Twisty, complex, a little creepy, and a whole lot of fun. This book is for anyone who likes dark academia, cut throat boarding school mean girls, and a satisfying mystery. Highly recommend!

“Harvard is great, but please don’t murder anyone for it.”
— 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐼𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓈, Alexa Donne

We all know college admissions can be cutthroat, but Olivia Winters never expected anyone to actually die.

See, Olivia is one of the Ivies, a group of girls at an elite Massachusetts boarding school. They do whatever they can to assure their admissions to the Ivy League college of their choice, which means sabotaging other students. But when Olivia’s friend and roommate Emma is found murdered the day after Early Decision announcements are made, Olivia has to find out what happened to her. The deeper she goes into the investigation, the more she realizes she didn’t know her friends at all, and the killer could very well be someone close to her. She has to be careful, or she could be next.

I’m pretty neutral in my feelings for this one. The mystery element was fun, the setting creepy but believable. Olivia as a character is shady, but not as shady as her friends, so it makes living inside her head for the entire book relatively easy. I wasn’t blown away by this, though. It was exceptionally predictable at times, and I didn’t really identify with any of the characters. To be quite honest, it gives me some serious 𝒜 𝒢𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝒢𝒾𝓇𝓁’𝓈 𝒢𝓊𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑀𝓊𝓇𝒹𝑒𝓇 vibes, which made it feel more like a rip-off than its own story. But if you’re into that sort of thing, check this one out when it hits shelves May 25th.

𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕖𝕣, 𝕒𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 ℕ𝕖𝕥𝕘𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕪 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔸ℝℂ 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕡𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕥𝕦𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕓𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕓𝕖𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕡𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟!

I am between 3.5 to 4 stars, so per my review policy, I will bump up to 4 stars. I will also disclose that I consider the author to be an online friend, so take that as you will. That being said... this was super fun! It took me a little bit to get into the flow, but once I did, I really enjoyed the "chatty" quality of the writing and I ended up getting swept up in the drama & intrigue of an elite boarding school filled with entitled students who will do WHATEVER it takes to get into their dream school. I think part of the fun of this plot is that it is extreme but... not that extreme. All in all, I think this is a really enjoyable version of a YA thriller with a solid ending and a nice tone of age-appropriate cynicism/snark

I have read all of Alexa Donne's books and I love her writing style. For her first book outside of the sci-fi genre, I was a little concerned I wouldn't like it because thriller isn't a genre I read in regularly.

This author's strengths hooked me into a genre I tend to find tedious and paranoid and made it a truly enjoyable experience. A murder set in an exclusive school during one of the most stressful times of the year with tested friendships and relationships.

The questions of what will we do to get ahead and just how well do we know our friends are prominent throughout the book.

Each character was solidly written and had a distinct enough voice that I could easily tell them apart. The descriptions were great, very vivid. All in all a fairly decent book.

A four star read, thank you to NEtgalley and the publisher for access to this title.

This book is all about how far 5 girls will go to get into an Ivy League college. They each have a grocery list of bad things they’ve done to sabotage the competition, when one of them dies, it’s impossible to know who would commit murder just to go to a college?
Will keep you guessing until the end.
This book has it all: friendship, betrayal, rich, poor, love that turns to hate.

This book was not what I was expecting!! I expected a predictable Gossip Girl kinda story, but what I got was so much more. The Ivies are a group of girls who go to an elite boarding school. They are all slated to attend one of the Ivy League Universities, and they are willing to do anything to make this happen. Steal. Catfish. Lie. Hack. Murder?

Olivia is in scholarship, but has been taken in by The Ivies. When one of the Ivies is found murdered, Olivia is determined to figure out who did it. Can she do it without taking her “friends” down, or will she be also be a victim?

I loved how just when you think you have everything figured out, another twist is thrown in. I wasn’t a fan of all the language used. I felt it could have been majorly toned down.

Gossip Girl meets Veronica Mars with a dash of Private, THE IVIES starts with a group of friends competing for spots in their dream Ivy League schools, and ends with a twist-filled murder plot. I enjoyed the characterization and murder investigation itself, but it seemed like most of the interesting parts happened off page - the ruthless lengths the girls went to in order to secure their legacies. In a way, this book read like the fourth book in a series rather than a standalone, and while the action and plot was all self-contained, I kept wanting to know more about what happened before the story got started. Instead, we get the impact of all the things they did, but no build up of how it happened. It's a narrative choice for sure, and the book is still a fun read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Childen's for sending me this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. A group of five prep school girls will do anything to get into their school of their dreams. Each one of them is gunning for a specific Ivy League school; Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, Columbia, and Yale. After one of them turns up dead, Olivia is determined to get to the bottom of it, unearthing secrets that should've stayed buried.

