Thank you net galley for the advance reader of this novel. This was a YA suspense type novel and did a good job keeping the story moving and reader engaged!

Jessica knew she and her boyfriend Jake should not have attended Tegan's party. After a horribly embarrassing live stream plays in front of everyone and Tegan disappears, she is left astounded at how quickly her life has changed. While supporting the search for Tegan, the questions begin getting harder to answer and the answers even more difficult to swallow.

Solid YA thriller - the missing girl, the dead body washed up, the mega party that goes wrong, and the secret relationships bubble to the surface. I had the whodunit figured out pretty early on, but it was still a page turner, especially if you are in the mood for a Karen McManus read alike. Worth adding to a library collection if you need more in this genre.

An interesting YA Thriller about a mean girl’s prank that goes wrong. A video prank at the end of summer beach party goes viral and a girl is missing. Who is to blame?
Jessica and Jake end up being at the center of the investigation because the missing girl happens to be Jessica’s ex best friend and Jakes ex girlfriend. So many toxic high school relationships, secrets and mysteries to uncover. Fast paced and fun twists throughout make it a great story.

I was gripped entirely by this book up until the last few chapters. The tying up/connection of the four murders feels a little bit sloppy. Might be worth a re read one day to see if there were any clues missed about Maeve but even still the reveal feels a bit too rushed

I can't decide if I liked this or hated it. Jess and Jake are some of the most annoying, most stupid, and frustrating characters I've come across recently. That being said, the book kept me engaged and I truly had no idea what the end result was going to be.

I also really appreciate that this book dealt with some pretty heavy topics that often aren't often covered in YA from the perspective they're covered here.

Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez is a clever play on the well-known line, “With friends like these who needs enemies.” This a prelude to what you need to try and keep in mind throughout the book rather than getting swayed by what each character says, does or what happens to them.
What I look for in a novel it was long, had more twists than a country road and as a whole set up the conclusion in a way that makes more sense thinking backwards rather than it being revealed to you throughout the novel. But, I had a chat with younger family members about the book, explaining to them the way in which the story progresses (Without spoilers of course!), and they immediately let me know this is something that they can’t wait for to release as it mirrors the lives they want to be involved in for interest and intrigue. When I think back on my younger years, I am inclined to agree.
This is Jennifer’s second mystery thriller novel after her success at writing middle-grade fantasy stories, so the target audience of the book makes much more sense now and I am looking forward to what happens when Jennifer begins to work on stories for the older reader as she really has nailed down what the younger reader seeks in their novels. We have betrayal, adultery, murder, back-stories for characters and as a whole, a guide throughout the whole town of Crystal Cove. We got to see the way in which the characters live their lives before we got to meet them, where they are hoping to go in their lives and the impact that the subsequent video and the body have on the families that inhabit this small town. We come to appreciate the differences between our characters and the way that they react to life-altering situations. As a whole the book is enjoyable, but definitely something that throughout really did feel aimed at the younger audience. But that does not stop me from being comfortable to recommend to any readers of that age looking for something different!

Friends Like These is a young adult mystery. There are layers upon layers to this mystery and it kept me guessing. A lot of the people involved were messed up people. Kind of like if Gillian Flynn wrote books for teens. I enjoyed getting lost in this story.

This is YA thriller that I really liked.

Jake and Jessica have a prank that goes wrong and leads to a missing person case. This book will keep you guessing and the final twist!

I also love when thrillers go back and give you back story scenes and this one did that.

A standalone YA psychological thriller/mystery that is fast-paced and gives you small puzzle pieces crumbs though the book. The hate/love/hate that you fill for the main characters helps the plot zooming on.

Book Review

Title: Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

Rating: 4 Stars

The opening to Friends Like These was interesting and get didn’t capture my attention at all, so a strange combination. We are introduced to Jessica Sanchez and her boyfriend, Jake Healy as they spend the final days of summer break together before starting their senior year. Jessica is shy and focused already thinking about college, whereas Jake is carefree and little clingy. They end up attending the end of summer party thrown by Tegan Sheffield who also happens to be Jake’s ex and desperately wants to get back with him. Jess doesn’t like parties and Jake promises they will only stay for a little while and he won’t get too drunk but he quickly breaks these promises and when Jess says she is leaving in an hour with or without him, he continues to drink. Even when he is wasted he doesn’t really seem to care about Jess rather her reaction to seeing him in this state but that doesn’t stop in from sleeping with Tegan at the party and he is determined to hide this from Jess.

