The Secrets of Lily Graves

by Sarah Strohmeyer

Overview

Gone Girl meets Six Feet Under in bestselling author Sarah Strohmeyer's romantic YA mystery about a girl who must unravel a web of lies in her small town before it's too late.

Descended from a long line of female morticians, Lily Graves knows all about buried secrets. So after senior-class president Erin Donohue—perfect saint to the community—turns up dead, Lily believes it's her job to find the culprit. But Lily has feelings for Erin's ex-boyfriend, Matt, which makes both of them suspects and makes Lily's investigation . . . complicated. As her world crumbles around her, Lily must figure out the difference between truth and deception, between genuine love and a web of lies. And she must do it quickly, before the killer claims another victim.

Fans of Sara Shepard who enjoy realistic contemporary fiction with a dash of mystery will love the secrets, lies, and romance swirling in this sexy, intriguing novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062259615
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	942 KB
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Sarah Strohmeyer is a bestselling and award-winning novelist whose books include The Secrets of Lily Graves, How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True, Smart Girls Get What They Want, The Cinderella Pact (which became the Lifetime Original Movie Lying to Be Perfect), The Sleeping Beauty Proposal, The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives, Sweet Love, and the Bubbles mystery series. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Boston Globe. She lives with her family outside Montpelier, Vermont.

Editorial Reviews

03/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—Lily Graves is aptly named, living as she does in her mother's funeral parlor and working with her Aunt Boo to prepare bodies for burial. Erin, a fellow high school senior, rudely confronts Lily in a cemetery to remind her to stay away from Matt, Erin's on-again-off-again boyfriend. Though nothing more than chaste tutoring has happened between Lily and Matt so far, Erin is right to suspect they have a degree of mutual attraction. Complications emerge the next day when Erin is found with her wrists slit, and what was originally thought to be suicide begins to seem more like murder. Further difficulties arise since Lily's mom is dating the local chief of police and Matt is a prime suspect. Lily, her best friend Sara (a fan of television crime investigation shows), and Matt begin to investigate on their own, and find that Erin's virginal "good girl" reputation hides some darker activities. The overall tone of the book is that of a murder mystery/romance, and the occasional humorous parts (her mother's health-food obsession, a lighthearted exchange in the kitchen after the wake) feel out of place among the possible drug deals and death by embalming fluid. A secret about Matt's brother distracts from the main story without an appreciable payoff. Lily's gothic-style funeral home and her descriptions of how bodies are prepared for burial are interesting and seldom the topic of teen novels. Readers looking for something new and slightly macabre may be drawn in. Consider for larger collections.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

School Library Journal

03/31/2014
Strohmeyer (How Zoe Made Her Dreams Come True) delves into murder mystery territory in a story helmed by 17-year-old Lily Graves, who has had a lifelong relationship with death. “I’d been warped, for better or worse,” she explains, “growing up in a funeral home and being lulled to sleep as a toddler by the whirr of Boo’s embalming machine injecting pink-tinted formaldehyde into the veins of corpses in the room below.” Lily’s goth-girl attire, fearless attitude, and knowledge of mortuary science help fuel an eerie story that opens with an aggressive graveyard confrontation instigated by Lily’s holier-than-thou classmate Erin Donohue, who believes Lily is after her boyfriend, Matt. Soon after, Erin is found dead, her wrists slit in a bathtub with “surgical precision,” and Lily and Matt both become suspects. Together, they attempt to find the killer, uncovering Erin’s many secrets as they do. Lily’s acid narration and proud outsider status are high points in what’s otherwise a fairly run-of-the-mill mystery, albeit one with enough twists to keep readers guessing until the final pages. Ages 13–up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

An interesting yet easy read for a diverse audience.” — Booklist

Praise for HOW ZOE MADE HER DREAMS (MOSTLY) COME TRUE: “For fans of roms-coms everywhere.” — ALA Booklist

Praise for HOW ZOE MADE HER DREAMS (MOSTLY) COME TRUE: “Strohmeyer’s humorous details about the park itself (royal characters get better quarters than ‘Ordinary Cast Members,’ and princes are given exclusive access to a pheromone-rich cologne) provide a lively, unconventional backdrop.” — Publishers Weekly

Praise for HOW ZOE MADE HER DREAMS (MOSTLY) COME TRUE: “This clever, happily-ever-after story will charm fans of Meg Cabot and make new ones of Strohmeyer.” — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

An interesting yet easy read for a diverse audience.

Booklist

Praise for HOW ZOE MADE HER DREAMS (MOSTLY) COME TRUE: “For fans of roms-coms everywhere.

ALA Booklist

An interesting yet easy read for a diverse audience.

Booklist