Kennedy Carter and her best friend, Ravi Burman, are aspiring investigative reporters who get caught up in a murder investigation while researching an urban legend/curse at their high school.

What I Loved:
* It was new to me to read about an asexual main character, so that was cool, and I also thought Kennedy's sister, Cassidy, was a fully-developed character -- not just "sister in a wheelchair."
* The banter between Ravi and Kennedy was really funny.
* The final reveal and showdown was BANANAS but in a good way. This is a YA book, so some over the top business seems reasonable.
* Donuts. SO. MANY. DONUTS.

What I Did Not Love:
* The cover was super bland and uninteresting, If I hadn't seen a great review of this on Instagram, I likely would have skipped over it without even reading the blurb.
* I feel like naming the hot best friend "Ravi" was deliberately looking for comparisons to AGGGTM.
* The "Sherlockian" descriptions of Kennedy felt erratically thrown in and were entirely unnecessary.

Final Thoughts:
Overall this was a great, entertaining YA mystery. Fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson will be into it. Recommended for ages 12+ (my 12-year-old daughter read it on my kindle and LOVED it).

(review will be posted on IG @leavemetomybooks closer to publication date & post link will be added)

I really enjoyed this book - I was on the edge of my seat as I got closer & closer to the finish. I loved the interactions between Kennedy & Ravi - I thought they were a good pairing in their friendship & journalistic relationships. I was guessing all the way to the end!

This book was exactly what I was looking for and I blew through it quickly. I love the interactions between and relationship of Kennedy and Ravi and hope Thrace has plans to write more books staring these two. That being said I guessed very early on who the killer was and guessed most of their motive but, in my opinion, that did not take away from the enjoyability of the book. Another small issue I had was that I thought the book was extremely similar to the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series including the fact that in both one of the main characters is named Ravi but I'm sure this is just a coincidence but on occasion it did pull me away from the story.

I look forward to reading more books by Mischa Thrace and plan on buying her other book soon.

CW: suicide, reference to teen corpses, murder

Thank you to NetGalley and BHC Press for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Kennedy is a budding journalist, and she is determined to tell important stories. Alongside her best friend Ravi, she creates a project for her journalism class to memorialize the entire school, and also do some research on the curse that plagues her school. So, when a popular classmate goes missing, people are left questioning, has the curse struck yet again? But there may be more hiding than an urban legend....

Kennedy and Ravi are a great duo, and I loved the asexual rep. I also found it to be similar to "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" by Holly Jackson, which was great! The twist was a bit surprising, and I have some feelings about it that I can't share without giving spoilers, so read this book and get back to me! It publishes on June 10th, 2021!

The wonderful duo composed of Kennedy Carter and Ravi Burman will be your favorite mystery duo after the iconic Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Their banter and their overall dynamic made the reading experience extremely fun. It will remind you of your favorite mystery partnership. I wasn't honestly expecting a romantic development between the two. But I enjoyed seeing the slight conversations between the two about possible romantic struggles with Kennedy being ace. The way they were both mature about it was really refreshing to see since not many authors do asexual people justice.

Bringing the sights to the actual mystery aspect, I loved how Kennedy would try to use typical Sherlock Holmes techniques to solve the crime. I'm a huge Sherlock Holmes fan so any homage I see definitely makes me smile. The mystery plotline was fun to follow and the conclusion made sense. I will have to say that I did predict who was the murderer before the ending. But the reasoning for the killings was a nice twist. I was not expecting that story.

Overall, this story has two great protagonists, many Sherlock Holmes references, and a solid mystery plot.

Thank you Netgalley, BHC Press, and Mischa Trace for the arc.

Bury the Lead by Mischa Thrace is one of those mystery books where every chapter ends on a cliffhanger and once you start reading, it’s almost impossible to stop. There were a ton of twists and turns in the plot, and Thrace’s dual narratives between our main character, Kennedy Carter, and the antagonist was a powerful way to set the scene and introduce the reader to the origin story of the killer. There were definitely some false trails, and I will say that Thrace kept me guessing up until the end as to who the bad guy was and what his or her motives were for committing the murders.

