Tag: young adult mystery

Book Review: The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: YA Mystery
Length: 336 pages
Author: Kara Thomas
Publisher: Delacorte
Release Date: April 19th, 2016
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

The Darkest Corners is a psychological thriller about the lies little girls tell, and the deadly truths those lies become.

There are ghosts around every corner in Fayette, Pennsylvania. Tessa left when she was nine and has been trying ever since not to think about it after what happened there that last summer. Memories of things so dark will burn themselves into your mind if you let them.

Callie never left. She moved to another house, so she doesn’t have to walk those same halls, but then Callie always was the stronger one. She can handle staring into the faces of her demons—and if she parties hard enough, maybe one day they’ll disappear for good.

Tessa and Callie have never talked about what they saw that night. After the trial, Callie drifted and Tessa moved, and childhood friends just have a way of losing touch.

But ever since she left, Tessa has had questions. Things have never quite added up. And now she has to go back to Fayette—to Wyatt Stokes, sitting on death row; to Lori Cawley, Callie’s dead cousin; and to the one other person who may be hiding the truth.

Only the closer Tessa gets to the truth, the closer she gets to a killer—and this time, it won’t be so easy to run away.

Thank you GetUnderlined for the gifted copy!

NOT TOO BAD.

Another Kara Thomas book down and I liked this one too! It’s another fast paced read with some good drama with betrayals and twists I didn’t see coming. I didn’t get as involved with this story though. I don’t know why, just missing something. I would still recommend this book! I think the writing is fantastic and there is this quality of reading that draws you in. I love the complex characters and relationship dynamics that leave me guessing in the best ways.

It all came together well and I liked how things wrapped up. I can’t wait to read more by this author!

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Mystery
  • Language: low
  • Romance: none
  • Violence: moderate
  • Content Warnings: murder, death, kidnapping, abuse, drugging, gun violence, underage drinking, suicide, false imprisonment

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Book Review: The Brothers Hawthorne (The Inheritance Games #4) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Mystery
Length: 480 pages
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Release Date: August 29th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Four brothers. Two missions. One explosive read. Jennifer Lynn Barnes returns to the world of her #1 bestselling Inheritance Games trilogy, and the stakes have never been higher.  
 
Grayson Hawthorne was raised as the heir apparent to his billionaire grandfather, taught from the cradle to put family first. Now the great Tobias Hawthorne is dead and his family disinherited, but some lessons linger. When Grayson’s half-sisters find themselves in trouble, he swoops in to do what he does best: take care of the problem—efficiently, effectively, mercilessly. And without getting bogged down in emotional entanglements.
 
Jameson Hawthorne is a risk-taker, a sensation-seeker, a player of games. When his mysterious father appears and asks for a favor, Jameson can’t resist the challenge. Now he must infiltrate London’s most exclusive underground gambling club, which caters to the rich, the powerful, and the aristocratic, and win an impossible game of greatest stakes. Luckily, Jameson Hawthorne lives for impossible.
 
Drawn into twisted games on opposite sides of the globe, Grayson and Jameson—with the help of their brothers and the girl who inherited their grandfather’s fortune—must dig deep to decide who they want to be and what each of them will sacrifice to win.

A WEE BIT SLOW.

I was not as impressed by this as I had hyped myself for (and maybe that was my undoing???). I really enjoyed the first trilogy and thought we’d finally get some Grayson moments and instead I felt like that poor guy just kept getting beat down more and that we were all back at square one with the characters.

Some aspects of the mystery were intriguing, I loved seeing all of the brothers interact again. I am curious enough to read the next book and I did enjoy listening to this. While there was good, I’m overall a little perplexed (and cautious) at how the next book with further open these plot lines. I did like a few of the twists and betrayals.

And can we please give Grayson a dang break??!

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Mystery
  • Language: some strong
  • Romance: Closed door
  • Violence: moderate
  • Trigger/Content Warnings: parental abandonment, brief mentions of cheating spouse, death of loved one recounted

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Book Review: The Cheerleaders (The Cheerleaders #1) by Kara Thomas

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Thriller
Length: 384 pages
Author: Kara Thomas
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: July 31st, 2018
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.

Thank you Get Underlined for the gifted copy.

GOOD ENDING.

That ending really brought this whole book together for me. Gosh I’m still thinking about it. This is the way I enjoy thrillers coming to a close, with that last gasp scene that makes you look at the story/a character in a different light.

There was one plot point I didn’t love in this book that still doesn’t feel like it was a necessary aspect. Luckily it was a small piece or I think I would have had a harder time reading. It’s a great and fast paced audiobook. One that I got through in a day.

I liked the complexity of the story and wow it hits some hard themes too. It’s messy and filled with characters that you can’t decide whether you like them or not. I’ve really enjoyed reading through multiple Kara Thomas books and plan to continue with new releases. I like the way she crafts thrillers a lot.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Thriller
  • Language: low
  • Romance: innuendo, mentions of nights together
  • Violence: moderate
  • Content Warnings: murder, suicide (off page, recounted), statutory rape, pedophilia, abortion, death of loved ones, gun violence, car accident, domestic violence

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Book Review: The Champions by Kara Thomas

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Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Mystery
Length: 336 pages
Author: Kara Thomas
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: August 27th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

From the author of The Cheerleaders comes another dark YA thriller set in the same town of Sunnybrook. When a mysterious accident befalls a member of the all-star high school football team, the town’s deadly history stands to repeat itself—and the price of discovering the truth is higher than anyone could imagine.

It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls’ killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school’s championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes–something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past.

Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team’s latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poisoned at a party, and almost immediately after, Hadley starts getting strange emails warning her to stay far away from the football team.

It’s becoming clear Sunnybrook’s golden boys have secrets, and after a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley’s beginning to suspect that someone wants the team to pay for their sins. Or does this new target on the football team have something to do with what happened to the cheerleaders all those years ago?

As an outsider in Sunnybrook, Hadley feels like she’s the only one who can see the present clearly, but it looks like she’s going to have to dig up the darkness of the past to get to the bottom of what’s happening now. Luckily, there are still some Sunnybrook High grads who never left–people who were around eleven years ago—and if she can just convince them to talk, she might be able stop a killer before another Tiger dies.

Thank you GetUnderlined for the gifted copy!

NEW FAVORITE.

This is easily my current favorite Kara Thomas book. I was hooked from this book from the beginning. It’s a complex story with some heavy themes and topics and wow did it hit me with a gut punch as the reveals started coming out.

I really liked the main character, Hadley. I enjoy a thriller book that has a character you don’t feel forced to hate. Hadley didn’t do everything right, but she did try and worked hard to find the truth.

It’s a short audiobook with another fast paced timeline. I love that Thomas writes short books because the story is not bogged down by side quests that don’t fulfill the full plot line. It’s easy to binge read and great for fall.

Overall audience notes:

  • YA Mystery
  • Language: low
  • Romance: none
  • Violence: moderate
  • Content Warnings: gang rape, cheating (in school and on people), seizure, hit and run (resulting in a death), domestic violence, hazing, underage drinking

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