3* Readable but rushed, and increasingly implausible Disappointed

The books go from OK to OK-ish to not-really-believable, in the order in which the authors appear, which surprised me a little, given that my fave of the three authors is Alexandra Ivy.

I'd not read the blurb before grabbing this title - the first two authors' names alone did it for me - so I was pleasantly surprised by what connected the tales, and that they were connected, though said connection was loose and getting looser with each story. Book 1 is the best of the tales, because there's danger and drama and no romance. Book 2 had hints of something potentially happening on the romance front, but book 3 made me feel uncomfortable with how... desperate? it made the male lead come across as, and the HEA that didn't fit the tale at all. Yes, I did say no romance, which was both refreshing but a bit weird in that it felt like the females weren't interested and all that was alluded to as sort-of-romance was in the guys' heads.

The tales were too short and too rushed for us to get any real insight into the leads and there wasn't time to develop any characters of for the baddie reveals to be believable, sadly, even in book 1.

Book 3 really pushes it in terms of a connection to the others and to the boarding school and the tale really doesn't ring true at all. It all seemed too much in too little space and sadly all the cooks in this couldn't compensate for how uninteresting the writing was.

ARC courtesy of Kensington/Zebra, for my reading pleasure.

I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.
Lots of suspense in these short stories and they keep you on the edge of your seat.

This book was sent to me electronically orally by Netgalley for review…. Three stories with friends who know each other…the authors have woven their lives together…I don’t like to read books like this usually, but this was a good read…I prefer one main story…beginning to end…

Thank you Kensington Books, Zebra for this eARC!

Afraid by Lisa Jackson, Alexandra Ivy and Lisa Childs was a very well put together story!
A perfectly constructed thriller that kept me fully immersed in the fictive dream.
This was due largely to the superior writing craft of these authors!
I enjoyed reading Afraid... I sucked it down in no time.
The writing was done great. This honestly wasn't what I was expecting, still made for a great read!

These three stories by three different authors flowed together well. I was invested in the mysteries in each one, and I liked the connection with the boarding school in them.

Three young women in three novellas are linked through an elite girls boarding school for children of the glitterati in this collection. This book will be more appealing to a young adult market; unfortunately the length of the stories doesn’t leave enough time for much character development