This was a DELIGHTFUL YA mystery. Two girls come together to solve the Murder of a teen girl’s death. I loved all the nods to Agatha Christie. I would say this is perfect for fans of Karen McManus or J.T. Ellison. I heard that she plans a sequel and I’m so excited to see what these girls solve next.

This was a fun, easy read! I liked the characters. It was similar to One Of Us Is Lying, but it was great overall! I’m so excited for everyone to help Alice, Iris, and the crew solve mysteries!!

I ENJOYED…
☂️
Set in a small sea-side town, the Agathas is about a teenager disappearing after a party and two girls, forging an unlikely friendship as they try to discover what happened to her.
If you’re looking for a fun YA mystery read, this might be just it. One of my favorite things about this story was how easy it is to get immersed into the story and into the small town mystery. I found myself quickly turning the pages and, chapter after chapter, eagerly waiting to know what would happen next and who’d done it, as well.
Told from 2 point of views, this story follows Alice and Iris, two teenagers who couldn’t be more different.
Alice used to be one of the popular girls, up until she disappeared for a couple of days on her own. Now, she’s a lonely teenager, not talking much about her own disappearance, trying to cope with her absentee parents and her copies of Agatha Christie’s work. While I found it a bit hard, at first, to connect to Alice, I ended up really enjoying her and what she brought to the story. She’s bold, impulsive and certainly doesn’t always make the most obvious (or reasonable) choices, but she was so much fun to follow, too.
Iris is on the opposite side of the high school spectrum, hanging out with the not-so-cool kids, struggling with her mother to makes ends meet and focused on trying to get out of town and disappear as quickly as possible. I found myself growing very fond of Iris. She’s smart and doesn’t take your bullshit and I loved that.
The highlight of the Agathas was, for me, the unlikely friendship growing between Alice and Iris as the story goes on. They’re so different, yet we find them deeply caring for each other by the time the book ends and I loved that!
I also loved some of the themes explored in the story: the part social media played in the mystery, the corrupted town and its relationship with money…

I HAD A HARD TIME WITH…
☂️
While I had a lot of fun reading The Agathas, I have to admit that it wasn’t quite what I expected it to be, especially in regards of Alice’s disappearance. I’m not going to spoil anything for you at all, but my expectations weren’t quite met about that part of the plot. I wanted… more, maybe.
OVERALL
☂️
If you’re looking for a fun YA mystery, I definitely recommend trying The Agathas!

Thanks so much to the author, Delacorte Press, and Netgalley for the gifted advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts. All opinions are entirely my own. { partner } All of my reviews can also be found on Instagram @Tackling_TBR and on my blog at tacklingtbr.home.blog

TW: murder, drugging, some violence

This was a really fun YA mystery! It felt like a mix between an Agatha Christie and a mystery with Nancy Drew and her friends. There are also lots of really fun nods (some subtle, some not) to Christie's many stories, which I greatly appreciated. I mean, everyone had that Agatha Christie/Nancy Drew/true crime phase where they were obsessed and convinced that they were going to be the next great amateur sleuth, right? Was that just me and my friends? Interesting. Well anyway, really took me back to moving on.

This is definitely a YA mystery, so don't expect a ton of blood and guts. There's a bit of that, and a bit of violence, but no more than you would find on a show like Riverdale or Pretty Little Liars.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I would definitely recommend it to friends and fellow readers! I think the best way to read this book would be on a big bed with lots of pillows and blankets, just like Alice and her Christie novels.

I really had a hard time putting this book down. I haven‘t read a crime story in quite some time and this one really reeled me in. I liked the two main characters, Iris and Alice, and how their personal problems got interwoven in the story.

First off, this cover is amazing. While I love a mystery, I’ve never been an Agatha Christie reader, so a book by this title wouldn’t have drawn me in without it.

Second, the story is a really fun read. It has everything you want in a YA Mystery novel- angst, witty characters, and an unputdownable mystery that gets more interesting with each turn of the page.

Alice’s boyfriend dumped her to date her friend Brooke. After this happens and Alice confronts her friends and former boyfriend, she disappears for 5 days with no memory of it (Um, what? Say less, but tell me more. Please). THEN Brooke goes missing. Alice teams up with an unlikely cohort, Iris, and the two work together to try to solve the mystery of Brooke’s disappearance. Overall, great read and definitely recommend!

