I really enjoyed this book. It was “Mean Girls” meets “Pretty Little Liars”. I love the timeliness of the college admission scandal in Hollywood. It had me guessing until the end. Thank you for an ARC of this book.

Really really good and suspenseful!! I enjoyed it a lot and I cannot wait to read another book by this author!!

Alexa Donne shines with a witty, suspenseful, timely novel, The Ivies. The story is atmospheric, it is suspenseful, but most of all it transports the reader to what it feels like to be 17 years old making one of the biggest decisions of your life, and full of the unwavering certainty that you would do ANYTHING to make your dreams a reality.

In the case of the Ivies, Claflin Academy's biggest It girls, the list of things they are willing to do to get into their Ivy League of choice has included, blackmail, backstabbing, and sabotage. When acceptances don't shake out the way they envisioned, Olivia is left to wonder would murder be a bridge too far?

Donne nails the high school atmosphere, the tension that arises from being placed in an ultra-competitive environment with ultra-competitive parents, and deep pockets that have never failed to buy the students out of any unfortunate situation. I think this is why Olivia's character shines so brightly. As a scholarship student, she is a natural "odd one out" among her rich, privileged peers. This places her perfectly to investigate the crime. She appears to belong to one of the most feared groups on campus, but as it becomes clear they may have secrets and motives that extend far past what she is privy to she uses that sense of betrayal to drive forth an investigation of her own as the police seem to flounder with theirs.

A quick read that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys Gossip Girl, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, or the One of Us is Lying series!

I would like to thank Turn the Page Blog Tours for including me in the lineup for this tour. I received the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my personal opinion.

Score: 5/5

I rushed over to write this review as soon as I found myself finished with <i>The Ivies</i>. Donne has written a compelling "sink your teeth in" thriller that'll leave you wanting more. This may market itself as another "high school murder with mean girls" but it is far more than that. Donne writes about wealth privilege, class privilege, the education system, and capitalism.

No character is "good" here, and that makes it even more fascinating. What peaked my intrigue is knowing that Donne was a private-college essays consultant, she uses her past knowledge and expertise fantastically to craft up a scandalous cut throat affair with ambition and jealousy.

Needless to say, Donne has become an auto-buy after this one, and I can't wait to sink my teeth into whatever psychological mind bending tale she crafted up.

Do I recommend? Yes absolutely, it's a perfect for a sit down with a nice of cup of tea

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's Publishing for an e-arc of The Ivies by Alexa Donne. I need to start this review by saying that I am well aware of Alexa Donne and her fantastic Youtube channel giving writing advice, but this is the first book I've read of her's. Thankfully, it was written beautifully. I was very nervous going into this one. What if this person I've been taking writing advice from disappoints me with this book? It didn't happen! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a typical young adult mystery/thriller. The tropes that are expected are present, but Donne was able to incorporate them in a way that did not feel overused or substandard in any way. I haven't read a young adult mystery/ thriller in a while but I was still able to guess the twist, a second twist, and my number one suspect ended up being the killer. This did not deter from the book. It was obvious enough for someone like me to guess correctly, but not so obvious for someone in the age range the book is written for. My one big critique is about the main character, Olivia. Without spoilers, I will say that I think Olivia overreacted in some parts of the book to some of the shady things the other "Ivies" did. She was a part of the group and well aware that her friends bent the rules from time to time to increase their chances at academic success above their peers. And yet there were parts of the book where Olivia was almost distraught learning about some choice things that were going on (despite taking place in other just as shady events with her friends). Besides that one gripe, I did like Olivia as the main character and investigator. I think Donne did an excellent job at giving her a voice that was consistent throughout. I also loved the setting and Donne's ability to write descriptions that place you in the center of the action. As someone from New England, I can absolutely picture this school as the real deal, right down to the architectural look of it. This book is perfect if you are looking for a young adult mystery/thriller. If I read this when I was fifteen, it may have ended up being in my top books of that time. Very much reminiscent of young adult mysteries and thrillers I used to read during that time.

I really enjoyed this book. Very well written and holds your interest. Amazing what teenagers will do to get into an Ivy League school. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

Hmm, let me think for a moment.

So there’s this poor girl who hangs around a bunch of rich mean girls that spend all their time and skills into sabotaging their classmates changes to get into certain colleges. And this girls friend/roommate gets murdered but she doesn’t seem affected by it except that she wants to investigate the murder to find out why and what her friends have been doing things behind her back.

