Young Adult – Page 8 – Jill's Book Blog

Review: House of Ash and Bone

Title: House of Ash and Bone
Author: Joel A. Sutherland
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Horror
Publisher: Tundra Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: September 5, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The Haunted meets House of Salt and Sorrows in this young adult debut horror by acclaimed Canadian master of the macabre Joel A. Sutherland.

Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger is a talented writer with special abilities she doesn’t fully understand. Over the years she has developed methods to cope with the voices she hears in her head, but the old house her family has inherited in Vermont makes Josephine question what’s real and what’s not more than anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s filled with shadows, and whispers, and the unshakable feeling of being watched. Josephine then catches her first glimpse of a shadowy woman with long hair, pale skin, an impossibly wide smile and hollow pits for eyes. Her name is Dorcas, the ghost of a witch who died three hundred years ago. She has summoned the family to Vermont to ensnare them — then consume them — in order to rise from the grave and live again . . .

Review:

Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger has always had to find methods to cope with the voices she can hear in her head. She wears headphones to block out the thoughts of her parents and sisters. When her father suddenly inherits a mansion in Vermont, the family goes there for a weeklong vacation after Christmas. The house is filled with everything her family needs and loves. However, Josephine catches sight of a shadow woman with a creepy smile and hollow pits for eyes. No one else can see the woman and her family keeps forgetting the strange things that happen in the house. The woman needs to trap Josephine’s family in the house to feed herself, unless Josephine can defeat her first.

It’s been years since I read a book that was so scary I couldn’t read it before sleeping at night, but this was one of those books. It was creepy and disturbing. Sometimes a good horror book can fizzle out at the end and not have a complete ending. This story had a satisfying ending that also left the possibility for a sequel.

House of Ash and Bone is a creepy YA horror!

Thank you Tundra Books and Penguin Teen Canada for providing a copy of this book!

Content warnings: body horror, death

Have you read House of Ash and Bone? What did you think of it?

Review: Foul Lady Fortune (Foul Lady Fortune #1)

Title: Foul Lady Fortune (Foul Lady Fortune #1)
Author: Chloe Gong
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: September 27, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The first book in a captivating new duology following an ill-matched pair of spies posing as a married couple to investigate a series of brutal murders in 1930s Shanghai.

It’s 1931 in Shanghai, and the stage is set for a new decade of intrigue.

Four years ago, Rosalind Lang was brought back from the brink of death, but the strange experiment that saved her also stopped her from sleeping and aging—and allows her to heal from any wound. In short, Rosalind cannot die. Now, desperate for redemption from her traitorous past, she uses her abilities as an assassin for her country.

Code name: Fortune.

But when the Japanese Imperial Army begins its invasion march, Rosalind’s mission pivots. A series of murders is causing unrest in Shanghai, and the Japanese are under suspicion. Rosalind’s new orders are to infiltrate foreign society and identify the culprits behind the terror plot before more of her people are killed.

To reduce suspicion, however, she must pose as the wife of another Nationalist spy, Orion Hong, and though Rosalind finds Orion’s cavalier attitude and playboy demeanor infuriating, she is willing to work with him for the greater good. But Orion has an agenda of his own, and Rosalind has secrets that she wants to keep buried. As they both attempt to unravel the conspiracy, the two spies soon find that there are deeper and more horrifying layers to this mystery than they ever imagined.

Review:

Shanghai, 1931: Four years ago Rosalind Lang was brought back from the dead, with a drug that stops her from aging, sleeping, and allows her to heal quickly from any wound. She uses her new abilities to work as an assassin for the Nationalists under the code name Fortune. However, when there are a series of strange murders throughout the city, Rosalind’s mission changes. She must pose as the wife of another Nationalist spy, Orion Hong. Rosalind doesn’t trust him with her true identity, but she’s willing to work with him for the mission. As they investigate the murders, they discover they both have secrets that are connected to the bigger conspiracy happening in the city.

This book was an exciting beginning to this duology set in the world of These Violent Delights. I loved seeing the characters again. Rosalind and her sister Celia were intriguing in These Violent Delights but they weren’t the main characters, so I’m glad they get a larger role in this series. At the beginning, it was a little confusing to figure out who was on which side of the Nationalists and Communists, especially since there were many double agents with multiple identities. However, there were so many twists near the end of the story that I didn’t want it to end! I’m so excited to read the next book!

Foul Lady Fortune is another great story by Chloe Gong!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book!

