The Lying Game #5: Cross My Heart, Hope to Die
The Lying Game #5: Cross My Heart, Hope to Die book cover

The Lying Game #5: Cross My Heart, Hope to Die

Hardcover – February 5, 2013

Price
$12.99
Format
Hardcover
Pages
336
Publisher
HarperTeen
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0062128195
Dimensions
5.5 x 1.09 x 8.25 inches
Weight
7.7 ounces

Description

Praise for The Lying Game: “The Lying Game is a stay–up–past–your–bedtime type of thriller…full of amazingly believable plot twists and turns.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review) “A fun and fast–moving mystery…[readers] will race through the pages as Emma pieces together clues and will have plenty to ponder as they anticipate the next installment.” — Publishers Weekly “A thrilling mystery with just the right doses of romance and danger.” — School Library Journal From the Inside Flap It's not easy being me. But my twin sister has no choice. When I died two months ago, my killer told my twin sister to become me--or else. Now Emma has it down to a T. She tosses her hair with the signature Sutton Mercer flip and can lead a Lying Game prank with the best of them. She's even repairing my relationship with my adoptive family. The only thing she hasn't done is solve my murder. Then our birth mother, the woman who abandoned us, showed up in Tucson. Emma hasn't seen Becky in twelve years, but Becky recognizes Emma immediately--as Emma. Is it a mother's intuition . . . or does Becky know I'm already gone? From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences. --Publishers Weekly It's not easy being me. But my twin sister has no choice. When I died two months ago, my killer told my twin sister to become me—or else. Now Emma has it down to a T. She tosses her hair with the signature Sutton Mercer flip and can lead a Lying Game prank with the best of them. She's even repairing my relationship with my adoptive family. The only thing she hasn't done is solve my murder. Then our birth mother, the woman who abandoned us, showed up in Tucson. Emma hasn't seen Becky in twelve years, but Becky recognizes Emma immediately—as Emma. Is it a mother's intuitionxa0.xa0.xa0. or does Becky know I'm already gone? From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences. Sara Shepard is the author of two New York Times bestselling series, Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game, as well as the series The Perfectionists. She graduated from New York University and has an MFA from Brooklyn College. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • The search for Sutton’s killer continues in this fifth title in the suspenseful and twisted Lying Game series by Sara Shepard, author of the #1
  • New York Times
  • bestselling Pretty Little Liars
  • series
  • .
  • Ever since Sutton Mercer's murderer tricked her long-lost twin, Emma, into coming to Tucson, Emma has been trying to solve the mystery of Sutton's death. And now someone else is back in town—Becky, Sutton and Emma's birth mother.
  • As Emma gets closer to discovering what exactly happened the night Sutton was killed, she learns that Becky isn't all that she seems. Turns out Sutton wasn't the only Mercer girl with dark secrets. . . .

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(295)
★★★★
25%
(123)
★★★
15%
(74)
★★
7%
(34)
-7%
(-34)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Really?

Ok even ignoring the obvious pattern Shepard has of "we've got a suspect. they killed Sutton fer shur. oh no, wait. they cool." I'm on page 74 in this book and I don't even want to read it because Shepard oh-so-(not)-subtly states (about ten friggin times) that Emma can recognize her mothers handwriting. Now, we all know the killer has left numerous notes, soooooooooo if Becky was the killer, Emma would have known from the first note who it was. Never mind that her mother is obviously mentally incapable of managing a scheme to this extent (let alone hiding the body--if Sutton really is dead-- well enough that no one has found it yet). The fact that Shepard would even spend more than a chapter on this notion of Becky killed her own daughter, is beyond absurd. At this point Shepard is just mocking us. She's mocking us by thinking we as readers are that stupid, and she's mocking us by giving us a half retarded main character (Emma's got to be if it takes her 200 pages to figure it out, when I already know it's not her mother just within the first 5 pages).

At this point I just skim through the books to see if she drops any more clues about the real killer. It would be stupid if it was Ethan because it's so obvious since he's the only one close to her she hasn't suspected. But at the same time he's almost always feeding her little lines to make her think it's certain people, or saying things to encourage her suspicion of certain people. Clearly avoiding any suspicion on himself. Not to mention, not even Sutton has suspected him. Just a little fishy. But there's sure to be about 10 more books so there's still plenty of time to have him the star suspect.