Is this what the world has come to?

Strange.

I found the first 20% of the book a little bit irritating and I couldn’t wait for the murder to take place. In fact the book could have started off with the murder and i don’t think I would have missed anything.

The book was readable although a bit unbelievable. Unfortunately none of the characters really spoke to me and some of the plot twists were predictable. I just wanted a little bit more emotion or feeling.

Thank you to Random House Children’s and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

The Ivies are a group of cutthroat, top-tier students who will do anything to get into the Ivy League schools of their dreams - perhaps even killing the competition. When one of the girls ends up dead, scholarship student Olivia starts unraveling the layers of deceit and corruption her friends hid from her in order to discover who the killer is. The writing is engaging and keeps you guessing. Teens who attend competitive high schools will find parts of this story uncomfortably relatable, while those outside of the sphere of competitive college admissions may struggle to believe it can be this intense (unfortunately, it is, though murder is not usually involved, thankfully). This is equal parts "rich people problems" and "boarding school murder mystery"; an excellent next read for both fans of Gossip Girl/PLL or mysteries like Truly Devious, People Like Us, and They Wish They Were Us.

Claflin Academy is ruled by the Ivies. The Ivies are ruled by Avery Montfort. Avery decides which girl is worthy to be in the Ivies, and then decides which Ivy League school that girl will apply to, and finally dictates the sinking of the other students to ensure said girl's entry into said Ivy League school. Olivia, a scholarship student, never quite figured out how she became one of the Ivies, but respected the nod toward acceptance from the elite clique and participated in the crashing of other's dreams. She helped until her roommate was murdered after a very public fight because her roommate, a fellow Ivy, disobeyed Avery and applied to the wrong school and was accepted. Olivia has her own secret to keep from Avery, and sets out to find what happened to Emma, the roommate, even if it means bringing down the Ivies.

Delicious thriller of mean girls who find themselves in a fine mess. It's always amazing what money can buy, and ensuring undeserving futures for rich children is one of those things. These are the types of books that make one wonder how deep the college admission scandals run, and what is being done to prevent money from buying a spot. The American Dream is dead if the underdogs don't have a chance to chase their dreams, too, right?

This was a twisty YA mystery that I did not guess the ending of at all! Overall, if this book sounds interesting to you, I would definitely recommend trying it!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

First of all, I feel like I have to disclaimer that I'm a sucker for a YA Mystery. Secondly, I want to say how much I enjoyed this story.
While there are some typical YA mystery themes, there are also some really unique things that I can't really talk about without giving away spoilers.

I love Alexa Donne's Youtube channel so I was incredibly excited to receive an ARC from Netgalley for this book. I finished it a little late, but honestly, I'm glad I pushed through. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would--YA Thrillers are dramatic, sure, and teens ignoring the police in favor of doing their own investigation is possibly the most annoying trope, but Donne gave the MC a really good reason to figure everything out on her own. Sadly, though, it doesn't save the book.

There's nothing wrong with this book, in theory. I didn't hate it, I just didn't love it. None of the twists pulled me in and none of the characters kept me going. The Whodunnit was enough to turn the page, but not enough to salvage this from a modest 3-star to a 4-star. If there's one GOOD thing I can say about this book, it's that Alexa Donne knows who the obvious suspect is going to be and she uses that to her advantage. Several times I guessed and second-guessed myself on who the killer was and wasn't entirely confident until it was revealed. It takes a good writer to do that.

Overall, The Ivies is an average YA thriller. If you're struggling through college admissions right now, you might actually enjoy this more than I did and I recommend you pick it up.

4.5 stars

The Ivies is a mystery-thriller novel centered around a group of friends who are called, you guessed it, the Ivies, with each girl aiming for a spot at one of the high competitive schools. Our protagonist, Olivia, is one of the Ivies, except she isn’t super rich as her friends are. But! Despite that, Olivia manages to grab a spot at Harvard! Way to go, am I right?

One problem: Harvard wasn’t her school. And neither was it Emma’s, another one of the Ivies who made it into Harvard. The only difference between them is that one of them ends up dead.

I can’t say this was Agatha Christie levels of mystery, but I still found it compulsively readable. While Alexa Donne’s writing style comes off a bit forced at the beginning, especially when trying to emulate teenagers, it becomes natural once tensions rise and a murderer appears.