I don't normally do thrillers, but this book was so enjoyable and I loved every second of it, the plot twists were well developed and I never would've expected them.

THE IVIES is a creepy thriller about a group of girls who would do almost anything to gain admittance to the Ivy League...maybe even kill one of their own. The plot is full of twists and turns and had me constantly guessing the answers - to which I was wrong every single time (in a good way). Read it if you enjoy A GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER or TRULY DEVIOUS.

I’ve been getting a little more into thrillers lately, so I was delighted to receive an ARC of The Ivies from Turn the Page Tours in exchange for review.

There is so much to love about the concept. The Ivies are a group of prep school friends notorious for their sabotage of classmates in the name of college admissions. Enter Olivia, a scholarship student that the Ivies have adopted. When Olivia’s roommate and prominent Ivy member Emma is murdered, Olivia sets out to prove she and her fellow Ivies aren’t as guilty as they seem. It feels very much like Gossip Girl meets Pretty Little Liars, and I am a big fan of both of those shows, so I knew from a few chapters in that I would love this.

I enjoyed the idea that someone might start a friend group purely for academic sabotage. A little larger than life, I liked how it offered a fantastical vehicle by which to explore the very real pressure of college admissions. Olivia is a very voicey character, and for that reason, it was a pleasure to be inside her head. I laughed out loud at several points of her snarky commentary.

The main strength of this novel is its plot. It sucked me in from beginning to end in a labyrinth of secrets and clues unearthed at a rapid pace. I intended to chip away at this one slowly, but ended up finishing the book in a number of days. All of the plot twists made perfect sense in the context of the story, so nothing felt like it came out of nowhere. (That said, perhaps their were a few too many clues dropped, since I am terrible at guessing twists and did manage to call a few ahead of time. Do with that what you will.) Additionally, when the killer was finally revealed, I liked what his/her/their monologue offered as a commentary on society in its current state.

The main reason why I gave this 4 and not 5 stars was that I felt the character development was lacking. Olivia begins the story as an outsider longing to fit in, but feeling like the world of the wealthy will never open its doors to her no matter how hard she tries. She joins the Ivies because she recognizes in some sense that she has to be willing to scrap her way to the top, since people will not hand her things. This results in some bitterness on her part. However, after following a novel’s worth of secrets and realizing just how insidious the schemes of the rich can be, she ends the story in much the same place. I didn’t feel like the events of the story particularly affected her in any way. She didn’t conclude that excessive wealth leads to excessive selfishness and corruption, but on the other hand, she also didn’t conclude that there was more to the people inhabiting the world of the wealthy than the label of selfishness with which she views them all. She sees herself as more justifiable than the Ivies in her actions, even though she shares their motivations and takes part in her own schemes. This could have provided an opportunity for Olivia to realize that, despite their class distinctions, she is, in many ways, the same as the people she paints as immoral, or on the other hand, to decide what truly sets her apart from them and what kind of person she will be as a result. Personally, I wouldn’t have minded which direction Donne took with it, so long as Olivia learned something from the events. But instead Olivia remains unaffected. She ends the novel still feeling like an outsider with luxury as her ultimate aspiration. (In a similar vein, another thing I struggled with was that Olivia complains frequently about being poor, when in reality she is solidly middle class and just lacks the excess luxury of the 1%. In that sense, she is guilty of the same navel-gazing as her wealthy friends, and yet she is never self-aware enough to see it.)

Overall, I enjoyed this book immensely. As I said, the plot was absolutely riveting. This is a book that demands to be devoured, and I would highly recommend it to lovers of YA thriller!

P.S. For those of you who’ve read it, “I’m a feminist, you know” had me cackling. 😂

2.5 Stars. A girl who goes to an elite, hyper-competitive, East-coast boarding school investigates the murder of her classmate.

If you like ABC Family and the CW, then this may be a good fit for you.

I'll start with what worked for me. The story was fast-paced and gripping, which I liked. The subject matter was unique and compelling; I, personally, haven't seen any teen thrillers written about competitive college applications (and I've read quite a few thrillers), so it was refreshing to see a new face in a familiar genre. I liked that it revolved around spilling the deep, dark secrets of the "top clique" at the high school.

As a side note, I mentioned this above, but it is still important to be aware that this book clearly draws a lot of inspiration from television teen dramas. It even explicitly references the CW a couple times. This means that the teens are very dramatic and very "adult" (often to the point that it's an unrealistic portrayal of actual teenagers... but that's more a fault of the genre, rather than the author). So if that's not your cup of tea, maybe bring your plate to a different barbecue.

And now for the reasons why this book barely breaks 2 stars for me. First, it's predictable. There wasn't a single twist or reveal that surprised me. Most of the "big reveals" were easily observable from the very beginning. Although I will concede that I may have set the bar too high in that department (since I do read thrillers so often), it was still disappointing that there wasn't a single thing that caught me off-guard or made me second-guess myself.