They'll Never Catch Us meets I Kissed Shara Wheeler in this new YA mystery and seeming series starter. When Alice Ogilvie disappeared after her boyfriend dumped her, her friends and town feared the worst, surprised to see her turn up without a scratch five days later. When, a year later, Brooke (Alice's ex-BFF) and Alice's ex-boyfriend get into an argument, and Brooke disappears, everyone thinks she's pulling an Ogilvie. Until Brooke's body is discovered. Disgraced former popular girl Alive and her wallflower tutor Iris team up to solve the mystery of what really happened to Brooke.

With some dark themes mixed with sprinkles of humor, this book a classic teen mystery/thriller. I enjoyed it, but can't say it feels exponentially different from others in this genre, and may have been better as a standalone than a series starter. But alas, I'll keep reading the series, because I did have a good time and it did take me a while to figure out the ending!

Thanks to Delacorte Press for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars- 8/10

2 stars. *

I"m just solidly Meh on this one.

I really wanted to like it. I was buzzed in numerous publications, and the blurb appealed to me.

The Agathas is a YA mystery that follows Alice Ogilvie (a comically stereotypical rich girl obsessed with Agatha Christie novels) as she attempts to solve the mystery of her former best friend, Brooke's disappearance/murder. I am good with YA. I love great YA storylines. The Agathas has all of the ingredients. However the writing was just juvenile. I predicted every twist and turn and the characters had zero nuance.

The cover is great. I'll give it that.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Social outcast Alice Ogilvie disappeared for five days after a breakup with her boyfriend Steve. No one knows why. As she is trying to adapt to being back at school and put the disappearance behind her another one of Steve's girlfriends, Brooke, disappears but this time permanently. Iris, who is Alice's tutor, joins with Alice in order to solve the mystery, collect the money, and get out of town. Steve is suspect number one but the girls are not convinced. Inspired by the works of Agatha Christie they take on the task to free Steve.

This was a fun mystery that had an ending I personally couldn't predict. I will be recommending this to readers as a great Fall read.

Thank you Netgalley for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm on a mystery/suspense kick, and I loved the premise of this YA one. Iris and Alice are complete opposites, yet they find common ground and team up to investigate the disappearance of one of their classmates.

The chapters open with a relevant quote from an Agatha Christie novel, which was a lot of fun, and I felt like the slow-developing mystery worked overall—there were some interesting reveals along the way. But this story lacked any real depth in character development other than Iris. Don't get me started on the big mystery about what happened with Alice the summer before the story opens. There was so much potential there, as well as for the supporting cast. I wanted *more*, but the ending left open the possibility this could be the start of a series, so maybe I just have to wait.

I flip-flopped between listening to this one on audio and reading a digital eARC. The audiobook had three different female narrators: one for Alice's chapters, one for Iris's, and one who voiced the news segment sections. I enjoyed all of them, especially the narrator for Iris's POV. Her voice was a little gritty, which went well with Iris's characterization. I also really appreciated that both Alice and Iris sounded like young adults, especially in comparison to the more mature-sounding voice for the news narration. The only parts of the story that were difficult to follow on audio were the text message sections between the Mains (the popular girls).

Overall, this was a solid YA mystery and easy read. I'm hoping there are future installments and this was just the beginning of Iris and Alice's adventures.

(CW: domestic abuse)

RATING: B- (3½ stars)

I was surprised by this one! I have had a bad streak of YA mystery/suspense books lately, all of them felt super caricature ish and the mystery was just not engaging. But this one thankfully didn't fall into either of those camps. The resolution of the plot was satisfying and all and all a good read! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, this is a great mystery read. My issue is that I don't read enough in this genre to understand how twists and turns can help the story move forward. I did love all of the connections to Ms. Christie but other than that this books reads on the same expectant level of Karen M McManus.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a mystery with enough characters, twists and turns, and interesting clues to keep the story moving. The connection to Agatha Christy was fun and I could see it inspiring readers to get into her books. Definitley one of my top YA mystery reads of this year.

