Editor’s note:This is the fourth of a series of reviews of books by authors scheduled to visit Book- FestPa on Saturday.

Walking around school one Monday, all my friends could talk about was “Pretty Little Liars” and how absolutely amazing it was. I wondered what all the excitement was about.

At first, I thought the book was a romantic comedy or a story about girls’ lives in high school. I was intrigued by the series title. It seemed as if every girl in my school had one of the books glued to her side. Many of my friends were talking about “PLL parties,” where people would get together to discuss the books and share their ideas. No one was short of theories on who killed Spencer, Aria, Hannah and Emily’s best friend, or who they thought “A” (the girls’ mysterious stalker) was.

When I got home that night, I turned on the TV to see a preview for the show inspired by the books by Sara Shepard. It wasn’t what I thought it would be, but better. someone would want her dead, but Ali’s friends knew her better than that. They watched her sneak around, receive mysterious calls and texts, and when she was killed, nothing could stop them from figuring out the truth.

Right after Ali’s death, “A” came into the girls’ lives. Somehow “A” knew the girls’ every move, and was torturing them with mysterious texts. The theme “Only two can keep a secret if one of them is dead” echoed through the show, and I was very curious to see what the books were all about.

After watching just one episode, I knew that I had to read the books. When I went to the library to get them, I had to wait two weeks just to get the first book because they were so popular. When it arrived, I returned home and went straight to my room to read. I finished the entire series in just one week. There was no way I could put them down.

Every chapter of each book had a new twist that left you wondering what really happened. The books are so well thought out because each character leads to a new secret and eventually connects the girls to almost finding out who killed Alison and also who had been mysteriously texting them. This is probably where the title came from, because the girls in the book keep many secrets to protect themselves, but somehow, someone knows all their secrets. As soon as they would find an answer, “A” would be one step ahead of them and a new twist in the story would unravel.

What many people do not know is that the brilliant author behind the “Pretty Little Liars” series has connections here in State College. Shepard grew up partly in State College and even won a prize for a writing contest at Schlow Centre Region Library for her first book “Quizzles.”

If anyone asked me to recommend a book to them, my first choice would definitely be the “Pretty Little Liars” series because it will keep you on edge until every secret is revealed.

Abby Reese will be a sophomore at State College Area High School in the fall.