Second, there was basically zero character development with the main character. Some of the side characters changed over time, which I appreciated, but the main character stayed the exact same. She started out the story as the "poor girl" outsider who is desperate to shed who she was and become like the glamorous Ivies, no matter the cost; she ended the story as.... the "poor girl" outsider who is still desperate to shed who she was and become like the glamorous Ivies, no matter the cost. She spends the whole book playing into the popular girls' twisted mind games and then, in the end, instead of learning from her experiences, she just keeps trying to play the game, even after the Ivies have taken their ball and gone home for the night.

The main character is so desperate and always tries to believe that the popular girls really are her friends and they really will accept her, even when it is abundantly clear to everyone else that they never will. It was so dissatisfying. She never gains any real friends, she never becomes anything more than a tag-along, wanna-be afterthought, but worst of all, she never just walks away. She couldn't just let go of the petty, high school drama and become something more than a ruthless, prep school mean girl. When given the chance to reflect and choose a different path, she actively decides not to. Instead, she becomes fake and spoiled and mean. It was so disappointing because it could have been so much better.

Interesting thriller about what lengths prep school teens will go to in order to make it in to their Ivy League. I wasn’t super surprised by several of the twists, but it kept me reading.

As an adult, I’m a little unsettled at how focused they were on the age of consent being 17 to make the career counselor not a pedophile. I would have liked to see that considered a little more seriously.

As a lesbian, I did like that Avery ended coming out as not straight because at first I was a bit confused when she dressed as Lexa otherwise for the party. That said, be prepared for another not straight character being homophobic to hide being outed. Overplayed.

Something to hand to fans of Pretty Little Liars.

This book was a ton of fun! I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it as I did with Alexa Donne's other two novels. I've been reading a lot of thrillers lately so I got my hands on this book at the perfect time! There was a bunch of twists and turns throughout this book that kept me guessing all the way through. It is a murder mystery at a boarding school with a group of mean girls involved. These girls will do anything to get into an Ivy League school and their vibes reminded me a lot of the girls from Pretty Little Liars. These mean girls are obviously super unlikeable at first, but what was surprising was how I grew to respect one of them by the end of the novel. I never thought that would happen to be honest and it was quite satisfying. At first, I had no idea who the murderer was, but towards the end of the book I had a solid theory that ended up being right. Alexa added a few twists that made me question my theory a few times though so it still was a satisfying conclusion. I definitely recommend giving this book a try!

Alexa Donne has plotted an excellent thriller. The Ivies explores how far teens will go to get into their dream school. The book follows a very well-thought out structure, and centers on a murder investigation of a girl recently accepted into Harvard. The concept is catchy, and the mystery has enough red herrings to keep you guessing. I was never totally sure who was the killer which makes for a fun read! The prose and voice of the story is very “teen” with references to pop culture, fashion. While at times, this took me out of the mystery, I think teen readers will love it!

**I received an arc of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.**

Like a lot of people I watch Alexa religiously on Youtube. I'm no stranger to her or her books. I've read Brightly Burning in the past and really enjoyed my experience reading it.

The Ivies was a first for me in a lot of ways. I've never read a mystery/thriller before. And I've only ever watched a couple such as Murder on the Orient Express ( the new one with Kenneth Branagh) and Scooby Doo (I think that counts)

So I don't really have a lot to compare this to, and I wouldn't even begin to understand what genre tropes were or were not at play here. I also don't want to give anything away. So I'll try to revisit my feelings on the twists and red herrings after the book has been out for a while.

Now onto the review...

Ya'll. You are not ready.

Something that kept coming up in reviews for Brightly Burning, was 'like her channel, didn't like the book'. It's hard to say what it was about that novel that kept it from working as well as it could have. For me, I'm not a sci-fi person, so I had chalked it up to that. Having just been thrown for a loop with her junior novel I can say IT WAS THE VOICE.

When you watch her channel, Alexa has a very specific voice. She's fun and likeable and it seems clear that she was born to write, but that voice is completely removed in Brightly Burning. Everything sounds forced and clipped and....essayish. The Ivies, is VOICEY. The voice is so strong that you forget that the piece isn't a memoir. It's all so crazy, and timely, that it all feels real. It's that Taylor Jenkins Reid effect where you feel like at any moment you could put the book down and google this school and these people and have millions of results.

She had me dangling from the first page and even after I've finished the book I'm not sure she ever let go. I kept trying to pick out the culprit. I can't say I guessed it, even though I definitely accused every named character at least once. If you like juicy drama, strap in. Get ready to gasp and clutch your pearls. Everyone has skeletons it seemed. Everyone offended at least once.