Overall the characters are good. Emma is a little too dumb/slow for my tastes. The chemistry/rivalry between certain characters is easy to believe. The dialogue is realistic. And just overall it would make for a good series, if it wasn't so dragged out.
I really hope this doesn't end up being like "I Know Who Killed Me" sans stripper twin. That movie was god-awful.

Anyway, don't give this lady any more money. If one of your friends is dumb enough to buy it then bum it from them or get it at the library like I do. She's really a good writer, and I like her style, but she's more into the money than she is the story at this point and I can't respect that.

A WHOLE BOOK about a suspect...that we already know didn't do it. Stupid....
I really wish JK Rowling would rewrite peoples' books for them, and show them how s*** gets done.
5 people found this helpful
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SOLVE THE MYSTERY ALREADY!!

I will start by saying that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sara's books and this book is a great captivating book. HOWEVER, can you please please please stop dragging the plot?? I am getting impatient and I want to know the real murderer already. Now I'm scared to put my hopes high because even though the current suspect in this book -oh how shocked I was!- seem like he could be the murderer, I'm afraid he will have an alibi to clear him up just like all the previous suspects. This was supposed to be a Three book series and now there's a sixth book coming out. Again, I love your books but please don't put me through the same torture I endured in the PRETTY LITTLE LIARS.
3 people found this helpful
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pleasantly surprised.

thank you excellent condition. better than expected.
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Great series for teenage girls

My teenage daughter loved all the books from the series!
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love this item

love this book just receaved it i love mysterys i seen the show i loved that show as well
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Cross my heart

As I have said in all the other book reviews for this series, it is a great read. Easy, interesting, and very well written. I love the way she writes. She makes it understandable, yet very detailed. It makes you feel like you are in the book with them. I recommend this book series if you like mystery crime novels, and easy reads.
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Cross my heart

This is a good interesting follow up to the previous books. It keeps the reader curious as to what and who will happen next.
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book

great book
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Book the Lying Game #5

I bought this book for my granddaughter's birthday. It came fast, good price and to my door. I didn't have to look in a bookstore. This book was on her wish list.
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I'm starting to like the tv show better...

What I Liked: 1) One thing I will say for this series is that Sara Shepard definitely knows how to keep a mystery alive. She has figured out a way to throw a million curveballs in one game (hey, it's baseball season, gimme a break) and still not get too terribly irritating. Cross My Heart, Hope to Die introduces even more pieces of an already complicated mystery, which, if you are at all familiar with her writing, you'll know is kind of her trademark. Thankfully, she lays it all out for you. It isn't particularly psych-twisty, so it doesn't require a lot of thinking to follow it. 2) The zings of humor that she adds through her characterization keep the book light-hearted, despite the dark undertones of murder and mystery. I laugh at how outlandish and larger-than-life her characters tend to be, and it's one of the things that keep me coming back for more. 3) Bringing Emma's birth mom back into it was...an unexpected twist. This book is already so different than the direction they've taken the television show that I guess I don't know what I was expecting from this, but it sure was an interesting change of page. 4) Something I've noticed in this series that I haven't seen in her other popular series (that I'm also addicted to!) is a maturing of the writing. Sometimes when I'm reading her work I just think to myself, when are they going to grow up? They act like spoiled six year olds! But she's really matured them up in CMHHTD, and I was glad to see it taking a little more depth, and lifelike, for lack of a better term.

What I Didn't Like: I mentioned that I actually like the television show better than I like the storyline in the books right now. I think it's because the storyline is moving at a glacial pace right now. I mean, we're talking snails are passing this bad boy by. I need to learn something new in the next book, because as interested as I am in finding out who killed Sutton and why, we aren't even crossing suspects off our list anymore!

Overall Thoughts: Cross My Heart, Hope To Die is a slow addition to the Lying Game series. It's funny, and I'm so glad to see Sara Shepard maturing her characters (read: they aren't quite as annoying) but I need the pace to be picked up in the story arc to convince me to keep reading the series and not just stick with the tv show.