YA ARC Review: Deadly Little Scandals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Deadly Little Scandals
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: Debutantes (Book 2)
Publication: Freeform (November 5, 2019)

Description: "Think of the White Gloves like the Junior League—by way of Skull and Bones…"

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group's ranks may have the answers she's looking for. Things are looking up... until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discover near the family's summer home--and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making. No one is quite who they seem to be in this twisty, soapy, gasp-inducing sequel to Jennifer Lynn Barnes' unputdownable Little White Lies.

My Thoughts: The sequel the LITTLE WHITE LIES is even more twisty than the first book. Sawyer Taft took her grandmother's offer for college tuition in exchange for doing the debutante thing in order to find out who impregnated her teenage mother. It seems like every piece of information she finds only adds to the mystery and the confusion.

In this book the girls are pledging a mystery and elite secret society called the White Gloves. They have a number of tasks to perform and trials to overcome. During one task bones are discovered that might tie into the mystery of Sawyer's parentage...or maybe not.

Three different time periods are interwoven into this story. The first has Sawyer and her friend Sadie-Grace drugged and tossed in a pit, the second goes back twenty-five years and tells what the future parents of Sawyer's friends are doing and what happened that resulted in a body in the lake, the third and largest section tells about the summer events, discoveries, lies, and betrayals that led up to the first part.

I really liked Sawyer who has a tough exterior and an easily bruised heart. I liked her friends/sisters/cousins Lily and Campbell too. And Sadie-Grace was always good for a bit of inadvertent comic relief because of her eternal optimism and penchant for speaking in exclamation points.

The plot is really twisty and I'm not sure, even yet, that I have figured out all of the genetic relationships. Fans of soap operas will enjoy this complex and twisted story.

Favorite Quote:

"Sawyer doesn't have second thoughts!" Sadie-Grace insisted from the golf cart behind us, loyal to the bone. "Sometimes, she doesn't even have first thoughts!"

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.