Sophie’s Secret (Whisper series) by Tara West

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Official Rating: 2/5

Synopsis:

“After shedding 30 pounds of baby fat, Sophie Sinora has grown into a pretty, but insecure, teen in bloom. To make her life more complicated, Sophie can sometimes read minds.
Sophie’s BFFs, AJ and Krysta, are also ‘gifted’ with paranormal abilities. Keeping their gifts secret proves difficult, as their powers are strengthening, making them feel more and more like freaks.
When Sophie falls for Jacob, she hopes he’ll ask her out to the Freshman Formal. But when she’s forced to cheat and lie for him, she wonders how far she’ll have to go to make him like her. Add to her growing list of problems – her teacher’s suicidal thoughts, a locker bully who wants to kick her butt, the hot school flirt who won’t stop teasing her, her pregnant sister who boots Sophie out of her room, and the growing tension between Sophie and her best friends.
Sophie’s got issues. Hopefully, she can fix them in time to save her teacher’s life and her social life.“

My Review:

When I opened this book, I didn’t have access to the internet so I couldn’t double check what the synopsis was on goodreads. Everything that was in the synopsis occurred in the book, but it was very watered down. I was expecting the book to be more about the supernatural powers that Sophie, AJ, and Kyrsta have. Instead, I got bits and pieces about their powers and mostly learned more about Sophie’s her pregnant sister, depressed teacher, her rather small issues with her friends, and her romance life.

Sophie is the main character and the whole book is from her perspective. It was interesting to see things through her eyes and read other people’s minds, but she insulted people too much for me to enjoy it. While yes, a teacher that picks his nose is very gross, to call him “Pick-and-Flick” isn’t very kind. Nor is calling Cody Miller “Grody Cody” polite either. Sophie uses her power to try to understand a few people better, but only if it benefits her. For example, Frankie (spoiler) who she uses her telepathic powers to figure out if he likes her or her favorite teacher or her new best friend, Lara. Yet, not with Mr. Dallin or Cody. Why doesn’t she want to know what those two are thinking? Surely they know about what people call them and I’m sure their feelings are probably hurt. Everyone is dealing with something, being ridiculed by the “entire” school can’t help. But Sophie doesn’t care because she has already labeled them and therefore doesn’t want anything else to do with them.

The rest of characters were just as okay. They all felt 2D and I didn’t connect with any of them. Sophie’s best friends, Krysta and AJ, didn’t really do very much, especially Krysta. AJ only served to give the plot a bit more “trouble in paradise” between friends. The only interesting part in the whole book was the issue between Sophie and her sister, Rosa Marie. I would have like to have seen more bonding between them, but it just didn’t happen.

The plot was rather interesting, but it didn’t hold up because of the lack of anything that actually had something to do with the three main characters’ powers. In order for me to have even thought about the sequel, there had to be more than a few obscure hints about the girls having an increase in power. There had to be more to the plot and I was disappointed that there wasn’t.