YAY ELLEN HOPKINS HAS A NEW BOOK!
Not only is it the sequel to Love Lies Beneath, but I managed to win a signed copy!

Okay, enough about me. You wanna hear about the book.

I wasn't totally prepared for A Sin Such as This mainly because I couldn't remember being thrilled by the first one. But once I got started, I couldn't put it down!

So we pick back up with Tara and Cavin coming back to the real world after having the time of their lives on their honeymoon. But the real world has so much drama; work, stepchildren, family, friends, maybe even a stalker. But Tara doesn't let that rock her world. She's still knows how to turn on the charm and get her way. But will that work on her husband? It's barely been three months and she already feels married to a man she hardly knows. Not to mention her niece, Kayla, is dating her stepson, who TOTALLY has the hots for her Tara, Sophie, and God knows who else. No one in their right mind wants teenagers in their home that aren't even their responsibility, but Tara still expects them to respect her. It's just drama on drama on dramaaaaaa in their house. Especially when Melody comes to visit. It's no secret that Tara and her sister, Mel, aren't the closest but maybe that could change when Mel starts letting her hair down. Sure, she has no control over her kids, and her marriage is crumbling, but please sleep with that stranger the day before burying your mom.

Honestly, I hope that I'm not this petty or secretive in my 40's (I know it's 20 years from now but ya know whatevs). There was so much drama but honestly, the drama is what makes the book. The ending kind of had me squirming because Tara is such an eccentric character that I'm not quite sure how to respond to; it's almost like I love to hate her.

Anyway, get the book!

This review and TONS of other Ellen Hopkins reviews can be found at A Reader's Diary!

Not having read the first book in the Love Lies Beneath series by the same name, I was at a slight disadvantage. But there was enough background information given throughout that I caught up rather quickly. Unfortunately the characters were hard to like. There was sex for no reason, affairs or hints of them, lots of exes, incestuous and almost incestuous relationships, nudity, lies and innuendos and every now and then a story line peeked through which would hold my interest for awhile.

Tara and her sister , Melody, have an odd relationship. One minute it’s loving and the next backstabbing. There are often no holds barred and everything relates back to their upbringing. Their mom had issues and lots and lots of boyfriends. No wonder they grew up the way they did. Melody is having a mid-life crisis, just turning forty, and not sure if her marriage will make it. Her oldest daughter is having a relationship and living with Cavin’s son Eli, in his and Tara’s house. Tara’s his stepmom and he comes on to her over and over again. Cavin is Tara’s fpurth husband and he has lots of secrets he’s keeping from her and Eli hints at them over and over again. It doesn’t hurt that Tara has lots of money and spends it on everyone.

There are a lot of twists and turns to the story. Some I didn’t see coming and others were somewhat predictable. The story was choppy at times. The characters all had a depth to them and all had hidden agendas. There are no happily-ever-afters or are there? The ending blindsided me. I didn’t see most of it coming. The epilogue tied up the loose ends. There were poems throughout that pertained to some of the action in the story and while not a poetry fan I enjoyed them.

Hopkins is a new to me author. I’m on the fence whether I’ll give any of her other books a try.

Favorite Quotes:

Nice guy? Kill me now… A nice guy is roughly the equivalent of a decent girl. They’re like comfort food. Satisfying, but in all the wrong ways.

Worry causes wrinkles, and no one’s attracted to those.


My Review:

Mind blown! I had actually started to panic as after another intriguing yet slow build during this well-crafted and engrossing, yet maddeningly paced addictive tale, the storyline exploded at the 97% mark and I gasped as my heart seized in fear of another heinous cliffhanger. I was grinding my teeth, blinking hard, and ready to foam at the mouth! But, thankfully, I stumbled through an action-packed final 3% that left me so breathless I needed to read that 3% again much slower to absorb it all. W.O.W. Ellen Hopkins is a master storyteller who is also an evil genius and a wily minx. Her tantalizingly twisted yet alluring characters with their shady half-truths and bewitching storylines kept me 100% engaged yet somewhat itchy throughout. I had formed numerous wild theories of how the story would conclude but would never have dreamed up how all those little tightly woven threads knitted themselves into this finale. My gray matter will never be the same.

