Great Plot // ARC REVIEW: One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

Title: One Of Us Is Lying

Author: Karen McManus

Publication Date: May 30th 2017

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone

I Got A Copy Through: eARC from Random House via NetGalley (THANK YOU!)

Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Mystery isn’t my favourite YA genre (I’m a fantasy girl all the way) but occasionally I like to sink my claws into a story that will leave me at the edge of my seat with the WHO-DUNNIT element.

And that’s the sole reason why while One Of Us Is Lying was a GOOD book, it didn’t make me suspect the four teenagers in the room – NOT ONCE – making it seem slightly off. That vital blame game was missing and while I was curious to see who did it, I NEVER FELT THAT INTENSE NEED TO KNOW.

Thoughts:

1.       THE PLOT OF THE BOOK WAS REALLY INTERESTING, and that’s the reason I requested it! Five teenagers locked in detention, a car crash to send the teacher out and the boy with a gossip website and a horrifying secret about everyone in that room dies from an allergic reaction. GREAT PLOT.

2.       I also loved that the book was told from the viewpoints of all four potential murderers. It made you get to know them a lot more and piece together stories of the story.

3.       While I liked the above point (^), it was also the reason the book didn’t have the who-dunnit element. NONE OF THE CHARACTERS HATED SIMON ENOUGH TO KILL HIM, and I fully believed that they didn’t making me uninterested in finding out which of them killed him. Honestly, I LIKED the characters too much to see them as murderers.

4.       One of my favourite characters was Addison. I adored her character development in the book. She took huge steps to from a girl that made every decision based on her boyfriend’s whims and fancies to one who one who cut her hair and turned badass. I loved her spirit and I really liked how much she changed.

5.       Honestly, I liked the book. The characters were well developed, the plot was definitely unique but I didn’t SUSPECT ANYONE. It didn’t make me blame anyone and I just accepted the ending as it came.

A very well constructed book with interesting characters that is definitely worth a read! 4 stars

Karen M. McManus earned her BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross and her MA in journalism from Northeastern University. Her debut young adult novel, ONE OF US IS LYING, will be released from Delacorte Press/Random House on May 30, 2017. It will also be published internationally in 18 territories including the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia.

To learn more visit www.karenmcmanus.com, or follow @writerkmc on Twitter.

What are some of your favourite YA mysteries? What is your favourite YA subgenre?

Have you read One of Us Is Lying? What did you think of it?

I can't wait to hear from you!

A Double Serving of ARC Reviews #8 - The One With War and Murder

Hi Everyone! With 2016 ALMOST coming to an end, I'm hurriedly trying to get through my overdue ARC titles, so that I can have a fresh start for 2017. Basically, expect a lot more ARC Reviews by the time this month closes. 

I have with me today two titles, one historical contemporary novel, Poppy, which is set in 1914 during the first World War and the second, The Girl In The Picture is a murder mystery novel!

Title: Poppy (Poppy #1)
Author: Mary Hooper
Publication Date: May 8th 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 1/2 of the Poppy Duology
I Got A Copy Through: The Publisher via NetGalley (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || Google Play Store || Kobo || The Book Depository

Blurb Description: England, 1914. Poppy is fifteen, beautiful and clever, but society has already carved out her destiny. There's no question of her attending the grammar school - it's too expensive and unsuitable for a girl. Instead, Poppy will become a servant at the big house. And she'll 'keep out of trouble'. But Poppy's life is about to be thrown dramatically off course. The first reason is love - with someone forbidden, who could never, ever marry a girl like her. The second reason is war. Nothing could have prepared her for that. As she experiences what people are capable of - the best of humanity and the very worst - Poppy will find an unexpected freedom and discover how to be truly her own person.

Truth be told, I've been putting off reading this book for a while now due to no fault of its own. For a really long while, it just wasn't the book I wanted to read at the moment because it seemed slow and deep.

Today, it's the second book I finish as I wait out a cyclone, and I can't believe I waited so long!

Poppy, the first book in a series, centres around the life of a parlourmaid in a rich British house who becomes one of the 70,000 VADs (Voluntary Aid Deployments) in the First World War. This book covers the beginning of the war in 1914 up until the end of 1915 and covers the world perfectly.

From patriotic and anti-German sentiments, the aristocracy and the working class, the mannerisms, social conduct, technology and language in the early 20th Century, Mary Hooper constructs a world so powerful you will believe you're in an episode of Downton Abbey.

