
Carrie Harris buzzes about Blessed
Rosemary Clement-Moore falls for Falling Under
Katie Anderson shows cover love for Possess
Matt Blackstone is ecstatic over Edges
Stasia Ward Kehoe is wild for What Happened to Goodbye