I have to admit, I am a bit harder on books that are written by people who give writing advice. And as a casual watcher of Donne’s videos, it was a bit awkward when I noticed she did something that she had stated in her previous videos as an example of what not to do. However, I didn’t hold any of this against my rating of the book. She’s a writer, just like us, with her own voice and her own set of rules that work for her. General writing advice should be taken into consideration within the context of each writer!

Even then, it was easy to see her familiarity with applying to university (as I have heard she helped teenagers with their college essays) in the book, and it definitely sounded like she knew exactly what she was talking about. I feel as though many wouldn’t think that applications are that competitive, and while I wouldn’t really kill someone for a spot at Harvard, it does certainly feel this deadly sometimes.

I don’t think I could say anything specific that stood out to me. Not in the sense that the individual aspects were bad, but rather this book with all its elements combined is really what did it for me. The characters? The plot? The writing? The stakes? The red-herring? It’s been a long while since I’ve last read a mystery, and this did not disappoint.

The only reason I took off half a star from my rating was because of the conclusion which, with this being a review, I don’t really want to spoil. It was satisfying, sure, and nice that it wasn’t all happy and that the characters had consequences for what they did, but after all that build up during the middle part, it felt a bit plain to me, like there was no big twist or something that would’ve exceeded my expectations.

Nevertheless, The Ivies was still a really fun and enjoyable YA mystery, and I would recommend it to anyone, even non-mystery readers!

I've been behind on my ARCs from NetGalley. However, I was giving the opportunity to read The Ivies by Alexa Donne for a honest review. My review has spoilers, so you've been warned. This book's release date was late May.

This dark academia book gave me Plastics and Heathers vibes throughout the entire twoish days I was reading it. I zipped through this book because it was so well written. The Ivies are a group of girl friends, Avery, Margot, Sierra, Emma, and Olivia who all attend a swanky boarding school. They are feared by their peers and there is plenty of reasons why... Olivia, however, is somewhat of a "charity" case; on scholarship at Claflin Academy and adopted into the friend group. The four other girls are upper-class and have the money that Olivia doesn't.

Each of the girls is wanting to get into an Ivy league school, by any means necessary. If you don't know the Ivy League schools, they are: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Cornell.

However, there are rules within the group. Only one Ivy per girl... And since Avery is a triple legacy to Harvard, she has first dibs. Even though that's been Olivia's dream school since she was little. Olivia gets "stuck" with Penn. Why one girl per Ivy? Because since they are all highly competitive schools, they usually only take one to three applicants per academy. These girls mean business. They have been scheming and plotting their admissions since freshman year. Now that their seniors and high in the ranks at school, they have the best chances of getting into their school of choice, right?

ED day comes for Claflin Academy. What is ED day? Early Decision Day. The day where the Seniors find out if they're excepted or rejected early decision to their top choice. The whole senior class is distracted and on edge that day and has the ED Party later that night to celebrate or drown their sorrows while the faculty look the other way. The Ivies wait to find out from those are the schools they are "assigned". However, not everything goes according to plan. Emma applies to an Ivy school she wasn't supposed to and all hell breaks loose between the friend group. And Olivia? Well Olivia does the same thing, but doesn't share her news with the whole group. At the party, Avery finds out that Emma got into Harvard and a fight happens between the two of them... Because Avery did not get in, even if she's a legacy. Olivia leaves the party early after breaking up the fight with the help of Avery's step-brother, Tyler... who happens to be dating Emma.

The next day after the party, Olivia and Sierra get up to go to crew conditioning and practice. They get tp the boathouse and end up finding Emma dead in one of the rowing pools. This leads to an investigation by the police. Emma had been murdered. Which leads Olivia to do an investigation of her own...When Olivia starts digging around, her co-editor of the student paper and crush Ethan figures out what she's doing and joins her to figure out who killed Emma and why. Was it because of her Harvard acceptance?During her snooping she realizes that Emma wasn't the person she really knew and had kept a lot of secrets from her. As for the rest of The Ivies, they kept their own secrets too, leaving Olivia out of many things. This causes a riff between the remaining Ivies and Olivia.

Olivia playing detective with Ethan gets her into more than she it cut out for. These new discoveries about her friends makes her question who she can truly trust. Can she even trust Ethan? The actual detective who is doing the Find out to read who done it and if she can trust Ethan or herself.

