ARC Review: Everything We Ever Wanted

Title: Everything We Ever Wanted
Author: Sara Shepard
Genre: Literary/Adult
Release Date (U.S.): October 11th


How do you choose between your family and your history? Emotional and compelling storytelling from Sara Shepard, author of All the Things We Didn’t Say.

A late-night phone call on a Sunday evening rarely brings good news. So when Sylvie, a recently-widowed mother of two, receives a call from the head teacher of the school she's on the board of, she knows it won't be something she wants to hear. The school was founded by her grandfather, and she's inherited everything he strived to build up - a reputation, a heritage, the school and the grand old family house. And with this inheritance comes responsibility.

So when her son Scott is whispered to be involved in a scandal that led to the death of one of the boys he coaches at the school, it throws the family into chaos: Sylvie has to decide between her loyalty to the school that has been part of her family legacy for years and her son who she feels wants nothing to do with her. She starts spying on the dead boy's father, making an unlikely connection.

Sara Shepard's compelling new novel tells how hard it can be to really, truly connect to people, how making quick, easy judgments can come back to haunt you, and how the life you always planned for - and always dreamed of - often doesn't always turn out the way you imagined at all… --Goodreads



While I am a big fan of The Pretty Little Liars' series by Sara Shepard, this I was not. Everything was so dull and flat. I often found myself yawning or wanting to breeze through the pages just to get the book over with. At one point, I even considered putting it down entirely.

I could not connect with the characters and I felt they weren't developed as well as they could have been through the potentionally compelling story that Shepard was presenting. Stronger characterization and less information dump-load could have brought this story much more depth in so many ways.

I love reading about family dysfunction and mystery... dark secrets and possible controversy. But this all fell extremely flat. It was too chatty at times. Slow paced. Disconnected.

It's not an argument that Sara Shepard is an excellent writer. I adore her style and the characters that she creates. But for this one, I just didn't get the effect this time. Others may enjoy this book who are more into this literary style.

2 stars.