A review by luckydayyy
Love Lies Beneath by Ellen Hopkins

2.0

This adult title by the Teen Poetry Queen, Ellen Hopkins, is a trashy, sexy, guilty pleasure version of a Mary Higgins Clark novel. The comparison of a female-driven thriller don't hold up much though since Clark's plots make more sense and have less (frustratingly) extraneous plot points (Example: [SPOILER] the oft-cited mango allergy plays out so disappointingly! Like you keep mentioning it and it gets the reader excited it'll play out dramatically, but NOPE). I would suggest these story deviations had been a red herring for some awesome ending, but nothing excited is revealed. The book awkwardly paces towards a mystery of sorts only to fizzle out in literally one page of (lame)explanation. Also, this book is gratuitously sexual at times. Which, let me tell you, I enjoy, but dang, it needs to be consistent; don't have Harlequin type scenes peppered into a thriller like this. It'd be the same as having a random, violent, bloody shoot-out scene in a book about small crime. I get it is supporting the character profile; she is sexual, liberated, experimental, but it read as so detailed just in those scenes, it felt cheap and jarring. That being said, I was interested in this book! Hopkins isn't a writing slouch, she will keep you hooked, even though unfortunately this one falls flat for me. Read her teen books, those are guilty, fun and totally worth it.