Samantha Downing turns her keen eye for murder and mayhem, ribboned through with the social commentary that makes her characters feel more like actual people than fictional creations, to the high-pressure world of elite high school academia. The parents here are toxic, the children cope as best they can, and the teachers… well, every teacher is different. But the teachers at the prestigious Belmont Academy are all dedicated to their students, even if some of them show it in unusual ways.

Teddy Crutcher is finally Teacher Of The Year, an award he’s long coveted. His professional success helps obscure the slow collapse of his personal life, and so he turns his mind to not only improving his current students, including the (to him) insufferable Zach Ward, but also to helping former students such as Fallon Knight. Fallon hadn’t even realized how invested Teddy was in her betterment till she figured out that the college recommendation letter she asked him to write all but torpedoed her chances of getting into any of the universities she wanted. Enraged but helpless to retaliate, she sends him the occasional angry e-mail, which he receives with pleasure in his job well done:

QUOTE
Teddy smiles, as he always does when Fallon writes. She still doesn’t get it.

He’s not the enemy. Never was. His goal for her, for all his students, is to transform them from selfish brats into something better.

Fallon may not get it now, but he hasn’t lost hope. Not yet. Not for any of his students. He hasn’t given up on her just like he hasn’t given up on Zach. One day, they just might get it.

And if they do, it will be because of him.
END QUOTE

Now that he’s Teacher Of The Year, Teddy thinks he finally has a shot at influencing more of what happens at his beloved school. Despite his academic credentials though, he knows that he’ll never be accepted in quite the same way as the staff who were once students there too. This includes teachers like Sonia Benjamin, the neurotic if popular faculty advisor to the school paper. Sonia is the temperamental opposite of Teddy, but she’s still a good educator, perceptive and empathetic almost to a fault:

QUOTE
That’s the part no one had told her about being a teacher. The guilt. So much guilt.

Sonia feels guilty about what she’s done, what she hasn’t done, who she has helped, and who she hasn’t. She feels guilty about the hours she works and the hours she doesn’t. She feels guilty when her students don’t achieve what they want to achieve or get into the college of their choice.

That kind of guilt is enough to drive anyone to drink. Not Sonia--she doesn’t touch alcohol. But she knows a lot of teachers who overindulge. Parents, too.

And then there are parents who really should have a drink. Courtney’s mother, for instance. If anyone needs to relax, it’s Ingrid Ross.

No that it’s any of her business, except as it relates to Courtney. It’s amazing the girl’s head hasn’t exploded from all the pressure.
END QUOTE

If there’s one thing Sonia and Teddy do agree on, it’s the fact that Ingrid, head of the parent teacher association, needs to go easier on high-achieving Courtney. Still, neither of them expects Ingrid to fall down dead at Sonia’s Ten Year Anniversary Appreciation party. Worse, Courtney is then arrested for Ingrid’s murder.

Teddy knows this was technically all his fault, even if Ingrid’s death was totally accidental. He just wanted to make Belmont a better place, and now a parent is dead and an innocent student in jail. Never one to shirk responsibility, he takes it upon himself to fix things. But, as Teddy the English teacher knows, the best laid plans of mice and men do often go awry. Question is, exactly how much collateral damage is acceptable when teaching people a lesson?

This twisty, darkly humorous tale of high-stakes academia barrels along through multiple viewpoints, from teachers like Teddy and Sonia to students and former students like Zach and Fallon. Our characters find themselves almost unwittingly chasing after each other and the truth as a string of murders racks a school that’s coming to be known as #HomicideHigh. There are breakthroughs and reversals galore as the characters investigate and scheme, sometimes with the same goal in mind but too often at cross-purposes. Not everyone will make it to the end of this book alive, but those who do will hardly emerge unscathed, as lessons are imparted if not necessarily learned. Readers won’t be able to close this satirical murder mystery -- a clever inversion of the traditional play fair puzzle -- without coming to the conclusion that teaching truly is, if not one of the noblest, at the very least one of the most impactful professions.

Had already received a copy, so here’s my review!

Samantha Downing is becoming one of my top thriller authors, and this book may be her best yet, which I promise is saying a ton! Do well written, unique, fast paced, and absolutely unputdownable! Character development is flawless, drawing you into a twisted web, which you see the author unravel with lots of small and large shocks! Pact full of twisty turns, chilling Chills, thrilling thrills, tension, and gasp worthy shocks! A thriller lovers dream! I highly, highly, highly recommend this roller coaster thrill ride!


