The Innocents by Lil Peloquin

The Innocents by Lili Peloquin
Release Date – October 16, 2012
Publisher Website –  Penguin/Razorbill
Publisher Social Media -  Twitter
Pages - 288 pages
My Rating- 3/5
**obtained from publisher via BEA for an honest review**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

Nothing ever came between sisters Alice and Charlie.
Friends didn't.
Boys couldn't.
Their family falling apart never would.
Until they got to Serenity Point.
"The Innocents" is the first in a new series of young adult novels that weave a saga of nail-biting drama, breathless romance, and gothic mystery.

Family secrets, cute guys and lingering ghots. The Innocents weaves together drama, mystery and romance to create a fun beach read. A soapy, guilty pleasure that sets the tone for a much larger story in subsequent novels to come.

The characters are exactly what you would expect to find in a story like this: flawed, captivating with large personalities. The sisters Alice and Charlie are quite different. Alice is more serious, and studious. Charlie is more free spirited and likes to have a good time. Their bond was quite realistic, and honest. They fought like siblings do, yet loved each other dearly.

Jude, a boy who is so dysfunctional he makes Chuck Bass look understated. A walking disaster who has screwed up too many times to count. He is Serenity Point’s bad boy and I was enthralled. I wanted to know more about him and what made him tick. His perfect balance between self destructive and craving redemption left me craving an entire novel from his perspective.

The end twist left me a little unsatisfied. I am not sure if it’s because I figured it out half way through the novel, or the way everything was crammed together in the last few chapters. The mystery grabbed me right away and I felt a sense of urgency and eagerness to figure it out, and I felt let down when I did. Luckily, the mystery seems to be just starting to unravel with many questions left unanswered.

There is quite a bit of set up for other novels in the series.  Much is left unexplored and I feel this is a set up, almost a prequel if you will, to the larger story. The surface of the mysterious car accident that killed of one of Serenity Point's prettiest girls has only been scratched.

I do not see this novel appealing to everyone, but it does have a certain audience that will love it. Fans of Gossip Girl will devour this and immediately look for more. While I found the end reveal a little underwhelming, the characters are enough to make me want to return to Serenity Point. Revelations await and in a town like this nothing stays buried for long.