As a bona fide Agatha Christie fangirl, I knew I had to read this book the second I discovered it existed. I was so convinced that this would be a 5 star read for me. Alas, it fell short for me. A large portion of this book feels extremely juvenile to me, and maybe that's because I'm a thirty-something year old woman reading this and I really need to get away from the YA genre as I've been feeling like this about many of the YA books I've read. Now that isn't to say this is a bad novel. I do love the idea and concept behind it. While it didn't end up being quite what I expected, I'm glad I read it, and maybe teens on the younger end of the YA spectrum will enjoy this one more than older ones. I'm still not certain if this is the first in a new series, or if the authors decided to set up for sequels and see how this book is received before taking the leap of continuing, but I'm very interested in the subsequent mysteries that were introduced in this first book as secondary themes.

YA is usually not my favorite type of read, but these two authors did an excellent job with The Agatha's! Little homages to Agatha Christie made the book even more fun! This is a story of a missing girl, who the police believe "just ran away," but this was obviously more than that. The nerdy-girl team of detectives and all the fun little clues and mysteries made this story so enjoyable! The writing was a tad more juvenile than my usual read, but this book was written for a younger audience, and it's pretty obvious that's what the writers were doing here.

I'd say give it shot if you like whodunnits, Agatha Christie - the OG, and nerdy girl detetive duos! Looks like this one is going to be series! Fun!

4 out of 5 on Goodreads.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an advanced e-book copy for an honest review!

5 Stars!!

This was so much fun!!!! I could not put it down!!!

Two unlikely friends, team up to solve another friend's murder....it was delicious. The girls were modern day Nancy Drews. I loved seeing their friendship blossom throughout and to see them develop. Alice - gorgeous, rich, popular girl, that's suddenly fallen from grace is being tutored by the poor, not so popular girl, Iris. I loved the pacing and how the story unfolded told from both Iris and Alice's perspectives. I would also like to move to Castle Cove.....the setting was so vivid and picturesque.

I saw that there's a sequel and I squealed with delight!!! Please, please, hurry! I need more Alice and Iris and the rest of the Castle Cove gang in my life!!

A special thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's, Kathleen Glasgow, and Liz Lawson for providing me with an ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley & Delacourt for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a longtime Agatha Christie fan, so I was intrigued by the premise of this YA novel: two teens on very different social strata combine forces to solve the murder of their classmate. I just got done watching "One of Us is Lying," so I was definitely in the mood for more teen sleuthing. In that regard, this book totally delivers. I've seen some reviews that suggest that the plot is too contrived, the location too chi-chi, the characters too trope-y ... and all of that is true.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it as a frothy summer read. Poor little rich girl Alice? Definitely a trope. Geeky Iris harboring a dark secret (that her entire friend group knows but she is unaware)? Trope City. But for a beach read, I don't need Shakespeare. The plot is a bit pat and trite and requires some suspension of disbelief, but it propels very nicely. The Agatha Christie quotes that open each chapter are a bit much (if you've read a lot of Christie, you know that some books are banging and some, uh, less so), and only one girl is a big Agatha fan, so the title is a bit off to me, but whatever. Hat tip for giving the guidance counselor the same last name as Christie's early pen name. Red herrings abound, and I didn't guess the end (although I rarely try to, so YMMV).

I sure wouldn't mind seeing it as a limited series on Hulu, LOL

What a fun read! Perfect for mystery lovers, and the perfect introduction to Agatha Christie. The characters are so much like high schoolers you’d encounter in the real world, that you can’t help but be invested in them. This mystery will keep you guessing and leave you wanting Alice and Iris to continue solving mysteries together.

I really enjoyed this adaptation of Agatha Christie's Then There Were None. I read two different adaptations back to back and have to say I far preferred this one. Making it a YA novel, with the high school setting really worked for the story.

A fantastic series opener. Alice and Iris live in two incredibly different worlds. Yet their voices on the page were incredibly similar. This made distinguishing between the two a bit confusing at times but I was still fully invested in finding out how this mystery ended. I guessed who the culprit was pretty early but still enjoyed the journey to get there. A fun summer read that I can't wait to recommend to teens.