A Good High School Drama-Mystery
Overall, this was a really good mystery. It took me a while to get into the story at first. My main complaint is that this story is written in first person, from the main character Lauren's point of view, but the story-telling felt a little choppy. It didn't flow that well from sentence to sentence, making it almost like Lauren was jumping from one thought to the next. There also wasn't as much detail and "showing" as I would like, it was more "telling" what's happening, more like just stating the events than describing what's going on. Additionally, some information wasn't stated until later on, making a few things confusing. For instance, John is just best friends with Robbie, but that wasn't explicitly stated until page 92, so up until that point I was confused about John's relationship and thought he was a third brother, maybe even a half or step brother. Another example is that Lauren's mom's boyfriend has a daughter Ainsley, and it's not explicitly stated early on that Ainsley is his daughter, you just have to assume she is by the way he first talks about her, and it's not stated until later how old she is either, so I was thinking she was a lot younger. I understand why the author didn't give some background information up front, upholding the mystery and making you want to keep reading to find out, but some of this information would have made things more clear if stated when first mentioned.
Onto the positives. We have the mystery of Lauren's past, and the mystery behind the deaths of the girlfriends of the Crestmont brothers. We know from the start that part of why Lauren and her mom moved was to escape what happened with Lauren, something involving a fire where someone was hurt, and Lauren was blamed. With the Crestmonts, Robbie's girlfriend drowned during a weekend trip with him, and Trevor's girlfriend overdosed a year later at a party. Even though there wasn't sufficient evidence in either case, both brothers are blamed for the deaths by the whole town.
This book was similar to Pretty Little Liars, in that there are deaths, mysteries, drama, and anonymous threats. The story started out really intriguing, drawing you in with the mysteries. But then it slowed down, with mainly just drama surrounding Lauren as the new girl trying to find a place on the tight-knit soccer team while also having a relationship with Robbie. It wasn't until about three-quarters that the story picked up again, diving more into the mysteries as the teenagers try to uncover the truth about the deaths.
There are several twists towards the end. One of them was a little bit obvious, so it wasn't shocking when Lauren figured out the truth. But the mystery of the killer was a pretty good twist. There are multiple suspects along the way, each seeming very plausible to be the killer, keeping you guessing until it's revealed.
I definitely recommend this book for anyone who's a fan of stories like Pretty Little Liars, who enjoys a high school drama/mystery.
Onto the positives. We have the mystery of Lauren's past, and the mystery behind the deaths of the girlfriends of the Crestmont brothers. We know from the start that part of why Lauren and her mom moved was to escape what happened with Lauren, something involving a fire where someone was hurt, and Lauren was blamed. With the Crestmonts, Robbie's girlfriend drowned during a weekend trip with him, and Trevor's girlfriend overdosed a year later at a party. Even though there wasn't sufficient evidence in either case, both brothers are blamed for the deaths by the whole town.
This book was similar to Pretty Little Liars, in that there are deaths, mysteries, drama, and anonymous threats. The story started out really intriguing, drawing you in with the mysteries. But then it slowed down, with mainly just drama surrounding Lauren as the new girl trying to find a place on the tight-knit soccer team while also having a relationship with Robbie. It wasn't until about three-quarters that the story picked up again, diving more into the mysteries as the teenagers try to uncover the truth about the deaths.
There are several twists towards the end. One of them was a little bit obvious, so it wasn't shocking when Lauren figured out the truth. But the mystery of the killer was a pretty good twist. There are multiple suspects along the way, each seeming very plausible to be the killer, keeping you guessing until it's revealed.
I definitely recommend this book for anyone who's a fan of stories like Pretty Little Liars, who enjoys a high school drama/mystery.