In 2011 a student gave me a novel in verse by Ellen Hopkins and I devoured it. Though I read almost everything she had published up to that time, I had not picked up one of her books in probably five years. This book is a sequel to a book I did not read. I know I am supposed to like the protagonist because of her candor--this woman does not shy away from expressing her needs--but I did not. I could not connect with her and found her vapid and shallow.

I have known Ellen Hopkins for her YA series that she has written and when I saw that she had written and suspense/thriller novel I was all over it!

I couldn't have been more enthralled with this novel than I was when I first started reading it. And it only got better from there! I absolutely loved the plot twists and the characters reactions to their circumstances!

I'm even more excited to see of she is going to continue this as a series!

SPOILERS throughout this review of the first book and this book also. It was too hard to share my feelings without telling you the ins and outs of why I had these feelings.

In the second book in this series, Tara Lattimore has almost finished moving into her husband's home and combining their lives. The trust issues that are in book one continue in this book and added to that is family drama when some s*&t goes down with her and her sister. The stuff that goes on with her sister made me sad to read because I liked that her sister was the one person in book two that you could love and trust and I didn't want that taken away from her.

The second book continued with the frustrating back and forth between believing either of the male characters and not believing the other. I didn't want to spoil yesterday's review and state that I ended that book with no feelings resolved and unfortunately this book gave me even more frustration.

Beyond the trust issues that continued, the main death that is featured in the synopsis happens in the last 50 pages and then all things are resolved in a clumsy way. I felt as though 80% of the book was a close repeat to the first book and then you have all of the drama and action happen in the close of the book and I wanted that to happen earlier and have more build up and intrigue.

Through all of this I am still an Ellen Hopkins fan, but I will just keep to reading her books that are full of creative and inventive poetry that seem to create such full and fantastic stories.

[Excerpt]:
Anyway. Let me start off by saying I love Ellen Hopkins. I’ve read all of her YA books (Crank trilogy, Identical, Perfect, Smoke, Burned, Tilt, Tricks), and she’s my favorite free verse author, without a doubt. I’ve always loved the way she can isolate certain words in her free verses to create a brand new sentence that’s read vertically.

I didn’t read the first book of this series, Love Lies Beneath, because I didn’t know when I requested this book that it was a sequel. However, I wasn’t confused at all. Hopkins explains all the characters and their relationships, as well as what’s going on in their lives, really thoroughly, so no one has to worry about being lost.

Tara was a bitch. Let’s get that outta the way. And I’m also not saying that because I disliked her. It’s the honest truth; she was a major bitch who knew what she wanted and how to get it. She was aggressive, brutal, stubborn, beyond confident to the point of arrogance, and unflinching in her opinions and views of life. She was obviously very smart and clever, too, based on how things unfolded. Most of the time I actually liked Tara. She did come across as unsympathetic, but it was refreshing to read from the POV of a woman who’s not the least bit insecure or afraid.
[Full review on my blog!]

I’ve been curious about Ellen Hopkins for quite some time. Her books are always being checked out at my local high school library and I’ve seen a ton of students walking around with Crank in their backpack.

Many of her books are YA novels so I was curious to see what it is that so many teens love about her work. From the sound of it, she writes really really edgy stuff so needless to say I was intrigued. Reading for high school students is like pulling teeth so when they are eagerly awaiting the next Ellen Hopkins book in droves, clearly there is something interesting happening there.

When A Sin Such As This came across my desk for review, I jumped on it even though it was geared toward adults and it was the second in a series, I was curious to see what it was about her writing that made so many students want to read her books—is it content? Prose? What is it about this author that people love?

In this gripping follow-up to Love Lies Beneath, #1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins’s “fabulous, sex-filled masterpiece of mystery and romance” (Library Journal, starred review), the honeymoon ends for Tara Lattimore when her husband’s ex-girlfriend is murdered, and she becomes a prime suspect.

Tara thought she was finally settling down when she married charming, handsome Dr. Cavin Lattimore, but life seems to be only getting more complicated. During the honeymoon, Tara’s niece Kayla moved into their Lake Tahoe home and quickly hooked up with Cavin’s manipulative, seductive son Eli. In a matter of weeks, Tara has gone from rich, single San Francisco professional to suburban housewife managing her niece’s emotional ups-and-downs, as well as her stepson’s continuing overt advances.

Adding to the family drama, Tara’s younger sister Melody is going through a serious marital breakdown. During a heated argument, her husband Graham insists he and Tara once had an affair. Despite Tara’s vehement denials, Melody is desperate to find the truth.

