Oh man, did The Ivies have so much potential. I loved the plot itself but it was the weird intricacies of the book that really impacted my overall feelings. Mainly, there are a few mentions of COVID throughout the book but they weren’t relevant and the book should’ve done without them. It’s like the author or editor or whoever wanted to make sure it was mentioned, but it actually made me like the story less. It’s a current book and mentions how COVID impacted testing and such, but then most parts of the book are like it never happened because there were no longer any restrictions or anything, so it was a problematic add-in to the story. Like yes, I get that it’s realistic fiction and set in our universe, but don’t try to add in a pandemic if you’re not going to take the pandemic seriously. It irked me beyond belief.

But this is one of those books like Pretty Little Liars where all I could think was “Jesus, just go to the freaking police and stop trying to solve this on your own.” It makes my eyes roll all the way to the back of my head in annoyance, but it’s also impossible to put down.

I did like how the ending surprised me, but I also really felt like the book had zero development in terms of character arc. So again. More annoyance and frustration.

But this isn’t a bad book. In fact, I like many aspects of it and would love to see it adapted into a YA drama series. It’s just the abundance of weird little intricacies that really impacting me from really loving it.

2.5 stars, rounded up
This was a relatively quick, kind of fun read. It definitely hits on the cattiness of high school friendships and how cutthroat college admissions can be, so I can see that it would be a book that some of my high schoolers might want to pick up. A lot of the character building fell flat for me and while it would have been a refreshing change to have an antihero-esque main character, I found it very hard to root for her at all.

Considering this a YA novel, not my absolute favorite genre, I did enjoy this!

This had the vibes of A Good Girls Guide To Murder, which I enjoyed. I think YA books with a murder mystery involved makes it better, because usually the teenage drama and high school setting is something that sets me off. I don’t know why.

The book itself was good, I really liked her writing style. The ending was the only part that was a let down. The reasoning behind the why and the who was nothing new. I guessed it early on. Sometimes you can still get away with a solid ending even if it’s predictable, but I just didn’t love the ending in spite of that.

I was also worried I would confuse the characters and I didn’t too much.

At Claflin Academy, a group of five girls deemed The Ivies, have made it their mission to get into the Ivy League school assigned to them by head Ivy, Avery.  Avery has assigned herself Harvard, Emma is Brown, Margot is Princeton, Sierra is Yale and Olivia is Penn.  The Ivies have been ruthless in setting themselves up as perfect Ivy material with perfect SAT scores, club presidencies and elite spots on teams.  Olivia is the outsider of the group, she is at Claflin on scholarship and from a single family household.  The other girls have high powered families and enough money to throw at any problem.  Olivia's dream school has always been Harvard and she decides to apply for Early Decision.  When Early Decision day arrives, Avery is in an uproar after she finds out she was rejected from Harvard and demands to know who stole her spot.  Emma fesses up to being accepted at Harvard and she and Avery get into a physical fight ending with Avery saying she could kill her.  The next morning, Emma is found dead.  Olivia wonders if Avery could be the culprit and if she could be next.  Oliva dives into an investigation of her own and finds that The Ivies are more ruthless than she could ever have imagined. 
The Ivies is a young adult murder mystery thriller set within a private academy.  I loved the premise of an overly competitive group of girls gunning for limited spots in school, I have known girls this competitive before and the personalities are spot on.  Olivia's character was interesting to see in the mix, she knew she was an outsider, but didn't know how much the other girls kept from her.  At the same time Olivia didn't realize how complicit she was in their scheming.  Though the plot was fairly predictable, I still binged this rather quickly.  The writing kept a good pace and I liked Olivia's investigation as well as the fact that she turned things over to the police when she needed to.  I also liked that Olivia was dedicated to trying to find who killed her friend even when it made her look bad in the process.  It was fitting that almost everyone seemed to have a consequence to their actions as well.  With some interesting twists and turns at the end, The Ivies is a suspenseful, atmospheric thriller that once again reminded me that teenage girls are literally the worst.  

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

Even as someone who usually does not enjoy mystery/thriller books, this one felt like it was made for me.

