I picked this one up at the library because I thought the cover looked like one of those old pulp lesbian novels they used to sell in wire racks at the back of drugstores (yeah, I'm old). Then I realized I've read other books by this author and sort of enjoyed them, so decided it was coming home with me. It's been a while since I read a whole book over a weekend, but this one was a quick, fun read and I breezed through it.
Just a few weeks before graduation, Sarah Wheeler, queen of the senior class at the strictly religious Willowgrove Academy, disappears. And before she does, she kisses her arch rival for valedictorian, Chloe. Chloe has long been an outsider at Willowbank. She's from California and only moved to the small town a few years back, a curiosity because she has two moms.
Shara's disappearance doesn't seem to be ringing alarm bells for anyone else, but Chloe needs answers. What did that kiss mean? And where the heck is Shara? Desperate to try and figure it out, she breaks into Shara's house and searches her room. While she's there, the bad boy next door, Rory, breaks in too. Turns out, Sarah kissed him too in the hours before fleeing prom.
Soon Chloe, Rory and Shara's boyfriend Smith find themselves on an unlikely scavenger hunt, uncovering clues Shara has left all over town. Thrown together with these two boys she barely knows, Chloe finds herself going places and seeing things about the town she lives in she's never seen before. Not to mention discovering things about people she never expected. Including herself.
I had fun reading this book, but I found the ending a little disappointing. Once Shara's mystery is solved, the rest of the book just seems to fizzle out even though there are still some more revelations to be had before the final page. I think this is because the real Shara is way less interesting than the Shara we see through Chloe's eyes. Not to mention entirely unrealistic.
But up until that point, I found this a fun mystery with a couple of interesting characters and enough action and intrigue to keep me turning the pages.
So, I'd recommend this if you're looking for something quick to read over a weekend.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny.
But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.
On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues and find her. It’ll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair-and-square.
Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe—probably not, but maybe—more to Shara, too.
Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston's I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.
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