Seven Minutes in Heaven by Sara Shepard
Series: The Lying Game #6
Published by HarperTeen on July 30, 2013
Pages: 371
Format: Hardcover
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My sister wants the truth.

But sometimes the truth hurts.

For months, my long-lost twin, Emma, has been living my life and trying to solve my murder. She's unearthed dark secrets about my friends, my family, and my tangled past. But when it comes to finding my killer, she keeps running into dead ends.

Until my body shows up in Sabino Canyon. Suddenly everyone knows there are two girls who look like Sutton Mercer—and that one of them is dead. At first the police assume the body is Emma's. But as questions and accusations start flying, it's harder than ever for Emma to keep playing me. The truth is bound to come out eventually. And when it does, Emma will be suspect number one in my murder investigation. If she can't find my killer before time runs out, she'll end up behind bars . . . or worse.

Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, finally reveals the shocking truth about Sutton's murder in this riveting novel about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

Warning: This review contains some spoilers – nothing huge or major, but some (potentially) minor spoilers.

I’m normally very character-driven in my reviews; however, since the murderer is revealed in this book, it’s hard to go into detail about what I liked/disliked about the characters without accidentally revealing who did it. So please be patient with me while I try to dance around that!

I started out reading Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars series. I enjoyed them, but they weren’t amazing – and the series has been dragged out for way too long. So I was skeptical when it came to picking up The Lying Game. It took a long time for me buy the first two books. When I finally bought them, though, I read them back-to-back and I was so impressed!

Though the books are a little bit repetitive, and the series likely could have ended sooner than book 6, I still really enjoyed reading them. I loved the little bit of a supernatural element they had – though I wish we had gotten more of an explanation for it and how it was possible, etc – and I loved the twists and turns the series took. Some were cliche and predictable, others were shocking, unexpected and heart-breaking.

As far as final books go, Seven Minutes in Heaven kept me guessing until the very end. Throughout the series, multiple suspects and motives were brought to light. It was really hard to know who to trust, even after Emma and Ethan had deemed someone to be innocent. I kept coming up with new theories as to who did it, both throughout the series and throughout this final book. I didn’t like or trust Garrett, but I didn’t believe he did it, though all the evidence led to him. Every other chapter, I changed my mind on who I thought the murderer was. Sometimes I went back and forth, taking someone off the suspect list, only to put them back on a few chapters later. I kept crossing my fingers, hoping it wasn’t characters I had come to really like, like Laurel, Thayer or one of Sutton’s friends. I tried to brace myself, just in case, though.

I even came up with some truly wild theories, like maybe it was just an accident or maybe it was… self-inflicted. I even wondered if Sutton was still alive somewhere, in a coma or kidnapped or something crazy like that.

One thing that frustrated me, though, was something I notice a lot in YA novels… Why are the cops always dirty or crooked? Or made to look that way, at least. They always seem suspicious, like the MC shouldn’t trust them. And they never, ever believe the MC. No matter how believable he or she is, the cop always thinks the MC is lying. Really frustrating! I get why it has to be that way – if the cops trusted the MC, then they would follow up on the leads the MC provides and the crime or crimes would get solved faster and there would be no story. But there’s got to be a better way to deal with that!

I felt so bad for Emma throughout the whole book. It was so heartbreaking to see the way she was treated and the things she had to go through. I didn’t want the killer to be who it was… I didn’t believe it until the very last possible second and then I realized it was true. Yet, even then, I still didn’t want it to be true!! I was so sad when this information was revealed!! But honestly… It kind of makes me want to re-read the entire series now, to see if I can pick up on little things I missed the first time around.

The end made me cry … Several times, actually. But it was perfect and amazing and desperately needed. By the end, pretty much all the unanswered questions have answers. There are a few lose ends, which makes me wonder if it was left open for a potential sequel or spin-off down the road. But all in all, I really enjoyed it!