Contemporary – Page 24 – Jill's Book Blog

Blog Tour Review: My Darling Husband

Title: My Darling Husband
Author: Kimberly Belle
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Park Row
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: December 28, 2021 (paperback will be published March 8, 2022)
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Jade and Cam Lasky are by all accounts a happily married couple, with two adorable kids, a spacious home and a rapidly growing restaurant business. But their world is tipped upside down when Jade is confronted by a masked home invader. As Cam scrambles to gather the ransom money, Jade starts to wonder if they’re as financially secure as their lifestyle suggests, and what other secrets her husband is keeping from her.
Cam may be a good father, a celebrity chef and a darling husband, but there’s another side he’s kept hidden from Jade that has put their family in danger. Unbeknownst to Cam and Jade, the home invader has been watching them and is about to turn their family secrets into a public scandal.
With riveting twists and a breakneck pace, My Darling Husband is an utterly compelling thriller that once again showcases Kimberly Belle’s exceptional talent for domestic suspense.

Review:

Cam Lasky is a famous chef in Atlanta with a few high-priced restaurants. He arrives at his biggest restaurant to find that it’s burned down. While he’s dealing with the insurance, his wife, Jade, is confronted with a masked intruder who has trapped her and her two children in their home. The kidnapper is asking for a specific amount in ransom, which Jade thinks won’t be a problem for her successful husband to put his hands on in a few hours. However, Jade doesn’t know about the secrets her husband has been keeping from her, that could determine if anyone gets out of this situation alive.

This was a fast paced and suspenseful thriller. There were great cliffhangers at the end of chapters that made me keep reading. It was really hard to put down because I needed to know how it ended.

There were a couple of surprising twists at the end of the story. However, some of the subplots weren’t related to the main plot. I won’t mention them and give them away, but they were really good subplots, yet they didn’t really add to the main plot. I would have loved it if all of these plot threads came together at the end.

My Darling Husband is a fast paced thriller!

Thank you HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book.

About the author:

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of seven novels, including her latest, My Darling Husband (December 2021). Her third novel, The Marriage Lie, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Mystery & Thriller, and a #1 e-book bestseller in the UK and Italy. She’s sold rights to her books in a dozen languages as well as film and television options. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Have you read My Darling Husband? What did you think of it?

Blog Tour Review: Honest June

Title: Honest June
Author: Tina Wells
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 9, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

For June Jackson, middle school is hard enough–but it’s even harder when a fairy godmother grants her the ability to only tell the truth ALL THE TIME! Is it a blessing… or a major curse? June’s charming story will inspire big laughs and even bigger love for a new heroine for our times.
June Jackson is an expert at exceeding people’s expectations. She can’t help it; she’s a people-pleaser! She’ll do everything she can to be the perfect student, daughter, and friend, even if it means ignoring her own feelings sometimes. Cue Victoria, June’s secret fairy godmother, who blesses June with the ability to never tell a lie in the hopes that June will finally be honest with her loved ones. Instead of telling them the truth to their faces, June turns to a secret online blog–the only place she can write out her true feelings without hurting people.
When all of her responsibilities start to pile on–field hockey, the school paper, family responsibility, her friends–June begins feeling so overwhelmed that sometimes it feels hard to breathe. Not to mention June is desperately trying to figure out how to overthrow the spell at the same time! When the pressures reach new heights, will Honest June finally be able to break free and tell whole truth and nothing but?

Review:

Sixth grader June is always focused on pleasing everyone around her. That means that she often tells white lies to impress and please her friends and family. However, her own feelings get pushed aside as she tries to make everyone else happy. One day, Victoria, June’s fairy godmother, arrives and puts a spell on June that forces her to tell the truth. She can no longer lie about liking her mother’s cooking or wanting to follow in her dad’s footsteps to become a lawyer. June tries to get around this by creating a private blog to type up the truth so that she doesn’t have to speak it. June must learn the importance of the truth so the spell can finally be lifted.

