From the author of Pretty Little Liars, we have another guilty pleasure read; Reputation by Sara Shepard.
“Got a secret, can you keep it? Swear this one you’ll save. Better lock it in your pocket. Taking this one to the grave.” Anyone recognize the theme song from PLL? I could NOT stop playing this over and over in my head while reading Reputation. You’re welcome.

While I didn’t read PLL, I did watch the first few seasons and gobbled it up. Its juicy and oh so fun. Reputation is just as entertaining and one you just can’t get enough of. I love a good campus drama and boy does this pack the drama. Each character has his/her secrets and what they do to protect them will have you wondering if anyone is innocent.

A thrilling and addictive read I give this 4 stars.

Aldrich University is almost as prestigious as an Ivy League, and just got hit by a hacker. Emails from staff, students, and affiliates are leaked into a public database. Lives are unraveling, secrets revealed. Dr. Greg Strasser, a surgeon at the associated hospital, is exposed as a cheater. Then he is found murdered in his home. His wife, Kit, and her sister, Willa, hold many secrets, but is murder one of them?

This book is told from multiple perspectives. Just when you think you know what happened, the story reveals something else. There is scandal, gossip, and murder - I was hooked from page 1 and couldn't put this one down.

This twisty book full of secrets kept me constantly guessing and surprised me often.

This fast paced, soapy, mystery was told from multiple POV after a prestigious university gets their emails hacked and everyone’s secrets are exposed. These leaked emails lead to a murder but with so many suspects who can you believe?!
Some books with multiple POV can be confusing and hard to track but not Sara Shepard, each voice was distinctive and dealing with something different which was set off by the email leak.
The whole second half I was unable to put down, flipping as fast as my eyes could read. If you enjoy books with tons of drama and twists make sure you check this one out


Thank you to netgalley and penguin group Dutton for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

I hate to say it but this was my first ever experience with a book written by the great Sara Shepard and I was blown away. Every single page was mesmerizing and the mystery that flowed between these pages was just chilling.
This is one of my favorite books of the year and I can’t wait to get my hands on a psychical copy.

O what a tangled web we weave! I lead a very boring life compared to the crazy people in this story. An interesting perspective on what could happen if private emails were exposed! I kept thinking I knew “who done it” but then a new twist would happen.

I was so excited to see that Sara Shepard was coming out with a new book and I was not disappointed! Much like her other novels, in Reputation, everyone has something to hide. Sara is the master at writing compelling characters who do awful things. You're not really sure if you can root for any of them, but you can always find a bit of sympathy for them, even if they are mostly terrible people. I loved how twisted the story path went from the data hack to the conclusion. It was impossible to predict where it was going, which kept me on my toes, and fully engrossed in the book. One thing I didn't love was around 3/4 of the way through, I felt like there was too many important events that were described to the reader by the character's thoughts after the fact (almost in a thought-flashback kind of way) instead of letting the events play out in the story's "real time." I felt this disconnected the reader from the story a bit, and made some things confusing. There were also a lot of character viewpoints from which the story was told. That was overwhelming in the beginning, but they did tie together nicely in the end. Overall, I really enjoyed Reputation, and will continue to seek out Sara Shepard's novels.

I was hoping to like this book more. I know that Shepard writes multiple point of view stories and I usually enjoy them, but this one was too confusing to keep straight. There were several points of view and the characters felt too similar which made it difficult to keep everyone separate in my head. The nature of the story connects many characters which didn’t help when it came to keeping stories straight, and while this could have added tension it just confused me.

The story itself was okay, but because I’ve read several of Shepard’s works, I found myself comparing them and thinking that this story was very similar to several other stories I’ve read in the past. I was hoping that the story would get twisty, and it does, but I didn’t have much motivation to care for or root for any characters, nor did I really want to get to the end and find who was responsible for the mystery.

Overall it started out okay and was a fine read, but I think Shepard’s young adult works are more my taste over her adult novels. I really missed having developed characters that had backstories I wanted to get invested in and relationships I could see develop, over these somewhat similar characters all affected by a large plot point that I wasn’t that interested in. There were two characters I was interested in, but these two stories weren't enough to keep me engaged in the larger plot and the rest of the points of view.

This book is perfect for Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars fans. This is fill of everything we've come to expect from Sara Shepard. The mystery is fantastic and captivating. I love the fact that this book has more adults and the main characters are not teens in high school. It's the perfect level up for her as a writer and her readers who've been following her books.

Trigger Warnings: Rape, Sexual Assault

I had a really hard time getting into this book, despite the fact the blurb really caught my attention. Some parts seemed a bit absurd, almost like reading a soap opera. I never really connected to any of the characters.

An e-mail hack at a prestigious college reeked havoc on the campus of Aldrich University.

The hack exposed every single e-mail that administrators, doctors, faculty, and students had written.

The e-mails revealed secret affairs, unsavory situations, and other juicy details.

After the hack, one of the surgeons, Greg Strasser, who had his very compromising e-mails revealed is murdered in his home, and that brings more chaos and scandal for the university. His wife, Kit, is obviously the one who they most likely think killed him since she found him.

Each chapter was headed with a character’s story, and there were quite a few characters that could have been the person on the other end of the surgeon’s e-mails and also be his murderer.

The investigation continues, but no one is arrested even though a few characters are definitely hiding something about their relationship with Greg.

Kit’s sister, Willa, stays after the funeral to do some investigation of her own, but she also recalls an incident that happened years ago to her that was difficult to forget.

Along with Willa’s recollection there seem to be a lot of folks in this town with secrets they seem to be hiding.

Every time one of the characters was telling his or her story, they comment about their guilt about something.