Will buzz around platforms and use my low Amazon reviewer number!

Wow! Samantha Downing has a talent for storytelling. This is her third novel and there are times authors suffer from the success of their debut novel. However, this dang book has been living rent free in my mind since I finished it. Every chapter made me question what was happening and trying to figure out who was the craziest of them all was a wild ride. Anything this woman writes I will be right there ready to read. Her endings are always haunting me because it makes me question what would be next if the story continued. I have gifted her previous novels to several friends and you bet this one will be making the Christmas stockings.

I have attached the link to when I was reading it, but I will also post a full review.

For Your Own Good follows teacher Teddy Crutcher as he becomes fed up with the students, parents and his fellow teachers at the ritzy boarding school at which he teaches and slowly starts to get his revenge. I think this book will be very popular - it's got a One of Us is Lying meets Riverdale thing happening and teens who like thrillers will find plenty to like here. There are multiple POVs, and while it's not a mystery per se, it definitely has many similar trappings to that of a murder mystery. As the reader, you know who the killer is the whole time, so while suspenseful, it's more suspenseful in terms of the fallout. It's not my genre necessarily - I usually race through thrillers but only sort of end up enjoying them which was very much the case here. I just need to like characters, and I can't say I liked any of these characters. They were all terrible with one exception that is sort of undone at the end. That seems to be part and parcel for the genre, and it is 100% of the time the thing that annoys me the most so if it doesn't bother you, I think you'd like this book.

The other thing I couldn't get over was that this book required a huge suspensions of disbelief in terms of the incapability of the FBI and some of the poisoning methods (the k-cup thing wouldn't work, I don't think, and just kind of generally got the impression that little poisoning research was done). Anyway, I spent a lot more time thinking about poisoning methods than the book itself, which tells you what you need to know.

TLDR: If you like Riverdale or thrillers with the word "Girl" in the title, you're going to like this too. It's simply not my thing. 2 stars - it was ok.

Calling it now! Book of the summer! This conniving drama filled story is worth nothing less than 5 glowing stars. Downing certainly kept me on my toes down to the very last page. Get it! Don’t miss out!

Samantha Downing has had me hooked since her first thriller, "My Lovely Wife". However, this book is by far her best book yet. She masters the art of character development, creating characters that you hate to love and/or love to hate. The pacing of the plot is perfect and her description of the private school setting had me feeling like I was a part of the faculty myself.

For Your Own Good is an entertaining, edge-of-your-seat book that gets you inside the mind of the most diabolical teacher ever. Honestly, I knew that I was going to be in for a good time with this one based on the premise - Teacher of the Year who would do ANYTHING for his students - but I did not realize just how much fun I would have. This book is funny! Which sounds wrong to say about the murder of students, but honestly the way the book is written is so breezy and fun that you'd be forgiven for laughing out loud at various times. I highly recommend this one for fans of thrillers who don't want something -too- dark and depressing. Dark? Yes. Depressing? Not this one.

Loved Samantha Downing's My Lovely Wife, so-so on He Started It...so I went into this one with mixed feels...hopeful for that My Lovely Wife feeling again. For Your Own Good was just what I wanted it to be!
A cast of characters that gave you the cringe-factor, but kept you guessing to figure out just what the heck was going on!
What I loved: This was back to My Lovely Wife level - creepy, what the heck-ness with character that you can relate to (and feel like might even know) that make you wonder just what people in your life are hiding!!
What I didn't love: A few of the characters felt a little flat, but not enough to bother me that much.
This will be easy to recommend to readers!! Especially those who like the mysteries set in private school settings where there is a big divide between the have and the have nots.

Samantha Downing is hands down one of my favorite authors and she writes the best morally gray characters. This was one of my most anticipated reads this year and I was not let down.

Told from alternate points of view, this story is about a private school, the “Teacher of the Year”, Teddy, the privileged students, and the other teachers. Drama unfolds when a students parent dies under suspicious circumstances.

I was hooked from the start and read this in a day. It’s a perfect dark academia thriller with short chapters, a fast pace and some crazy surprises. I absolutely loved this book and all its delicious dark twists. I highly recommend this one.

This is quite a cast of characters. Teddy Crutcher, the award-winning teacher, is down right diabolical. His nemesis, Zach Ward, is a bit of a Pollyanna about his ability to effect change. Then there is the body-conscious Freddy and the bitter, former over-achiever Fallon. You may never use that Keurig again after reading this book, especially if it is in a breakroom at work. I loved the ways Downing found to twist and turn her title phrase like a pretzel. If you love Lisa Jewell, Louise Candlish, and Peter Swanson then this book is for you.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 20%

Oof. This one is painful because I genuinely enjoy Samantha Downing's writing.