This story had an important message about telling the truth, that is for adults as well as children. It’s so easy to tell little white lies that end up snowballing into bigger lies. Even just saying “I’m fine,” when you aren’t, is a lie that June was caught up in a few times.

June felt a lot of pressure from her family to do well in school. Her father had her entire life planned out for her when she was eleven-years-old, but she didn’t know what she wanted to do in the future. This could be very relatable for many readers. Once she finally spoke the truth and talked to her parents about what was bothering her, she was able to begin to solve her problems.

Honest June is a great middle grade novel!

Thank you Random House Books for Young Readers and TBR and Beyond Tours for providing a copy of this book.

Where to buy:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593378296/ref=x_gr_bb_amazon?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_bb_amazon_ca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=15121&creative=330641#detailBullets_feature_div

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/honest-june-tina-wells/1138802892?ean=9780593378298

Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Honest-June-Tina-Wells/9780593378298?ref=grid-view&qid=1636044627003&sr=1-1

Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/honest-june/9780593378298-item.html?ref=isbn-search

IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780593378298

About the author:

Tina Wells is the founder of RLVNT Media, a multimedia content venture serving entrepreneurs, tweens, and culturists with authentic representation. Tina has been recognized by Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Essence’s 40 Under 40, Cosmopolitan’s Fun Fearless Phenom, and more. She is the author of nine books, including the best-selling tween fiction series Mackenzie Blue, its 2020 spinoff series, The Zee Files, and the marketing handbook, Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right.

Tour schedule:

December 27th
Stuck in Fiction – Promotional Post
Cindy’s Love of Books – Review

December 28th
Mocha Girls Read – Promotional Post
Kait Plus Books – Journal Spread
Rajiv’s Reviews – Review

December 29th
Confessions of a YA Reader – Promotional Post
PopTheButterfly Reads – Review

December 30th
Whispering Stories – Review & Favorite Quotes
Peruse With Coffee – Review & Top 5 Reasons to Read Honest June

December 31st
The Book Dutchesses – Promotional Post
The Bookish Coven – Review & Favorite Quotes

January 1st
Nine Bookish Lives – Promotional Post
Jill’s Book Blog – Review
Phannie the Ginger Bookworm – Review, Playlist & Favorite Quotes

January 2nd
Fictionologyst – Review
The Nutty Bookworm Reads Alot – Review

Have you read Honest June? What did you think of it?

Review: I’m Dreaming of a Wyatt Christmas

Title: I’m Dreaming of a Wyatt Christmas
Author: Tiffany Schmidt
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Amulet Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 26, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Ballet and babysitting bring two teens together in this very merry holiday rom-com from the author of the acclaimed Bookish Boyfriends series
Noelle Partridge is known for three things: being the best ballet dancer, babysitter, and person with the most Christmas spirit in her small town. But lately she’s bored by the lessons at her dance school, and her friends and father are more bah humbug than Hallmark movie marathon. So when her favorite babysitting clients ask her to accompany them on a ski trip over winter break, she packs her bags for the slopes. It helps that they’re offering double her rate—she’ll need the money for Beacon, an elite ballet academy that’s granted her an audition.
Noelle is ready to “Deck the Halls” and have fa la la la fun, until Wyatt, the older half-brother of her babysitting charges, decides to surprise his family for the holiday. He’s one of the best dancers at Beacon, and makes Noelle’s head spin faster than pirouettes. Unfortunately, she also manages to step on his toes—spoiling his surprise and complicating his secret plans. After a few missteps, Noelle and Wyatt begin to thaw toward each other and bond over the big decisions looming in each of their lives. With enough Christmas magic, Noelle might just start the New Year with lots of babysitting cash in her pocket and a chance with the pas de deux partner of her dreams.

