I had to start three times because of the beginning and I want to give this book its best chance, so I'm going to come back to it. The plot is so interesting, but I get bogged down in the introductions.

I ended up really liking this book. The beginning was a little slow because it needed to set up the plot and introduce the characters but a quarter of the way in it picked up and got really interesting. I couldn't for the life of me guess who the killer was or if they had an accomplice but when they were revealed I couldn't believe it! Now there wasn't an excessive amount of romance I still felt like the romance wasn't needed for this book. There's also a bit of cussing but it was mild so it didn't take too much enjoyment away for me. I think the plot was fantastic and perplexing, the characters were well thought out, and the book was overall really entertaining. I'd give this baby a solid 4 stars.
FTC DISCLAIMER: I received this book in exchange for an honest review

Okay so first let me say that I really did enjoy Sneaking Out. I love murder mysteries and this one was done particularly well. Luke Chase is the golden boy of his boarding school campus (although he’s totally *deeper* and *different* than what everyone makes him out to be, but I’ll get to that later). He finds himself in over his head when his best friend, Oscar, is accused of murder and it’s up to Luke to clear Oscar’s name. The twist? They were both out in the woods during the murder (with two girls, Pippa and Kelsey) and witnessed the victim’s final moments.
There’s lots of misdirection and literally every character could have been the murderer, which is just how I like my murder mysteries. I did feel that the narration focused hard on background characters that seemed to be unlikely suspects while there were characters that would have been far more convincing, and it placed a lot of weight on evidence that seemed flimsy or hard to believe.
Every single character was fleshed out so well (they all had hobbies and lives, nobody was just there to advance the plot, which is so refreshing in any genre). There were SO MANY unique and interesting characters (like Mr. Tadeckis – I don’t know what’s up with him, but I like it). I loved Oscar, and it’s a shame he was less present in the second half of the book; I hope he comes back in the sequel.
Things started off a little rocky in the beginning, and even though the story jumps right into the plot, it rushes to dump a lot of backstory on the reader while also trying to set up a murder mystery. The result is an awkward conversation between Luke and Pippa about his kidnapping three years prior (Honestly you could play a drinking game with the phrase “what happened three years prior”). It was an interesting part of his backstory, but it could have been revealed a little later to remove the massive amount of exposition in the first few pages.
While I really enjoyed this story and thought it was a solid murder mystery that I would definitely like to continue, I did have one serious issue with it – namely the romantic side plot concerning Luke and Pippa.
So here we go (warning: there’s a few minor spoilers):
I genuinely did not like Pippa. Her main characteristics for the first half of the story were “mean” and “BRITSH” – and you know she’s British because every single piece of her dialogue includes some stereotypically British slang word or phrase. I cringed every time she spoke. It read like someone who had never heard an English accent trying to imitate one, and honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a last minute decision to make her British.
This goes on to about the halfway point in the story then completely falls away. So does her awful, frigid personality. I really don’t understand why an “independent” and “strong” female character equals a girl who is cold and mean to everyone, or why the male characters are never put off by this at all (except for Oscar, who is a refreshingly honest character). She blows off Luke and bluntly cuts conversations short – it’s very awkward to read and for some reason this is sold off as her being “mysterious”. She’s such a hypocrite; she bluntly makes fun of Luke for a traumatic event in his past then acts mortified and betrayed when they bring up her own past. She also spends the first half of the book being blatantly mean to Kelsey then has no problem pointing out how “cruel” Kelsey is to laugh at someone who dropped a plate in the cafeteria (basically both of their personalities flip back and forth to suit the plot. The author pushed hard to make the reader dislike Kelsey but honestly I was pretty apathetic to her, and I liked her way more than Pippa).
But apparently, Pippa’s flaky, rude behavior turns around completely after she and Luke have a heart-to-heart and cry it out. From then on she’s warm and fuzzy and far less British. Her whole relationship with Luke (the good-looking all American boy who HATES high-maintenance girls who wear make-up because he’s super REAL and ORIGINAL) was generic and eye roll inducing. I kept hoping I’d be surprised but I wasn’t. It was just your standard, generic YA romance. Side Note: Based on all of Luke’s little comments about why he only dates “different girls” I’ll assume he’s rather high maintenance himself.
So overall, I did like the book and I’m definitely going to continue the series, I just hope there’s less Luke-and-Pippa drama in future books (and more Oscar. You can’t go wrong with more Oscar).
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5

I don’t know what it is about the reclusive private school murder mystery sub genre that makes me love it so much, but here we are again with a new story and list of suspects with a few twists and turns that make it really hold its own among the rest.

“Sneaking Out” begins like any other with a group of kids doing exactly what the title suggests only to wake up the next day and find out that in the very spot that they spent their night someone was murdered and now not only do they have to look at who could be responsible among their peers and teachers, but also among themselves.

What I enjoyed most about this book is the background information for Luke that we are teased with for a majority of the story and I really hope it’s something that we see more of in the future books because it’s such a defining characteristic that I can’t imagine it being only plot relevant for one aspect of the series. That’s one thing this book did really well in providing just enough motive for enough of the suspects to keep you guessing and I hate to admit it but I made a few wrong picks over the course of my read.

Part of the stuff with the victim was a bit iffy just in the sense that I feel like so many of the characters had fleshed out qualities and the ones who didn’t, apart from her, were purposely made that way in order to build the tension and intrigue for later while she was categorized as just one thing and in some parts it sort of came off as victim blaming in a sense and that’s never cool, there’s a way to balance a not so great person while also not repeatedly demonizing them when they can’t exactly offer a counter to all the things being said about them.

Overall this is a quality murder mystery with a lead character who I look forward to seeing more of over the course of this series and I have to say I don’t really get the choice of a 1950s noir type cover but I really love it!

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

How am I EVER supposed to wait for the next book?!?! Luke Chase is an awesome character . . . so easy to fall head over heels for a guy with such skills. The story is so much fun (ya' know, if you ignore the part about a murder taking place), and it leaves you with the need to go back and re-read to see if you can pick up on the details. There is prompting that we all need to look at what's in front of us . . . not a bad lesson to learn. Seriously though . . . binge-worthy!

Very excited to get a copy of a boarding school themed book. The main character has faced a kidnapping in his past and there is a murder at the school. Storyline takes through figuring out the crime. Thank you for this read.