As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Jake not only sleeps with Tegan at the party, Tegan films it and broadcasts it live during the party so Jessica will see it. This deals a huge blow to Jessica since she has wondered many times whether Jake still had feelings for Tegan and this confirms it. Several things happen really quickly after this, around three in the morning Jess and her friends are driving home when they hit something in the car because Jessica is too devastated to concentrate on driving but they assume was a deer and they can’t have done much damage to it since there is little damage to the car and the animal is nowhere in sight. Jake awakes up the next morning with no memory of the night before only to be filled in by a friend and realise how badly he has screwed everything up. He attempts to speak to Jessica when she is going near his house and she tells him that they are through because he cheated on her and she won’t be forgiving him or taking him back at all, to add insult to injury the video and Jess’ reaction to it have been plastered all over the internet. After returning home Jessica learns that Tegan disappeared after the party and she can only assume it is because she wants to lay low after the stunt she pulled with Jake but the adults around her are beginning to get worried.

As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the first school day after the party has arrived and Jake is determined to clear the air with Jessica but she wants nothing to do with him. He also knows something more happened with Tegan but he doesn’t really know what which was intriguing. Meanwhile, Tegan is still missing even though many people like Jessica don’t care about Tegan the fact that the police and FBI are now involved means something really serious has gone down but they all think it is to do with the video since it was a crime as Jake is only 17. However, I think it is much more than that and the synopsis does say that someone died the night of the party. I think that person was Tegan and the question is who killed her since she has a lot of enemies and right at the top are Jessica and Jake. We also get chapters set earlier in the summer from Tegan’s perspective as we see that she is cold and manipulative person but she is also going through a tough time with her mother and her mother’s constant worry about appearance being a former senator.

As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, rumours are beginning to fly about where Tegan has gone, for a little while people believed she might have run away or been in hiding because of the video but the more that passes means that something bad might have happened to Tegan. When Jake finally manages to get Jess to speak to him he wants her to hand in Tegan’s phone which he found in his truck since he has little memories of the night before and most of it has been filled in by friends. However, the longer Tegan is missing Jake is beginning to suspect that he did something bad to Tegan and he doesn’t know what it is. Jess also has these same thoughts since she knows Jake put another boy in the hospital once before and because of his drinking back then he had no memory of that event either and these suspicions are made worse when a body is discovered on the beach and Jess instinctively knows it is Tegan. A lot of what happened in part one was teenage drama and angst which I wasn’t keen on but there were a few elements leading up to Tegan’s disappearance that I was eager to see explored and understand why Tegan’s perspective was needed in the book and why it takes place so long before the rest of the book.

As we cross into the second half of the novel, Jake and Jessica are going in different directions since Jake is Jake is panicking about whether or not the police are going to arrest him for something he can’t remember and Jess is trying to keep herself out of this mess as it is becoming bigger and bigger. We get a surprise when the body found on the beach turns out to be Shawna, Tegan’s friend rather than Tegan herself and things are starting to become a little clearer. In the past we learnt that Tegan and Shawna had a safe word that they would use if the other one was genuinely in trouble and we also learn that Shawna’s boyfriend, Marcus, isn’t only physically abusive towards her but he seems to have a thing for Tegan even though she hates him. Jess in the present manages to access Tegan’s phone deleting the messages she sent to Tegan earlier in the summer since it paints her in a bad light and sees one from Shawna the night she died using the code word but Jess doesn’t understand its meaning. It seems like Marcus potentially had a fight with Shawna that led to her uses the code word with Tegan even though she is missing and Marcus killed her causing him to flee. He might have even been the person that attacked and possibly killed Tegan but I need to see what really happened the night of the party to figure out who is really behind everything.