Content warnings: death, stabbing, gun violence, death of sibling (mention), parental abandonment

Other books in the series:

Foul Heart Huntsman (Foul Lady Fortune #2)

Have you read Foul Lady Fortune (Foul Lady Fortune #1)? What did you think of it?

Review: The Meadows

Title: The Meadows
Author: Stephanie Oakes
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, LGBTQ, Dystopian
Publisher: Dial Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: September 12, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A queer, YA Handmaid’s Tale meets Never Let Me Go about a dystopian society bent on relentless conformity, and the struggle of one girl to save herself and those she loves from a life of lies

Everyone hopes for a letter—to attend the Estuary, the Glades, the Meadows. These are the special places where only the best and brightest go to burn even brighter.

When Eleanor is accepted at the Meadows, it means escape from her hardscrabble life by the sea, in a country ravaged by climate disaster. But despite its luminous facilities, endless fields, and pretty things, the Meadows keeps dark secrets: its purpose is to reform students, to condition them against their attractions, to show them that one way of life is the only way to survive. And maybe Eleanor would believe them, except then she meets Rose.

Four years later, Eleanor and her friends seem free of the Meadows, changed but not as they’d hoped. Eleanor is an adjudicator, her job to ensure her former classmates don’t stray from the lives they’ve been trained to live. But Eleanor can’t escape her past . . . or thoughts of the girl she once loved. As secrets unfurl, Eleanor must wage a dangerous battle for her own identity and the truth of what happened to the girl she lost, knowing, if she’s not careful, Rose’s fate could be her own.

A raw and timely masterwork of speculative fiction, The Meadows will sink its roots into you. This is a novel for our times and for always—not to be missed.

Review:

Every child hopes to receive a letter to attend a special school for the best and brightest children. Select kids aged 12-14 receive a letter, sending them to the school for four years, with a few other children the same age. Eleanor was invited to the Meadows, which is in a secret location, surrounded by endless fields. However, she doesn’t know that the school is meant to reform students to fit in with the way that society insists they follow. When Eleanor meets Rose, she realizes there is another direction her life can take. Four years later, Eleanor is working as an adjudicator, someone who makes sure that former children of those schools have been reformed. Eleanor can’t stop thinking about Rose and the mysteries that surrounded her time at the Meadows. She persists in finding answers, even if the cost will be her life.

This was an incredible story. It was set in a dystopian world where a climate disaster destroyed a lot of the world. Society is run by the Quorum, who monitors everyone with cameras and microphones to make sure they are living by their rules, particularly that men and women are not having relationships with the same sex. The most disturbing part is that this isn’t far off from the real world. Conversion therapy, like what was happening at these facilities where the kids were sent in the story, is still happening in the world. There was also a mystery element to the story while Eleanor looked for Rose after leaving the facility, that kept me turning the pages. I really didn’t want this story to end but I did love the way it ended!

The Meadows is a new YA dystopian that everyone should read!

Thank you Penguin Teen Canada for sending me a copy!

Content warnings: homophobia, abuse, death of parents

Have you read The Meadows? What did you think of it?

Review: The Prince and the Apocalypse (The Prince and the Apocalypse #1)

Title: The Prince and the Apocalypse (The Prince and the Apocalypse #1)
Author: Kara McDowell
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: July 11, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

An American teen stranded in London is forced to team up with the British crown prince if she wants to make it back home before the end of the world in this delightfully rompy high-stakes rom-com.

Wren Wheeler has flown five thousand miles across the ocean to discover she’s the worst kind of traveler: the kind who just wants to go home. Her senior-year trip to London was supposed to be life-changing, but by the last day, Wren’s perfectly-planned itinerary is in tatters. There’s only one item left to check off: breakfast at The World’s End restaurant. The one thing she can still get right.

The restaurant is closed for renovations—of course—but there’s a boy there, too. A very cute boy with a posh British accent who looks remarkably like the errant Prince Theo, on the run from the palace and his controlling mother. When Wren helps him escape a pack of tourists, the Prince scribbles down his number and offers her one favor in return. She doesn’t plan to take him up on it—until she gets to the airport and sees cancelled flights and chaos. A comet is approaching Earth, and the world is ending in eight days. Suddenly, that favor could be her only chance to get home to her family before the end of the world.

Wren strikes a bargain with the runaway prince: if she’ll be his bodyguard from London to his family’s compound in Santorini, he can charter her a private jet home in time to say goodbye. Traveling through Europe by boat, train, and accidentally stolen automobile, Wren finds herself drawn to the dryly sarcastic, surprisingly vulnerable Theo. But the Prince has his own agenda, one that could derail both their plans. When life as they know it will be over in days, is it possible to find a happy ending?