There were a lot of things I loved about Poppy, but truth be told, she seemed TOO good to be true, a generous, giving trusting girl with not even a single mean bone in her body. Do those even exist today? I did like her, a lot, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for her to seem more human, but nothing did. I guess I liked her, but I just didn't believe her. 

While Poppy herself could have been a slightly flawed character, one thing I ABSOLUTELY LOVED was the sentiment of people in the war, the everyday gruesomeness and the PURE EMOTION, that someone reading about in a History Textbook could never comprehend, making me look at the world wars in a completely different light. 

All in all, a book I'm sad I took so long to get to. 4 stars.

 ***

Title: The Girl In The Picture

Author: Alexandra Monir

Publication Date: November 15th 2016

Publisher: Delacorte/ Random House Children's

Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone

I Got A Copy Through: The Publisher via NetGalley (THANK YOU!)

Buy Links: Amazon US || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || Google Play Store || Kobo || The Book Depository

Blurb Description: Nicole Morgan has been labeled many things — the geeky music girl, the shy sidekick to Miss Popularity, and the girl with the scar. Now only one name haunts her through the halls of Oyster Bay Prep.
The Girl in the Picture.
After high school heartthrob Chace Porter is found dead in the woods near the school, the police are in search of the girl whose picture with Chace is the only clue found amongst his personal belongings. A girl who no one knew was even close to Chace–and whose dormmate, Lana Rivera, was Chace's girlfriend.
Nicole is that girl and now she's the primary suspect in his murder.
But what really happened that night? Were Nicole and Chace dating behind Lana’s back; were he and Lana over? Could either of them have killed him?
Told in alternating points of view, that of our suspect, Nicole Morgan, and her former best friend and roommate, Lana Rivera, readers will piece together the story of a starcrossed love, a fractured friendship–and what really happened the night Chace was killed.
From Alexandra Monir, author of the popular time-travel novel Timeless, comes a gripping mystery and a poignant romance in one thrilling read.

While YA Murder Mysteries aren’t my FAVOURITE genre (I’m a fantasy girl all the way) there are a few of them that catch my intrigue, and The Girl In The Picture was certainly one of them! 

If I was making a list of all the things this book would need to be a good one, it would go something like:

1. The Private Boarding School

2. The Press

3. The Goody Two Shoes Girl Who Can’t Remember/ turns out to have a lot of secrets

4. The Politics

5. The Mean Girl

6. The WHO DID IT FACTOR

And all these elements were functioning together REALLY WELL, until, suddenly, there was the victim’s SPIRIT involved. For me to take a murder mystery seriously, it needs to be all real elements, but Chace Porter’s Spirit guiding the two girls in his (past) life in an attempt to find his killer was STRANGE. It ruined this good murder mystery, turning it into a murder- paranormal genre. 

And it just… Didn’t fit. 

While the presence of a spirit certainly made things less believable, there still were a lot of things I DID like about the book, including the format it was written in. 

The book switches from one of the girls, Nicole Morgan, a violin prodigy, in the present on the very day that Chace’s body is discovered to Lana Riveria, a Congresswoman’s daughter in the past as she begins her romantic involvement with Chace and her friendship with Nicole. 

Both girls had strong, unique voices, their personalities and fears well heard from their view points. While I didn’t like Chace too much, the girls were a good make-up for him. 

All in all, The Girl In The Picture is a book DEFINITELY worth a read, but just be prepared for the Spirit of the Dead Guy! 3 stars.

What is your favourite book set in World War 1? Have you watched any TV Shows set in that era?

What are your favourite YA Murder Mysteries or Adult Murder Mysteries?

I can't wait to hear from you!

BLOG TOUR: The Killer in Me by Margot Harrison - Review + Quotes + Giveaway

Title: The Killer in Me
Author: Margot Harrison
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: July 12th 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Contemporary, Fiction

Synopsis: Hasn't he lived long enough? Why not? I could take him like a thief in the night.
This is how the Thief thinks. He serves death, the vacuum, the unknown. He’s always waiting. Always there.
Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She’s intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims’ bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert.
Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf—the deserts of New Mexico.
But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she’s had a disturbing connection her whole life. To anyone else, Dylan Shadwell is exactly what he appears to be: a young veteran committed to his girlfriend and her young daughter. As Nina spends more time with him, she begins to doubt the truth she once held as certain: Dylan Shadwell is the Thief. She even starts to wonder . . . what if there is no Thief?