Last year I had the privilege of reading Admission by Julie Buxbaum before much of the real life sentences were handed out. You know which one I'm talking about, and that book did a good job of making me feel sorry for the kids involved. Sorry for the parents even. It gave me compassion for a situation that was already pretty cringey. This book is not that lol. The characters aren't awful, but their motives are insane. Admissions scandals and fake scores was literally an afterthought compared with all of the other things they were guilty of.

There was a part at the end of the book. When I read what the theme was I audibly gasped and screamed "OH MY GOD."

For those who have followed the videos, I feel like Alexa herself makes a cameo.

The Ivies and their scandalous world appear so fully formed that I don't feel like you can make "too big" of a deal of this book. We all knew that Alexa was meant to write, and think a lot of people were confused when Brightly Burning didn't live up to expectations. So the jury is in. Alexa was meant to write thrillers. The Ivies is her masterpiece.


I would recommend this book to literally anyone (but maybe especially recent grads haha). 5 well deserved stars!

This is exactly the kind of thing that would make a great mini series. Mostly because it felt not unlike a <i>Gossip Girl</i> and <i>Pretty Little Liars</i> mashup (I say this without ever having watched or read PLL, so I could be off base, but from random ads I've seen it has the thriller vibes needed). Except throw in the <i>Gilmore Girls</i> education focus that Rory and Paris had in their final year at Chilton.

<i>There were ruthless students before us -- they just weren't as well organized.</i>

All that to say, this was a hot twisty priviledged backstabby underhanded mess and boy was I enthralled. I think what worked against it, though, and why I'm not rating higher, is I felt our protagonist was just a little too inconsistent in both her feelings and her reactions. I don't know if maybe that was on purpose, particularly with how this ended, but.. it made for strange reading sometimes. But the cliquey Ivies, the school itself, it was all so messed up but so fascinating.

Equally, I think, had this been done (or when it's done? who knows!) in a television format I think we could've had some extra nuance or layers that maybe would've rounded this out a bit. The mystery itself wasn't too straight forward, despite the red herrings or supposed red herrings, but there were a few other twists I found rather easy to see coming. But, again, maybe that was on purpose so we didn't guess the other? Hard to say.

"<i>Do you know how hard it is to be a rich, above-average white guy in college admissions?</i>"
"<b>Oh, wait, you're being serious? Sorry.</b>"

I also found it interesting how much this actually said about the whole college admissions mania. Not being American I've only ever really seen this portrayed in fiction and this definitely took it up a notch or twelve but I think there's a lot of reality buried into this fictional narrative, too.

I probably could've done without the two or three throwaway references to the pandemic but as this is an ARC who knows if that feedback will make it up the chain or not.

I had a fun time with this, though, and it was the perfect twisty ride to pass a gloomy afternoon.

3.5 stars

Boarding school? Check. How the 1% lives? Check. Murder? Check. This book ticks lots of boxes for indulgent reads. Olivia, the token athletic scholarship student, finds herself in the middle of a complicated web of lies and deceit. But she’s not squeaky clean. As the story unravels, it seems that almost everyone is tainted by hubris. Y’know, Macbeth’s fatal flaw. Everyone at the school wants to come out on top & very few can—even when they try to pull all of the strings behind the curtain. Parts felt ploddingly slow & others seemed to pass by too quickly for them to sink in. It should appeal to the Maureen Johnson Truly Devious fans.

#TheIvies #NetGalley

THE IVIES is such a fun and twisty YA elite boarding school mystery/thriller! The story is about a group of high-achieving friends known as “the Ivies” who will do whatever it takes to be accepted into the university of their dreams. When a murder occurs and the Ivies become the prime suspects, Olivia decides to get to the bottom of it. With a cast full of perfectly “unlikeable” characters, I couldn’t put this book down until the reveal. The dynamic between Olivia and the other Ivies was complex and addicting to follow, and I loved the way everything was tied up in the end. I can’t wait for Alexa’s next thriller!

Thank you Netgalley for a YA mystery thriller in exchange for a review!

I was iffy on the beginning. A lot of stereotypes and high school clique stuff which doesn't sit well with me and isn't realistic. The language was especially cringey for me, like this is what someone who hasn't been in high school for a long time thinks high schoolers now talk.

BUT there was so much good going on in this too. I liked the love interest. I like the main character's grit and determination, even if she was hypocritical and mean sometimes (but I guess flaws are common with mystery-thrillers). I like the very end especially.

This is marketed as similar to <i>A Good Girl's Guide to Murder</i>. Don't go into this thinking it'll be that.

#TheIvies
#MustReadYA2021
The Ivies starts off slow, but after the first several chapters it builds into a fun, smart mystery. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House publishing for the opportunity to read and review The Ivies.