Review:

Fourteen-year-old Noelle is a ballet dancer, a babysitter, and obsessed with Christmas. When her favourite babysitting clients, the Kahales, ask her to go away with them to Vermont for Christmas, she agrees. It’s the perfect excuse to avoid her father, who has been busy with work and ignoring Noelle lately. Noelle gets a huge surprise when the older half-brother of the kids who she babysits arrives. She’s never met Wyatt, but she’s had a crush on him since she saw his photos and videos of him dancing. Their relationship is off to a rocky start, when Wyatt’s younger siblings like Noelle more than him, but they soon realize they can bond over their similar family issues. Noelle and Wyatt have more in common than they thought, and they may be just what the other needs.

This is a perfect holiday romance! It was hard to remember that Noelle was only fourteen-years-old in this story. There wasn’t anything adult themed in the book, but it was so relatable and fun. Noelle and Wyatt had a slow build romance, but that made it more rewarding when they finally figured out their feelings for each other.

Though the main characters were young teenagers, Noelle still had to deal with some mature issues. She was still recovering from the death of her mother six years earlier, which was always a difficult memory at the holidays. She wanted to attend a dance boarding school, but didn’t know how to speak to her father since they had a fight and weren’t speaking. Noelle was also experiencing her first love, and the complications that came with liking the son of her employer. Though these were some potentially difficult topics, they were handled really well and the story still had a light tone.

I’m Dreaming of a Wyatt Christmas is a fun young adult holiday romance!

Thank you Amulet Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Wrapped Up in You

Title: Wrapped Up in You
Author: Talia Hibbert
Genre: Romance, Novella, Contemporary
Publisher: Kobo Originals
Source: Purchased
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 16, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

William Reid is nothing special, except for his billion-dollar acting career and his, you know, face. (Apparently, it’s a good one.) Winning ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ was nice, but this Christmas, he has more important goals in mind… like finally winning over his best friend’s little sister, the super-smart and kinda-scary Abbie Farrell.
When a blizzard leaves Will and Abbie alone at Grandma Farrell’s house (if bunking with 27 pets counts as ‘alone’), it’s the perfect opportunity to pull off a Christmas miracle. Convincing clever, frosty Abbie to give Will a chance will take more than mistletoe, but hiding his lifelong crush on her is no longer an option.

Review:

Abbie Farrell goes to spend Christmas with her grandmother early, and finds her childhood best friend, Will Reid, there too. Will is an actor in California, who stars in superhero movies, but he’s returned home for the holidays. What Abbie doesn’t know is that Will is prepared to confess his lifelong love for Abbie this Christmas. When they’re the only ones together at the house, they have to come clean with the feelings they’ve both had for their entire lives.

This was a short and sweet holiday novella. Abbie and Will were well developed characters with an extensive backstory that was mentioned throughout the story. I was rooting for them to get together throughout the whole story.

This was a friends to lovers story, and I haven’t read many of those so I really enjoyed this one. The ending of the story also had Talia Hibbert’s signature steamy romance.

Wrapped Up in Christmas is a fun holiday romance!

Review: The Holiday Swap

Title: The Holiday Swap
Author: Maggie Knox
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Viking
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A feel-good, holiday-themed romantic comedy about identical twins who switch lives in the days leading up to Christmas.
All they want for Christmas is a different life.
When chef Charlie Goodwin gets hit on the head on the L.A. set of her reality baking show, she loses a lot more than consciousness; she also loses her ability to taste and smell–both critical to her success as show judge. Meanwhile, Charlie’s identical twin, Cass, is frantically trying to hold her own life together back in their quaint mountain hometown while running the family’s bustling bakery and dealing with her ex, who won’t get the memo that they’re over.
With only days until Christmas, a desperate Charlie asks Cass to do something they haven’t done since they were kids: switch places. Looking for her own escape from reality, Cass agrees. But temporarily trading lives proves more complicated than they imagined, especially when rugged firefighter Jake Greenman and gorgeous physician assistant Miguel Rodriguez are thrown into the mix. Will the twins’ identity swap be a recipe for disaster, or does it have all the right ingredients for getting their lives back on track?

