I was attracted to this book because I’ve always had a love affair with Art Deco and the 1920s & 30s; add in murder and paranormal talents -- how am I supposed to resist?

Kulper definitely did her research: from Jazz Age slang, to poisons and anatomy you can ab-so-tive-ly tell she’s got a good grasp on the details. It was a lovely mash of elegance, grit, smarts, sexuality and fun – just like a 20s’ flapper.

The very first murder, I was a little unclear on how it came about. I thought I understood in the lead up but during the action, I didn’t actually see any one specific move that would lead to the victim’s death. I can’t tell if it was written that way to purposefully leave it a mystery, but it left me feeling confused enough that I reread that passage numerous times to no avail.

YA / Teen x Mystery x Paranormal

QUOTES:
- as much as I would have liked to take the business end of my hairpin to every deadbeat in the city, the ones who earned a visit from me had to have something truly evil in mind.

(I received a free copy of this through NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review)

This novel had a plot I've never seen before! Guy is able to physically transform himself, and Ruby has the ability to read minds.... NO SPOILERS!

Although it took 40-50% of the book to get really interesting, I enjoyed the book overall. I'm not too much of a YA reader, but it wasn't hard for me to want to keep reading. I found Ruby and Guy "likable" characters, but I didn't buy too much into their relationship. Again, it could be because it was a YA book.

The second half was packed with action and suspense! Definitely worth the read!

I wasn't expecting too much from this one but, wow!! I really liked how it blended all the different storylines without feeling chaotic and rushed. I especially enjoyed the parts about fashion.

4 stars

Whew, Murder for the Modern Girl is so much fun. I loved every second of this book. It's unique, interesting and glamorous. Set in 1928 Chicago it's filled withe everything we loved about the roaring 20's. It's got gangers, strong willed girls, mysterious men and murder! Ruby has always been intrigued by murder and has sense of when men are taking advantage of women. She uses her special talent to get justice for these women. She meets a mysterious boy working in the morgue and they find out they have more in common than they thought. I seriously loved this story so much! Murder for the Modern Girl has everything you could want in a story. It has murder, romance, and mystery.

Murder For The Modern Girl by Kendall Kulper

Personal Rating: ★★★/5 Stars

Book Statistics:
Genre: Murder Mystery, Romance, Young Adult Fiction
Year of Publication: 2022
Pages: 464

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of 'Murder For The Modern Girl' in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fast paced, atmospheric and glamorous book!

I enjoyed the characters and the setting of the story! The protagonist was intriguing and being able to read people's minds made the plot became more interesting and develope faster.

The love interest was my favorite character!!
His character development was astonishing and I am in awe of how perfect he is!!!

Although I liked almost everything about this book the language was my biggest problem. Sometimes I had to Google expressions just to understand what the characters were talking about.

But overall an enjoyable and fast paced read!

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

Deadbeat, abusive, and cheating husbands and fathers in roaring 20s Chicago had better watch out. Our narrator, the daughter of Cook County state attorney, has taken it into her head to participate in vigilante justice. Eighteen-year-old Ruby Newhouse seems like another New Woman, but is a mind reader and finds people with murderous thoughts and murders them herself before they can act.

Everything is going fine until another eighteen-year-old, Guy Rosewood, janitor who wants to be a medical examiner and is actually a shapeshifter, realizes something is up.

It’s a fun concept but having two MCs using first person POV was confusing. The description makes it seem like this is an adult mystery and romance with supernatural touches, but be aware that this is firmly in the fantasy YA category.

I honestly wasn't expecting much but it got me hooked!

❤️ I first want to say I loved the main characters, Ruby and Guy ; but mostly Guy because he's the one who had the most character development and I'm so proud of him. Ruby is a morally grey character, and I loved to see how her mind worked, how she did everything, with no regrets ; and I want to say girl go for it because that city needed it - I loved that vigilante side. Powers of both MCs are really well done, especially Ruby's one as we get to see even more about it, how far it can go, until the very end of the book.

Both plots were very well done and completed each other well ; I really liked to see that whole political and corruption side of the 20's. I was satisfied with how the story ended and what happens to Ruby, Guy, and even our sweet darling Maggie! Also - the romance and friendship in this book is strong and I'm here for it.

💔 I'd say the book was slow to start up until they get to meet each other, until the story sets in. Also as a french (and therefore non english native speaker), I was a bit of lost with some words used as they were used in the 20's, it got me confused a lot 😅 but once I knew what they meant everything went well and it was perfect to have a very Gatsby-era atmosphere :)

Murder for the Modern Girl by Kendall Kulper follows Ruby, who can read minds. She reads the minds of men who prey on women and people who escape justice for their crimes. She murders them before they can do any more harm. Soon a mysterious boy who works at the morgue figures out her hobby. Unfortunately for Ruby, she also falls for him.

This book was fun to read. I always enjoy a book with some good old vigilante justice.

