3.5 Stars

This was a pretty entertaining YA mystery with good twists and some character development not often seen in this genre. Seasoned mystery readers will probably pick the ending as there were some subtle references throughout that gave me the 'heads up' on how the story would play out. However, I still got a few surprises with some cleverly done bombshells. There was just enough romance to be engaging but not so much as to detract from the main genre of murder mystery.

CW: gory death scenes, dead animals posed with bodies, suicide, sexual contentmurder staged as suicide, ( )

~MY RATING~ 4.5/5 STARS - GRADE=A-

~MY THOUGHTS~

I recently read an arc with a similar story to this…Pretty Dead Girls…I didn't really like that one, and this had a similar feel to it in the beginning, minus the mean girls. I was worried but it wasn't long before I realized this was different in a lot of ways. This only had me eye-rolling a couple moments and the other had me constantly eye-rolling. In this, the mystery surprised me, actually. The characters were likable…and the best part…when the MC is being chased down by the bad guy, she actually does the smart thing, at least 80% of the time. My issue and this could be a tad spoiler-ish, is with the promiscuity of 17-year-olds. I can't read explicit sex scenes when the MC's are under 18. It's just weird. If she had just left that out of the book, it would have been a 5-star all the way.

~BREAKDOWN OF RATINGS~
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Plot~ 4.5/5
Main Characters~ 4.5/5
Secondary Characters~ 4/5
The Feels~ 5/5
Pacing~ 5/5
Addictiveness~ 4.5/5
Theme or Tone~ 3.5/5
Flow (Writing Style)~ 4/5 could have used a proofreader…
Backdrop (World Building)~ 4.5/5
Ending~ 5/5 Cliffhanger~ Nope.
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Book Cover~ Compelling, and it kept me guessing as to how it fits with the story
Setting~ Martinsburg, West Virginia
Source~ Kobo eBook
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