Suspicion: A Private Novel

by Brian

[Jo]

When I was sent this book to review, I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy it. The Private series is aimed at the fans of Gossip Girl, and from what I’ve heard about Gossip Girl, I’m pretty sure it’s not my time type of thing; I’m not one for popular, superficial girls, it just doesn’t entertain me. I thought I would give Suspicion a go anyway, to see if I would be surprised. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.

Suspicion is the 11th book in the Private series, but it’s readable as a standalone; the plot is self-contained, and even though you come across characters that have obviously been in the previous books, and events from previous books are mentioned, but if you can over look that you don’t know about these things being referred to as they’re not entirely important to this story, it’s fine.

However, I just didn’t enjoy it. I wasn’t all that interested in the main character Reed, and found her to be too wrapped in things I personally find very young and unimportant; for example, several times she wonders why one of her exes, who now has a girlfriend, hasn’t gotten in touch with her while she’s on holiday with the girls, even though she’s with someone new herself. There were just a lot of eye-rolling moments for me, and I didn’t relate to anyone. They were the type of people I avoided when I was at school; not necessarily the nasty girls, but just the type I had nothing to say to, and vice versa.

Despite the superficiality, there are some moments where I thought “Ahh, now we’re getting somewhere!” Unfortunately, they’d last a few pages, and then Reed would be back amongst her friends, or she would go to extremes about the things that were going to happen. Even though she was in quite considerable danger at some points, I found her damsel-in-distress ways a little grating. I guess I’m just used to stronger protagonists.

This is not to say the book isn’t good. It’s not awful at all, it’s just not my cup of tea. I’m sure there are a fair amount of people who would really enjoy Suspicion. It’s the type of book I think would work well as holiday reading, on a beach somewhere. It’s not a long book at all, I started and finished it today, and for its length, a fair amount happens. There is suspense and there is danger, pretty much like a sinister Mean Girls, and those moments kept me reading to find out exactly what was going on, despite not being a huge fan of the characters. I’ve got to say, I really liked Sawyer though, he was just a sweetie! Upton wasn’t too awful either, though I found him too English; the phrases he used aren’t something you would hear every day over here – but then again he is rich, and so probably posh. I don’t come across many posh Englishmen.

Overall, I think Suspicion would be a pretty awesome book for those who like stories about
the Queen Bees of school, with some hot guys, parties, and a bit of danger thrown in. A quick, easy read for a quickie fix of lipgloss and attempted murder.