I also want to draw attention to all of the Sherlock Holmes references this book has, as well as the diverse cast of characters. Kennedy outright states that she is asexual, and her best friend Ravi is alluded to being pansexual. It’s wonderful to see this type of representation in a YA book, and Kennedy and Ravi’s unwavering friendship will endear them to any reader who’s ever had a best friend growing up.

I will say that there was one or two kisses shared in this book, as well as the utterance of several swear words, but nothing worse than what you would see or hear in an actual high school setting.

The stakes were high and the game was afoot. Bury the Lead by Mischa Thrace is a book that I throughly enjoyed and one that readers won’t want to miss.

I received an electronic copy of this book via Netgalley and the publisher, opinions are my own.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Bury the Lead in exchange for an honest review.

Bury the Lead follows Kennedy, an ace detective and asexual teen who's obsession with all things Sherlock Holmes leads to her trying to solve a trend of dead and missing teens dating back years at her high school. I think the mystery was pretty well led out (until the reveal where the bad guy goes full-blown super villain which I'm not personally a fan of but I get the appeal in this genre) and well Kennedy herself was a bit unlikeable in a lot of realistic, teenage ways, her best friend Ravi was awesome enough to make it easy to root for the mystery solving duo.

I will say I felt a bit let down by the lack of Sherlock style deduction here. Kennedy as a narrator and this book's marketing put a lot of emphasis on how she's solving things the way Sherlock would but to me at least, the strategies she used and the ways she uncovered information were pretty standard YA detective instead of reading like something Conan Doyle might have come up with.

Bury the Lead is thrilling and gripping ride that promises to keep you up all night, with and ending that has you holding your breath for answers! Kennedy is an aspiring journalist and, together with her best friend Ravi, has the mission of uncovering the truth about her small town's senior curse. Through the objectivity of an investigative journalist, Kennedy realizes that, sometimes, the danger is closer than you think.

Mischa Thrace's writing style is easy to read, but compelling at the same time. Kennedy's determination and passion for journalism is clearly demonstrated throughout the book and the book dives into important issues such as suicide, love and journalistic objectivity and sensationalism. Being a Communications student myself, with a few journalism classes, it was interesting to see the journalistic part of it all, particularly the part about objectivity and immortalizing the moment in spite of other people's pain. It is an amazing book, with well developed characters and a rich plot. Even though I did figure out the *whodunnit* a little before the end, I don't think it is predictable and it has you guessing almost until the end. Overall, this was a 5/5 star reading for me and I will definitely check out more of Thrace's books!

*This is an ARC. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of this title. All opinions are honest and my own.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick fun YA mystery. Content warning-mention of suicide and drug use.

I feel there was a good amount of diverse rep in this book also. The main character, Kennedy, is asexual. Her best friend- The Watson to her Sherlock if you will- is mentioned as having brown skin and hints at being nervous to make the police mad when they go to speak to them at one point in the story. Kennedy's younger sister had an accident and is now a paraplegic. The disability rep was awesome. I almost forgot she was paraplegic until it would be mentioned in passing- talking about her wheelchair being removed from the car or something like that.

The actual story was mainly told in Kennedy's point of view but a few chapters were told from the perspective of the killer. That formatting can be annoying sometimes but with this book it really helped me become invested in the mystery. Every time I read a chapter about the killer I would make new guesses about who it was. Let me tell you- I was way off. I was kept guessing until the very end which is always impressive for a thriller.

The reason this is four stars is because the end seemed rushed and a little to convenient. I'm mot disappointed in it persay but I just think it was lacking something.

Overall though I really enjoyed this book. I would recommend to fans of Kara Thomas or just YA thrillers of any kind really.

