As soon as Seneca Frazier sees the post on the Case Not Closed website about Helena Kelly, she’s hooked. Helena’s high-profile disappearance five years earlier is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It’s the reason she’s a member of the site in the first place.So when Maddy Wright, her best friend from the CNC site, invites Seneca to spend spring break in Connecticut … looking into the cold case, she immediately packs her bag. But the moment she steps off the train in trendy, glamorous Dexby, things begin to go wrong. Maddy is nothing like she expected, and Helena’s sister, Aerin Kelly, seems completely hostile and totally uninterested in helping with their murder investigation.
But when Brett, another super user from the site, joins Seneca and Maddy in Dexby, Aerin starts to come around. The police must have missed something, and someone in Dexby definitely has information they’ve been keeping quiet.
As Seneca, Brett, Maddy, and Aerin begin to unravel dark secrets and shocking betrayals about the people closest to them, they seem to be on the murderer’s trail at last. But somewhere nearby the killer is watching . . . ready to do whatever it takes to make sure the truth stays buried.
First in a new series by the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Pretty Little Liars series, Sara Shepard, The Amateurs is packed with the twists and turns, steamy romance, and stunning revelations that her fans have been waiting for.
* “Shepard . . . unravels the truth, the author lulls readers into a false sense of security before expertly pulling the rug out from underneath them. This is a delicious start to the Amateurs series.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A twisty and ultimately satisfying romantic whodunit.” –Kirkus Reviews
” L]ikely to reach best-seller status.” –Booklist
“A delicious and suspenseful page-turner. I want more ” -I. Marlene King, Executive Producer, Pretty Little Liars
“Chilling and romantic and full of surprises.” -Cecily von Ziegesar, New York Times best-selling author of the Gossip Girl series
“Long live the queen of secrets The Amateurs is a dark and twisty thriller which might just fill the Pretty Little Liars shaped hole in my heart ” -Danielle Paige, New York Times best-selling author of Dorothy Must Die
“Deceitful and delicious ” -Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times best-selling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and author of The Lovely Reckless
“It’s clear that Sara Shepard is no amateur; her devious and thrilling twists will leave you frantically turning pages until the very last moment.” -Kass Morgan, New York Times best-selling author of The 100 series
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I love a great continuity series and this one is amazing for the fact that you never feel like it’s just building to one thing. It hits so many of my sweet-spots: awkward romance, ensemble cast, a great mystery, people on a mission.
Modern-day Agatha Christie for teens and adults alike.
I’m on chapter 17 I think and I love it. My teacher bought it for all of the students in my grade and she had never read it so we went through it and pointed out the stuff we wouldn’t recommend for under the age of 13 and she said “shhh don’t tell the principal”. So it’s really good, the main character has a interesting back story along with Heleana’s little sister. But I definitely recommend!
She did not disappoint with this book I was turning the page and I did not want to put this book down. This book was good for when I just wanted to relax with a nice and easy read mystery which is what this was. I did not guess the ending I was nowhere near the ending to what happened, Sara Shepard threw in twists and turns and with each one I was getting further and further away from the actual murder. I had no idea how it would end, but oh my god it was brilliant, Sara Shepard really does have a talent.
I sometimes struggled to connect with the characters which were a shame but although I couldn’t connect with them, I did care a little about what happened to them. It’s also interesting to see young people so interested in crime and wanting to solve it and in fact closing cases more than the police.
Aerin was a very interesting character she never stopped looking for her sister’s killer or wanting to know answers, and we see the massive impact that her sister going missing happened on her social life with making out with random boys and doing certain sexual things with different boys.
Seneca had a very personal connection with Aerin and that was the fact both of them had lost someone, and although they had this connection they didn’t really meld well together, they clashed quite a bit but at times in this story, the dynamic really worked. I didn’t like how Seneca lied to her dad about the university thing, she is surely old enough to be able to do what she wants even if she did have to repeat a year of school.
The romance in this book was a bit naff, in fact it was crap, I really didn’t care for it, I didn’t care if these chraracters mainly Seneca and Maddox got together or if they seperated. I just really didn’t care what happened to them, it just seemed so childish and high schooly.
The one thing I don’t think the book did very well in getting closure, they know who the murderer is but they don’t have the answers they want or need because of the ending. So I can’t wait for the next book in the series to see where Sara Shepard takes this book because I can imagine it can go in many directions.