Review:

Wren Wheeler traveled from Chicago to London for one last class trip before starting college in the fall, but she was plagued with homesickness and didn’t do anything she wanted to. While looking for one last breakfast to make the trip worth it, she runs into a boy who looks a lot like the missing Prince Theo. She protects Theo from photographers, and he gives her a phone number to call if she needs help. Wren rushes to the airport to catch her flight home, but when all the flights are cancelled, she learns that a comet is heading towards Earth, which will kill everyone in eight days. With no other way home, Wren calls Theo to ask him to help her get home. The two of them embark on a journey across Europe to the Royal Family’s private jet in Santorini so that Wren can get home to see her family one last time. However, Theo has his own plan and reason for running away from his family, which could derail Wren’s goal if she finds out.

This was such an exciting story! It would be a fun adventure to travel across Europe with a Royal Prince. Some of the things they did seemed unbelievable, and were things I definitely wouldn’t do (like jump off a ferry in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea), but they were fun to read about. A sequel was just announced a few weeks ago, so I had a feeling I knew how the story was going to end, but I still loved reading the twists at the end!

The Prince and the Apocalypse is a fun road trip story!

Thank you Wednesday Books for providing a digital copy of this book!

Have you read The Prince and the Apocalypse? What did you think of it?

Review: Goddess Crown

Title: Goddess Crown
Author: Shade Lapite
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Walker Books US
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: September 12, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this thrilling Afro-fantasy, the first set in the lush, opulent kingdom of Galla, a girl raised in secret must leave her sheltered rural home for the subtle dangers of the royal court, where she becomes caught up in deadly power struggles and romantic intrigue.

Kalothia has grown up in the shadows of her kingdom, hidden away in the forested East after her parents were outed as enemies of the king. Raised in a woodland idyll by a few kindly adult caretakers, Kalothia can hunt and fish and fend for herself but knows little of the outside world. When assassins attack her home on her sixteenth birthday, she must flee to the king’s court in the West—a beautiful but lethal nest of poison, plots, and danger, overseen by an entrenched patriarchy. Guided by the Goddess herself, can Kalothia navigate this most worldly of places to find her own role? What if she must choose between her country and her heart? Excitement, romance, and a charismatic heroine shine in this first book set in the unforgettable kingdom of Galla.

Review:

Kalothia has grown up for sixteen years in a secluded forest with Aunty and Teacher. Her parents were enemies of the King, so when Kalothia was born, she couldn’t stay with them for her own protection. When assassins attack her home and kill her guardians, Kalothia heads to the palace with her guard to find safety. However, Kalothia finds she has a new role at the palace, leaving her to decide between her heart, her country, and avenging the deaths of her loved ones.

This was a great fantasy debut! Though it’s a fairly short fantasy, at under 300 pages, the world-building was really well done. The story started out with just a couple of characters, and added characters as the story went on. This made it easier to get to know the world slowly from the beginning. The last 70 pages were really thrilling and intense. There were twists that I didn’t see coming. This was an enjoyable read!

Goddess Crown is a thrilling fantasy debut!

Thank you Walker Books US for sending me a copy of this book!

Content warnings: death of parent, abandonment, poisoning, stabbing

Have you read Goddess Crown? What did you think of it?

Review: Our Violent Ends (These Violent Delights #2)

Title: Our Violent Ends (These Violent Delights #2)
Author: Chloe Gong
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 16, 2021
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The year is 1927, and Shanghai teeters on the edge of revolution.

After sacrificing her relationship with Roma to protect him from the blood feud, Juliette has been a girl on a mission. One wrong move, and her cousin will step in to usurp her place as the Scarlet Gang’s heir. The only way to save the boy she loves from the wrath of the Scarlets is to have him want her dead for murdering his best friend in cold blood. If Juliette were actually guilty of the crime Roma believes she committed, his rejection might sting less.

Roma is still reeling from Marshall’s death, and his cousin Benedikt will barely speak to him. Roma knows it’s his fault for letting the ruthless Juliette back into his life, and he’s determined to set things right—even if that means killing the girl he hates and loves with equal measure.

Then a new monstrous danger emerges in the city, and though secrets keep them apart, Juliette must secure Roma’s cooperation if they are to end this threat once and for all. Shanghai is already at a boiling point: The Nationalists are marching in, whispers of civil war brew louder every day, and gangster rule faces complete annihilation. Roma and Juliette must put aside their differences to combat monsters and politics, but they aren’t prepared for the biggest threat of all: protecting their hearts from each other.