Admissions scandal? (Harvard, the school of my dreams even now that I am 22 years old with a full time job lol)? Ruthless overachievers? Complex female friendships? (Or rather, frenemies?)
Actual rating closer to 4.5 stars :)

One of the reasons I usually don't enjoy mystery/thrillers is the twist: I always either predict them, or find them so preposterous that it feels like it was just written as a "gotcha!" I'm happy to report that this book has neither. This book kept me guessing (and second-guessing!) until the very last page, without anything feeling like it came out of left field.

This story had great pacing, and I devoured it pretty much in one sitting. Olivia, our main character, was a delight to follow through the story - she's flawed and interesting and just a little too relatable ;).

I will say that there are really no "good" characters in this book, so I wouldn't recommend this one if you don't love to hate flawed and twisted characters like I do. Some elements were also a bit grown-up for a YA novel: violence, language, underage drinking, etc. which at times made it hard to believe this was a high school and not college setting, so read at your own risk if that kind of stuff bothers you. (I will say, this story wouldn't work without it! I get great Gossip Girl vibes from this one.)

I loved the drama in this book. I mean we all know how cut throat college admissions are and add to that the drama of teenage girls who see admission as life and death? Things can get heated and when Emma gets in to Harvard after secretly applying behind Avery's back and she doesn't get accepted Avery flips out at a party. Well normally we would just move on but Emma ends up dead the next day. So her friend Olivia teams up with the co-editor of the school paper, Ethan, to find out what happened to Emma. Things end up getting interesting very quickly after that.

I've long been a fan of Alexa Donne's YouTube channel, but I've never read any of her books. Sci-fi isn't my cup of tea, nor are retellings. But this title was everything I could have wanted!

The Ivies is a binge-worthy mystery with a delicious dark academia backdrop and delightful twists, set to the tune of college admissions. As an alumna of a highly ranked, highly competitive (read: elitist) magnet high school that had many students go on to the Ivy League, I was really excited to read something that talked about the high stress and high stakes of modern college admissions.

Reading the Ivies was a fun adventure. I loved all the different depths of the characters, where you think you have a good picture of each of them only to find out that what you think you know isn't always true. The main mystery plot was great -- I suspected some of the bigger twists, but only because the clues were laid out expertly. I was sometimes frustrated with the main character for attempting to solve the mystery on her own instead of going to the police, but that's a common difficulty with YA thrillers. The ending was a bit bittersweet and rushed, but it was mostly very fitting for the story and ultimately satisfying.

The cover of this book is amazing and the summary drew me in! I was not familiar with the author prior to reading this book. As an adult who reads a lot of YA, I’m not typically bothered by high school characters or settings. However, in this book, I felt I was starting to show my age a little as I did not enjoy the characters at all! They were too cliche wealthy, privileged & clique-ish. They didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities. This really made it difficult for me to enjoy the thriller aspect of the novel which I thought was great.

DID I LIKE IT?
YES!

FAVORITE CHARACTER?
hahahahahahahahahaha….. is it possible to hate every character with every fiber of my being? because alllllllllll of these characters are horrible, horrible people.

WILL I RE-READ IT?
maybe? I’m don’t tend to reread mystery books.

THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE BOOK
murder, ambition, betrayal

I enjoyed this novel, and think many of my students will as well. It had a nice mix of character development, and a decent plot

This book got my attention right from the first page. My students will love this book. They are preparing for college and I feel like they will relate to that aspect of the story.

This was a really twisty boarding school mystery that I loved. I didn't see any of the twists coming, and the pacing was great. The way that the college admissions process was depicted was a little disconcerting, especially as someone who literally just applied to college. There is no way that Olivia was Ivy material with a 1400 SAT, one varsity sport, and co editor in chief of the school newspaper. Sorry, but that is an absolutely normal resume, not the resume of some razor focused ruthless genius. These details really threw me because it made the story seem so out of touch with reality. Other than that, though, the book was hooking. The murder was well crafted, with enough leads to keep things interesting but not enough developments that it got confusing.

