Pink Polka Dot Books: Cross My Heart, Hope to Die (The Lying Game #5) by Sara Shepard

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, 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.)

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.

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!!!

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