Review:

Charlie Goodwin is a judge for a TV reality baking show, but when she gets hit on the head on set, she gets a concussion, along with losing her senses of taste and smell. She needs to keep this job because it could lead to another cooking show. Meanwhile, in their hometown, her twin sister Cass is struggling to run their family’s bakery while also dealing with a toxic ex-boyfriend who won’t go away. Charlie and Cass decide to trade places so that Cass can properly judge the baking show and Charlie can use her confidence to run the bakery and deal with Cass’s ex. Soon after they switch lives, Charlie falls for Jake, the new firefighter in town, and Cass likes the physicians assistant Miguel. Now they not only have to run each other’s lives, but also figure out how to start a relationship while living as their sister.

I’ve always loved stories about twins. The Mary-Kate and Ashley movies and TV shows, and The Parent Trap movies were my favourites as a kid. This situation made for the perfect switch. Cass and Charlie were both experienced bakers, but Charlie’s sense of taste and smell were so important for judging the TV show that she couldn’t keep her job if she stayed there. They were both able to make changes in each other’s lives, though not all of them were for the better.

This was a fun holiday read. There were lots of baked treats, so make sure you have some handy while reading. The Christmas scenes were brief, as it was mostly about the days leading up to Christmas. However it still had a festive feel!

The Holiday Swap is a fun holiday rom com!

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: A Holly Jolly Diwali

Title: A Holly Jolly Diwali
Author: Sonya Lalli
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Berkley Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

One type-A data analyst discovers her free-spirited side on an impulsive journey from bustling Mumbai to the gorgeous beaches of Goa and finds love waiting for her on Christmas morning.
Twenty-nine-year-old Niki Randhawa has always made practical decisions. Despite her love for music and art, she became an analyst for the stability. She’s always stuck close to home, in case her family needed her. And she’s always dated guys that seem good on paper, rather than the ones who give her butterflies. When she’s laid off, Niki realizes that practical hasn’t exactly paid off for her. So for the first time ever, she throws caution to the wind and books a last-minute flight for her friend Diya’s wedding.
Niki arrives in India just in time to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, where she meets London musician Sameer Mukherji. Maybe it’s the splendor of Mumbai or the magic of the holiday season, but Niki is immediately drawn to Sam. At the wedding, the champagne flows and their flirtatious banter makes it clear that the attraction is mutual.
When Niki and Sam join Diya, her husband and their friends on a group honeymoon, their connection grows deeper. Free-spirited Sam helps Niki get in touch with her passionate and creative side, and with her Indian roots. When she gets a new job offer back home, Niki must decide what she wants out of the next chapter of her life–to cling to the straight and narrow like always, or to take a leap of faith and live the kind of bold life the old Niki never would have dreamed of.

Review:

When twenty-nine year old Niki is suddenly laid off from her job, she decides to do something uncharacteristic and fly to India for her best friend’s wedding on a spur of the moment vacation. She arrives in India in time to celebrate Diwali before the wedding. Niki meets Sam, a London musician, and is instantly attracted to him. The attraction is mutual so they decide to go on a group trip with the newlyweds. However, on that trip, their whirlwind romance is threatened when they have to come to terms with their different lifestyles.

This was a book about celebration. It wasn’t necessarily a Christmas novel, because only the final chapters took place during Christmas. Niki celebrated Diwali, and most of the novel was about her friend’s wedding. There were different kinds of celebrations, and they all gave the story a very festive feel.

I flew through this book. It was fast paced and exciting. It wasn’t steamy but I loved the romance. I fell in love with the characters and I really want to know where their story is heading next!

A Holly Jolly Diwali is a fun, festive romance!

