Member Reviews
I was happy to receive an ARC of "Pretty Revenge" from NetGalley. I have read other books by Emily Liebert with mixed feelings. I loved her novel "You Knew Me When," but felt "Those Secrets We Keep" was mediocre at best.
This novel felt a bit too "Dear Diaryish" for me. The characters were shallow and petty and the big reveal about halfway through the book was just plain ridiculous. The name dropping of designer brands every few sentences was very distracting to the story. The story was over the top at times and too dramatic. I also think the big twist should of been revealed more towards the end of the novel. Once we hear what really happened on that day in the past, my interest in the story waned. It was also a highly implausible ending and I don't think the author did sufficient research.
I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Thanks NetGalley!
Kerrie feels that Jordana is responsbile for her grandma's death. How far is too far? When will the revenge go too far?
great book.. fast read.. fast paced.
Very enjoyable read. Not five stars, but close enough, held my interest throughout and loved the ending. Recommend
How far is too far to go when you are plotting revenge on someone? Is it worth it to ruin their business, their marriage, and their life? These are questions Kerrie struggles with when she suddenly sees the woman she feels ruined her life 18 years later on a tv show. A lot can change in 18 years and maybe Kerrie didn’t know the struggles of Jordana’s upbringing and the abuse she endured while growing up with an alcoholic father. Whatever the cost, Kerrie will stop at nothing to get revenge on Jordana, who she feels is responsible for her beloved grandmothers death and her own unhappiness. Excellent, fast paced read that will make you think about anger and empathy. Can we really know what someone else is going through and how that may affect their actions. Highly recommended.
I really enjoyed the book. Just enough suspense of why the revenge seeker needed to even a score from the time she was 12. The relationship that developed between them was interesting and kept the story going. It made me want to see them be friends and forget about revenge. Nicely wrapped up at the end with an ending I didn’t expect. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC
I thought this was a great book of revenge! Kerrie feels Jodana betrayed her when she was 12 years old and when the opportunity presents itself to fix this wrong, Kerrie jumps on it. This novel is told by Kerrie/Olivia and Jordana/Jordan and I love how it is told. You find out the past of both plus how their lives have been in the years after the betrayal. Both characters have major character flaws but also have hope of being better people. The story had plenty of twists and turns that keep you reading happily until the end. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery publishing for the ARC of Pretty Revenge by Emily Liebert!
This story follows two characters Jordana Pierson and Olivia Lewis - two seemingly fabulous women with dark pasts and new identities. Emily Liebert has crafted a delicious plot line of revenge. Olivia Lewis, formally known as Kerrie O’Malley, knew Jordana Pierson before she was a glamorous wedding planner for New York’s most elite couples. Jordana, formally known as Jordan Butler ruined Kerrie’s life, and Kerrie has come back disguised as Olivia for perfect revenge.
This book was a real page turner and had me at the edge of my seat waiting for more details on what had happened to these two and how each would have sweet redemption for how they were wronged. The book was a quick read, but still allowed you to get invested into bother of these characters pasts and futures.
Fans of a A Simple Favor and The Last Misses Parrish will love this.
I am a huge thriller fan so I have set the bar high for books in that genera and let me tell you Emily Liebert did an amazing job writing Pretty Revenge! Jordana and Kerrie are two different people dealing with the need for revenge and the need to hide from their past. Their stories were both so addicting and engrossing that I felt for both of them. I love that twist because usually in a thriller you love one and hate or fear another but since this book was written with two very detailed point of views I was very easy to like both.
I think that this was a good story but I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Good and twisty tale of revenge, I just expected a little bit more from the description as far as it being a suspenseful thriller. Overall I would say that it was a quick read, it just wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.
This book doesn't happen the way I expect, which is not a bad thing. I wasn't sure what to expect, honestly, but I feel it will leave readers feeling satisfied by the climax. I know I was. Very suspenseful.
This is NOT a Thriller, its Chick Lit. While not my cup of tea I did finish it thinking with so many excellent reviews there has to be something here, nope.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and publisher Simon & Schuster in exchange for my honest opinion.
Pretty Revenge is a very good read. It focuses on Kerrie and Jordana and their shared history. We get a view of how far someone may go to get revenge for something that happened long ago, but in certain places that revenge seemed a little petty to me. Most of the "revenge" seemed to be things that could easily be fixed, thus rendering the acts fairly worthless.
I was immediately pulled into this story though and enjoyed the characters very much. The big reveal of revenge fell a little flat to me, especially Jordana's reaction, but it was interesting how everyone got to that point.
The back story was quite the story and one I really enjoyed. I definitely would recommend this book, primarily because it caught and held my interest. I really wanted to know what would happen and overall, I was glad I read it. I would buy it for a friend or family member and do recommend it. Emily Liebert always provides great descriptions and dialogue and Pretty Revenge is true to form for her.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for providing an ARC at my request. My thoughts in this review are my own and freely given.
Rather than an adult book, this story pretty silly. Stop reading if you don’t want me to SPOIL the big revelation of why Karrie wanted revenge.
It turned out that one day when Jordana was 17 and Karrie was 12, she spent the night at Karrie’s and stole some cash and a ring from Karrie. Wow! Also, Jordana left in the middle of the night, Karrie’s grandma came back from work and lit some candles and went to sleep. There was a fire because the stove was oozing gas and grandma died. Since then, Karrie could nor forget neither forgive that Jordana stole the money and that her grandma supposedly died because Jordana left the stove on.