Murder for the Modern Girl is about is a high-flying flapper Ruby Newhouse uses her secret mind-reading ability to absolutely crush at charades and to hunt down and poison killers who escape justice. I was mesmerized by this book from the beginning.To sum up: this book has awesome cool and atmospheric world-building, amazing characters, remarkable romance, and pretty much anything else one could want in a novel. I absolutely cannot wait to see what else Kendall Kulper writes!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Never red a book by this author before however I loved everything about it. The writing is great, the characters were so unique and well portrayed. The story was just epic, I loved everything about it and read it in one sitting, not my usual type of book but it really surprised me and kept me reading!

A very witty, interesting, and fun novel!! Great writing and well developed characters kept my interest and gets 5 stars from me, highly recommend!!!

Murder for the Modern Girl came out of nowhere and knocked me off my feet! I don't know how I haven't read any of Kendall Kulper's books before now because she is incredible! The idea of a mindreading flapper poisoning men who get away with hurting women is amazing alone! But then add in her falling for a shapeshifting scientist trying to solve her murders and trying to unveil a plot in the city's government, and you have such a fun and exciting read! It is truly one of the wildest concepts I have ever heard of, but it was incredible to read! I flew through this book and cannot wait to read more by Kendall Kulper.

Thank you to Holiday House and Netgalley for giving me a chance to read this book early! I'm excited for this book to come out so I can own a physical copy of this masterpiece!

4.5 ★

absolutely perfect for fans of the diviners, and even a little bit of stalking jack the ripper

this was just so so good. i fell in love with the dark, glamorous, glitzy city and its captivating characters. it was the type of book that had me giggling, crying, screaming, shocked, terrified, and swooning all in the span of a minutes.

the plot was really interesting and was fairly fast-paced. it left my heart POUNDING at times, thats for sure.
the murder mystery aspect was so fun to read about because of... well, you'll see.
there was a bit of forensics, which i loved and as well as a fair amount of politics, but it wasn't too bad. politics always fly over my head so whatever !
it did take a while for the story to really get rolling; the beginning especially felt really convoluted and messy but it got much better as the story progressed, and the ending wrapped up pretty neatly.

the characters were my favorite part. the side characters were fairly fleshed out it was sometimes hard to keep track of all them. i did especially love the strong friendships- we all need a friend like maggie.

now, one of our mcs, ruby, is an extravagant, sweet, endearingly dramatic flapper with some clever secrets. she is secretly a murderous little vigilante, and we love her for it! imagine a mix of juliette from these violent delights and evie from the diviners. i loved seeing the mask she wears slowly fade away to reveal a kind, caring fiercely loyal soul who just wants to do good. she's also like so incredibly smart ???? i want a lawyer like ruby pls. i love her

then we have my love, guy. now, you'll find out guy's real name once you actually read the book bc i refuse to ruin the surprise. he started off by constantly getting on my nerves bc of how naive, and nervous he always was. i get he was supposed to be shy but omfg this man could not get a single word out without stuttering.
BUT- character development! we gradually see him gain confidence and omg i am absolutely in love with him. his backstory is just heartbreaking. he's a soft-spoken, honest, brilliant, little genius with a heart made of actual gold. i loved seeing him open up and his character arc was my personal favorite. also, he's hot.

the absolute swoonworthy ROMANCE omg i adore these two. ruby's outspoken, flirty personality with guy's gentle, reserved nature was so so cute i cant. if you're looking for a case where the guy falls first- look no farther !! this man was down bad for her and would quite literally do anything for her. their growth together, individually and as a couple, was just so perfect. JUST LOOK AT THIS QUOTE

“All right,” I said, shaky. “So who am I?”
“Smart,” he said without thinking. “Curious. You like asking questions and learning things. You let people underestimate you. You keep your real self at a distance. You wear masks, just like me.” He reached out and touched a finger to my cheek and I felt a shiver roll from my spine to my toes, which would probably stay rooted to this floor for the rest of my life.
“Am I right?” he asked, with the kind of smile that turned my insides to goo.


ok now the two things that slightly bothered me. first, the writing. it took me a WHILE to get used to the prose- it was like the author just researched every single slang term ever used in the '20s and tried to shove them into every single sentence. the writing felt so stilted and awkward bc of it, mainly for the first 15-20%. it got so much better after that and i could actually understand what they were saying.
idk the story in general just needs a little bit of editing to polish things up, and i can just hope and pray the final edition is much cleaner.

the second thing is just something that won't stop nagging me: the whole "fantasy" aspect. our two main characters had these special magical abilities: ruby could read minds and guy could shapeshift into any human. ok but is that it? is there anyone else that has these abilities? why was no one else curious about how they both had these powers? ik guy wanted to research the science behind his ability but that was kinda it. i wish we got more on that whole world-building.

overall, i cannot recommend this book enough. it was a near-perfect murder mystery set in the dazzling roaring '20s, with characters and a romance to absolutely die for.

Lovely book!! I adored all that characters and the development was great throughout. Kept me wanting more. I would definitely recommend!

This was interesting, but fell very flat eventually. The author was attempting to juggle so many side plots, it had my head spinning. The friendships, the mystery, the fashion- it all sounded amazing but got all mangled together in an unrealistic and ultimately nearly unreadable way.

2 stars