TOP 5 REASONS TO READ FRIENDS LIKE THESE

1. Written in 3 different P.O.V.s
If you enjoy multi-pov then you’ll find a new favorite book in “Friends Like These”. It is written in the P.O.Vs of our 3 main characters, which makes the story even more mysterious.

2. Amazing writing
The writing is fantastic. I enjoyed reading this book so much and just couldn’t get enough of it which leads us to the next reason:

3. Absolute Page-Turner
Does this really need a detailed explanation? I don’t think so!

4. Full of Twists and Turns
Every time you think you know the truth, another possibility is thrown your way. You can definitely trust no one in this book.

5. Great ending

There is so much in this story that it will be hard to put down! There are some strong topics that readers should be aware of before reading or recommneding to a student to read. Domestic violence, sexual assault, drug use and bullying to name a few. They all play a role in the story but they could be triggers for some so reading yourself before recommending would be a good idea. Four stars for that reason. Thank you to NetGalley for an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was exciting. It was the perfect pace. I really was sucked into the story. I was left on the edge of my seat and it was thrilling!

Fast-paced full-on drama from the beginning till the end!!

Jessica and Jake were a couple that everyone whispering about and they were going to a party that Jake's ex, Tegan hosted, which also used to be best friends with Jessica, until Chloe replaced her as Jessica new bestie.

Things went south right from the beginning. Jake was drunk and led by Tegan to her bedroom. She seduced him, and they were doing the deed, but someone was illegally recording them and broadcasting it to the TV downstairs for everyone at the party to see, including Jessica. The video went viral and the next day FBI was involved but nobody can't seem to find Tegan. People assumed that she might run off to avoid jail time since Jake was underage while Tegan was legally an adult, thus she could charge with statutory rape and distributing child pornography. But as the investigation continues, they found a dead body, and what's happening is deeper than it looks. And now everyone is a suspect!

I like that we follow three different POVs (Jessica, Jake, and Tegan). Tegan POV is in the past timeline while Jessica and Jake were in the present timeline. Each of them is such an unreliable narrator! I don't even know who to root for because everyone seems so shady and has secrets.

The mystery is spot on! This book keeps you guessing from the start. I was wondering throughout the book and made up a few theories but all of them were wrong. I did not see it coming until the last 85% of the book. I really like when authors are able to do that.

I appreciate that this book talks about the perspective of a boy of a sexual assault victim. Because people tend to sweep under the rug the fact that males could also be rape victims.

Because of the nature of this book, I think it's more fitting for upper YA readers since there were also sex scenes (even though it's not too graphic).

I definitely will read more Alvarez books in the future!

TW: sexual assault, rape, abusive relationship, drugs use, alcohol addiction, bullying

Thank you so much to PRH International for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’d say this book was “fine” as a whole. The twists were pretty good but I’ve read better YA mystery thrillers.

This is a good one if you want a fast-paced story to read with enjoyable twists. Just don’t expect to be wowed.

Nicely done, pretty good misdirects happening. I had a feeling it might have been Grady but for it to be Chloe was a nice twist. She was in the background the whole time. Not my ultimate favorite YA mystery but definitely a solid one.

An end of summer party with all your buds before senior year should have been a blast but when a prank turns deadly the music and the fun dies. Tegan the town's "it girl" rues the loss of her ex to her former friend and plots revenge via a you tube type video,. But someone else also has an agenda and their sabotage has dire consequences. A body on the beach, an unexpected hit and run and the disappearance of Tegan leave Jessica and Jake caught in the crosshairs of criminal investigation and a media firestorm. This dark and twisty YA thriller is intense and addresses the growing social issue of drug influenced sexual assault and proclivities. Told in alternating chapters from the viewpoints of the involved characters gives the reader different perspectives yet keeps the reader guessing.until the unexpected ending. The characters were well developed and engaging . This YA novel would appeal to fans of Maureen Johnson and Karen McManus

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez.

Good grief! Is it even worth having friends you guys? Just leave me to my books and cats, k-thanks.

This is a really interesting take of when friends absolutely turn on each other, and you learn that you truly can't trust anyone. When Tegan is recorded doing the dirty with Jake, it's the beginning of Jess's life changing forever. Not only is Jake HER boyfriend, but Tegan was once her best friend. How could this have happened. And she refuses to believe Jake when he says that he has no memory of how it happened. But this web of betrayal and revenge runs DEEP, and it's hard to know who who trust, or believe.

