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

So this is book 5 and we find Emma still pretending to be Sutton. This time she's trying to clear Becky, her bio mom. Becky is hanging around and is obviously mental, so Emma (and ghost Sutton) start to believe that she could be the killer. Ghost Sutton remembers having a confrontation in the canyon the night she died and Emma sees first-hand that Becky is capable of violence, so she goes to the top of the suspect list. In addition to this, there's a new "new-age" girl at school that seems to be challenging Emma/Sutton at every turn. A Lying Game will clearly be needed to deal with her. There's also quite a bit of Thayer vs. Ethan drama going on in this book with both boys being jealous and aggressive towards one another. In the end show more Becky reveals some surprising info and someone who was getting too close to the investigation meets their end.

(I usually don't do reviews this far into a series, but what the hell! Also this review may contain spoilers if you haven't read books 1-4.)


My Thoughts:
So this series has been getting a little blah for me at this point, but book 5 stepped it up a little. It wasn't just same old Emma tracking down leads you knew were going to be false. This time the lead suspect had some serious info to give. She told Emma and Sutton's adoptive dad (and Nisha's dad) some things that were pretty shocking and can actually be of use. Up until this book someone would be suspected hardcore and then all of a sudden they are cleared and Emma's like "duh why did I ever think it was her/him again?". Kind of aggravating. Now at least things are starting to heat up and Emma's finding out serious answers about her family and what the heck is going on with her bio mom.

So I STILL can't believe that Emma hasn't confided in Thayer yet!!! HELLO WTF!! He's clearly trustworthy and he's lusting after Emma because he thinks she's Sutton. Put the poor boy out of his misery and get his frickin help! Also can I just say it's so freaking obv that it's Ethan. Emma finds a psych file on him, he stays home from school the day Nisha (his next door neighbor) has an accident, and Nisha just happens to be the one who helped Emma find the psych file?!?!?! He's applied to the college Sutton's dad went to (obsessed much??), and of course there's the whole sleeping with him thing. You know when a girl has sex in a horror/suspense movie they die or the person they are doing it with turns out to be bad. So following that formula Emma is going to die in the next book or Ethan is the bad guy. My bets are on Ethan.

On a side note: It's starting to get ridiculous that Emma would not out herself to her family and the police by now. She says she's doing it because she's protecting her family and Sutton's friends by keeping quiet, but all she's been getting are some stupid notes. Everyone would just be safer if they knew the truth... I'm mean I know it's a book, but it's starting to be too unbelievable.

OVERALL: Better than the 3rd & 4th book, but at this point I'm just reading it to find out where Sutton's body is and who killed her. The final book is up next, so it's going to happen soon!!!

My Blog:
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Cross my Heart, Hope to Die is the penultimate chapter in the Lying Game series. Emma finds herself in the midst of a personal crisis: Her birth mother, Becky, is back but she's not all there. It seems that Becky has a multitude of violent mental problems and is known to be highly violent and erratic.

Becky also might have been the last person to see Sutton alive. Could she have killed her own daughter as a result of a psychotic break?

On a considerably lighter note, Thayer and Ethan continue to fight for Emma's heart while Emma deals with the new girl, with a New Age feel, in town who has to hook up with Sutton's ex, Garrett. The only bright side is Emma's growing friendship with Nisha.

I greatly enjoyed Cross my Heart, Hope to Die show more because it seemed to be going at a quickening pace. It was tense and exciting. Now I know why: I found out the next book, Seven Minutes in Heaven, is reportedly the last book. That is what Cross my Heart felt: the chapter before the last. The anticipation is mounting.

The Becky story line could have been totally ridiculous, reaching soap opera levels, but it was told in a beautiful and very sad way. I felt bad for the Mercers, Emma included. Sutton was pretty bad ass in her flashbacks this time around. I don't know but I liked Sutton in this book and usually I hate her and bitchy ways.

SPOILER ALERT: The character death in toward the end was horrible! I couldn't believe Sara Shepard went there! But, I kind of saw that coming, I was just hoping it wouldn't be true!

I hope the series does end after the next book. I really just want to know who killed Sutton already! show less

Cross my Heart, Hope to Die is the penultimate chapter in the Lying Game series. Emma finds herself in the midst of a personal crisis: Her birth mother, Becky, is back but she's not all there. It seems that Becky has a multitude of violent mental problems and is known to be highly violent and erratic.

