The Secrets of Lily Graves
Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Release Date: May 13, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Summary:
Growing up in a house of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between them — something Erin definitely did not like.
But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.
So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily’s and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship — which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous — makes them both suspects.
As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.
First Sentence: “Hey, Lily.”
My Review:
Ever since I saw the cover of The Secrets of Lily Graves, I had always wanted to read it. Honestly, The Secret of Lily Graves was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I don’t know why, but something about the cover just called to me. Add the fact that The Secrets of Lily Graves is also a murder mystery and I need the book in my hands, now. Even as the negative reviews for The Secrets of Lily Graves came pouring in on goodreads, I didn’t care. It didn’t diminish any of my determination to read this one – I was that dedicated to the book (and the cover). I didn’t go into The Secrets of Lily Graves with any high expectations since I had the negative reviews in mind, but I was still really disappointed with the book. What’s going around in my head in circles right now is what a waste of a good premise and a gorgeous cover. What a waste.
The call that changed everything came the following afternoon while I was crammed into a casket, up to my eyeballs in white eyelet. (ARC 17)
Where do I even start? How about what I briefly stated above, that The Secrets of Lily Graves didn’t reach the maximum potential its premise had. The Secrets of Lily Graves wasn’t at all “creeptastic” like my friend Jon from Scott Reads It puts it. A huge majority of the book was just boring. My question is, what kind of mystery, suspense, and thriller is supposed to be boring? Answer: None. A mystery, suspense, and thriller book being boring is the opposite of the definition of a mystery, suspense, and thriller book. In fact, The Secrets of Lily Graves didn’t feel like a thriller or suspense book at all. It just felt like a book with a mean girls premise and a who done it? question. Even the Who Dunn It? show was a lot better and definitely more entertaining than The Secrets of Lily Graves.
And the romance. Look at the summary. Doesn’t it imply make it appear that there indeed is romance in the book? Goodreads even says that The Secrets of Lily Graves is of the romance genre. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you guys, but there was no romance. In fact, the non-existent romance was beyond confusing. I can’t really explain it well without giving you any spoilers, but even as I was typing up a spoiler-filled paragraph that would be blocked for people who don’t want to read it, I had a very hard time describing the non-existent romance. The best and shortest way to describe it without any spoilers is that Lily and Matt are not together and are just friends…and then suddenly they are madly in love in the last few chapters. Like, what? Where was the build-up? The tension? The chemistry? Even those mini-flashbacks between Lily and Matt didn’t help me, but just confused me even more.
All I could say was, “Matt.”
Later, they would tell me that all he could say was, “Lily.” (ARC 295)
There were also lots of minor things that didn’t make sense and was left unsolved. One example is Lily. Lily was such a weak character – there were many inconsistencies in her personality. At one moment, she is so smart she knows how fast a heart beats per minute (probably a part of her job to know, but highly unlikely since it just doesn’t make sense). Lily also knows what a “buccal smear” is (it’s a procedure where “they [swab] the inside of your cheek to get a sample of your DNA” (40-41), a fact which Lily says that everyone should obviously know, which excuse me, I didn’t know), which proves that Lily is crime smart, but at the next moment, Lily doesn’t know what it means when the police searches her house bringing warrants. Yeah, I was just busy facepalming at these simple inconsistencies.
Oh yes, and before I forget to mention this, the title is a lie. There is no secret about Lily or Matt. There was this one part in the book where Lily briefly mentions that Matt has a secret, but his secret is just so glaringly obvious right from the start that it’s not a secret. For the title to be “secrets,” plural, is extremely misleading.
The one and only thing I did enjoy reading about in The Secrets of Lily Graves was Sarah’s obsession with crime shows. (In case you guys don’t know, I love watching crime shows. I watch at least 3 new ones every week.) Whenever the book mentioned crime shows like Deadly Women (yay! I’m not the only one who knows that show exists – it is the best crime show out there in my opinion) and Happily Never After, I was just flailing with love.
“There was this episode of Happily Never After where this guy from Boston claimed he and his wife were carjacked on their way back from a birthing class when-” (ARC 162)
I’ve sadly never seen that episode.
Overall, there is no doubt that I strongly recommend you guys to skip this one. If you’re looking for a great murder mystery to read about, I recommend you guys to read Far From You by Tess Sharpe instead.
And before I end my review, as immature as this might seem, I just HAVE TO do this. The main character’s name is Lily Graves. Where do you think she works and like to hang out in? (Answer: Lily Graves works in a funeral home and love hanging out at the cemetery. How PUNNY.)
That’s disappointing, like you, I was really looking forward to this one. And it’s always confusing when descriptions don’t seem to match. I always avoid descriptions as much as possible because I like to be totally surprised going into what I’m reading.
That said, I LOVED that you recommended Far From You. It was one of the most surprising books I read this year, and in the best way possible. SO GOOD.
Cassie (Happy Book Lovers) recently posted…The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden
Sometimes I avoid descriptions, but them, if I don’t get a book, it’ll be my fault because I didn’t read the description, so… :l
YES. Far From You is SO good. Every time I think about The Secrets of Lily Graves, I just want to go and read Far From You instead.
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
haha puns :P
Re: the buccal smear- why the heck wouldn’t you just call it a cheek swab?? That’s what we normal people call it…also, to be honest, knowing that fact doesn’t particularly makes you “crime smart”. We have to do it a lot of times in science pracs too.
I really don’t like the sound of this speedy romance and predictable secrets either.