WHAT EVEN WAS THIS BOOK?

And I mean that in an I'm feeling everything, but I don't know how to process it kind of way (not the terrible kind)

THIS BOOK IS MADNESS PERSONIFIED.

Nina Barrows can see a serial killer in her head. She can see him when he's driving his car, when he's with his family, when he's in his secret lair with all of his weapons and she can see him killing people. And she's inside his head when she does.

At first, she tried not sleeping. After all, if she never sleeps, she can never see him, right? But after a pill incident and rehab and a brutal murder, Nina Barrows decided that if she was the only person who knew this man - The Thief - then she has to do something about it. 

She looks into his mind, into everything he does, trying to find the next opportunity to take him down. There's just one problem - she doesn't know if he really exists. 

I LOVED THIS. AND ALL THE CRAZY IT BOUGHT WITH IT.

Never in my life has a book caused me to question it and myself so much. There were these bouts of insanity from Nina, where I thought that she was making all of it up in her head, then it switched to Warren (poor, sweet, SWOONY Warren) who was a reliable narrator and he found evidence, and I was believing EVERYTHING, until he started second guessing himself and then I went WHAT.

I loved that Margot Harrison had the power to keep me guessing and FEELING ALL THE MADNESS until the very end.

If you're looking for a book to play with your mind, THIS SHOULD BE YOUR NEXT ONE.

QUOTES:

"He serves death, the vaccum, the unknown. Always waiting. Always there. 

"Which was worse, being a thing or being nothing? 

People are eager to believe the best-case scebario, don't want to know the worst."

Follow the The Killer In Me by Margot Harrison Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

I was raised in the wilds of New York by lovely, nonviolent parents who somehow never managed to prevent me from staying up late to read scary books. I now work at an alt-weekly newspaper in Vermont, where my favorite part of the job is, of course, reviewing scary books and movies. The Killer in Me is my first novel.

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BLOG TOUR: The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry - Review + Favourite Quotes + Giveaway

Title: The Girl I Used to Be 
Author: April Henry
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Release Date: May 3rd 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary, Suspense
Part Of A Series?: Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: The publisher via NetGalley

Synopsis: When Olivia's mother was killed, everyone suspected her father of murder. But his whereabouts remained a mystery. Fast forward fourteen years. New evidence now proves Olivia's father was actually murdered on the same fateful day her mother died. That means there's a killer still at large. It's up to Olivia to uncover who that may be. But can she do that before the killer tracks her down first?

I love murders that keep me on the edge of my seat, like REALLY REALLY love them. I mean, what's the point of writing a book about a murder that isn't even convincing?

Olivia Reinhart used to be someone else. Now, she's an emancipated minor living by herself, working a minimum wag job. She used to be Ariel Benson, the girl who's father killed her mother, then abandoned her and ran away. She was the sad little girl that nobody wanted, that nobody bothered with. 

Until now.

The book starts off with a bang, with the cops knocking on Olivia Reinhart's door, telling her that her father has also been dead all along, and not the person to blame like everyone thought. It pulls you right in to the story, and Henry's writing keeps you gripped. Olivia/ Ariel was a great narrator, each world filled with pain and strength and the ability to love and be loved that was taken from her. Henry really makes you feel for her. 

I loved all of the secondary characters, all of the people from her parent's past. Actually, I loved the idea of them, but none of them were fully explored. As she found out a little more about each one of them, and each chapter ended with a version of "Did they murder my parents?" I felt like I knew more about them, and their possible motivations, but the ending was so abrupt, it ruined the whole everyone-could-have-murdered-my-parents thing the book had going. 

A book with a brilliant 90%, and a ending that let me down, but one that I would still recommend! 

QUOTES: 

"It's crazy to think someone you once loved, who once loved you, could stab you and keep stabbing you. Even after you were dead.

I'm not going to forgive. Someone murdered my parents and left them underneath the cold sky and thought they got away with it. They were wrong."

Follow the The Girl I Used To Be by April Henry Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

I write mysteries and thrillers. I live in Portland, Oregon with my family.

If you've read one of my books, I would love to hear from you. Hearing from readers makes me eager to keep writing.

When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.

My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I'm very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written 13 novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have gotten starred reviews, been picked for Booksense, translated into six languages, been named to state reading lists, and short-listed for the Oregon Book Award. 

I also review YA literature and mysteries and thrillers for the Oregonian, and have written articles for both The Writer and Writers Digest.

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