Book Review: This Is Not a Dead Girl Story by Kate Sweeney

This Is Not a Dead Girl Story
Author: Kate Sweeney
Publication: Viking Books for Young Readers (August 6, 2024)

Description: A dark and powerful mystery perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and true crime podcasts, in which a teen girl must do whatever it takes to find her missing cousin—who everyone else thinks is dead.

Remy Green is missing. Eight days after the death of her boyfriend, River O’Dell, the magnetic, golden-haired girl disappeared in the dead of night.

Jules Green, Remy’s cousin, is her opposite in every way: awkward, shy, and a bit strange, never feeling at home in the small town of Black Falls, NY. The only place she has ever belonged is with River and Remy. Now she’s on her own—and everyone around her believes that Remy is dead.

But Jules can still hear Remy’s voice in her head, urging her to keep looking. With the help of River’s cousin Sam, a troubled and mysterious boy, Jules starts untangling the truth of what exactly happened. Through her search, Jules must delve into the dark corners of her hometown—unearthing family secrets and hidden truths about the two people she thought she knew most.

Who was Remy, really, behind the popular-girl façade she wore? What trouble was she involved in? And can Jules find a way to save her from it? Or is this a dead girl story after all?

My Thoughts: THIS IS NOT A DEAD GIRL STORY was an interesting Young Adult mystery. While it includes a few of the YA tropes, it handles them well.

Jules Green is dealing with lots of trouble. She's sixteen and in high school. She grew up with River O'Dell and her cousin Remy Green. The trio was inseparable and was quite a triangle. Jules has been in love with River since they were small. He's the school's golden boy: a straight arrow and athlete. But River loves Remy who is the school's golden girl. Her sparkling personality draws people to her in droves. Jules has always felt like the weak third of their triangle with her quiet nature and unobtrusive appearance. She and Remy were best friends and didn't keep secrets from each other. At least that is what Jules believed.

But when River dies in what was either an accident or a suicide, the world falls apart for Jules. Then, a few days later Remy disappears. The town thinks she's dead and organizes searches for her. Jules can't believe that Remy is dead and determines to find her.

Jules isn't quite alone in her search. Joining her is Sam who is River's cousin. He got in some trouble with drugs and fighting and his parents have sent him to live with his aunt and uncle for a while. He physically resembles River which gives Jules quite a start when she first sees him at River's funeral, but he is a very different personality. 

Together the two begin looking for Remy and trying to come to terms with River's death. Along the way, Jules discovers that the two people she loved the most were keeping secrets from her. As she investigates, she learns those secrets and discovers that she has the strength to step out of the shadows and be her own independent person. 

This was an engaging story with an intriguing protagonist. Jules isn't good at self-evaluation. Like a lot of teens, she's focused on her flaws and doesn't have a strong self-image. She does have strong parental support in her single mother who gets out of the way so that Jules can act by being a midwife working long shifts in nearby Albany. 

Fans of YA mysteries and drama filled stories will enjoy this one. 

I bought this one January 11, 2025. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Brothers Hawthorne
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Narrator: Jay Ben Markson
Series: The Inheritance Games (Book 4)
Publication: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (August 29, 2023)

Length: 13 hours and 41 minutes

Description: Four brothers. Two missions. One explosive read. Jennifer Lynn Barnes returns to the world of her #1 bestselling, TikTok sensation Inheritance Games trilogy, and the stakes have never been higher.

Grayson Hawthorne was raised as the heir apparent to his billionaire grandfather, taught from the cradle to put family first. Now the great Tobias Hawthorne is dead and his family disinherited, but some lessons linger. When Grayson’s half-sisters find themselves in trouble, he swoops in to do what he does best: take care of the problem—efficiently, effectively, mercilessly. And without getting bogged down in emotional entanglements.

Jameson Hawthorne is a risk-taker, a sensation-seeker, a player of games. When his mysterious father appears and asks for a favor, Jameson can’t resist the challenge. Now he must infiltrate London’s most exclusive underground gambling club, which caters to the rich, the powerful, and the aristocratic, and win an impossible game of greatest stakes. Luckily, Jameson Hawthorne lives for impossible.

Drawn into twisted games on opposite sides of the globe, Grayson and Jameson—with the help of their brothers and the girl who inherited their grandfather’s fortune—must dig deep to decide who they want to be and what each of them will sacrifice to win.

My Thoughts: This book entwines two separate stories and had flashbacks to the time when both Grayson and Jameson were learning from their grandfather about what their futures would be like. 

Greyson Hawthorne meets his half-sisters when they are having trouble but needs to keep the fate of their father from them while still solving their problems. Greyson finds himself feeling a lot of guilt as he gets to know his sisters.

Jameson Hawthorne is also dealing with a father problem. His has asked him to infiltrate an exclusive club and win back the estate he lost at cards. He and Avery do manage to infiltrate the club and are chosen to take part in an annual game that can bring great riches or expose great secrets. 

Both stories are engaging and filled with puzzles. Each of the young men have learning experiences that give them a different look at their lives and their futures. 

I bought this one November 11, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Grandest Game
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: The Grandest Game (Book 1)
Publication: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (July 30, 2024)

Description: Get ready for a new series that brings readers deeper into the lush, romantic, and puzzle-filled world of the #1 bestselling Inheritance Games series (over 3 million copies sold!), set a year after we last saw Avery and the Hawthornes.

Seven tickets. An island of dreams. The chance of a lifetime.

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win.

Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as tensions rise and the mind-bending challenges push the players to their limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally—it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the rules

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes delivers a brand-new series in the world of The Inheritance Games, where fan-favorite and new characters collide in a game you’ll never forget.

My Thoughts: THE GRANDEST GAME returns us to the world of the Inheritance Games. Avery Grambs and the Hawthorne brothers have developed a game in which someone will win more than $20 million dollars. There are only seven places in the game which will take place on an island. 

This story introduces and follows a few of the players all of whom are in the game for their own reasons from Rohan who wants the money to secure his play in a secret organization to Lyra who wants to learn about her past and provide needed funds for her parents. 

All of the characters have intriguing personalities and intriguing reasons for wanting to win this new Inheritance Game. 

The story is filled with puzzles for the players and the readers to solve. I loved the story and can't wait for the sequel since there is definitely a cliffhanger ending to this one. 

I bought this one July 31, 2024. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 was hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

There was a price to be paid for power, always. The only question was how steep that price was--and who was going to pay it. 

Friday 56:

She made it back to the ruins and cut across the island again--a different path this time, and this time, she stopped at every structure she found, eschewing only the house on the north point. 

This week I'm spotlighting The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. It is a recent arrival on TBR mountain. Here's the description from Amazon:

Get ready for a new series that brings readers deeper into the lush, romantic, and puzzle-filled world of the #1 bestselling Inheritance Games series (over 3 million copies sold!), set a year after we last saw Avery and the Hawthornes.

Seven tickets. An island of dreams. The chance of a lifetime.

Welcome to the Grandest Game, an annual competition run by billionaire Avery Grambs and the four infamous Hawthorne brothers, whose family fortune she inherited. Designed to give anyone a shot at fame and fortune, this year’s game requires one of seven golden tickets to enter. With millions on the line, those seven players will do whatever it takes to win.

Some of the players are in it for the money. Some for power. Some for reasons all their own. Every single one of them has secrets. Amidst it all is Grayson Hawthorne, tasked with a vital role in this year’s game. But as tensions rise and the mind-bending challenges push the players to their limits—physically, mentally, and emotionally—it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the rules.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes delivers a brand-new series in the world of The Inheritance Games, where fan-favorite and new characters collide in a game you’ll never forget.

ARC Review: Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

Nine Liars
Author: Maureen Johnson
Publication: Katherine Tegen Books (December 27, 2022)

Description: Stevie Bell solved the case of Truly Devious, and now she’s taking her detecting skills abroad when she becomes embroiled in a mystery from 1990s England. Another pulse-pounding and laugh-out-loud stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson.

Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.

Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.

The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.

Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.

My Thoughts: This was another excellent mystery starring Stevie Bell and her friends from Ellingham Academy. 

It's October of their senior year and her friends are busy planning their college applications. Janelle and Vi want to go to college close to each other but not at the same college. So Janelle has made a spreadsheet... Nate is furiously writing every time Stevie sees him which is unusual because he has been avoiding writing since his book was published when he was a young teen.

Stevie is at loose ends. She doesn't know what she wants to do for college. She's solved some mysteries and none of the emails about new unsolved crimes are interesting her. And her boyfriend David is studying in England for a semester which means it's harder to communicate with him.

When David calls up and proposes that group come to London because he has a friend with an unsolved mystery, they are all eager to go each for their own reasons. They convince the school leader that this will be a great educational opportunity. 

In 1995, a group of newly graduated Cambridge students who have been best friends since freshman year go to spend a final week at one of the group's family home. During a drunken game of hide and seek, two of the nine students are brutally murdered. No murderer has ever been found. 

Izzy, David's new friend, wants to get Stevie involved because one of the nine was her aunt who said some questionable things about the murder while under the influence of pain killers after knee surgery. Shortly after Izzy brings her friends to her Aunt Ange's to talk about the crime, Ange disappears. 

I loved that way the story wove events from 1995, various police reports, and current day activities together. I especially enjoyed the sections from Stevie's point of view because she is a very interesting character. I liked that her inner uncertainties are so different from her outer competence. I loved the setting which ranged from London's tourist sites to a grand English manor. 

Favorite Quote:

"Do you want to go for a walk?" she asked.

"Are you being serious right now?"

"I just asked if you wanted to go for a walk."

"Nighttime walk at ax murder manor? For sure. Especially if you heard a noise and want to investigate."

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

Book Review: The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Hawthorne Legacy
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Series: The Inheritance Games (Book 2)
Publication: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 7, 2021)

Description: Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions—including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons. 

Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture—by any means necessary.

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, Knives Out-like family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.

My Thoughts: The sequel to The Inheritance Games was another exciting, puzzle-filled adventure. Avery Kylie Grambs thought she had finally figured out why multi-billionaire Tobias Hawthorne left her almost his entire estate, disinheriting his daughters and grandsons, but she might have only uncovered one of Tobias Hawthorne's secrets.

She is dealing with disgruntled relatives - both Hawthornes and her own - while trying to locate the missing heir who supposedly died in a fire some twenty years earlier. She has to find a way to stay alive while untangling all kinds of family secrets.

The characters are smart and relatable. The mysteries and puzzles are intriguing and the story is fast-paced. The writing is engaging. I really liked getting to know Avery and all of the fascinating Hawthorne brothers. 

Favorite Quote:

I stepped into the secret passageway to find Jameson waiting for me. "Fancy meeting you here, Heiress."

"You," I told him, "are the most annoying person on the face of the planet."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.