Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James

"So. Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?"

Ever heard of the Boydell sisters? Katie and Rachel Boydell? One of them died and the other became famous, for all the wrong reasons...

Katherine Patterson, originally Katie Boydell moved away from her heart-broken family with hopes of leaving behind all of what happened, to start anew unfortunately you can't keep secrets forever, especially if you had your name and photo all over the newspaper...

Katherine blames herself; she blames herself for what happened to Rachel. That if she had thought and tried hard enough she could have saved her. Katherine believes that she shouldn't be happy if Rachel isn't, that she shouldn't be allowed to experience and enjoy what Rachel could not.

But that's before she meets and befriends Alice. Alice's ability to live and enjoy the present and not dwell on the past is what draws Katherine to her. But Alice is not entirely what she seems, she has mood swings that change her pleasant and fun to spiteful and hateful. She dismisses other people's feelings and she uses people whenever she benefits. But the worst is that Alice hides a secret, one that connects her to the murder of Rachel...

A secret that can only lead to another death... or perhaps even two.

It was the blurb at the back of the book that caught my attention, "Were you secretly glad when she was killed?" Eeeeeep! I simply couldn't resist! I mean, who can resist such a line?!?

I am very glad that I picked this up though, several people have read and recommended it to me but I never actually got around to adding it to my to-read list... luckily it was there at my local library and I quickly devoured the story, page after page.

The main character Katherine/ Katie, is lovable and admirable but I feel that she wastes too much of her life mourning for what happened, when she should accept that it was the past and no matter how she feels and regrets it, she can't change anything.

An excellent novel!