For me, this book is right up my alley. I love the twist and turns of the fast-paced self-investigation. I'm sure I'd be right in Olivia's shoes trying to find out who killed my friend and playing detective. Like I said in the beginning of this post, I finished this in twoish days. I'm one to go to bed early but this book kept me up reading so I could finish the story. The only flaw in the plot is that I figured out a big plot point before it happened. Then when I kept reading, I figured out who done it before it was revealed. Not that I didn't doubt my choice of murderer during my continued reading, but it was kind of obvious once it was revealed. The reason why though, that was a surprise. It wasn't the best reason to kill but when you're under pressure, I'm sure people have killed for less.

Even with the obvious I know who it is, I still really enjoyed the book. I like the notion of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer within books. This is a great story for that theme. Not knowing who you can trust. Can you even trust yourself with finding out all these things that your friend did? Was she really your friend to begin with? Was she using you? Those are the questions in the plot that always get me sucked in... and for me to stay up way past my bed time, you know it's a good book.

With all that being said, I'd give the book a 4/5 stars. This isn't Alexa Donne's first book, but it is her first in the realm of dark academia. I truly enjoyed the mean girls-esque vibes it gave me. I personally don't pass on a book like this one. Check it out for yourself if you're like me and enjoy Mean Girls and the competitive world of college admissions. My final question is: Would you kill for college?

#theivies #netgalley

If you enjoy young adult mystery/thrillers and books that take place at boarding schools, you will enjoy The Ivies. It took me a bit to get into the book, but once I had a handle on the who's who among the main characters, it was a fast paced read!

The Ivies is a young adult thriller that follows a group of high schoolers at a prestigious boarding school that will do anything to get into the Ivy League Universities. When Olivia and Emma secretly get into Harvard while Avery expects to but doesn't she is furious. The next day when Emma is found dead Olivia decides to investigate to find out who killed Emma. I love the premise of this book and the attention given to toxic friend groups. However, I didn't connect with the characters or the story. I feel as a recent college graduate that I'm a little removed from the drama of high school but this would be perfect for students currently in high school or those that love the high school setting.

A fairly fast-paced, YA mystery novel set on the campus of an elite, private school, Claflin Academy. Five friends, the Ivies, are in their senior year and competing to get into various Ivy League colleges. The past three years, the Ivies have competed with fellow classmates to keep the highest GPA's, become leaders of school clubs, anything to add to their college application resume. To stay "on top" of the competition, the Ivies have lied, schemed, and blackmailed various students at the school. On the day that the colleges send out their early decision applications, one of the Ivies is found murdered.

What follows is a fairly twisty and suspenseful murder investigation. I did struggle to get through this novel as there were a lot of cliches and some pretty nasty people and ethics throughout the story. I found it very difficult to relate to the characters, especially the lengths they would go to be accepted into an Ivy League school. It's not unusual to find teenage drinking, sexual activity, and bullying in YA novels, however, I didn't like the way these activities were part of the "norm", unhealthy, and glamorized.

Thanks to NetGalley, Alexa Donne, and Random House Children's Crown Books for an advanced eBook in exchange for my honest review.

I really like most of this book! I think the cut throat nature of a prestigious high school was really well portrayed! I knocked off one star because the ending felt really rushed and kind of sloppy. Also the twists weren’t that hard to guess, but that’s not the worst thing in the world.

A boarding school thriller that will suck you in! I enjoyed the sassiness of all the Ivies. They had their own personality that matched at times, but still separated them from one another. I never knew who was a real friend and who was a backstabbing b**ch! It's amazing the things kids can think up (and I know it's fiction but I'm sure it's been done!) and how smart and talented they really are. Olivia and Avery reminded me of another duo from a different series. Their love/hate relationship was entertaining. The reason behind the killing is a little too out there for me. I get being desperate, but it was not so believable. Overall, it was a fun read and I will read more by this author in the future!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Ivies is a perfect YA thriller for fans of PLL, One of Us is Lying, The Good Girl's Guide to Murder, or the CW dramas. This one is itching to be made into a hit YA thriller tv show. The Ivies are a toxic friend group of five girls all doing whatever they can to get into an ivy league university. The lengths to which they are willing to go is dark and could even end up in murder. The story is interestingly told in first person perspective and it's executed flawlessly shedding a light on how Olivia thinks. The novel keeps readers engaged and has an addictive plot. Get ready for your new addiction: The Ivies. Be sure to check it out today!!