Release Date: May 20/2014
Acquired: Print ARC provided by publisher
Goodreads: ADD
Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository
You know the Saybrooks. Everyone does. Perhaps you’ve read a profile of them in People or have seen their pictures in the society pages of Vogue. Perhaps while walking along that choice block on Fifth Avenue, you’ve been tempted to enter the ornate limestone building with their family name etched into the pediment above the door.
The only thing more flawless than a Saybrook’s diamond solitaire is the family behind the jewelry empire. Beauties, entrepreneurs, debutantes, and style mavens, they are the epitome of New York City’s high society. But being a Saybrook comes at a price—they are heirs not only to a dizzying fortune but also to a decades-old family curse.
Tragedy strikes the prominent family yet again when thirty-four-year-old Poppy, the most exquisite Saybrook of them all, flings herself from the window of her TriBeCa office. Everyone is shocked that a woman who had it all would end her own life. Then her cousins receive an ominous threat: one heiress down, four to go.
Was it suicide... or murder? In the aftermath of the tragedy, the remaining heiresses—Corinne, the perfectionist; Rowan, the workaholic; Aster, the hedonist; and Natasha, the enigma—wrestle with feelings of sadness, guilt, and, most of all, fear. Now they must uncover the truth about their family before they lose the only thing money can’t buy: their lives.
The Heiresses is a whip-smart mystery that simmers with the wicked sense of humor and intrigue that made Sara Shepard’s number one New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series a must-read, must-watch phenomenon.
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SO.MANY.CHARACTERS. That, I must admit, the handy family tree printed at the start of the book did very little to help with. There was already just too many names being dropped, way too early on-I felt completely bombarded. I want to say that I loved this book, once it caught it's stride, but I can't say that with honesty either. However, I will tell you, that I was completely addicted. The Heiresses was like that shameful couple of hours spent watching The Real Wives (any one!), or Keeping Up With the Kardashians. *SIGH* It was horrible for the brain cells, but ask me if I looked away...Secrets, lies, scandals, and betrayals. Those four acts were the favoured life choices made by the remaining heiresses to the Saybrook diamond fortune. The (long) synopsis above is a better look into the storyline that played out in this book, and says much about what you can expect to find within it's pages. People keep dropping dead, with the belief that a family curse is abound. Lies, and secrets, are slowly beginning to emerge and shock. The reader was, at many times, privy to these revelations long before the characters were, turning The Heiresses into that group of friends you were always DYING to be a part of. It was ridiculously easy to get caught up in the drama, which seemed to be never-ending.
I have never read Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series, but I was completely obsessed with the TV series adaptation. I expected her books to match the quality of the show, but I found myself disappointed on that front. The Heiresses was poorly written, but the type of poor that had me reading it like I was perusing the likes of people.com, or Mr. Perez Hilton's lovely page. I'm sure that this was Shepard's intent, to write a book that was purely steeped in entertainment, drama, and gossip. If so, she achieves that with flying colours, and some seriously scandalous twists of events.
The Heiresses was the epitome of a perfect summer read. A mindless, soulless, bounded train-wreck of a book that will have you slightly embarrassed to admit you read, but secretly wondering if there will be a second..and third...and fourth..?
Recommended for fans of: Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, Candace Bushnell, The Kardashians, "Chick-lit".
Challenges: Goodreads 100 Book Goal
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Sara Shepard graduated from NYU and has an MFA from Brooklyn College. She currently lives in Tucson, Arizona. Sara's Pretty Little Liars novels were inspired by her upbringing in Philadelphia's Main Line.
Contact Links
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Thank-you to Trish from TLC Book Tours for hosting this tour, and to Harper Collins for sending me a print ARC to review!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts as part of the tour!
ReplyDeleteThe Heiresses is very much like watching an entertainment program that disses the Hollywood elite and, like you, I couldn't put it down! High entertainment factor!
ReplyDeleteRight!? Sometimes we all need to just get outside of our own heads, that's when books like these come in handy!
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