Ms. Shepard definitely knows how to keep up the suspense and keep the story intriguing. You think you know who the murderer is and then it appears you are incorrect.

I do need to warn the reader, though, that there are some unsettling, upsetting situations.

REPUTATION is a roller coast of a read with a cover that doesn't seem to fit with the story inside as well as a cover I'm not particularly fond of. 4/5

This book was given to be by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sara Shepard can do absolutely NO wrong. She has mastered the art of stringing you along and giving you tidbits of info along the way so you think you know what's happening then BAM twists on twists. Her twists have twists. She is just amazing and this novel is no exception.

This was a slow burn that picks up and leaves your head spinning. It’s a twisty thriller that unfolds through 4 different POVs and leaves you guessing and changing your mind every chapter. It’s got it all: murder, scandal, scammers, relationship drama, lies and revenge.

Reputation is a story of what can go wrong when lies get out of control. Right from the beginning, I was hooked. It kept me entertained and I didn't want to stop reading. Even when it was WAY past my bedtime. Sometimes lies get a little out of hand and things can get wonky. And sometimes lies can go crazy bananas, and someone gets killed. That makes real life kinda messy, but when it's a story like Reputation, we get to empathize from a safe distance.

There's only one negative I have about the book, but I don't want to say here, since it could be considered a minor spoiler. However, overall, I really enjoyed it, and I think this was a great first novel for Shepard.

Publishes 12.3.19.

4.5/5 Stars

Perfectly fine book about the damage that keeping secrets can do to your reputation, especially if those secrets are hackable and shared with the entire world. And then there's a mystery about who killed Kit's husband Greg, which Kit and sister Willa are trying to solve before the police (why exactly?). Oh, and also a mysterious college student who probably is in the middle of it all. Too many twists, too many POVs, too many threads to unpick and too little care in the plotting. Paring this down to one main mystery while treating the others as minor ones would have elevated it from fine to good.

eARC provided by publisher.

I was instantly hooked- an email hack, secrets in the open, a husband's dead- who did all this? But my interest quickly dwindled. I quickly found that I didn't like any the characters and quite frankly didn't care what happened to them. Though I will say there were rapes involved which I felt were not handled in the best manner and can be a trigger for some people. I conquered on and finished the book- and found the ending a little more intriguing but it was still a rough ride to finish the book. Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out really strong for me. I loved the description! A huge university getting hacked. All the previous faculty and student emails are out there for the world to see. Ekkkk, can you imagine if the general public had access to every email you wrote?! Dear god, there would be hell to pay. Yet some people were exposed more than others- scandals, affairs, shopping habits, you name it they are out there.

I especially enjoyed the catty sarcastic behavior of Lynn right from the start. She is skimming through Facebook judging all her friends. It actually was quite funny being privy to her inner thoughts that were " not so nice" yet, you know we are all a little guilty of that! As the drama from the emails continue to build one of the main victims of the hack- with the most popular views of his email ( because they were really steamy) is murdered. Now this is a book! The suspects were endless because he has made quite a great deal of enemies with these emails. Like I said this book started out really strong for me.

I can't believe as a thriller lover I am going to say this...but this book just had too many twists for me. Literally every single character had a major mouth dropping twist or secret that they were hiding. At first I was gasping at reveal after reveal. Then it lost it shock value for me personally. The twists kept coming all the way until the end and I should have been shocked by them but instead I was just like uhhh meh....I began to feel like I was watching a daytime soap where it just got out of control crazy twists. I think I was "all shocked out" by the end. With that being said many, many people will be sure to love this!

I did enjoy the book and I am glad that I read it, it is just a little too dramatic for me to personally rate it higher.

This title is the definition of "page-turner." Recommend this to readers who like a very fast-paced, suspenseful mystery with lots of twists and turns. Great for the now-grown-up generation who so enjoyed Shepard's Pretty Little Liars book and tv series.

From the author of Pretty Little Liars comes a tale of scandal, betrayal, deceit and murder. When a university is hacked, private emails of students, administrators and the university hospital become public. The fallout is swift- jobs are lost, marriages fall apart, and the university president’s daughter Kit’s husband is murdered after his explicit emails to another woman are discovered in the hack. The only problem? Kit can’t remember how she got home that night. She’s almost certain she didn’t kill her husband...

Kit’s sister, Willa, comes to town to support the family— but Willa has secrets of her own. If you love suspense and scandal, you’ll love this page turner, which follows the lives of several women affected by the secrets revealed by the hack.

Wow what a crazy and amazing ride this book was. I honestly don’t know where to begin with this review. Sara Shepard starts the journey of Kit with the University getting hacked. I’m talking hacked hacked students, staff, alum and everyone’s emails got leaked and this rocks Kit’s world. Well it did but then she got her world hella rocked the next day when she woke up to her dead......

Sara did an amazing job with Reputation! I truly how complex the story was, who everyone seemed guilty and how the twists and turns kept me glued to my kindle.

"Maybe the best reputation is no reputation. Maybe it's best not to care whatsoever how people see you. Maybe the only thing that really matters is how you see yourself."

Aldrich University has been hacked. Everyones emails and secrets are all online for the world to see. After spending a night at a work event where she tried forgetting that her husbands emails told her he had been cheating, Kit wakes up to find him murdered in their kitchen. While she can't remember much of the night before, she is 99.9% sure she did not kill him. Her sister Willa quickly hops on a plane to be at her side, but Willa is also an investigative reporter, and she wants to crack the case.

I really enjoyed this book! I love a good college novel and this had that and more! I loved Pretty Little Liars, and while this was similar in a way, it was also very different. Once I picked this one up, I couldn't put it down. I needed to know what happened!

Thank you to Netgalley & Dutton Books for my advanced copy of this book!