Review: The Innocents by Lili Peloquin

Title: The Innocents

Author: Lili Peloquin

Publisher:  Razorbill

Publication Date: 10.16.2012

Pages: 288

Genre: Contemporary

Series: Yes (The Innocents #1)

Source: ARC from publisher

Rating: B+

Summary (from Goodreads):

Nothing ever came between sisters Alice and Charlie.
Friends didn't.
Boys couldn't.
Their family falling apart never would.
Until they got to Serenity Point. 

Review:

If you liked Gossip Girl, then odds are you will love The Innocents. In her debut novel, Lili Peloquin creates a lush, decadent, and utterly devious world where back-stabbing is as commonplace as coffee in the morning and secrets pop up faster than tulips in the spring.

Let me start by saying I enjoyed Alice more than Charlie. Charlie seemed bratty and pretty entitled for the bulk of the novel. I found myself multiple times wanting Alice to slap her. Alice seemed the more sweet and innocent (and, OK, sometimes she was a little too sweet and innocent), but I felt like her character had the most growth.

And the biggest secret. Whoa. While most of the book was fairly predictable, I just didn’t see the one big secret coming.

The novel is this bewitching dichotomy of fluff and dark. In a lot of ways I breezed through it like a normal, light contemporary novel. But there are these shady twists and turns that made me take pause several times. I loved that I could read this easily in one sitting, but it wasn’t the usual contemp where a couple rides off into the proverbial sunset on their mopeds. There’s a delicious angst to this book that just drew me in, and I hope that continues in the next book.

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