You may think the Saybrooks have it all. Why wouldn’t you? Living on Fifth Avenue, the scion of a jewalry empire with the latest fashions and technologies with all the riches and vacations at your fingertips. They seem just like you ony prettier and more famous.

However with all those riches come with a lot of death in the family. Some might say they’re cursed and four pretty little heiresses are about to find that out firsthand.

The pretty little heiresses pun was on purpose as it does share quite a few similarities with Shepard’s famous debut series, Pretty Little Liars. After all four girls, one a perfectionist, one a party girl, one an enigma and one a workaholic as they try to unravel the mystery of their cousin’s death. Sounds familiar right?

Don’t worry though, Shepard provides enough twists and differences to keep it from feeling like too much of a carbon copy. For one thing, she takes great detail to highlight the life of the rich and. . . well rich with their Hamptoms vacations and elite societal expectation for family members while keeping hypocritical secrets themselves.

Corinne is the perfecctionist who is picking up the slack of her rule-breaking cousins. She exceeds expectations, being office manager and marrying the right guy. BUt after Poppy’s death and the return of her one-time fling, she is torn between her actual happiness and being the good girl of the Saybook clan. But what if her fling is actually her older cousin, Poppy’s murderer?

Meanwhile Corinne’s sister, Aster is the party girl who knows a dark truth about her father. So she doesn’t see much use in being good when other family members are hypocrites. However, after one scandal too much, she’s forced to start as an assistant to a Miranda Priestly-type whom she suspects of having a vicious vendetta against Poppy. Could she have pushed her out the window?

Finally, Rowen buries herself in work to avoid the long-held torch she has for James III, Poppy’s husband. But on the very night, she finally egts her wish, Poppy is murdered. Rowen is overcome with guilt and as her liason with James get more heated, she starts to believe that maybe James wanted his wife out of the way all along.

Yes, there’s a fourth heiress, Natasha who recently spurned her inheritance and disowned herself much to the shock of the Saybrooks who believe she acts like she’s better than them. Unfortunately, Natasha has almost no page time as there’s no chapter from her POV and she’s quickly put into a coma because she knows too much. It’s understandable as she could be the one to put things together but disappointing as the summary implied she would be a main character. Instead, she has very one dimensional strokes.

But Shepard does keep up with her usual mystery flaire with several red herrings that seem obvious but are all connected in some way to the murder or murders I should say. Plus as the characters are in their twenties so there’s less dumb decisions motivated by impulsivity and romantic hang-ups. Yep, the cousins actually communicate when they realize someone is after them. Well, there are a few impulsive decisions but it’s not as annoying. Plus the themes of family secrets and trying to be better than the past adds some emotional renosance to what could have been just a Pretty Little Liars ripoff.

It also ends with a cliffhanger that made me wish it had a sequel but as its been several years, it’s doubtful. Oh well, it’s good as a standalone as well if you’re looking for a way to kill some time on the beach.