Overall story

So overall, I enjoyed the book. I kept thinking something felt familiar about it, the characters, the plot and then I realized that it reminded me a lot of AGGGTM. Like a lot. To the point that even the secondary character’s name is the same and it made this feel like a less good version, a AGGGTM fan fiction of sorts. But I was into that. The characters weren’t as likeable as AGGGTM, but I’ll get into that later. But the mystery itself was engaging, the dialogue was entertaining, it was also short or seemed like a fast read.

Plot

Main character Kennedy decides to use her senior capstone to solve a murder. Has her partner in crime help her, there’s a senior curse where senior high school students go missing every year. And seemingly a suicide epidemic.

Characters

To me, while I mentioned that the mystery was engaging, it was, but I found that I didn’t really care for Kennedy, and I think that had to do with her portrayal as Sherlockian? That in it of itself was a very weak part of the book, every so often it felt like the author would remember that that was the hook that had sold the book and she’ throw that in but otherwise it just felt like Kennedy was cold and lacked empathy and emotion, or tried really hard to? For the sake of journalism? Maybe? I can’t even tell you. But it didn’t make her approachable as the reader, and moreover, it disconnected you from the mystery because if she had no real emotional connection to solve the murder, outside of her deep desire to publish a story, it was just kind of odd. Sometimes you were like is she just a sociopath? And not in an unreliable did she maybe commit the murders but in a oh this girl is dark. And selfish, and sometimes privileged, and stupid.

Ravi, was the key to this, her antithesis which she acknowledges. The romance between them felt forced in an uncomfortable way. Not because Kennedy is asexual, but because it was a does she really want this or is this just the author forcing this on her kind of way. I did really like their dynamic though and their interactions, but didn’t think Ravi or Kennedy was fully fleshed out. Ravi’s actions and the way he spoke (with cursing etc, overly protective then silently angry) were at odds sometimes that didn’t feel genuine.

Cassidy also made the book / Kennedy more palatable. Cassidy was fun and softer and made you forget that Kennedy was stoked there was a murder happening. The odd thing between their dynamic is that they refer to their parents but we only get one scene with their mother, and their dad, while mentioned a few times, is nowhere near introduced. I thought maybe he was a red herring? But otherwise there’s some father issues abound that were never fleshed out or explained.

The Reveal

I thought the reveal was kind of disappointing. But, I’ve read so many thrillers that I don’t think this is any author’s fault. Just, I’ve read many of them so it’s hard not to see them coming. This book made up for it with the reveal sequence which was dark and twisted and haunting. I thought it was really well done. It made up for who it was with the twistedness behind the reveal. Although the backstory of the villain had some holes, but it was creepy and well done overall.

What didn’t work / things that bothered me / things that didn’t get explained

The photo shoot / dress set up with Emma, what was with that?
The villain’s backstory with the monster made, the family never seemed to care about them so it seemed a little weak what happened to them
The whole connection to the main characters, it seemed kind of random for a 11th hour reveal that only paid off because of the execution
They ate so many donuts. So many

This was a unique and interesting story. I did not see the ending coming. Loveable characters. Definitely recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of Bury the Lead by Mischa Thrace in exchange for my honest review.

4/5 stars

Bury the Lead is a prime example of don't judge a book by its cover. Had I not been given this book to review I don't think this cover would have enticed me to pick it up on my own. I am so happy that wasn't the case.

Sure to be a huge hit among fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder and The Cheerleaders, Bury the Lead far exceeded my expectations and I am certainly going to recommend it in the future. Kennedy and Ravi are high school students who aspire to be journalists. More than anything Kennedy wants to be a journalist who is heard and who makes a difference, and so when a classmate is found dead Kennedy knows there's more to the story. She's determined to find the truth, and she'll keep investigating until the real story is told.

While I saw that there was going to be romance in this book, I definitely wasn't expecting the asexual representation that I thought was really well written! YA thriller/mystery is a hit or miss genre, but Bury the Lead was well written quick read that had a compelling mystery, and a very satisfying conclusion. I do wish a couple of the characters and their background had been more fleshed out, but that didn't take away from the overall satisfaction. I also think the cover could be much more enticing. I look forward to what Mischa Thrace will write in the future.