Shanghai is under siege in this captivating and searingly romantic sequel to These Violent Delights, which New York Times bestselling author Natasha Ngan calls “deliciously dark.”

Review:

Shanghai 1927: Juliette Cai sacrificed her relationship with Roma Montagov to save him from the Scarlets. Roma is mourning the death of his friend Marshall, who he thinks Juliette killed, while his cousin Benedikt is also mourning his best friend. However, the monstrous virus they thought they had vanquished has now returned. There are threats of civil war from the Nationalists and Communists who are rising in the city. Roma and Juliette must try to put aside their differences to reunite and protect the city they love, while figuring out if they still love each other.

It’s been three years since I read These Violent Delights, so it was a little difficult to get back into this fantasy world. There are a lot of characters who each had their own point of view, even though some of them were brief. I love the Shakespearean elements of the story. There were many nods to Romeo and Juliet, though the story deviated from most of that play. After finishing this one, I’m so excited to read Foul Lady Fortune, which is a continuation, focusing on different characters.

Our Violent Ends is a great ending to this duology!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a digital copy of this book!

Content warnings: stabbing, gun violence, fire, murder

Other books in the series:

These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights #1)

Have you read Our Violent Ends? What did you think of it?

Review: Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose (Enola Holmes #9)

Title: Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose (Enola Holmes #9)
Author: Nancy Springer
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: September 5, 2023
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In May of 1890, Enola Holmes is finally fully on her own and, no longer hiding from her older brothers Sherlock and Mycroft, attending classes and occasionally pursuing her chosen profession as a scientific perditorian, a finder of lost things and people.

Wolcott Balestier, the representative of an American book publisher, arrived in London on a singular mission – to contract with English authors for their latest works. When Balestier disappears on the streets of London one day, his great friend – Rudyard Kipling – bursts into Enola’s office looking for help in finding him. Brash and unwilling to hire a young woman, instead he turns to Sherlock Holmes. Convinced that evil has befallen Balestier, at the hands of rival American publishers who pirate the works of English authors, he sets the elder Holmes on the trail.

But Enola is not one to accept defeat, especially not to her brother, and sets off on her own – determined to learn the truth behind the disappearance of the young American. Can book publishing truly be so ruthless and deadly or can the missing man be rescued from his apparent fate and returned to his friends and loved ones?

The redoubtable Enola is determined to do just that, even if it means working with her brother Sherlock!

Review:

Enola Holmes, the younger sister of Sherlock Holmes, is a scientific perditorian, which means she finds lost things. The author Rudyard Kipling bursts into her office one day, demanding that she find his friend, Wolcott Balestier. However, when he discovers that the perditorian is a teenage girl, he doesn’t hire her, but hires Sherlock instead. Enola won’t accept being passed over for a man, so she still conducts her own investigation to find the missing man.

I love the character Enola Holmes. She’s dedicated to solving mysteries, and won’t let anyone say she can’t do something because she’s a woman. This story took an unexpected turn into looking at rabies. Through her investigation, Enola met a doctor who studied rabies and was developing a vaccine from the brains and spinal cords of dogs and rabbits who died from rabies. Though animal testing for medication and other things has been done throughout history, it’s not something we promote today. In the author’s note, she says that there was no evidence of a rabid dog in the lives of the real people who are mentioned in the story, so it seems like an unusual topic to include in this story.

Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose was a great new Enola Holmes mystery.

Thank you Wednesday Books for sending me a copy of this book!

Content warnings: rabies, animal testing, animal death (mentions), stabbing, kidnapping

Other books in the series:

The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes #1)
The Case of the Left-Handed Lady (Enola Holmes #2)
The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets (Enola Holmes #3)
The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan (Enola Holmes #4)
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline (Enola Holmes #5)
The Case of the Gypsy Good-Bye (Enola Holmes #6)
Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche (Enola Holmes #7)
Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade (Enola Holmes #8)

Have you read Enola Holmes and the Mark of the Mongoose? What did you think of it?

Review: You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight

Title: You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight
Author: Kalynn Bayron
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Horror
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: June 20, 2023
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game . . . but can you survive the night?

This heart-pounding slasher by New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron is perfect for fans of Fear Street.

Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business.

But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?

