This book was really fast paced and interesting but it felt entirely too long. I enjoyed it but it wasn't a top read for me.

However, this read like a second book in a series with an entire backstory that wasn't fleshed out enough, and really could have been a book on its own. On top of that, the main character was extremely unlikable.

This was a great book about a girl detective Flora. This was action packed and had some great moments that I wasn’t expecting.

Standard murder mystery, but I like that. Falling under the Jimmy Presents banner, this particular mystery has everything a murder mystery fan is looking for.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a good read, a Jame Patterson presents often is. Enjoyable, fast paced

This was a very good YA mystery/thriller that I will definitely be rereading in the future. The ending killed me though, there HAS to be a book 2. It can't just end like that man.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was lacking something from the plot. It felt a bit all over the place.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

Fast paced thriller! I really liked this one and there were so many twist and turns, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Flora is a teenager who is kind of like a bad-ass Nancy Drew. She finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation of her friend/girlfriend. She goes to extreme lengths to find out who the murderer is even if it means dealing with some big political scandal. Recommend if you are looking for a quick read and some suspense.

Thank you to Netgalley for a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really expected to like this book. It has so many elements that could have made it a really good story. There was a queer female detective with a murdered ex-girlfriend who reached out to her the night she died. That sounds amazing! Unfortunately, the execution was poor and the ball was dropped.

There could have been at least 100 less pages and the story wouldn't have lost anything. I struggled not to DNF this book until just over 50% through when it became slightly more interesting.

The main character is compared to Nancy Drew so many times it just became annoying. I get it, this is supposed to be a more graphic version of Nancy Drew. I can see that, however, our girl detective in this story is the worst. She's self-absorbed to the point where everyone is taking care of her so she can play detective. She sucks the life from her family and friend, yes only one, and just keeps doing whatever she wants ignoring any consequences to anyone else.

I didn't like it. If I had of read this one a couple years ago I may have enjoyed it more.

I'm a sucker for good thriller books and I really enjoyed this one!

I was provided an advanced digital copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley for review purposes, all opinions are my own.

I wanted to love this one but it just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t relate to any characters and that is a huge part for me.

This was an average YA mystery/ thriller. We have a teenage detective which gave me Nancy Drew vibes. This was a quick read that was easy to fly though. I enjoyed it, but nothing I will seek out to re-read. *ARC provided by NetGalley for review.

Kylie Schachte has always been very kind to me and my writing. She's given me some wonderful feedback during her time working as a mentor for Pitch Wars. She clearly knows her stuff, especially how to construct a character and raise the stakes for them and their conflict. I think the biggest take-home for You're Next is that the characters feel very real. Their reactions to events and to each other are very human, and don't just serve the plot like some people write their characters. Flora's anger and grief is very relatable, and I can tell it comes from a place Schachte's been before.

I somehow went into this book without any knowledge of it being a fight club book, so was genuinely surprised by this underground world that unfolded! While I was delighted by the concept of a teenage fighting ring, I thought it a little farfetched that everyone was involved and somehow no one knew about it. Regardless, it's an easy suspension of disbelief to make, so I'll allow it. The use of the underground fighting ring gave it a punch of danger and there was always someone after Flora, which added some nice adrenaline. Flora does do that thing though, where the female protagonist goes off into dangerous situations on her own, even though she could've easily brought backup. It's a little knitpicky, even though it's perfectly in character. It's just a bit of a tired cliche in YA at this point.

I also appreciated the portrayal of bisexuality in this novel. It was laid out so naturally and Flora's sexuality is never negated the minute she expresses interest in the male love interest. Both past and present romances are well-developed and interesting. It's nice to have both a bad boy and bad boy character as the love interest(s), because so often, we just get bad boys. This was a nice way to balance out having that bad boy trope, though don't get me wrong, love me a bad boy, and wasn't mad at all that he was there to begin with! Flora's dynamic with him was great. There was always a sense of mystery and a question of whether he's somehow involved with the antagonists. There was always just enough to keep you wondering where everything is going.

All in all, nicely paced (though it could've used a trim toward the end, as that nearly 500 page-count is a tad excessive for a suspense novel) and action packed. There's a lot going on in this book, and it's an excellent start for a debut author!

This one really hurts me because I tried and I really wanted to love this book but I just could not fully dive into it as I usually do when reading.

I don't know if it was the writing style or if it wasn't riveting enough to capture my attention. It's interesting but honestly it was also heavy handed with Mary Sue-isms.

Maybe at another time in my life I will try again but as of now, this wasn't my thing.

