While I've absolutely adored all of the books in the series so far (a guilty pleasure), this volume was very hard to get into. While one "A" is revealed in the last volume, there's still tons of mystery and intrigue to explore in the series. I just couldn't get into this volume.

The fifth book in the series follows up on all of the girls after "A" has been revealed to be Mona and Ali's supposed killer has been caught. It should be easy sailing, right? WRONG. Hanna's got trouble in the form of her evil soon to be step-sister Kate, Spencer's still dealing with the potential Golden Orchid fiasco, Aria's falling for the wrong men, and Emily's becoming even more confused as she's finding herself falling for a boy.

Like I said, I'm not sure why I didn't get into this book. Maybe it was the over the top meanness of some of the characters- some of the actions of the family members are just too unbelievable and farfetched. Maybe it was that the last book neatly wrapped up quite a few of the loose threads. In any case, I was dissapointed in this book. I was still able to finish it, but I struggled at it. I'm still optimistic about the next book, though. Originally there was only supposed to be 4 books, so I get the impression that this volume was sort of tacked on at the last minute. It's an awkward transition, which is what I think made me lose some interest. Still, many fans will still love the book and rightfully so. Even with it being less interesting than the previous books (to me, anyway), there's still a lot of plot development that kept me reading. Here's hoping the next book smooths out the wrinkles in this one!