This is a well-written YA thriller that kept me interested and wanting to find out whodunnit. The Ivies is Pretty Little Liars meets Gossip Girl meets Mean Girls, but updated to reflect the recent college scandal in the news recently. There were plenty of hints dropped throughout that helped me to figure out some of the mystery, but I was still guessing til the very end. Definitely recommend to mystery lovers!

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I ended up not reading the e-arc because I got a physical copy. It seems like a great match for reluctant readers.

This felt just like Pretty Little Liars in terms of characters and plot. I loved how the plot kept me engaged and guessing. It was definitely a fun read

There are five girls with a mission at Clafflin Academy-to get into an Ivy League school. They disrupt class ranks, academic competitions, and club leaderships. Olivia gets into Harvard and doesn’t tell the others because it was Avery’s dream and she doesn’t get in. Emma gets into Harvard as well and Avery finds out. A fight entails and Avery tells Emma that she would kill her. Later, Emma is found dead. Olivia takes it into her own hands to figure out who the killer is as well as some secrets that were kept.
Usually, thrillers disappoint me, but this book didn’t disappoint. The Ivy girls were unlikeable. You didn’t know who the killer was and the secrets. This book was well plotted. I definitely recommend this book.

4.5 stars. I loved this book because I love dark acedemia books. Getting into an Ivy League school is cut throat business. 5 girls develop a scheme how to beat the other classmates. I y league schools only pick a couple per class and they will do anything to make sure they are going to get their choice of college.

I really enjoyed Alexa Donnes first 2 books, but was happy to see her move from the space opera style story. And I love a good dark academia inspired story. Very topical for today’s society and the mystery was pretty good. I’m excited to see where her next mystery will go.

"When do you cease to be a person and start to be a body?"

To get into an ivy league is cut-throat, and some people would do anything for a that admission letter. Sometimes it even becomes deadly. At Claflin, there lay five girls who will do just that and when one turns up dead things start to be uncovered.

"Because this is the game. The long game. Play the part, try to fit in. Earn their trust. Take their shit. Claw my way up, up, up."

I, personally, have dabbled with mystery and thrillers in the past and I really don't know why I don't do it more. The Ivies was a fasted paced, kept me on the edge of my seat kind of book and that was so refreshing. One thing that really stuck out to me was just the crafting of the plot. As you read through the book more questions continue to be uncovered and all you can think is, 'can all of this really be solved with the fifty pages I have left?' Spoiler Alert; it can.

"I am more than my friend's murder."

I think one of my favorite parts about this book was the answer being hidden in plain sight. The first suspect is obviously Avery. But, I knew better than that. It could never ever just be the most obvious choice, that's silly. Alexa Donne, needless to say, is smarter than I am. She instead talks through the whole book about who it is not. It's always the boyfriend but it could never be this boyfriend, he's too sweet. Jokes on me I guess. The reverse reverse psychology was insane with this novel..

"The bright lights burn my eyes. I stare, straight ahead, and don't blink."

I found this to be a great book even if at point the main character's motives were a bit off, but the ending really pulled together that loose end as well. That's what made me end up giving it five stars, our main amateur sleuth, Olivia. Throughout the book her motives were scattered and at times hard to understand where she is coming from, criticizing to mining after her rich friend's lives. In the end when the movie deal is offered you really get to see her true colors shine through. She still has to climb her way to the top. In The Ivies we are not just reading about someone uncovering a mystery and a villain, we're also reading from a villain's perspective. Olivia was never perfect but she knew what she wanted, to get to the top no matter what it took. And that has to be one of my favorite parts of any of this book.

Thank you to Net Galley for giving me this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Olivia is a scholarship student at an impressively extensive school. She is quickly accepted to an elite group of girls called the Ivies. The Ivies are well know for getting whatever they want no matter what it takes.
Shortly into the story one of the Ivies is found dead. Olivia is on a mission to find out who did it and the more she searches, the more it seems as though her precious Ivies may be behind it.

This book was an easy read. It kept my attention. It was a little predictable as I was able to figure it out about halfway through. I still finished the book because it was a fun read.