As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, the truth is finally beginning to come out when Tegan is found alive but in a coma inside her own house. We also get several new pieces of information when Jake is arrested for assaulting Brenden and asked about what happened to Tegan. Jessica is also arrested since Jake’s fingerprints are on Tegan’s phone and her are too as she didn’t wipe the phone down before Marcus came into the cave. The police believes they have been working together to get revenge on the people that bullied and harassed them on a daily basis. However, it soon comes out that Jessica was actually the person behind the bet in the first place since she spots Marcus coming on to Tegan and Shawna and Jessica both believe that Tegan is at fault. Rather than admitting to being scared of Marcus she claims she can get anyone she wants so Jessica makes her a bet to kiss Jake believing Jake to be completely loyal to her. Jessica obviously wasn’t expecting it to go so far as Tegan slept with Jake and stayed at the party afterwards, but Jake remembers Tegan claiming to be hurt but he can’t remember if it was him hurting her or someone else. It seems like these two are really deep in it now and the truth about what happened that night is going to have to come out sooner or later or the pair of them are going to end up in jail for this.

As we cross into the final section of the novel, we get to see everything come together and finally we understand what happened the night of the party and months prior to that and how a whole group of people were involved in it. This doesn’t have a happy ending as Jessica and Jake don’t get back together, one person is dead and several more are in prison for their actions. Overall, Friends Like These was a great contemporary, mystery with some amazing thriller elements to it. Honestly the top three people I had picked for Tegan’s attacker wasn’t even close and the reveal really surprised me in the end. I will definitely be checking out more of Alvarez’s work in the future and I looked forward to her future work.

High school can be like fighting a war, trying to just survive until graduation. For Jessica, she just wants to make it through with her boyfriend but one night will ruin her and everything she knows. This twisty turvy mystery will have readers guessing through out. The theme of privacy and the boundaries of consent is at the core, this was just left of hitting the mark. At times the interactions felt a little stiff and forced, and I didn't feel all that attached to Tegan and her murder. It was an interesting twist to question male consent and how males approach it.

Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez is a well written and twisty YA mystery. There is a lot of toxic friendships in this book, as evidenced by the title and all around bad choices made by everyone! Highly recommended!

I can certainly see what Alvarez was going for here. And there are elements of the book that are admirable. We're exploring sexual manipulation, victimhood, and perception. It's morally complex but doesn't feel like it gets a complete exploration. It's perhaps too twisted.

This book absolutely blew me away.
I love YA Murder Mystery, but here I got so much more.
The characters were well fleshed out - had strengths and weaknesses. Time and time again my empathy fluctuated from character to character. The murder case was equally very well writen and suspenseful.
But what I liked best was a very serious topic (which I won’t spoiler) in the book that is far too rarely addressed in our society.

Overall, a must read.

Very captivating-I know I'll have a lot of YA readers interested in this one. It also made me genuinely fear for when my children are in high school-woo-not ready for any of this!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable enough story. It moves fast and has good characters. I figured most of it out before the end.

This story was fast-paced, and at first I really liked how the characters seemed to be multi-dimensional and realistic. I think that as I went on it started to fall flat and some of the friends seemed like paper cut-outs, just there to fill in. I guessed the ending, so was just waiting for it to finish up, though I liked how the author handled tough topics such as teen relationships, break-ups, drug use, date rape, and consent.

I think this will be enjoyable for teens who are just looking for a fun thriller to read without looking too deeply into it. Overall I enjoyed the book, and would read another book by this author.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. Lots of current topics wrapped up in a mystery.

Date is made up. I feel behind on reviews.

I am always down for a good young adult mystery and this was great. A video prank goes wrong and someone disappears, can you figure out what happened? I do think this toed the line a little between NA and YA. Some of the things that happened were a little unbelievable, but all in all I enjoyed this.


Thank you #netgalley for an early read of #friendslikethese

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I loved this YA thriller! This author has really impressed me! It’s about a group of high school friends in a seaside town. There’s a beach party, there are lies, betrayal and murder….