ARC Review: A Deadly Inheritance by Kelley Armstrong

A Deadly Inheritance
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication: Tundra Books (March 24, 2026

Description: After discovering she's an heiress to a billion-dollar corporation, seventeen-year-old Liliana finds herself at a new boarding school where she must navigate secret societies and a deadly competition. Not to mention two handsome boys.

The Reappearance of Rachel Price meets The Inheritance Games series in this new YA thriller from bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

In the wake of her mother's death, Liliana Chamberlain's estranged (and very wealthy) grandparents swoop in. Or their lawyer does. Her grandparents aren't ready to meet her, but they want her to have the life her mother walked away from, starting with Westdale Academy, the elite boarding school her mother attended. It should be a Cinderella dream come true, but Lili has serious misgivings. Yet she doesn't have a choice, being under eighteen and dead broke.

Westdale Academy is a school of secrets as well as intriguing classmates, including Hollywood golden boy Theo Dubois and the mysterious Maddox Moreno. As she gets to know them all, Lili realizes there's more to the school than elite-level networking. Something deadly.

For the new girl at school, investigating the deaths of past students — including Maddox's own sister — is a very dangerous game. Do those deaths have something to do with why her mother fled Westdale at the cost of her inheritance?

When a fun night out turns bloody, Theo is the prime suspect, and Liliana must race against time to connect the past with the present and discover the truth behind her inheritance.

My Thoughts: Liliana Green is just trying to hang on after her mother's death. She already has a full ride scholarship to a state college, but she has to graduate from high school. She's sold everything loose and eating from the healthy snacks bowl at school. She also dodging Child Protective Services because foster care won't help her college plans. 

One day a stranger knocks on her door and tells her that she is the heir to a billion-dollar corporation through her mother. She has grandparents that she's never met and who don't apparently want to meet her either. The family lawyer becomes her guardian and convinces her to attend a very exclusive boarding school - the same one her mother attended. 

Dumped into a situation that is strange in many ways, Lili finds herself making friends with two very different hot boys and dodging what might be murder attempts. She also makes friends with a number of the girls who are her classmates. She also finds herself in the running to be the Optima - the best of the best. 

Lili is determined to find out why her mother left school. She always thought that her mother got pregnant and left with her lover. But the timelines don't quite mesh. There must be some other secrets to explore including the deaths of several other students over the years. The most recent death is that of one her new boyfriend's sister. Another was a classmate of her mother's. Both were the leading Optima candidate of their classes. 

This was an engaging story that has so many of the YA tropes - a boarding school, an unexpected inheritance, hot boys who both fall for her. I liked the way all the tropes were handled. I also liked the mystery and that Lili was sharp enough and determined enough to solve them. 

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