Enter Cavin’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend, Sophia, whose sudden relocation to Lake Tahoe is causing further shake-up. When Sophia is found murdered, police quickly narrow the list of suspects to Tara, Cavin, Eli, and Kayla. All four have motive. All four have lost themselves in a complicated web of lust, jealousy, and betrayal. But how far was one of them actually willing to go? Tara has always considered herself a tough, self-made woman, on her own since she was a teen after a childhood defined by poverty, abuse, and neglect. For years, she suffered the sins of others. But that doesn’t mean she never committed her own. Are the sins of the past about to catch up with her? (summary from Goodreads).

So I may or may not have missed the ‘sex-filled masterpiece’ recommendation clearly stated at the beginning of the summary and pitch I received. I simply saw the name ‘Ellen Hopkins’ and was eager to read something by her—YA or adult—so I quickly agreed and made room on my review schedule for this one.

Imagine my surprise when there was indeed a lot of sex. I was like wait what’s going on here, why is there so much sex in a YA book?! I realized fairly quickly that this was clearly NOT a YA book—but something meant for adult audiences only. So be warned people there is quite a bit of sex and graphic content in this book.

This book is the second in a series and I would say readers would enjoy this book more if they read the first book. I went in blind and I didn’t feel like I had as strong of a connection with Tara as other readers had from the previous book from the sound of things. Though not entirely necessary I supposed because Hopkins does fill new readers in, but for me I just felt disconnected from her as a character as I didn’t have that connection from the first book. So if you ask me—read the first book before this one.

While there is a lot of sex in this book—it didn’t entirely put me off. I liked reading about all the complicated relationships and the different perspectives that some of the characters had when it came to sex, love, and relationships. This book explored a whole lot of different angles and topics which keep things moving and interesting.

I think this book will appeal to readers in their 20’s-30’s. I don’t know that I would want to read this book with my mom, but I did enjoy it—sex and crazy family and all. I personally think this book is geared toward a younger generation.

There is a lot of family drama and mental health issues addressed in this book which I found to be an interesting combination. I love that Hopkins is bold and puts sensitive issue front and center in her books.

I rated this book a 3 because I felt a little disconnected with the overall story having not read the other book first. I hate to have my literary shortcomings be the reason it was rated lower but I can’t help how I felt. I didn’t feel as invested in the story without knowing Tara on a deeper level. I mean I liked the book but I just didn’t love it in the way that I had hoped.

Challenge/Book Summary:

Book: A Sin Such As This (Love Lies Beneath #2) by Ellen Hopkins

Paperback, 384 pages
Expected publication: May 29th 2018 by Atria Books
ISBN 1476743681 (ISBN13: 9781476743684)
Review copy provided by: Publisher/author in exchange for an honest review

This book counts toward: NA

Hosted by: NA
Books for Challenge Completed: NA
Recommendation: 3 out of 5

Genre: Chick lit, women’s fiction, contempo lit, mystery

Memorable lines/quotes:

A Sin Such as This is the follow-up book to Love Lies Beneath by Ellen Hopkins. Tara has gone from a rich single woman to a suburban housewife. Her niece, Kayla, moves into the home and immediately hooks up with the seductive stepson. As if that is not enough family drama, Tara's sister is going through marital issues. Then we have Sophia, a gorgeous ex-girlfriend found murdered. All of the main characters had motive but only one is suffering the sins of others. Whew—this is a bit much! Crazy beget crazy.

Let's look at the cover first. There is something about calming waters and a landscape that puts me at peace. Maybe too much. I fell asleep the first two times I started reading it. Then one chapter was really interesting and I saw promise for this novel. But it went downhill after that one chapter.

Here we are three years later with a sequel to Love Lies Beneath. I expected this follow-up novel to be better than the first book. It is largely because I am conditioned that Ellen Hopkins writes in beautiful prose. Not the case for traditional book format. The characters and the story itself fell flat, making it a struggle to finish. I found myself only looking forward to the few poems that separated sections. They told far more about the plot than dialogue and paragraphs did. Putting the format aside, I still did not care for A Sin Such as This as much as Ellen Hopkins' other works. Please go back to the beloved old writing style!

Happy Early Pub Day, Ellen Hopkins! A Sin Such as This is available Tuesday, May 29.

