Review: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Published: 16th January 2018 | Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books | Source: Bought
Maureen Johnson’s Website

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place," he said, "where learning is a game."

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious." It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester.

But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features anxiety and panic attacks, and a dead body.

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Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Published: 3rd September 2020 | Publisher: Penguin | Source: Bought
Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Website

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why - or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch - and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions.

Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive. From The StoryGraph.

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The StoryGraph | Goodreads | Book Sloth | BookHype

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, poverty, absent and dead parents, guns, gun violence, domestic abuse, and an attempt to run off the road.

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First Class Post - August 2021

Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were gifted to me by the publisher for the purposes of providing an honest review.

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Quick Fire Review: The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno

The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno

Published: 2nd August 2016 | Publisher: HarperTeen | Source: Bought
Katrina Leno's Website

For all of her seventeen years, Molly feels like she's missed bits and pieces of her life. Her memory is perforated with holes and gaps. But then a horrible accident changes everything.

Now she's starting to remember her own disturbing secrets. And bit by bit, Molly uncovers the separate life she seems to have led--and the love that she can't let go. From The StoryGraph.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features descriptions of blood, mention of animal cruelty, a motorbike accident, death, depression, suicide ideation, and dissociative personality disorder.

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Review: Cool For the Summer by Dahlia Adler

Cool For the Summer by Dahlia Adler

Published: 11th May 2021 | Publisher: Wednesday Books | Source: Bought
Dahlia Adler’s Website

Dahlia Adler's Cool for the Summer is a story of self-discovery and new love. It's about the things we want and the things we need. And it's about the people who will let us be who we are.

Lara's had eyes for exactly one person throughout her three years of high school: Chase Harding. He's tall, strong, sweet, a football star, and frankly, stupid hot. Oh, and he's talking to her now. On purpose and everything. Maybe...flirting, even? No, wait, he's definitely flirting, which is pretty much the sum of everything Lara's wanted out of life.

Except she's haunted by a memory. A memory of a confusing, romantic, strangely perfect summer spent with a girl named Jasmine. A memory that becomes a confusing, disorienting present when Jasmine herself walks through the front doors of the school to see Lara and Chase chatting it up in front of the lockers.

Lara has everything she ever wanted: a tight-knit group of friends, a job that borders on cool, and Chase, the boy of her literal dreams. But if she's finally got the guy, why can't she stop thinking about the girl? From The StoryGraph

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features

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Magical Readathon: Orilium - The Novice Path TBR

I've decided to take part in a readathon! I learnt about the Magical Readathon in a Discord group I belong to, and it sounds amazing! It's not just a straight readathon; a fantasy world has been created G of Book Roast, and participants create characters to take part, and reading books completes challenges the characters face within the story. Aeldia is a fully fleshed out fantasy world with various fantasy races with magical powers, and you start off making your way to Orilium, where there's a magical university we will be studying at, and it sounds amazing! It's not quite as complicated as it sounds; The Novice Path, happening throughout September, is a lead in to the bigger readathons that will take place next year, starting in April, and it's an easy introduction. If you're interested, check out the video linked to.

I thought I'd share my TBR here of what I'm hoping to read for The Novice Path!

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Quick Fire Review: Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

Published: 9th June 2020 | Publisher: HarperTeen | Source: Bought
Katrina Leno's Website

A magic passed down through generations...

Georgina Fernweh waits with growing impatience for the tingle of magic in her fingers—magic that has been passed down through every woman in her family. Her twin sister, Mary, already shows an ability to defy gravity. But with their eighteenth birthday looming at the end of this summer, Georgina fears her gift will never come.

An island where strange things happen...

No one on the island of By-the-Sea would ever call the Fernwehs what they really are, but if you need the odd bit of help—say, a sleeping aid concocted by moonlight—they are the ones to ask.

No one questions the weather, as moody and erratic as a summer storm.

No one questions the (allegedly) three-hundred-year-old bird who comes to roost on the island every year.

A summer that will become legend...

When tragedy strikes, what made the Fernweh women special suddenly casts them in suspicion. Over the course of her last summer on the island—a summer of storms, of love, of salt—Georgina will learn the truth about magic, in all its many forms. From Goodreads.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features drug use, animal cruelty/death, and rape.

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