However, what I don't enjoy is making up science for a villainous plot point. Here we have an English high school teacher at a prestigious academy. Teddy is one of those teachers that thrives on being harsh on his students since they are from privileged backgrounds and this is how he will teach them a lesson. While these types of characters annoy me, this wasn't my issue with the book.

Even though the other teachers aren't aware, Teddy spikes all of their morning coffee with "whatever they need for the day". In his "basement laboratory filled with beakers and a bunsen burner", Teddy has learned to take up drugs (i.e. valium, cold & sinus meds, etc) into a syringe and inject them onto a keurig type coffee pod without anyone noticing.

THIS IS NOT HOW THIS WORKS. First off, valium is not soluble in water even if you crush it up and try to dissolve it. Furthermore, heating it could decompose the active pharmaceutical ingredient, which would render it useless. Also, the reason why certain formulations of drugs exist is because some of them need to cross the blood brain barrier. If you take valium and magically get it to dissolve in water and in someone's coffee, how in the world is it now going to reach its target receptors?! This isn't a fantasy book. You don't just get to make up that whole process as if decades upon decades of science doesn't exist.

Ugh. End rant. Thanks but no thanks.

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD BOOK REVIEW

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Drink rec: White Russian

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD had me absolutely hooked from start to finish! This one really has it all—overbearing parents, a private school setting, various untrustworthy & suspicious characters, and people getting poisoned left and right!🥛

I loved how the book follows different characters and how the plot lines all intersect. There were definitely lots of moving parts to this mystery, but it made for a total page turner that was totally unpredictable! Downing has a knack for creating truly diabolical characters and keeping you on the edge of your seat!

With the academia setting, I think mystery and thriller lovers will LOVE this one! It also have off a YA vibe and reminded me a little bit of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

This has definitely been one of my favorite thrillers of the year so I recommend checking it out!

For Your Own Good is my first book by Samantha Downing. It is the dark academia book I’ve been craving for.

Here we follow the narration of several characters, but our main protagonist is Teddy Crutcher, a professor at Belmont Academy, a private school. What I love most about reading his point of view is getting to know the inside of his twisted mind. Ted believes he needs to help his students, but his methods are a bit… Weird, to say the least. He is always out to punish his students if he thinks that will help them turn into better people. He believes these entitled and privileged kids need someone (like him) to guide them into becoming better humans. You see, Teddy doesn’t come from money, he didn’t attend a school like Belmont. And for him, that is a constant source of annoyance because other teachers who are ex-alumni seem to be always treated better than him, even if this year’s award of Teacher of the Year has been granted to Teddy nothing ever seems enough for him.

To me, it was fascinating and brilliant to have this perspective from a professor, from the “other side” of academia. Most dark academia books out there focus on the students, and even if this one does feature points of view from students, having the main focus being a professor, and this type of professor even was a genius stroke in the narrative. Teddy’s narration was sharp and instigating, I kept wondering what he would do next, and he never disappointed. The story starts very strong, and when there is a murder it only picks up from there.

This book is so frenetic, you can’t stop reading. I read it in just 24 hours because I had to know what would happen, what would be the end, and how all the parts would come together in a full circle. Several characters throughout the narrative make discoveries of pieces of this plot and orchestrations, and as a reader you’re kept on the edge of your seat, thinking how will this work out? How is it all meant to fit together? To me the ending was perfect. Sublime. It was so satisfying really and it closed the book of big, making this book a five-star and a favorite for me.

The writing was one of my favorite aspects, deep and easily devourable at the same time. It gave so much intensity to the characters and genuinely constructed them to be full three-dimensional, I love reading books where the characters feel like real people like they breathe outside of the pages, and this book delivered precisely that.

If you like dark academia read this book. If you like thrillers read this book. If you just like reading good books and good writing, then read this book. I can’t recommend it enough.

Woah. Mr. Crutcher is not the teacher you want to have -- he's ruthless and creepy. And he's doing some bad things behind the scenes. This is a story you won't want to put down...

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book!

This book starts out very strong. So strongly in fact that I had to force myself to stop reading so I could go to bed instead of finishing the book in one sitting. I absolutely love the way this mystery is written. The alternating perspectives show you that no one is innocent and everyone has secrets to hide.
It is different in that technically the reader knows who the killer is from the start, BUT there's more to it than that. I won't give away too much, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

Thank you so much to Berkley, Samantha Downing, and Netgalley for my ARC of this book that comes out on July 20, 2021!