Thank you Berkley Books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Blame It on the Mistletoe

Title: Blame It on the Mistletoe
Author: Beth Garrod
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: November 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Tweet Cute meets the movie The Holiday in this funny holiday rom-com where two very different girls swap lives for a Christmas adventure.
Elle is a social medial star with the #DreamLife…or so it seems. Determined to shake up her content and gain new followers, she’s on a mission: can she find a British fan to swap with for Christmas?
Holly loves everything about Christmas. But after a mortifying mistletoe disaster with her ex, her perfect plans unravel like a bad Christmas sweater. Can Holly save the holidays when she switches places with favorite social media influencer?
Elle gets more than she bargained for when she meets the cute boy from across the street. And Holly wasn’t expecting Elle to have a handsome twin brother. This holiday is full of surprises.

Review:

Elle is a teenage influencer who wants to grow her social media followers to 30,000 by the end of the year. She decides to do a holiday swap with a fan in Britain to change up her content for the holidays. Holly is obsessed with Christmas in her small British town of Little Marsh. She’s getting over a tough breakup, and finds comfort watching her favourite influencer on social media. When Elle announces that she wants to trade places with a British fan for Christmas, Holly decides she has to live out her dream Christmas in New York City. Luckily, Elle and Holly have a family connection, so trading places is easy. However, they didn’t expect to find romance during their holidays: Elle with Holly’s cute friend and Holly with Elle’s twin brother.

This story was a fun look at social media and the lengths that influencers will go to to get followers. This was an extreme tactic, switching places with a fan, but it was an interesting technique. Elle also had to deal with trolls and fake people on social media, so it also showed the dangers that teens and any influencers can face online.

Holly’s narrative began this story, and her voice reminded me of the Georgia Nicolson books that I loved when I was a kid. She was quirky and funny. However, she lost this humourous outlook throughout the story as things became more serious. I would have loved to have more of that funny narrative voice.

One thing that I didn’t understand is the cover. I didn’t count this against my rating for the author, because I know it wasn’t completely her decision, but I’m not sure why there was only one male and one female character on the cover when the story was mainly about two girls and two different couples. It always bothers me when the cover doesn’t match the book. It would have made more sense to have both the main characters on the cover.

Blame It on the Mistletoe is a cute YA rom com.

Review: The Holiday Switch

Title: The Holiday Switch
Author: Tif Marcelo
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Underlined
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: October 5, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A paperback original romance about a bookish Filipino-American girl who crosses paths with the innkeeper’s aggravating nephew–but when they accidentally switch phones, their newly discovered secrets draw them together.
Lila Castro is ready to take on her last winter break of high school. The snow is plentiful, the mood is full of holiday cheer, and she’s earning extra cash working at the cozy local inn. But her perfect holiday plans crash to a halt when her boss’s frustratingly cute nephew, Teddy Veracruz, becomes her coworker. When they accidentally switch phones one afternoon, they both realize they’ve been hiding things from each other. Will their secrets–and a dash of holiday spirit–bring them closer to love?
Underlined is a line of totally addictive romance, thriller, and horror paperback original titles coming to you fast and furious each month. Enjoy everything you want to read the way you want to read it.

Review:

Lila Castro lives in the small town of Holly, New York, which is always festive. She’s looking forward to working extra hours during the winter break at the gift shop where she works so that she can save money for college next year. However, the extra hours she planned to work are taken over by her boss’s nephew, Teddy Veracruz, who is visiting for the holidays. Teddy doesn’t want to follow the rules they’ve always had at the shop, so Lila becomes frustrated while training him. Then one day, they end up switching phones by accident. Lila and Teddy each discover a secret the other is keeping while they have each other’s phone. Now they have to work together so that they don’t expose their secrets, while possibly finding a holiday romance along the way.

There was great Filipino representation in this holiday story. Lila and her boss, Ms. Velasco, were both Filipino. The star of her favourite holiday movie was also of Filipino descent. I had many Filipino friends while I was growing up, but I didn’t see them represented in North American books or movies, so it was really nice to see this kind of representation in a fun holiday rom com!

