Reputation by Sara Shepard is an upcoming book from the author of the Pretty Little Liars series. I give you the intel on the author as that frames up the type of thrills and scandals that you should expect diving into this one. This story revolves around two major events - First, Aldrich University (an elite private university) has all the emails of its faculty, staff, students, and alumni uploaded to an online database. As you can imagine, this is an opened can of all that stuff put into writing that you probably didn't want anyone in life to be able to search. Second, Dr. Greg Strasser, a well-known doctor, is found murdered. Kit Manning is in the center of both scandals as she works for the university's foundation, and Greg is her husband. From there, the story just goes as you would guess given those two plot points. The secrets are unveiled and twists are revealed through multiple narrators. As you can imagine, everyone has something to hide, and those emails bring all kinds of drama to light. Y'all should know that this one packs literally all the scandal possible into its pages. They all intersect-ish along the way, but also, it sometime took me a moment to re-calibrate to which scandal involved who and how different folks might have a relationship. This is one that kept me reading. Because it was all the things, I wanted to know what those things were, and I needed to know how it all ended. Was it off the rails? Absolutely. However, I learned very quickly that's what I was in for, so I held for the ride. I would definitely recommend that if you check this one out that y'all go in with a similar mindset. Just imagine you're reading the script for a Lifetime ultimate movie mashup, and that's what this is - Not good or bad, it's just . . .something. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me check out this December release!

Sara Shepard has been the be-all in thrillers ever since I watched her hit book series-turned tv show, Pretty Little Liars. Reputation gives me the same feelings as the show did with the “who-done-it” feelings and the fast paced drama.

The overall book started out intriguing and full of anticipation with its flawed characters, each with a secret to keep. A hack has spread throughout a local university that has affected every one of our characters in some way, especially Kit. Shortly after the hack, in which her husband was the talk of the town, he’s found dead in his home.

The characters were interesting and Shepard showed just enough of their situations to keep us wanting more out of the story. I found myself enthralled with how things ended up the way that they did. Once everything came to light I was kind of shocked but it really felt justified.

The storyline was difficult to follow at times. At first I really had to take my time reading each characters because the swapping back in forth made everything convoluted. Once I was fully immersed in this story, I loved the drama of it all, the fast paced plot flow, and the characters who redeemed themselves little by little in my eyes.

Overall, the book was enjoyable. It was basically a grown-up version of PLL so if you like the over the top drama and the mysteriousness of who did what and why, then you’ll enjoy this book.

This book is really fun right from the start. The characters are easy to read and enjoy and really help elevate the storyline. The book gets a bit scattered and seems almost unfinished or not finished rather in that it’s more than edits that seem to be missing in order to reign in the story and give it a more clear plot and direction. It’s the best book with ADD that I’ve read this year though lol. I’ll look for the next one for sure and I’m sure it’ll be nearer since it’ll be the second.

I was so excited for this book but it just ended up feeling like a story I had heard before. It felt forced and left me wanting it to be so much more than it was. Disappointed.

Reputation started out so good—like a juicy soap opera full of wonderfully flawed characters you love to hate, with an intriguing plot about the secrets of an upscale university laid bare by a major computer hack. This hack leads to a murder and things just spiral out of control from there. And that’s the problem with the book, too; it spiraled out of control and lost some of its focus. It was as if it didn’t know if it wanted to be a saucy little mystery or something of more substance and the Willa storyline was like a cold blast of harsh reality in this imaginative story.

But, even without the Willa distraction, I was having problems with the book. I quickly became disenchanted with the seriously flawed characters. It was hard to like any of the main characters, especially Kit. Then, there were the male characters. They were more like caricatures than anything else.
But, the thing that bothered me the most about this book was who the murderer was, why they did it and what happened to them as a result. Very disappointing!

