Hello my lovely bookworms. It’s Friday!!!! It’s also officially the last day of term for the summer break for 6 weeks!! Yay! It will feel strange that’s for sure. Today’s book review is a book I’ve been talking about this book on social media and also in my recent posts as well. I can safely say that thrillers/mysteries really do get you out of a reading slump properly. It’s the thrill, you can’t get enough of it.
Five Little Liars by Amanda K. Morgan on July 9, 2020
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Amazon | Book Depository | Waterstones
Goodreads
I Know What You Did Last Summer meets One of Us is Lying in this fast-paced suspense thriller following five teens who must cover up the suspicious death of their teacher.
Nothing ruins summer vacation like a secret . . . especially when that secret is a dead teacher.
Ivy used to be on top of the social ladder, until her ex made that all go away. She has the chance to be Queen Bee again, but only if the rest of the group can keep quiet.
Tyler has always been a bad boy, but lately he's been running low on second chances. There's no way he's going to lose everything because someone couldn't keep their mouth shut.
Kinley wouldn't describe herself as perfect, though everyone else would. But perfection comes at a price, and there is nothing she wouldn't do to keep her perfect record - one that doesn't include murder charges.
Mattie is only in town for the summer. He wasn't looking to make friends, and he definitely wasn't looking to be involved in a murder. He's also not looking to be riddled with guilt for the rest of his life . . . but to prevent that he'll have to turn them all in.
Cade couldn't care less about the body, or about the pact to keep the secret. The only way to be innocent is for someone else to be found guilty. Now he just has to decide who that someone will be.
With the police hot on the case, they don't have much time to figure out how to trust each other. But in order to take the lead, you have to be first in line . . . and that's the quickest way to get stabbed in the back.
Perfect for fans of Chelsea Pitcher, Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson!
My Review
I went into this book having only the expectation of – ‘for fans of Karen McManus’. I loved her books, she certainly leads by example for YA high school mysteries like these, this is until I read Five Little Liars. I was so addicted to it that I couldn’t get enough of it.
One summer changes everything! Ivy is the former Queen Bee of the school, when her boyfriend dumped her and all of her friends. Ivy is taking the class because she has nothing better to do, although she doesn’t say that. Mattie, her next door neighbour is retaking his exam ofter he cheated at his last one, it’s the only way to go to Ivy League school. Cade, the son of so called millionaire who’s in debt, wants to keep up appearances of the family heritage. Kinley, also known as a narc, the one who aces everything, she is also the daughter of a senator. Finally Tyler, a delinquent, always in trouble with his parole officer but he wants to do something for himself for a change. Five classmates all take the Summer Psych class from hell. It holds the darkest and deadly of secrets.
So this may sound strange but this book has a YA bad-ass sexiness to it. There were bad boys and bad girls, not all by nature but most of them. I loved how something so bad, changes them but I think it ultimately showed them who they really are too. Looks can be deceiving in high school which could be the message here. Gone are the days of mysteries and good girls basically. Told through each characters POV, we see them struggle as individuals. But this pact ultimately brought unlikely friendships and relationships to story that I loved exploring. Ivy and Mattie rely on each other in more ways than one. Kinley and Tyler have more in common than their exterior characters and they were my favourite characters. Cade is the poison of the group, everything for himself and I really hated him to be honest.
The one thing that surprised me was that I honestly didn’t know how this book was going to end and I couldn’t put it down. It kept me guessing until the end. It wasn’t predictable like some YA mysteries can be for a whodunit, so I really enjoyed this angle of the plot-line. I’ve never read a book by Amanda K. Morgan and I know she has written more books which I will be reading from here on out. This is her first published in the UK and I honestly I couldn’t put it down. Her writing is simply addictive. With a diverse collective of characters, fast-paced mystery, Five Little Liars is thrilling, cunning, sexy and unputdownable. I think this could be an underrated book in my eyes, so pick it up! You’re going to love it!
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
