Cecelia Ellis moves in with her famous-author grandmother to a small seaside town in Northern California...a town famous for a murdered homecoming queen, and the book about it that made her grandmother famous. When another would-be queen ends up dead, Cecelia is determined to find the killer.

Pretty Dead Queens is a new young adult thriller written by Alexa Donne. Fifty years ago, the homecoming queen was murdered and founded laying facedown in the high school pool. Since then it has become tradition to honor her memory and to never forget what happened that fateful night. Recently, Cecelia Ellis moved in with her grandmother after losing her mother to cancer. Her grandmother is a famous author who actually has written a fictional account of that tragic night. It isn't long before Cecelia is making new friends and preparing for her own homecoming. This is when tragedy strikes again and another home coming queen is found laying facedown in the pool.

Cecelia is the one who finds the homecoming queen in the pool. Her name was Natalie and she comes from a mostly well to do family. At first, it is a question of if this event is a tragic attempt at copying the original murder? Or does this one have absolutely nothing to do with the one previously? It doesn't take long before Cecelia finds herself deep in the investigation trying to figure out exactly what happened that night. Nothing is exactly as it seems on the surface and people will do anything is keep their secrets hidden.

The Seaview town where the drownings occur is a very small area where everyone knows everyone. There are long lasting friendships along with long lasting enemies. The children of these friendships are friends but, they will never be friends with their parents enemies. In alot of ways there is a sense of old money floating around and the idea that money can and will help cover anything up. As a reader, the vibe of the town really played into the investigation. There were so many possible leads! I understood why Cecelia was having such a hard time weeding them out. Neither she nor I want it to be someone that she had come to know and trust.

There is an attempt at a love triangle through out the story which I felt didn't really mesh with the rest of the story. It just didn't feel necessary along with the murder mystery. A little bit of romance would have been alright, I think but to have the main character conflicted over two boys as she's investigating the murder didn't sit well with me. Especially since it seemed like she was only really invested in one of the boys. The other thing that didn't seem to fully mesh was the use of teenage slang throughout the book. It just didn't feel natural. It was like someone's attempt at what teenagers should sound like.

All in all, I enjoyed Pretty Dead Queens. The murder mystery portion was well written and kept me turning pages, I likely would have been even more engrossed if it wasn't for the awkwardness of the teenage slang and the inserted love triangle. The Seaview small town setting was easy to visualize and the characters were able to be distinguished from each other. Cecelia definitely had the family gene for murder mysteries even wen it meant putting herself in danger. This was my first Alexa Donne book but, I look forward to reading more from her soon!

I tried to like this one. The premise was great, the characters were really well thought out and fun. I really enjoyed the internal monologue. However, it was predictable and I just struggled to get excited. Everything I thought was going to happen did and it just was a little boring to read. I do believe this book was well written and I have no double many will love it, it just wasn't for me.

I don't know why it took me so long to pick this book up because once I did... I couldn't put it down! The twists, the lies, the utter mess of these characters were so addictive to read. Sure, it was a little predictable, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing - just slightly disappointing. This is my first book from author Alexa Donne but it certainly won't be my last after this!

A terrific YA mystery that was engaging, entertaining as well as fun! The author did a wonderful job of making the story and writing enjoyable for adults as well as teens which I feel like is sometimes difficult to do! The lengthy amount of characters had me constantly guessing who was who & what had happened (in a fun way)! I am a major fan of Twilight and Pretty Little Liars and so this stunning blend of both brought me back to the good old days! I would recommend this books to just about anyone!!

A fun read that hits all the marks for a small-town murder mystery. Plenty of drama, misdirection, and amateur sleuthing.

Pretty Dead Girls is a fun YA thriller that immediately made me think of some of the classics by authors like Caroline B. Cooney and Lois Duncan.

After the death of her mother, Cecilia moves in with her famous author grandma (Maura) who she has been estranged from for reasons unknown. Maura's success started with a retelling of the real murder of her friend and homecoming queen, Caroline. Now it seems like history is repeating itself as the current queen bee is killed exactly the same way…

Cecilia is trying to balance life as a teenage girl in a new city; making friends; crushing on boys; but ultimately her inner Nancy Drew wins as she dives deeper into the present day copycat murder.

The plot is twisty, well- developed and definitely caught me off guard with one major twist. It retrospect, it's just what I wanted, though I didn't know that yet. I hope the openish ending means we’re not done with Cecilia and Seaview yet.

And Alexa Donne, I hold you personally responsible for the number of times I've sung (belted out) "Cecilia" since finishing the book. My husband is less amused : )

Thank you to Penguin Teen Canada and NetGalley for the eARC to read and review.