Being a fan of Pretty Little Liars, I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, my experience went from enjoyment to disappointment.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Three, this book bring out the split personalities hidden inside me by dividing my opinions into two different perspectives. One POV of mine enjoyed this book and the other hated it because she wanted to punish all those characters for being so superficial, shallow, unrealistic like they’re running out of a long time soap opera and accidentally jump into this book’s pages, hello guys get out of this book and go hang out with CW series’ characters stars!

This is the first for me to have second thoughts about my decision. I liked and I hated this book. If you ask me “why”, please keep on reading:

UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BOOING THESE CHARACTERS:

When I read this book, some parts are really entertained me so much, I laughed till my tears overflew (of course they were evil laughs, don’t you expect anything different from me?) But some parts made me wish to be one of the characters on this book so I can use my hands and punches to give an amazing slap show to those caricaturistic characters.

And what about those male characters! It hurts my mouth to pronounce them as heroes! They are useless extras of the story, seemed like joined in this book for free meal. Well boys, somebody should fire you! I wish author would have given you more spines so you may have been acting like decent functional human beings.
When it comes to the women, most of them (okay all of them) are batshit crazy. I love fierce, passionate, genius evil women characters but those are mostly just pure evil, irritating and annoying ones.

SATISFYING BLURB:

Actually the story was intriguing which made me dive into as soon as I read the blurb. By hacking of university emails, revealed all those secrets, lies, forbidden affairs, scandals. And one of the surgeon, Dr. Greg Strasser captured the whole attention by becoming the murdered scapegoat (Actually he is real cheater so he is not an innocent, naïve hero you may pity) And his wife Kit is number one suspect of his murder. So her estranged sister comes back to town and save her sister’s reputation.
Using Taylor Swift’s Reputation album’s song names for the chapters was interesting choice to attract YA’s attention to this book.

BENDING TWISTS GIVES YOU VERTIGO ATTACKS:
There are too many twists, never see it coming kind of sucker punches, surprises which made you not to put down the book from your hands and try to make peace with those unrelatable characters. At least pacing is okay and author knows how to keep your curiosity rekindle. But when I learn whodunit at the end I just say: “Hmm! Okay”. It didn’t affect me as I expected and shook me to the core.

SUMMARY:
It was not one of my worst reading experiences, some parts were so enjoyable and this is my first waltz with this other. I didn’t read “Pretty Little Liars” and watched only a few episodes of TV series adaption but I didn’t root for it. Some clichés, over exaggerated parts and superficial characterization made me cut points. I wish I could give more stars because there is so much potential in this book and thankfully I never got bored when I was reading it. I just got annoyed, that was all.

But I plan to read more of her upcoming words because it can be seen that author could write real entertaining thriller stories. I’m sure I could find something fits more of my expectations.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton to provide me ARC COPY in exchange my honest review.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

I hadn’t read anything by Sara Shepard since her first few Pretty Little Liars book and WOW, I had forgotten how well she writes a compelling, twisty mystery. Reputation has a well-crafted plot and characters, and it perfectly executed what I love most in a mystery - truly keeping me guessing til the end. I’m going to go read more of Shepard’s backlist now and will highly recommend this to other readers!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Penguin Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review the E-Arc copy of Reputation.
Sara Shepard has always been a great writer of campy, mystery filled with drama. The rumors, affair, and murder all make this book a twisty fun thriller that you won't want to stop reading. It is a MPOV book which does add to the different pacing of the mystery. It gives a more who could it be aspect with this plot.
#Reputation
#NetGalley

I was so excited to be approved for this book that I stopped reading the book I was halfway through in order to begin reading this one. I love Shepherd's writing style, and she can tell a story like no other. Told in alternating voices, Reputation is the story of the aftermath of a major college campus computer hack.... and murder. While the murder and hack are certainly crucial elements of the novel, the secrets that are exposed are the lifeline of the book. Gossipy and fun--without crossing over to trashy or immature-- the story unfolds delightfully. As far as the mystery behind who is a computer hacker and who is a murderer....I never would have guessed.I honestly didn't know until it was spelled out for me. Another hit for Shepherd, and an easy sell/recommendation for me. Can't wait for her next novel!