Review:

Charity Curtis works at her dream summer job, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake, a horror simulation. Guests pay for Charity and the rest of her team to scare them while recreating scenes from the horror movie Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. During their final weekend of the summer, some of the employees go missing. Then someone breaks into the camp, and someone else ends up dead. Charity becomes the final girl in her own horror story, and she has to figure out who the killer is before it’s too late.

I’m not usually a fan of horror stories, but when I saw this awesome edition from Waterstones, I knew I had to have this book. This was a fast paced slasher story. I read it in under a day, it was so good and hard to put down! I thought I had the story figured out but I was wrong. The ending was so good and unexpected!

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight is the perfect horror read for spooky season!

Thank you Bloomsbury US for providing a digital copy of this book!

Content warnings: body horror, stabbing, death, gun use, murder, death of animal (bird)

Have you read You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight? What did you think of it?

Review: Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh

Title: Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh
Author: Rachael Lippincott
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction, LGBTQ
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: August 29, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Five Feet Apart and She Gets the Girl comes a fresh and inventive sapphic romantic comedy that’s What If It’s Us meets Bridgerton.

What if you found a once-in-a-lifetime love…just not in your lifetime?

Audrey Cameron has lost her spark. But after getting dumped by her first love and waitlisted at her dream art school all in one week, she has no intention of putting her heart on the line again to get it back. So when local curmudgeon Mr. Montgomery walks into her family’s Pittsburgh convenience store saying he can help her, Audrey doesn’t know what she’s expecting…but it’s definitely not that she’ll be transported back to 1812 to become a Regency romance heroine.

Lucy Sinclair isn’t expecting to find an oddly dressed girl claiming to be from two hundred years in the future on her family’s estate. But she has to admit it’s a welcome distraction from being courted by a man her father expects her to marry—who offers a future she couldn’t be less interested in. Not that anyone has cared about what or who she’s interested in since her mother died, taking Lucy’s spark with her.

While the two girls try to understand what’s happening and how to send Audrey home, their sparks make a comeback in a most unexpected way. Because as they both try over and over to fall for their suitors and the happily-ever-afters everyone expects of them, they find instead they don’t have to try at all to fall for each other.

But can a most unexpected love story survive even more impossible circumstances?

Review:

After Audrey Cameron’s boyfriend dumps her and she was waitlisted by her dream art school, she doesn’t know what to do. When Mr. Montgomery walks into her family’s convenience store, she doesn’t realize he will change her life by tossing her a coin. Audrey catches the coin and ends up in the middle of a field in England in 1812. Lucy Sinclair finds Audrey on her family’s property. She’s glad to have a distraction from her strict father who is forcing her to marry the wealthiest man in town. However, as Audrey and Lucy spend time together, trying to figure out how to send Audrey home, sparks fly between them and they may find love in an unexpected place.

As soon as I heard this was a YA sapphic love story with time travel to Regency England, I knew I would love this book. It was funny to see Audrey bring her 2023 lifestyle and knowledge to 1812, where life was completely different. There were some emotional parts where Lucy’s father was forcing her into a marriage that she didn’t want. However, there were more lighthearted moments between Audrey and Lucy that turned into the sweetest love story.

Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh is a heartwarming romance!

Thank you Simon Teen and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book!

Have you read Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh? What did you think of it?

Review: The Reunion

Title: The Reunion
Author: Kit Frick
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback arc
Release Date: August 29, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

From the author of I Killed Zoe Spanos comes a YA thriller in the vein of The White Lotus and Karen M. McManus’s The Cousins following a doomed family reunion at a posh Caribbean resort, where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.

Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.

It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a
The Addison needs a better hiding place.
The Theo just wants to mend fences.
The Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past.
The Mason needs to keep his temper under control.

It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.

Review:

The Mayweather family went on a vacation in Cancun together. The grand finale is supposed to be an engagement party for Addison and Mason’s mom to Theo’s father. Their parents planned this as a bonding trip for the teens, but they weren’t aware of the tension between all of the teens. Addison and Mason haven’t seen their cousin Natalia in three years, since the “incident.” They all have secrets that they’re hiding from each other now because of the “incident.” Each of the teens have something to hide, and by the end of the week one of the family members will be dead.

This thriller was fast paced and twisty! It followed four teens who were related, but they each had their secrets. I liked how many of their secrets and the “incident” weren’t revealed until the close to the end of the story. This kept up the mystery and suspense of the story. I was really surprised when the killer was revealed. The ending was left open for a possible sequel which I would love to see!

The Reunion is the perfect YA read for fans of White Lotus!

Thank you Simon Teen for sending me a copy of this book!

Have you read The Reunion? What did you think of it?