LiteraryMarie

Much like the previous novel, Love Lies Beneath, A Sin Such as This is a slow paced mundane novel with an explosive ending. If you enjoyed the first novel, then you’ll definitely love its sequel.

This novel is truly Tara’s novel. Tara is forever calculating, manipulative, and intelligent individual. Tara’s manipulative qualities are so subtly written that the reader does not realize what’s happening until it’s blatantly obvious. This is a both a strength and a weakness of Hopkins’ writing style. The subtlety of Tara’s manipulation allows for an explosive climax, but leaves the rest of the novel lacking.

Throughout the mundane musings of Tara’s life, Hopkins’ sprinkles in some truly unsettling moments. Hopkins’ drops a few lines of dialogue that cleverly change the momentum of the scene and the dynamics of the relationships.

The biggest drawback of this novel is how boring and stagnant it is for large portions of the narrative. The reader is treated to tedious situations involving Tara’s injured knee, her rehab, doctor’s appointment, and fundraiser planning. It isn’t until the final two chapters that something exciting happens. Though, that something is a game changer it doesn’t completely make up for the lack of movement throughout the entire novel.

I wrestled for with my star rating for quite some time before settling on four stars. I chose four over three because Hopkins’ handle on her characters, writing style, and climax outweighed the slow moving plot.

Overall, A Sin Such as This is more of the same, so if you enjoyed the first novel then you’ll definitely love its sequel.

A story of women who continually marries wrong. The story was quick and catching of your attention. As she embarks on her next marriage she is continually keeping to herself

This is a follow up to “Love Lies Beneath” - which I read three years ago when I was home - stuck in the house with a bright pink cast on my leg after having a complete ankle replacement.
Tara had a cast on her leg too, from a ski accident- which required her to spend time on crutches and a cast on her leg from trashy her knee while skiing. Skiing is how I broke my ankle the ‘first’ time, too. I shattered it in a ski accident and broke my tibia a day before a final at UC Berkeley.....taking a ‘hooky’ day from studying - at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe with a couple of students and Professors. Breaking it a second time 40 plus years later killed the ankle - so doctors replaced it.

I was enjoying the camraderie with Tara over our handicap hopping around on crutches. She was having more fun than I was - with her sexy lifestyle- and I was enjoying reading about it....rolling my eyes and all!

So.....I took a chance on this follow up book - “A Sin Such As This”. I no longer have any problem with my ankle - but at the start of this story, Tara is still having problems with her knee. Which is interfering with her sex life. She can have nice sex with her bad knee - but she craves wild & naughty sex.

So.... here’s the truth....
I read it ....all the messy relationships - graphic sex descriptions too - but I was a little less interested this go around. No fault of the book. More my mood.

It’s a GIRLFRIEND book.... with crazy relationship situations and behaviors — with memorable characters - looking at sex and romance from different points of view - The author explores infidelity- mental illness - characters inner feelings & thoughts - with some twists you don’t see coming towards the end—-so the suspense is real too.
It’s as good as the first book - the characters have just as many flaws - worries and charms.

Yet for me personally - this type of book is SCHLOCKY trashy reading. I’m not saying it as necessarily negative. I chose to read these books. Nobody twisted my arm. I like SCHLOCKY- when in the mood.
But I might be about done. It’s ‘me’ — not the author or the book! I still had my guilty pleasure reading - but I don’t see another craving around the corner soon.

Do I think most of my friends will want to read this - probably not. Younger women might enjoy this more than a 65 year old fart like myself. But who knows.


I ‘do’ think the author- Ellen Hopkins - has a lot of spunky loving sincerely about her - with an openness to her personality that shows up in her writing which I admire. She must be wonderful person to have lunch with.

3.5 Stars

Thank You Atria Books, Netgalley, and Ellen Hopkins

I loved the undertones of mystery throughout the story. The characters are intriguing; you want to know everything about them, all of their motives. Hopikns' way with words is impeccable as always. There's so much to love about this story.

A Sin Such as This by Ellen Hopkins (one of my favorite authors!) is a sequel to her very steamy novel Love Lies Beneath. In this book the reader gets to catch up with the main character of Tara. Tara is newly married to her handsome doctor husband that she met in the prior novel. The author does a fine job of blending a sexy story line with a suspense aspect. Tara is adjusting well to married life even if it does include a new stepson and her niece. Read and enjoy!