𝓡𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀 Pretty Dead Queens
Autor: Alexa Donne
Páginas: 336
Género: thriller juvenil
Puntuación: 3,5 / 5⭐️
HOLIS! Hoy les traigo la reseña de este libro que leí como advance copy reader de penguin y que me gustó bastante.
La reina del baile de la escuela de Seaview está muerta y no es la primera. Luego de que su mamá muera, Cecelia Ellies se va a vivir con su abuela una aclamada escritora de misterio que se hizo famosa cuando escribió sobre una muerte en su escuela secundaria. Su pueblo es tranquilo pero cuando en la secundaria de Cecelia se repite el mismo patrón de ascesinato, las cosas se empiezan a complicar y Cecelia hará lo imposible para investigar qué sucedió.
Bueno me entretuvo y se me hizo bastante dinámico de leer y me intrigó. El misterio principal me dejo 😨 mis teorías se fueron al tacho aunque había una sospecha ahí jajja soy malisima para estas cosas. Si buscan un thriller juvenil sobre asesinatos onda pretty little liars o alguien está mintiendo, este es ideal!
¿uds lo conocían? ¿les interesaría hacerlo?
Los leo
🐱 ⋆ 🐾 🎀 𝒟𝒶𝒾𝓊𝓊 🎀 🐾 ⋆ 🐱.

Pretty Dead Queens is a fast-paced mystery thriller. I enjoyed this except for the overwhelming drama in the latter parts of the book. Though I’m not the biggest fan of thrillers, this will definitely entertain fans of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson.

I will be reviewing a physical copy I bought of this book on my social media platforms because I loved it so much but thank you agin to Random House for the digital arc

A fun read! I enjoyed the mystery and fast pacing of the plot, but I do think it came at the expense of the characters and learning more about them. In the end, a lot of them blended together - Ben and Luke, Amber and Morgan. Very common names given to characters that you don't really come to know as the reader, which meant that I had to constantly try and remember who was who (especially since almost all of them were introduced at the same time). I wish there were either less characters or not as many killing motivations for some of those characters so I wouldn't have been as lost.

The twist at the end was fairly predictable, but I still enjoyed the reveal. Donne's writing is great, and I think that helped me power through to the end. Excited to see what she does next!

Cecelia Ellis moves in with her grandmother, Maura Weston, a woman she barely knows...who also happens to be a best-selling mystery author. Grieving the loss of her mother, and finding herself the new girl a month into the school year, Cecelia faces a bit of a culture shock being in this sleepy coastal town unlike any part of California she knows. When a homecoming queen turns up murdered and it's not the town's first dead queen, Cecelia makes it her mission to solve the case.

While the plot started out promising, it plateaued in the second half of the book for me when it came to the drama. That being said, I did find the premise to be engaging and I thought Donne's writing to be very palatable, the plot wasn't marred with unnecessary interludes and the mystery was well thought out. This was my first book from Donne and I found it to be a solid, if a bit predictable, thriller.

Love me a great YA mystery!

Truly enjoyed this one! The author does a great job of making you trust certain characters and then throwing in a couple
Of great plot twists! Wonderfully written and will be reading more from this author.

I really enjoyed Alexa Donne's writing. I can relate to the mc Cecelia on multiple levels. I found the book engaging as well as entertaining. I really can't say much without giving it away but I loved the ending. I would tell you to read this if you enjoy Pretty Little Liars. It definitely gives me those vibes. I am definitely adding a hard copy to my library.

Thank you Net Galley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

This was such a wild ride. I love teenage sleuth books. This small town had so many dirty little secrets that the death of the almost homecoming queen didn't even feel like the spotlight story. Add in a mystery/thriller author for a grandma and this whole thing is just one twist after another.

3.5 stars because of the unneeded death of a rabbit in the first page of the book. Stop thinking rabbits are expendable pets. It's disgusting.

I had high hopes and those hopes were not let down! Cecelia is just the perfect main character and grandmother is wonderful. With the book starting as Cecelia’s mother just passing and her going to live with her famous author grandmother it creates the perfect tempo for the book. The plot is well written and executed and everything develops nicely.

After losing her mother, Cecelia is moving in with her estranged grandmother. Her grandmother lives in a small town and is pleased when Cecelia immediately falls into the "it" crowd. She doesn't have long to truly get to know her new environment when one of the girls from her new crowd is murdered-exactly like a young woman was murdered 50 years prior. Well paced and with plenty of twists to keep readers excited, this book is a great mystery/thriller read. This book does have some mature moments, so I would recommend for high school and above.

I thought this was a good YA mystery! Cecelia was a great MC. Overall, I would definitely recommend trying it!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to review Dead Queens in exchange for an honest review. I loved Alexa Doone’s YA thriller The Ivies so when I saw she released another YA thriller I knew I had to read it. 🥰 I had such high hopes for this one before going into it because of the cover, description, and endless positive 4-star reviews on Goodreads. Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with the storyline/ characters much and I felt like something was missing throughout the entirety of the novel. I think a lot of it has to do with feeling like the premise of the book was just trying too hard and didn’t flow naturally like her other thriller where I couldn’t put it down. It felt like the characters whether it was the MC Cecelia or ‘stock characters’ backstories fell flat. It was one-dimensional and surface level which was just enough to keep the storyline moving. The ending was very predictable and I saw it coming within the first 50 pages of the book. Others have given this book a 4-star rating so it just might not be a favorite of mine. I think it was just your average murder mystery thriller. There are so many other good YA thrillers out there I would rather recommend picking up including her original thriller The Ivies before I would tell another reader about this one.

Great read and keeps the reader captivated. It starts off with Cecelia losing her mom and having to go live with a grandmother she has not seen since she was a young girl. Her grandmother a famous author, wrote a book about a beauty queen getting murderer. Does that seem to be happening again? And if so is it a copy cat? Cecilia is determined to find out at all costs.