Becky also might have been the last person to see Sutton alive. Could she have killed her own daughter as a result of a psychotic break?

On a considerably lighter note, Thayer and Ethan continue to fight for Emma's heart while Emma deals with the new girl, with a New Age feel, in town who has to hook up with Sutton's ex, Garrett. The only bright side is Emma's growing friendship with Nisha.

I greatly enjoyed Cross my Heart, Hope to Die show more because it seemed to be going at a quickening pace. It was tense and exciting. Now I know why: I found out the next book, Seven Minutes in Heaven, is reportedly the last book. That is what Cross my Heart felt: the chapter before the last. The anticipation is mounting.

The Becky story line could have been totally ridiculous, reaching soap opera levels, but it was told in a beautiful and very sad way. I felt bad for the Mercers, Emma included. Sutton was pretty bad ass in her flashbacks this time around. I don't know but I liked Sutton in this book and usually I hate her and bitchy ways.

SPOILER ALERT: The character death in toward the end was horrible! I couldn't believe Sara Shepard went there! But, I kind of saw that coming, I was just hoping it wouldn't be true!

I hope the series does end after the next book. I really just want to know who killed Sutton already! show less

Cross my Heart, Hope to Die is the penultimate chapter in the Lying Game series. Emma finds herself in the midst of a personal crisis: Her birth mother, Becky, is back but she's not all there. It seems that Becky has a multitude of violent mental problems and is known to be highly violent and erratic.

Becky also might have been the last person to see Sutton alive. Could she have killed her own daughter as a result of a psychotic break?

On a considerably lighter note, Thayer and Ethan continue to fight for Emma's heart while Emma deals with the new girl, with a New Age feel, in town who has to hook up with Sutton's ex, Garrett. The only bright side is Emma's growing friendship with Nisha.

I greatly enjoyed Cross my Heart, Hope to Die show more because it seemed to be going at a quickening pace. It was tense and exciting. Now I know why: I found out the next book, Seven Minutes in Heaven, is reportedly the last book. That is what Cross my Heart felt: the chapter before the last. The anticipation is mounting.

The Becky story line could have been totally ridiculous, reaching soap opera levels, but it was told in a beautiful and very sad way. I felt bad for the Mercers, Emma included. Sutton was pretty bad ass in her flashbacks this time around. I don't know but I liked Sutton in this book and usually I hate her and bitchy ways.

SPOILER ALERT: The character death in toward the end was horrible! I couldn't believe Sara Shepard went there! But, I kind of saw that coming, I was just hoping it wouldn't be true!

I hope the series does end after the next book. I really just want to know who killed Sutton already! show less

Such a great series!

I love that these books are so easy, it's so effortless, to just slide right back into the story and just read. The subtle hints and info about previous books catches you right up to date and reminds you of what you may have forgotten. And the core MCs don't change, so it's easy to remember them.

I also love that the story has deviated so far from the show that the two are really separate stories with people just named the same. You get a double dose Lying Game fun if you do both. But, if you don't have time for both - THE BOOKS ARE DEFINITELY BETTER!!!

As always, here we are again. Emma is still searching, Sutton is still dead - and we have some new faces to help us try to understand what's happened.

Things are moving show more along and we've eliminated another name of two from the "who done it" list! I can't wait to see where the next story takes me! show less

A couple months ago, Emma Paxton was forced to pretend to be her twin sister. Yet, there's one problem, her sister is dead. Only a few people know that Emma is not Sutton Mercer, her sister, but if the murderer finds out that she told someone bad things could happen to them. Yet again Emma has crossed of another name on her list of people who she think killed Sutton, but when someone special comes back to town suspicions start to rise again.

Taking right off from the 4th book, Cross My Heart, Hope to Die grabs your attention from the very beginning. I love the way this series is written because even though there is 336 pages, it feels like there's about 100. I get so into the story that I flip through the pages, forgetting the world show more behind me. I'm giving this book 5 stars because I love the way it was written, and not only is Emma's character interesting, but so are Sutton's flashbacks she has when something triggers a part of her memory. I love this series and I'm sad that the next book is the last one, but I'm sure everything will wrap up and I'll find out everything by then. show less

I read this only because it matched a book challenge need. Again, it was not bad, but it was not for me. Way too much teenage drama (which is part of my real life, so I don't need it also in my fiction lives).