Reputation was a story of a college town rocked by scandal. It begins with a college email system being hacked, secrets, betrayals, cover ups, and affairs all come out of this hack. The author tells the story through multiple points of view and moves through time and the fall out of the scandal through the eyes of each of these characters. Pretty quickly, following the hack a murder occurs. The remainder of the story is set up to discover who the murder was and who hacked the email system. Are they the same person? Was the motive the same? The story moves at a fast pace, you will find yourself feeling every emotion - especially anger and fear!

It drew me in immediately and I had a hard time putting it down, I was desperate to know who dun it! Sara Shepard is a master thriller story teller! I will be telling all of my thriller fan friends to get their hands on this one in December! The ending was incredibly satisfying and she wrapped up each character beautifully!

When the email server of a prestigious university is hacked secrets are exposed. What happens when people see your true self? Will they remain part of your life? A story of truth and being yourself even as your life is being destroyed.

This is the first book I've read by Sara Shepard, and I would read her books again.
The story at first seemed a bit confusing to follow. It was a very convoluted story that when you fully immerse yourself into it takes you on a wild ride. There are many twist and turns to the plot that will always keep you guessing.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

I love the feeling of diving into a book and realizing it is deep in my wheelhouse. Sara Shepard's books usually hook me in, but her latest one, Reputation, out this December, did me a doozy. Wow, I was hooked. It had everything I love about scandals, affairs, and murder, and I love the way all the POVs intersected and intertwined. It made sense to me that she originally developed this idea as a TV show, because it 100% seems like the kind of thing I would binge in a day without getting off my couch.

Aldrich University is a nice, elite private school, and that's where we meet our central characters. There's Kit, the university president's daughter, who is married to Greg, a surgeon at the local hospital. There's also Kit's sister, Willa, who lives in LA now. Lynn works with Kit and is married to Patrick. Laura works with Greg and is married to a police officer, Ollie. Kit's daughters, and Greg's stepdaughters, are Aurora and Sienna, and Sienna is friends with Raina. Convoluted enough for you? Oh, wait until you see how these plots and characters intertwine. There's affairs of the heart, affairs that just look like affairs, emails from a secret Lolita, baby daddy drama, and it all hits the fan when Aldrich (along with a few other universities) is hacked and the emails are released. Soon, there's a dead body in the kitchen, a missing murder weapon, and it's starting to look like everyone has a motive. But who actually committed the crime, and will they get put away for it? And will anyone's reputation survive the scandal?

WOW this book drew me in. It had more twists and turns that a season of Gossip Girl, and I love the backdrop of an elite college, but focusing mostly on the adults. It had a great blend of personal, family drama with that business drama, adults acting crazy, teens being teens, all that jazz. I loved the way everything got connected and tangled and I kind of figured out who did it, but I still loved following every twist and turn. This book also grasps with the #MeToo in unexpected ways.

There's no way this doesn't get made into a mini-series or something, not with how much people love Big Little Lies. I can't wait.

When I first heard of this book I was incredibly excited. I loved all of the Pretty Little Liars books and the premise sounded interesting. The book started out great and definitely had me hooked; I finished half of it one day because I literally couldn’t put it down and only stopped so that I could sleep. However, as the story was coming to an end, the writing seemed very rushed & started to make less sense in my opinion. Patrick being into BDSM was literally irrelevant & came across as a lazy solution to involving Raina in the story line again. Also, so much time was spent building up Patrick and Ollie as suspects or even just as characters that when Aurora admitted to killing her step father it made literally no sense. Aurora was barely a character in the book. This book was definitely entertaining but it had flaws and I probably wouldn’t read it again.

Trigger Warnings: Rape, Sexual Assault

Let me just say that this was a roller coaster to read. Wow. I wanted something fast paced, murderous, and page turning and well I got it.

