Reputation by Sara Shepard

Reputation by Sara Shepard – 384 pages

ARC courtesy NetGalley and Dutton in exchange for an honest review

Book Blurb:

Aldrich University is rocked to its core when a hacker dumps 40,000 people’s e-mails—the entire faculty, staff, students, alums—onto an easily searchable database. Rumors and affairs immediately leak, but things turn explosive when Kit Manning’s handsome husband, Dr. Greg Strasser, is found murdered. Kit’s sister, Willa, returns for the funeral, setting foot in a hometown she fled fifteen years ago, after a night she wishes she could forget. As an investigative reporter, Willa knows something isn’t right about the night Greg was killed, and she’s determined to find the truth. What she doesn’t expect is that everyone has something to hide. And with a killer on the loose, Willa and Kit must figure out who killed Greg before someone else is murdered.

My Review: 3 stars

Click here to order on Amazon

Reputation was highly recommended to me by other advance readers, and the premise promised a lot of potential. Unfortunately for me, this story fell flat. I’m a fan of Pretty Little Liars and read a few when my daughter was obsessed with them.

The idea of a major school hack was engaging and started strong. Soon into the book however, I knew it wasn’t for me. The many, too many, characters fell into clichéd roles and there was too much predictable happenstance. From the kinky club, to the scam artist friend and the “tampered” drink…it was just too much to believe. The “killer” wasn’t hard to deduce either.

Perhaps my expectations were too high due to the personal recommendation, because plenty of reviewers highly enjoyed this book. Sadly, I was not one of them. I did read it from cover to cover though…always waiting for the story to turn in a way that would work for me.

Quotes I liked:

Maybe the best reputation is no reputation. Maybe it’s best not to care whatsoever how people see you. Maybe the only thing that really matters is how you see yourself.”