“Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family. No one is a criminal. No one is an addict. No one is a failure[…]Perhaps that is all you need to know.”

Cadence is young, blonde and rich. She’s got everything any girl could want – a beautiful home, perfect designer clothes and a future inheritance that would make any normal kid’s head spin. But she also has selective amnesia. It’s here that we meet her, trying pitifully to piece together what happened two summers ago that changed her life forever.

We learn that she spends each summer on Beechwood, a private island owned by her enormously wealthy WASP grandparents. Each summer her mother, two aunts, the littles and the Liars return. Cousins Cadence, Mirren and Johnny have been friends forever. Gat, a family friend with Indian heritage, has been coming to the island since he was eight. Together they are the Liars, constantly together, in trouble, and happy. She falls madly in love with Gat, much to the chagrin of her adoring grandfather.

“I’m not saying he wants to be the guy who only likes white people,” Gat went on. “He knows he’s not supposed to be that guy. He’s a Democrat, he voted for Obama-but that doesn’t mean he’s comfortable having people of color in his beautiful family.”

That fifteenth summer on the island is when Cadence had her accident. No one will talk about what happened. After all, it’s not right to dig up the past. But two years have passed and Cadence needs answers. Slowly she pieces together the tales of the Liars with her own spotty memory.

Slowly she realizes the truth. And it’s one she would rather forget.

We Were Liars is a hypnotically beautiful contemporary mystery that will captivate readers. Lockhart provides a razor sharp view on the seemingly untouchable lives of the fabulous elite that few of us will ever truly understand. They are privileged, beautiful, and more screwed up than a daytime soap. It’s gossip and mystery and intense character development all thrown into one fantastically written book with a great twist ending.

I highly recommend it. And remember: if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.