I could relate to Lila’s love of books. She organized a free library at the gift shop where she worked and had a secret romance novel blog. There were blog posts throughout the story of her holiday romance novel reviews. They were so cute and relatable as a book reviewer myself!

The Holiday Switch is a fun YA holiday rom com!

Review: The Thirteenth Fairy (Never After #1)

Title: The Thirteenth Fairy (Never After #1)
Author: Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Contemporary
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: December 1, 2020
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Nothing ever happens in Filomena Jefferson-Cho’s sleepy little suburban town of North Pasadena. The sun shines every day, the grass is always a perfect green, and while her progressive school swears there’s no such thing as bullying, she still feels bummed out. But one day, when Filomena is walking home on her own, something strange happens.
Filomena is being followed by Jack Stalker, one of the heroes in the Thirteenth Fairy, a series of books she loves about a brave girl and her ragtag group of friends who save their world from an evil enchantress. She must be dreaming, or still reading a book. But Jack is insistent–he’s real, the stories are real, and Filomena must come with him at once!
Soon, Filomena is thrust into the world of evil fairies and beautiful princesses, sorcerers and slayers, where an evil queen drives her ruthless armies to destroy what is left of the Fairy tribes. To save herself and the kingdom of Westphalia, Filomena must find the truth behind the fairytales and set the world back to rights before the cycle of sleep and destruction begins once more.

Review:

Filomena Jefferson-Cho lives an ordinary life in North Pasadena, but she loves to escape to the world of Never After in her favourite book series. When she gets the disappointing news on the release day that the thirteenth and final book in the series won’t be published, she’s so disappointed. As she walks home, she’s followed by someone who looks like Jack Stalker, the main character in the series. Jack catches up to her and tells her the world of Never After is real and she must go there with him to save it. The world is being taken over by ogres and Filomena has to help Jack and his friend Alistair. Filomena gets to enter her favourite fictional world that is closer to her reality than she can imagine.

As an avid reader since I was a kid, being able to enter my favourite fictional worlds would be a dream come true. It was so fun to read about Filomena being able to enter Never After. There are a few series I would have loved to enter as a kid, so this was such an entertaining premise.

I loved the references to fairy tales throughout the story. There were many fairy tale characters mentioned in passing, such as Goldilocks and the Three Little Pigs. This was a great set up for more books in the series to explore other fairy tale stories.

The Thirteenth Fairy is a fun middle grade fairy tale story!

Review: You’ll Be the Death of Me

Title: You’ll Be the Death of Me
Author: Karen M. McManus
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 30, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.
Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out–he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up…. again.
So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say…
Until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school–and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.
It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something.
Now they’re all wondering–could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?
From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand-new pulse-pounding thriller. It’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with murder when three old friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly–and fatally–wrong.

Review:

Ivy worked hard to be the top student and was class president for the last three years. That’s why she was shocked to lose the student council election to class clown Brian “Boney” Maloney. It upsets her so much that she decides to skip school on the day after the election results. She runs into her two former best friends: Cal and Mateo. Cal was just stood up for a date again, and Mateo is burned out from working two jobs and being lied to by his cousin. Ivy, Cal, and Mateo decide to skip school, to recreate the first time they met and skipped school years before. However, this time, they come across the body of a student who they’re all connected to. Each of them are suspects, so they spend the day investigating the death and running from everyone else.

This was another fabulous thriller from Karen M. McManus. It was fast paced and thrilling the entire time. It was so hard to put this book down. I needed to know how it ended.

I haven’t read many thrillers lately, because I’ve found them formulaic and easy to figure out. This one has so many shocking twists that kept me reading. I was truly surprised at every twist, especially the big reveals at the end. This was such a well written, suspenseful thriller.

You’ll Be the Death of Me is an amazing new thriller!

Thank you Penguin Random House for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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