Teddy is, above all else, a good teacher. He is teacher of the year after all. Teddy will do anything he can to protect his students at the prestigious private school he works at. He knows that his wife is proud of him and it doesn’t matter that other teachers have been there longer than him. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t attend a private school growing up and that no one seems to appreciate him for everything he does.

In For Your Own Good, Samantha Downing compiles a cast of interesting characters, all with secrets to hide. First, there is Zach, a senior at the elite Belmont Academy. He has overbearing parents who work in law and finance, and expect nothing but the best from their son. Next there is Courtney, yearbook editor and strong willed perfectionist. And then there is Sonja, or Mrs. B as her students call her. Sonja is friendly, helpful, and beloved by all...but is she really?

Then there is a death at Belmont, and no one knows who to trust.

Thoughts: In Downing’s third book, she explores the tension that comes with attending a top-notch private school. Each and every character is dynamic and captivating, grabbing your attention from the very beginning. I loved not knowing where the book was going or who I could trust. The private school setting is always interesting to me, and layered with the personal lives of many characters, it was a great combination.

Downing always has the ability to take a simple premise and weave it into a story full of twists, turns, and shocking surprises. Just when you think you know how the book will end, another detail changes your perspective on the whole story. For Your Own Good takes the reader on a twisted journey, ending, as all her books do, with pure satisfaction. I can’t wait to see the next book Samantha Downing comes up with, as I already know it will be fantastic. If you are a fan of the prep school setting, a good twist, or a completely original story, this one's for you! 5-stars!

Review first available on mysteryandsuspense.com

Book review: For Your Own Good
Pub Day: July 20th
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 out of 5 stars)

Thank you NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing Group for a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This book centers around Belmont Academy, a prestigious private high school. Teddy Crutcher is teacher of the year. But why hasn't anyone seen his wife, Allison, in a while?

When a few mysterious deaths take place on campus - accidents or murder to be determined - his main focus is still pushing his students to their full potential. After all, it's for their own good.

My thoughts:
Dark and twisty, this book was a really quick read that I devoured! At first I wasn't exactly sure where the plot was going - but around 30% realized the stage had been set and couldn't put it down.

I'm always a fan of the academic-related books, and this one had a slight YA vibe in my opinion - which I'm also a fan of. I loved that the book follows multiple characters, and you never know what's going to happen to them. I can't say much more on that for spoilers-sake! I'd recommend going into this one as blind as possible and buckling up for a wild ride.

I'm excited for the upcoming series on HBO Max to follow this one, too!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advance copy.

Samantha Downings newest book "For Your Own Good" is a part thriller, part mystery, all amazing book. It is set at a private school called Belmont. The school has high standards and is a pillar of the community. The story followed multiple viewpoints including: Zach, a student at the school, and teachers Teddy, Frank and Sonia. When a member of the faculty is murdered and a student is arrested, we see a few possibilities of who it could have been who committed the murder. Then, more people are poisoned and the suspect list narrows.
I really really liked this book. When I read the synopsis I wasn't sure what it would be about so I went into partially blind to the plot. I hated some of the characters that were written to invoke anger and I sympathized with the victims. Throughout the book, I kept hoping the murderer would be caught and not someone innocent that was being framed.
All in all, this book kept kept attention and I really enjoyed it. I think some of the end could have been focused on a bit more and drawn out longer because the conclusion felt short. After this book, I will be picking up more of her books to read.

Teddy Crutcher is teacher of the year at elite Belmont Academy. When people start dying at the school, Teddy only wants to think of the students. He will do anything he has to do for them to succeed. It’s for their own good.

I could not put this one down. It’s a real page turner. I love anything that takes place in a high school; the more elite, the better. I liked how we got perspectives from many different people and just because they were a main narration point, doesn’t mean they’d stay alive. I was shocked several times. This is a story that the reader knows what’s going on, but still has to watch everyone else’s cluelessness and ineptness.. so it can be frustrating at times. Don’t worry though, there are still some surprises on the way.

“That’s the part no one told her about being a teacher. The guilt. So much guilt.”

For Your Own Good comes out 7/20.

I absolutely devoured this thriller! It grabs you from the start and I could not stop reading it. The characters are well done, the pacing is good and the ending isn’t rushed. This is my first book by Downing but it won’t be my last.

Thank you Berkley for the advanced e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.