I mean, dang! It made me relieved to not be a youths anymore, but you know that stuff like this happens in the adult world too, which is tragic. Without spoiling much, having it told through Jake's perspective and how he was victimized was a unique and important take. I can see how it would encourage a learning opportunity for all readers.

"Friends Like These" is an enthralling and thrilling mystery that had me hooked from the very start! The story unfolds from the points of view of the three main characters, Jess, Jake, and Tegan. I started the story thinking I was reading about simple, straightforward high school kids and drama, and I was so wrong. Not only are some very complicated personalities revealed, but the plot is also so much more complex, with twists and turns that make me blink.

The story involves one of the main characters disappearing without a trace from the end-of-summer party. Because of the circumstances and personalities involved, I was never sure if they were actually missing or just hiding out, although all indications were the former. There were more than a few alternatives for the disappearance and several possible suspects, depending on which scenario was the right one. I never guessed the truth until it was actually revealed.

The main characters' backstories vary, but all are affected by their pasts and past relationships. There are so many pivotal moments during the story's events where had a different choice been made at any point, what happened at the party never would have occurred. This was very much a 'perfect storm' of a story.

In addition to a missing person case and a murder, the book explores drug-assisted sexual assault within its unique plot. Some very important points are demonstrated, and though the hook is the story's drama, readers of all ages can learn something from what some characters do and what happens to others.

FRIENDS LIKE THESE was a thrilling story I didn't want to put down, and I recommend it to readers who enjoy YA mystery fiction or thrillers.

Thank you @delacortepress and @netgalley for the #gifted eARC of FRIENDS LIKE THESE!

Jennifer Lynn Alvarez is back with another twisty, binge-able YA thriller! I was immediately hooked from the first chapter and if I wasn’t reading several books at once, would probably have read it in a day.

I loved the different POVs of Jake, Jessica and Tegan. No one is who they seem to be and everyone is lying.

There are a lot of content warnings for this one (bullying, sexual assault, drug use, alcoholism, domestic violence) and I really liked how Alvarez showed that victims don’t always fit a mold of what we expect.

She also really drilled down on how toxic and harmful bullying can be.

FRIENDS LIKE THESE came out 11/1 and is available now!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4891255071
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkoPryKPf4_/

I wasn’t surprised when this book seemed to start out a bit predictable. I’ve read lots of books with the “jealous ex-girlfriend goes missing, ex-boyfriend suspected of foul play” storyline and I was expecting a nice little YA mystery, something kind of cozy maybe.

Well, Friends Like These is probably one of the least cozy books I’ve read in a long time. From the very first page, there’s drama and it’s not pretty. What seems like normal friendships and typical teenage emotions slowly reveal the true heart of each of the narrators in this book, so that it’s not until the very end that everything starts to make sense.

There’s Jessica and Jake, the couple everyone was envious of until Tegen, Jake’s ex, accepts a bet that sets in motion everything that follows. Jessica has her own side of the story, as do Tegen and Jake. The problem seems to be that no one is telling the complete truth and also, these are just high school seniors. The party they went to the night it all started, was to celebrate the start of senior year. And yet there were drugs and alcohol at the party, which makes things all the more confusing for a majority of the kids at the party when it is time for them to talk to the police. Many of them claim they were under the influence and unable to recall specific details of the night when everything started going downhill.

It’s not all about that one night though; this goes back further to a time when everything seemed normal. No one had been embarrassed and betrayed yet. No one had gone missing yet. No one had died yet. Things weren’t perfect, but at least they weren’t a daily struggle. From there, we follow the precarious path that leads to present day, hearing from the three different narrators and getting each side of the story chapter by chapter.

In Friends Like These, author Jennifer Lynn Alvarez has written a complex psychological thriller perfect for mature young adults and readers. It’s dramatic and scary and intense. People go missing. Bodies are found. But in the end, it all made sense and wrapped up nicely and today that’s the kind of book I was looking for!

Tegan Sheffield is known for her Fourth of July beach bonfire and end of the summer party. Those in Tegan’s orbit are at her beck and call, while those not so close clearly are on the outside. People love her and love to hate her. Jessica Sanchez has been dating Jake Healy, Tegan’s ex, for months. While Jake promises there’s nothing between him and Tegan, Jess doesn’t want to attend the end of the summer party. The last place she wants to be is at Tegan’s. They had a friendship falling out in fifth grade, and everything has been uncomfortable since then. Parties aren’t really Jess’s scene anyway, but she knows Jake loves them. The last party before senior year is going to be epic. But things go horribly wrong. An explicit video from the party goes viral, two girls are missing, and some relationships never will be the same. The police are being pretty tight-lipped about their evidence, interviewing everyone who was at the party, while the FBI works to clean the video before it reaches the deep web. With Tegan’s family connections, this case is a top priority. Then a body is discovered in the water below a popular cliff overlook not too far from Tegan’s house. As the police search and investigation intensify, secrets are revealed. Not not everyone is as innocent as they may seem, and loyalties shift. Is everything an innocent tragedy, or will a killer strike again?