Man, so many people are hating this book! Every time I read a review for it, the further I back away from this book :P
Nara recently posted…Review: Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman
You have to love them puns. ;D
YES. Way to make things confusing.
Lily also knew other crime facts besides those two – I just couldn’t think of other examples off the top of my head besides those two.
All the negative reviews didn’t make me scared of this one, but man, the book itself made me scared. What a great premise down the drain. D:
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
I was only sort of thinking about reading this one because I’ve seen the bad reviews but now I’m definitely going to skip it. I’m not completely surprised it wasn’t enjoyable; Sarah Strohmeyer has been hit or miss for me.
Kelly recently posted…Review: The Infinite Moment of Us
This is my first Sarah Strohmeyer book and boy, I’m feeling really frustrated and disappointed. D:
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
YES. I thought it was boring too, unfortunately :( I was also let down by the romance, especially because I thought it was creepy.. I didn’t like the two characters together.. Such a waste!
Mel@thedailyprophecy recently posted…Review 262. Sarah Strohmeyer – The secrets of Lily Graves.
I was into the book at first, but I quickly got bored. -sighs-
Ha ha, I spent a majority of my notes noting how creepy/dumb/weird/arsehat Matt was.
Agreed, such a waste!
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
Ugh. I have been avoiding reading this one because I have been hearing so much of the same from other bloggers. I am so sad… So many books that people can’t help but be excited about when they are announced keep turning into duds when we finally get to read them. I wish the hype monster never existed.
Thanks for sharing! I am so sorry that this was no bueno.
Jenna recently posted…Mid Week Musings: Did Somebody Say DNF??
I agree with other bloggers – definitely avoid this one. The Secrets of Lily Graves will leave you sad, mad, and frustrated. :l
Yes, the hype monster always drags the book down. Expectations is a monster.
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
Oh gosh…I guess I’m not the only one. I fell in love with the cover since the first time I saw it. It just screamed at me to read it, NOW! I haven’t gotten a copy yet, but just like you, as soon as this book was released (maybe even before that) the reviews that kept coming in about this book were all either moderately okay with this book or it was super low where I felt it made no sense at all. Thankfully, you’ve put to light what exactly went wrong. I don’t even know what to do…I love that cover so much, but if the story sucks just as much, should I even think about reading it now?
EXACTLY. The cover is so gorgeous that all I could do was stare at it like o______o!
Hmm, since you also like the cover as much as I do (believe me, I totally get that!), you should just borrow it from the library and see from there!
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
Are her favorite flowers lilies too? I sure hope not. I can only imagine how much eye rolling I would do if Lily Graves liked to place lilies on graves at the cemeteries.
Ha ha, the book never mentioned her favorite flower, but to make things even more punny, probably. :P
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
Uh oh. It sounds like a pass on this book. Confusion is never a good sign…
Chanpreet recently posted…Blog Tour, Review, and Q & A with the author : Spotlight by Krista Richmond
Yeah, I sadly strongly recommend you guys to avoid this one. :l
Read Far From You instead – that book is done so much better!
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
Thanks for biting the bullet and letting the rest of us avoid this flop!
Beth W recently posted…Nail Files: Dragonspell
Ha ha, I just couldn’t resist the gorgeous cover! :P
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
That’s always so dissapointing when that happens. I’ve experienced it recently myself. Great review though, I know the not so great ones are always hard.
Aww, sounds like we both need a hug Christina! -hugs-
And thank you! (:
Kelly recently posted…Life Of A Blogger: 101 Things You Hate
I am so sorry that this was such a disappointment for you! We all know that feeling all to well. I hadn’t thought about this book much, so when the less than stellar reviews starting rolling in, I pretty much knew I wouldn’t read it. This is just the icing on the cake. I do want to read Smart Girls Get What They Want though! I am looking forward to that one.
Nicole @ THe Quiet Concert recently posted…The Murder Complex (The Murder Complex #1) by Lindsay Cummings
If it wasn’t for the pretty cover, I wouldn’t have touched this one at all, especially after seeing the cover. I couldn’t resist the cover though.
I may try Smart Girls Get What They Want – I’ve heard pretty good things about that one!
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [81]
That stinks! I really wanted to read that one!
Isabel recently posted…Book Blitz: Mortal Enchantment by Stacey O’Neal
I thought that too, but now, I recommend you skip it. :l
If you really want to read it, then borrow it from the library instead.
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [81]
I knew I was apprehensive about this for a reason! Authors branching out to other stuff is awesome, but I see this was not particularly successful. But I thought this was supposed to be creepy and thrilling and suspenseful? Boo for misleading marketing.
Blythe Harris recently posted…Review: 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen
The worse part is, The Secrets of Lily Graves is quite similar to another book also recently released this year and that one was A LOT better than The Secrets of Lily Graves all around.
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [81]
I’m so sorry to hear this wasn’t up to you expectations! I personally cannot wait to get this book, because you’re right, that cover is gorgeous, and I’m sure I haven’t read this other book, since I dont read that many murder mysteries, but I can’t help but love them!
Maddy @ Symphony of Words recently posted…Review: Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser
I started to read this book,but did not have my attention,so I didn’t continued with reading :D
Great review!!I don’t think that this book is for me!!
Awww, that SUCKS! I hate when books sound great and then WABAM! total and complete suckage. Thanks for the heads up on this one. As always, honesty is always appreciated! :-)
Yikes. It has such a great cover! A mystery that isn’t exciting? Count me out. Too bad the plot didn’t live up to the beautiful cover it has. Such a shame.