The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer

The Secrets of Lily Graves by Sarah Strohmeyer

Publisher: Balzer + Bray      

Publication date: May 13th 2014
My rating: 3 stars

With the intrigue of Pretty Little Liars and plenty of romance, bestselling author Sarah Strohmeyer weaves a story of secrets and lies—set in a funeral parlor.
Growing up in a house of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. She knows that perfect senior-class president Erin Donohue isn’t what she seems. She knows why Erin’s ex-boyfriend, hot football player Matt Houser, broke up with her. And she also knows that, even though she says she and Matt are just friends, there is something brewing between them—something Erin definitely did not like.
But secrets, even ones that are long buried, have a way of returning to haunt their keeper.
So when Erin is found dead the day after attacking Lily in a jealous rage, Lily's and Matt’s safe little lives, and the lives of everyone in their town of Potsdam, begin to unravel. And their relationship—which grew from innocent after-school tutoring sessions to late-night clandestine rendezvous—makes them both suspects.
As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.

Lily, a local goth girl lives with her mother, grandmother and aunt in a old spooky house which is also their place of work-they're morticians. Lily's best friend Sara has crazy religious parents and most of their small community is the same. Other girls hate Lily 'just because' and the queen bee, Erin, attacks Lily cause she thinks Lily's trying to steal her boyfriend. The next morning Erin's parents discover her dead. The main suspect are Matt, Erin's boyfriend and Lily. They team up to find out who's the real murderer. 

I was surprised how much I was enjoying this book. I'm a thriller/mystery buff and most of the time I try to figure out the secrets, who's the liar, who had nothing to do with the crime and who's the killer. This time I just wanted to sit back and read more about Lily and the mortician business because those parts were interesting (read hella creepy). Had no idea there was so much effort put into a body before it's buried. 

By now you should know there's always a but Here's what happened near the end. Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything! The book went from hot to lukewarm. The whole reveal wasn't what I thought it would be. I expected something more. Something better because I up until then I had nothing remotely bad to say about the whole story. It was entertaining and satisfying. I was cheering for the author and thinking about picking up some of her other books. Then the ending happened.