Thanks very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

First off, I really enjoyed this mystery and found myself wondering just where it was all leading. However, I have to note that this felt a bit like a sequel (and it’s not). There’s a whole story of Flora finding a dead body and how she launches an investigation on her own and it leads to all sorts of trouble. This happened in the past though. In the present, Flora finds the body of her ex, Ava McQueen, and she’s still determined to investigate.

It took a bit to get the full picture of Flora and her past, but apart from that, I thought You’re Next was an intriguing mystery. There are are a mix of things happening so you get little reveals here and there. I’d be curious to read more about Flora and her investigations! Plus, I really loved her best friend and family (her younger sister and grandpa) and I thought those relationships were written well.

The story and writing was enjoyable but this book was far too long unfortunately. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an egalley.

For an adult reader, it might be difficult to suspend disbelief on Kylie Schachte’s debut novel You’re Next, but as a former fan of all things Nancy Drew, I think this works well as a teen/young adult thriller. If you consider the popularity of CW’s Riverdale, where high school students play at law enforcement, owning businesses, signing contracts, running bars, Flora Calhoun’s teen detective role isn’t much of a stretch. Would this story be believable in real life? Heck no, but I do think it would appeal to my teenage daughter and her friends who aren’t drawn into adult thrillers yet. There’s a reason this is in the genre it’s in. This is where the love of thrillers begins.

Flora is a self-aware teenager, but she’s not very likeable as a protagonist. She disobeys her grandfather (who is way too lenient), she disregards the feelings of her one and only friend, she is completely insensitive to her younger sister who really just misses her mom. But I think that’s a lot of what makes this story work. Flora is determined to get to the bottom of her “cases” no matter what anyone thinks of her, and her friend and family still love her and stand behind her.

I got the impression that this is the start of a series, and I think Flora would make a good lead if she could rein herself in. The author would have to make her way more likeable so that readers will root for her.

What knocks this down to 4 stars for me is the lack of development in Flora’s backstory. We know that she found a classmate dead a couple years before, but we don’t really get a lot of detail about that case or Flora’s role in messing up the investigation. We get very limited information, so it feels like you’re missing something. A number of other reviewers mentioned thinking that this was a sequel, and it does feel that way. This is a pretty long novel to start with, so I suspect that some of the backstory was trimmed in editing, but the book is less effective without that detail. We also don’t get a lot of information about why Flora and Olive’s mother left, so she could have just been left out of the book completely.

All in all, I think this will appeal to its target audience. I look forward to reading this author again.

Next up for Sophie was a YA novel she had been meaning to get to for some time: You’re Next by Kylie Schachte.

When 16-year-old Flora Calhoun gets a late-night call from her ex-girlfriend, she races to meet her, only to find Ava shot and bleeding to death in a deserted alleyway. The police quickly decide that Ava’s death was simply a mugging gone wrong, but Flora, who has spent years setting herself up as a young detective, knows it was murder. Investigating the crime herself, along with her best friend Cass and her former-CIA grandfather, Flora soon uncovers an entire hidden world that had existed right under her nose—and everything seems to lead back to an underground teenage fight club and a local politician.

However, Ava wasn’t the first murdered girl Flora has discovered on a deserted path and the police are becoming suspicious, so when Flora starts to receive threatening notes and photos, she’s not sure who to turn to. Can she trust VT, the teenage fighter she met at the club, or does he have his own motives for wanting to help?

You’re Next was a fun but flawed read. Flora is a deeply troubled character who can be difficult to like. She ignores good advice, pushes away her friends, and fights against those who clearly have her best interests at heart. It’s hard to begrudge her that though, as the book gradually reveals her history and explores the layers of trauma she has built up over her short life.

The biggest issue in this book is accepting that Flora is only 16. Sophie found it hard to suspend her disbelief as Flora and VT went off solving mysteries together when she should be in PE class. Sophie felt that if the characters were university-aged instead, the whole thing would have felt so much more believable. As it was, this was a fast and easy read filled with interesting characters that will keep you turning the pages long after you should have turned out the light.

The bad? It's redundant and predictable. I also wish that it got a little deeper. Overall I did enjoy the story.

This one was a bit of a mixed bag...

On the positive side, the plot was interesting and fast-paced, and kept me engaged and guessing until the end.

However, this read like a second book in a series with an entire backstory that wasn't fleshed out enough, and really could have been a book on its own. On top of that, the main character was extremely unlikable. Flora was genuinely an awful daughter, sister, granddaughter, and friend. Last, what the heck was that ending?! Will there be another book? I hope so, because otherwise, what a crappy way to leave a reader hanging!