Sara Shepard

Aldrich University is rocked to its core with scandal and intrigue when a hacker dumps 40,000 people's emails--the entire faculty, staff, students, alums--onto an easily searchable database. Affairs and scandals immediately start leaking, but these emails become ticking time bombs that explode when Kit Manning's handsome husband, Dr. Greg Strasser, is murdered. Kit's sister, Willa, flies home to help, returning to a hometown she fled fifteen years ago...after a night she wishes she could forget. Willa, an investigative reporter, knows something is not quite right and is determined to find the truth--of what happened the night Greg was murdered, and of the secrets that are hiding in every house in town. With a killer on the loose, and families breaking apart seemingly by the minute, Willa and Kit have to figure out who killed Greg before the body count starts to rise.

Reputation

We all know the reason I picked up Reputation was because Taylor Swift's album of the same name is one of my favorite albums. That coupled with the author of Pretty Little Liars? I was sold. 

I was invested in the mystery of it all and I enjoyed how Sara Shepard set up almost every character to look guilty at some point. Just when I was sure I had it right, she threw a wrench in my way. 

This is a 3.5 star for me because while I enjoyed it, it didn't necessarily have me on the edge of my seat. I wasn't so invested that I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish reading like I've done with many thrillers in the past. I don't mind multiple perspectives in a book, but at times it was hard to keep track of who was who. It got easier as I kept reading, but I don't know... There were moments where Shepard successfully built up the suspense before switching to a different POV and other moments where I just wasn't as interested. 

Overall, not a bad read. It was fun. Just not quite as memorable as PLL. 

Ashton Zillhardt

We all know the reason I picked up Reputation was because Taylor Swift's album of the same name is one of my favorite albums. That coupled with the author of Pretty Little Liars? I was sold. 

I was invested in the mystery of it all and I enjoyed how Sara Shepard set up almost every character to look guilty at some point. Just when I was sure I had it right, she threw a wrench in my way. 

This is a 3.5 star for me because while I enjoyed it, it didn't necessarily have me on the edge of my seat. I wasn't so invested that I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish reading like I've done with many thrillers in the past. I don't mind multiple perspectives in a book, but at times it was hard to keep track of who was who. It got easier as I kept reading, but I don't know... There were moments where Shepard successfully built up the suspense before switching to a different POV and other moments where I just wasn't as interested. 

Overall, not a bad read. It was fun. Just not quite as memorable as PLL. 

courtney garrison

This was quite a ride to be honest. Reputation concentrates around kit and her family. Her father is the president of a ivy university and when the university is hacked everyone’s business is out for everyone to see. Affairs, gossip, everything is there on the website for everyone to look up by name.

Kit is married to a highly respected doctor when the hack happens. Her family is now thrust in the spotlight over what is in Greg’s emails. He has been having an affair, but the emails are full of vulgar sexual content with someone he is seeing. When Greg is murdered everything starts to spin and you have so many theories and motives for people to have murdered Greg.

Now this does center around the #metoo movement as there are several discussions of rape in this book. There are a few scenes that go into detail so be cautious if that’s something you don’t want to read about.

I honestly didn’t expect to love this one as much as I did but as you read the first few chapters everything unfolds so fast and the drama jumps out. I loved how Sarah didn’t wait half the book to start the hack and drama, they jumped right out with it.

While I appreciate the me too movement discussions in the book and the conversations that were had. The book also talked about reputations and how much we as a society gossip and care what people think of us and our families. We feel we have to have the fancy houses and the nice cars and be this perfect image while we can be suffering from so much behind closed doors. This was a real eye opener for that type of conversation and how perfection isn’t something that needs to be looked up too.

The writing in the book is sometimes repetitive as you have multiple point of views and I personally hate that but it was done fairly well.

One aspect I hated and this is why it wasn’t five stars for me is it felt somewhat like drama being played out on tv. While I sympathized with some of the characters it just felt scripted and forced. The ending all came together in a neat little bow which felt really unrealistic to me.

Overall I give this four point five stars because while it felt like a tv show it was hella entertaining and I was honestly intrigued as to who actually killed Greg and why. I can say I never expected the ending and who did it so I give the book prompts for not being predictable as I somewhat have come to expect with mysteries.

