Review: Pure Sin by Kate Brian

CONTEMPORARY TEEN FICTION
Best enemies...

After getting rid of her best-friend-turned-enemy, Ariana Osgood should be on top of the world. She's in love with a hot guy. She's a member of Atherton-Pryce Hall's best secret society. And she's one of the most popular girls on campus. But now that Lexa Greene knows a terrible secret about her, everything Ariana has worked so hard for hangs in the balance. Can she keep up the facade...or is her house of cards about to tumble around her?

A great new book that is also the second to last in the Privilege series--I'm so sad! After I read Cruel Love, which is the last book in the Privilege series, I will have no more Kate Brian books to read, at least not right away. But I do have plenty of other books I hope are excellent stacked in my room, so hopefully we'll be able to mourn the loss of this amazing world with more reading.

I still can't believe Kaitlynn is gone. Ariana and Kaitlynn had been fighting forever, but now that Ariana has won, she has taken the major prize: Kaitlynn's life. Kaitlynn's ever so carefully constructed life, most of it erected from the money Ariana stole from a charity fundraiser to keep Kaitlynn's mouth shut. Now Ariana thought all her secrets were buried. But Lexa Greene, the girl who goes way unstable, had seen the murder. And she's going completely OCD, washing imaginary blood off her hands, screaming when red wine spills like red blood. I'm very impressed that the author crafted such a suspenseful conflict even with Kaitlynn gone! I thought she was the major driving force behind the pressure urging Ariana on, and that may have been true for the past three books in the series. But in Pure Sin, it's the lack of Kaitlynn that's causing Ariana problems. Because if Lexa tells, then Ariana's own world is about to be shut down--forever.

Lexa's character really developed a lot in Pure Sin. Obviously, a normal person who had just witnessed someone having a vase cracked over their head and then being thrown out of a window would probably be even crazier than Lexa. But Lexa's always been the mature, kind, understanding, confident, most popular girl on campus. And when she sees Kaitlynn come to an end like this, she goes straight-up crazy. I felt bad for Lexa the whole time, but I loved seeing how she slowly spiraled into another different person completely. That's the magic of characters created by Kate Brian. You can always expect them to show you a different side just when you thought you knew them most.

Now, onto a slightly more critical note. Kaitlynn has come to Atherton-Pryce Hall as Lillian Oswald, and no one knows her real name but Ariana. However, when Lexa witnesses her murder, she screams, or whispers, or something, "Kaitlynn!" Now, how would Lexa know that the girl's real name was Kaitlynn? That's right--she wouldn't. So that really ruined the authenticity of the book for me. And I wouldn't have minded it if it had just happened once--but it happened again and again. People were constantly calling Kaitlynn by her real name, and I'm surprised neither the author nor her editors caught that. Tsk, tsk!

Anyhow, the suspense that's mounting throughout every page in Pure Sin is purely fantastic! (Haha!) With every breath she breathes, Lexa goes just a little bit more crazy. And she's not even safe from mental breakdowns in the arms of her boyfriend. Ariana knows her perfect life will crumble if Lexa says a word. And that's what keeps the book going. I hate Ariana for the innocent people she's murdered, but when it comes down to it, she's almost as kickass of a protagonist as Reed--just a slightly psychotic one. I really want Ariana to have a happy ending but still pay for her bad choices, but she won't be able to have any type of ending if Lexa says anything. Honestly, I actually wanted Lexa to keep her mouth shut, because I hated Kaitlynn Nottingham with a burning passion. And quite frankly, I'm glad she's gone.

Now, I can't say very much about the ending, but it's absolutely stellar! You guys have to read this book, even if only for the ending. But the rest, I say, was pretty good too, because Pure Sin receives five stars!