First thing first, I have to point out how perfect this title is! The main character is a journalist, there's a murder mystery. I love it. As for the actual story, I thought it was really good. A big thing for me with mysteries is that I find I figure the big things out halfway through the book and then the rest of the book I'm just waiting to confirm what I already know. That didn't happen with this one. I honestly did not piece together the big reveal until right before it happened so that made it all that more enjoyable.

As for the characters, I liked our M.C Kennedy's passion and drive, even though it could be a little much at times and she made some decisions that frustrated me. But then there was Ravi. He was the heart of this duo and a great balance to Kennedy. He really was the Watson to her Sherlock. I was also a big fan of Cassidy even though she wasn't around much I enjoyed the scenes with her in it.

Overall, I thought this was a good book! It was well written with interesting characters. The plot was engaging and kept me guessing until the end.

This was an interesting mystery with compelling characters! While I might be a little tired of the hot brown best friend trope, I really really loved Ravi so I'm not complaining. It was a little funky to hear Kennedy explain that Ravi is basically her brother and then listen to her spend literal paragraphs talking about how nice his ... hands are? But still, it was sweet, and they get along really well.
There weren't too many characters in the story and almost everyone except Ravi, Kennedy, and maybe Kennedy's younger sister felt like shadows of real people. This made it really easy to suspect literally anyone of being the murderer. Kennedy barely has four actual suspects throughout the book, and she struggles to find motives for anyone. When she thinks she's solved the mystery, her solution doesn't even make sense. The mystery itself was hooking, but it moved rather slowly until the very end where everything happened all at once. The pacing was a little problematic, but it still worked out decently well.

I wasn't expecting the asexual representation and it was really well written and a great surprise! Usually we don't get ace protagonists in mistery young adult books, I loved it.
The mistery was also well done and it kept me guessing.
I'm going to be reading more books from this author for sure.

4/5 stars! I have read many mystery books and this one stood out to me. Kennedy was a different character than I feel like you'd see in other mysteries because she's not as likeable as others. although she's not an outcast she has one true friend, Ravi, and I felt that he was always a voice of reason. the story was very gripping and had many twists along the way and was overall really great!

This book will go over well with fans of the Good Girls Guide to Murder series. In it, we have aspiring investigative reporter Kennedy, a high school student, and her best friend Ravi, who helps with photography. Together, they launched a news website within the last year for their small town, which actually has some traffic and covers news stories of all types. But they want a BIG story. Something exciting. And exciting just doesn't happen in their small town. Or does it? As a long-term project for their journalism class, they decide to cover the urban myth of the curse that follows the senior class in their high school. It seems that over the years, one senior has gone missing each year. Last year there was a suicide. But when Kennedy's rival ends up dead, she isn't willing to write it off as a suicide like the police do. Kennedy is convinced that this was murder. And she sets out to proe it.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of BURY THE LEAD by Mischa Thrace in exchange for my honest review.***

2.5 STARS

High school journalist Kennedy and her best friend photojournalist Ravi set out to investigate whether their school is cursed with a missing student each year. Kennedy suspects her rival’s suicide is actually a murder and sets out to solve the crime.

I enjoyed Thrace’s debut and had high expectations for BURY THE LEAD, but didn’t warm up to Kennedy’s narration or the plot.

Kennedy turned me off with her privileged attitude about her internship interview. Rather than being hungry for experience, she thought she was above starting at the bottom and grunt work, though she was savvy enough not to tell her interviewer. If Thrace had written Kennedy excited for any opportunity, I would have had an entirely different attitude to the character.

I liked the Making of a Monster chapters most, curious to who wrote them though was disappointed when the culprit was finally revealed. I also enjoyed Kennedy’s relationship with her sister and appreciated the inclusion of Cassidy’s paralysis and wheelchair.

BURY THE LEAD will find an audience. Some will probably love the story, others like me will want more. I’m still a Mischa Thrace fan and will look forward to her next book.