From the author of the hit books and TV series Pretty Little Liars, Reputation is a book that'll have you blinking at the pages and screaming what! as your eyes peruse paragraph by paragraph by paragraph.

There's been a hack and thousands and thousands of emails from renowned Aldrich University are exposed. Tea is spilled, affairs are exposed, rumors abound. At the heart if this all, renowned surgeon Dr. Greg Strasser's emails are a hot topic. His emails are beyond inappropriate and he's cheating on his wife who is the daughter of Aldrich University's President.. Things get even messier when he is found stabbed to death by his wife, Kit, in the kitchen of their home, the day after the leaks. A killer is on the loose and everyone is a suspect, and I do mean everyone.

I enjoyed this book for the pure absurdity that it was. There were some lines that probably weren't meant to be funny but I laughed at them all the same because I couldn't believe they were even included. As I stated in my first sentence, this was a roller coaster to read. The characters were fun and enjoyable, and some of them were completely insane.
Honestly, all of the men in this book were completely and utterly USELESS. But I don't think I can really say that's a negative since that mirrors life oh so well?
Lynn...She's a woman after my crazy calculating heart. I just adored her. She was crazy but my kind of crazy.

SPOILERS:
I do feel as though the rape/sex scandals could have been handled a lot better not have just been tossed in there at the end. It felt cobbled and rushed to me. I do like that Shepard brought up #MeToo but I am tired of having a character's sexual assault be her tragic backstory. It's very unsettling.

The reveal of Greg's true killer was also very...lackluster. It felt like simple AHA, I made you think it wasn't true but it was.
All in all, this is a simple enjoyable book if you're looking for a quick, read to enjoy. Thanks very much to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this ARC in exchange for my fair review. Please check out my blog for more reviews: https://aelilyreads.home.blog/

Obviously, any self-respecting millennial has heard of (and obsessed over!) Shepard's "PLL" series for YA readers. So, as an adult, reading her new literary works are a must-read. First, I was pulled into "The Heiresses," and so, I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this new book. The read is compelling, the characters are honest and have depth, and the story is full of twists and turns along the way. You can't put it down, you'll be waiting with bated breath until you reach the final page to discovery the truths of the mystery as it unfolds.

Having loved the Pretty Little Liars series I knew I had to get my hands on Sara Shepard's adult novels. This one, while not as juicy as PLL, was really good! There are numerous twists and turns that will leave you breathless and one EPIC twist. I really enjoyed this one and will be recommending it to all my friends who were fans of the Pretty Little Liars!

An awesome adult novel from the author of Pretty Little Liars. Shepard has created a compelling story with authentic characters and a lavish backdrop. The ending wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless. A great beach read!

As a lover of both YA and dark and twisty mysteries, you would think I'd have read something by Sara Shepard by now. You would be wrong, although after finishing Reputation last night I frantically added an embarrassing amount of her books to my wishlist. Sigh. . . just what i need, more books!

I couldn't help it, though. This book was so well-written and compulsively readable that I binged it in one sitting. At first I was a little confused by the sheer amount of narrators (most of them female). That confusion quickly faded away as I was drawn in to the story, full of delicious secrets and scandals.

Brief Synopsis:

A small Ivy league college is rocked by scandal as everyone's email is hacked and posted publicly. Students, administration, everyone who works at the college's esteemed teaching hospital: all their secrets out in the open. And what secrets they keep! The story focuses on Kit Manning-Strasser, her father who is the Dean of the university, her husband who is a lauded surgeon at the hospital, and her two daughters: one of which is a student. It seems the good doctor was being very naughty via email with a certain person known only by the code name 'Lolita'. Hmmm. . .

The story flows so quickly as you learn secret after juicy secret about this privileged family and their peers. The plot is perfectly paced. Like I said, I haven't read any of her other books, but this one seems to be a little more adult than YA, thematically.

I give this one a solid 4 stars. Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the digital advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted on both Goodreads and Instagram closer to the date of publication.