Now, present day, Kerrie is not an ugly duck anymore so she is able to work for Jordana. On top of that, she had received an inheritance from said dead grandmother that allowed her to live in the heart of NYC.
Among lots of silly dialogue and stereotyping rich people, Kerrie carries the must absurd revenge. She gets a friend to find some papers that proves that Jordana’s husband is a crook. Wow! Really? Those papers were just there waiting to be found?
At times I felt I was reading a The-Devil-Wears-Prada-wanna be.
Jordana’s life, before she was rich, was a miserable cliche (poor, abused, etc.), but Karrie dismantling know that and she envied Jordana when they were younger.
I’m just going to stop here and safe myself the time I wasted reading this silly story.
Pretty Revenge is one of those thrilling page turners that will 100% interrupt your life until you get to the last delicious page, so consider yourself warned.
Kerrie O’Malley had a horrible childhood and she attributes everything bad that has happened in her life to one person. Her anger, animosity and hatred have slow simmered for years. Kerrie’s adult life is fairly dull, with no career and a blah relationship that is never going anywhere. As she watches television, she is shocked to see the one person who turned her life upside down. She’s now exceptionally beautiful and polished, living the good life in New York City as an elite wedding planner to the uber rich and now calls herself - Jordana Pierson.
Thanks to the interview, Kerrie knows exactly how to re-enter Jordana’s life and take her down. Kerrie’s hatred reaches a boiling point as she reinvents herself ensuring she isn’t recognized and executes a flawless plan for revenge.
I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
What an amazing thriller! Absolutely loved it; every roller coaster moment of it. This book was full of surprises, and there was no boring moment. I highly recommend it.
First thing's first--can we talk about this stunning cover?! It's SO eye-catching!
As for the inside of this book, unfortunately, although I enjoyed my time spent reading this one, it fell flat in some ways for me. For a novel that's described as a thriller, I guess I just wasn't...thrilled enough. Reading this one required a lot of suspension of disbelief, which I can certainly look past, but then the big reveals along the way, plus that ending, were not dramatic enough for me. The story just kinda flopped.
On a more positive note, I really enjoyed the fact that by the end, I was feeling sympathetic towards both narrators. It was far less "good guy versus bad guy" than I was expecting. I love when an author can show that there's more than one side to a person, and Liebert successfully created multi-faceted main characters. Not only that but her writing in general flows very well, making this a quick, easy read.
All in all, although I was pretty disappointed in this book as a thriller, I did enjoy Emily Liebert's writing. So even though I don't think I'd ever re-read this one, I would like to try some of Liebert's other books.
I wanted to like this story and really read it from beginning to end. I found it slow moving and not engaging enough. I get it childhood friendships can be hurtful but it makes the character shallow to go to lengths to seek revenge as a adult. I found the story king immature and lacked any compassion for either girls. The friendship did not feel real and their lives felt miserable. I don’t know how these stories would make our next generation become stronger individuals if the intent is to hurt another through revenge.
In the vain of The Wife Between Us comes a witty and unconventional thriller. Pretty Revenge by Emily Liebert was a book that I finished quickly, the characters were so consuming that I had to know what was going to happen. I haven't seen any books in this genre from Emily before, so when I saw that she was writing a crazy stalker type of thriller, I knew it was going on my TBR, and I wasn't disappointed.
Kerrie O'Malley (oh yeah, I must add, I think this was the first time that I have ever seen a book character have the same spelling in their name as me! Maybe that's why I liked her so much haha) finds herself with out a job and in a pretty mediocre relationship. The guy isn't even technically her boyfriend, just a roommate that she sleeps with, so when she hears a voice from her past that sends chills down her spine, not in a good way, she knows her next move. The girl who ruined her entire life is on television talking about a very infamous couple who are getting married soon, and she's looking for an assistant to help. Kerrie has nothing to lose, everything has already been taken away by this girl, so Kerrie decides to head to New York to get some revenge.
Jordana, who used to be Jordan when Kerrie knew her, left everything behind and started a new life, even changed her name and practically everything anyone knows about her. She's successful, her husband is rich as can be, and though she's not really happy, she can say she's getting there. The only thing that would be better is having an assistant to help deal with all of the drama from these high-profile weddings. That's when Olivia Lewis shows up, Olivia who is actually Kerrie, hasn't seen Jordana since she was twelve years old, so there's no way Jordana will recognize her. She's right, Jordana is clueless about what's going to happen, and Olivia fits right in, helping out right away.
That is until Olivia starts to mess things up on purpose, and basically exploit Jordana, as the story unfolds, you see what happened in the past between these two girls, but is it all just a huge misunderstanding? Or is Jordana a horrible, greedy, person who only cares about herself?
You won't know until you read this book! It's so good you guys, pick it up as soon as you can, it was one of my favorites this year so far. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. Perfect!
I always read the first few pages of a new book, even if I’ve got a whole stack of books to read before I can get to the new one. So that’s what I did with this book, read the first few pages with every intention of adding it to the queue. But in the end this one never made it to the queue because I couldn’t stop reading. I think I read it all in one sitting to be honest and I loved every page of this revenge thriller.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a book that grabs you from the first page and keeps you turning pages because you need to know what happens.
I received an Arc of this book.
I loved this book! It has everything a good thriller should have. You have Kerrie who is so bent on revenge that it clouded her judgment on life. Jordana who was trying to run from a past life and the past caught up with her. This book is definitely in my top five favorite books now! I loved how the Author gave the viewpoints of both characters. I loved the detail in the character's lives. The Author made it so that you wanted both characters to come out on top!