Trigger Warning - Body shaming, Murder, Grief, Talk of suicide, Molestation, Rape, Domestic Abuse

In this perfectly-paced new novel from Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Little Liars, the women of a tight-knit college town learn through gossip, scandal, betrayal, and even murder, who their neighbors and husbands really are. Aldrich University is rocked to its core when a hacker dumps 40,000 people's e-mails—the entire faculty, staff, students, alums—onto an easily searchable database. Rumors and affairs immediately leak, but things turn explosive when Kit Manning's handsome husband, Dr. Greg Strasser, is found murdered. Kit's sister, Willa, returns for the funeral, setting foot in a hometown she fled fifteen years ago, after a night she wishes she could forget. As an investigative reporter, Willa knows something isn't right about the night Greg was killed, and she's determined to find the truth. What she doesn't expect is that everyone has something to hide. And with a killer on the loose, Willa and Kit must figure out who killed Greg before someone else is murdered. Told from multiple points of view, Reputation is full of twists, turns, and shocking reveals. It's a story of intrigue, sabotage, and the secrets we keep—and how far we go to keep them hidden. Number one bestseller Sara Shepard is at the top of her game in this brand-new adult novel.

A Novel

Leigh Osborne

Kath Lau

*Thanks to Dutton Books for my free copy. This did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

A prestigious university got hacked and all the e-mails of the students, faculty, and everyone who is connected to the university are put on an online database accessible to the public. On top of all the rumours, affairs, and revelations that are surrounding the community, a doctor has been murdered and the killer is on the loose.

Reputation, Shephard's latest novel, kept me intrigued. I read 200 pages of this book in one sitting which says a lot. It was fast paced and definitely a page-turner read. The story is told in multiple points of view of five different women who are greatly affected by the hack and all their stories are intertwined. The characters are unlikeable and far from endearing but I still had fun reading their perspectives. Each and everyone of them has their own secrets. All of these were revealed towards the end which has led to an overwhelming amount of twists. Some of them were really clever but others are far-fetched. At some point, they became too much for me that it didn't surprise me anymore when the murderer was named. Also, I wasn't personally satisfied with the ending probably because I was expecting for a different outcome instead of a very conventional one. Overall, I enjoyed the drama and the mystery. The author mentioned that this book actually began as development for a TV series which somehow was quite obvious but still, this was a very entertaining read. Plus, the theme is pretty relevant.

Megan Leprich

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Review can be found here at Booked J. 


  As always, a copy of this book was provided by the publisher or author in exchange for my honest review. This does not effect my opinion in any way.


Can we get one thing out of the way? I'm a Sara Shepard STAN. There is no escaping that. Her work has been a part of me since high school. If I had a single ounce of shame, I'd refer to my love affair with her books as a guilty pleasure. Alas, I lack the shame appropriate for this and am not remotely guilty for continuously devouring what she serves us. And with Reputation, she gave us a lot to eat. 

One of the things that always strikes me about the work Shepard puts out there for us, is the sheer entertainment value. She's beauty, she's grace, she's queen of emotionally punching me in the face and twining me up with the thorns of her characters. Whether we're visiting our beloved Liars in Rosewood, our Perfectionists, or watching as one twin is forced to take the place of her long lost dead twin sister, you can ALWAYS expect to be in for a treat. 

Shepard's writing is pure escapism, dipped in thrills and chills. Like so many of the stories in her backlist, Reputation is light and fast but still packs an emotional charge. Once you pick it up, you're likely to lose yourself for hours and maybe even finish it in one read. (Which is what I did because I have no self control.) Including in the perfection that is Shepard's writing one can expect snarky prose that bites and causes you to snicker into your hands, intriguing mysteries, forbidden affairs and general soap opera antics. 

Along for the bumpy ride, I settled in with this book and before I knew it hours had passed and I'd completed it. If you love twisty turns and curiosities and stylish dramatics, you'll adore this one. I found it to be highly enjoyable, despite the general unlikable qualities some of the characters were possessing. There were times I wanted to put down the book, down my wine glass and shout at the characters in Reputation which is half the fun of a good Shepard novel. You get this inkling of knowledge of what to expect, but somehow she always surprises or toys with us. 

As for the characters of Reputation: they aren't nearly as endearing as those we might find in Pretty Little Liars, The Lying Game and The Perfectionists, but they still offer a delicious and messy nature. (I won't give too much away, but I will say that there is one woman in Reputation that was intensely calculating and manipulative and I was LIVING for it.) 

Despite following a fairly typical formula for all of her novels, each one feels like a new adventure and mystery and continues to dangle itself above my head in a way that I cannot resist. They are a mixed bag of tropes, archetypes, mystery and scandal--everything one might desire from Shepard. THIS is exactly the type of quickie read I needed on such a chilly day. 

All that is exposed in this novel, all the mysteries that are unraveled, make up for an otherwise lackluster cast of characters. While Reputation is not quite my favourite novel of hers, it was highly engaging and full of that Sara Shepard spark that makes her books so fully indulgent and delicious. I ate this book up in little to no time and will likely only grow to enjoy it more in the future.

Reputation

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