THOUGHTS: Told in alternating chapters from earlier in the summer, the party, and the aftermath, multiple narrators will keep readers’ interest as they try to piece this thriller together. Highly recommended for high school libraries.

One of the things I discovered reading this book is that I don’t enjoy books where the most significant thing about a character is that they love a boy. I felt like the obsession with Jake was the majority of what both Tegan and Jessica’s characters were about. I would have liked to know more about Tegan’s tense relationship with her mom. Or about anything that isn’t Jake that Jessica loved to do or was interested in.

Jake also spent a lot of time wrestling with his feelings about the girls, but he had a lot more going on, I felt like. He’s recovering from losing his dad, and from his alcoholism. After the night of Tegan’s party, he’s wrestling with the truth that he was assaulted and what that means. So I felt like his character was deeper and more complex than the girls were.

I liked the twisty-ness of the plot, though. A lot of things happened that I didn’t expect, and I liked the way the story made me question information I took for granted without really examining it. I also thought the decision to explore recovery from sexual assault but from a guy’s perspective was an interesting choice.

On the whole, if you’re looking for a twisty, fast-paced story, FRIENDS LIKE THESE could be a great pick for you.

Post will be live 11/7/22.

This is Jennifer’s second thriller. Her previous thriller was Lies Like Wildfire and if that is anything like what I just read then I definitely need to pick it up to read. These are stand-alone books.

This was one heck of a roller coaster ride. So many twists and turns you didn’t know what was coming next. I thought at one point I knew what was going on and quickly realized that I was completely wrong. I really enjoy books like this, books that keep you on the edge of your seat wondering who did it and then being blindsided in the last quarter of the book, wondering how did I miss that? In the end, Jennifer wraps everything up leaving nothing unanswered, everything gets explained and why it happened. I actually like when things are gradually revealed instead of it all happening at once.

Once I started I had a hard time putting this down and pretty much read it in one sitting which is pretty typical for me when it comes to psychological thrillers.

The book is told from three points of view, Jessica, Jake, and Tegan. They are all high school students enjoying their last year of high school. What better way to end the summer and start their last year than a killer summer house party.

Jessica is your basic high school girl who is focused on getting good grades and getting into a great college and her boyfriend, Jake is the exact opposite, he is enjoying life. Jessica isn’t that party girl like Jake wants her to be. My only beef with Jake was I found him to be a bit clingy with Jessica. Yes, she was there when he lost his dad and he break up with Tegan.

Jake manages to convince Jessica to go to Tegan’s party which is the last thing she would rather do. Jake convinces her saying they will just stay for a little bit and he won’t drink. Sadly he does the exact opposite. She and Tegan don’t have that friendship like they did years ago when they were kids. Jake is Tegan’s ex and let’s just say that Tegan isn’t over Jake (everyone knows this) and will do just about anything to get him back. This was another thing that I didn’t like about Jake, he couldn’t even keep his promise to Jessica about not drinking. Did he really care about Jessica?

What happens next makes you wonder that. From that point on things get worse and turn into the night from hell. What was supposed to be a fun summer wrap-up party turns into something much worse and rocks everyone’s friendships. A viral video goes wild, someone goes missing, and police and the FBI get involved.

The actions from this night will change the course of everything for those involved. There is no going back from that night.

Friends like this who needs enemies is what I kept thinking throughout the book. With that being said I would definitely read Jennifer’s future books. If you like a really good psychological thriller then I recommend this one, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

In this new young adult novel, a party completely walks out of hand, with deadly consequences.
Jessica and Jake are in a relationship. It's summer and everything is going well in their lives in small Californian beach town. Untill Jake one night decides they should go to a party together, the house party of his ex-girlfriend Tegan. Jessica is hestitant to go but eventually says yes.

But the party totally goes wrong. Jake is lured by Tegan to go to her bedroom with her and everything that happens there is filmed by someone, and shown on a huge tv in the living room. Jessica is devastated how Jake can betray her just like that. Not knowing yet how even worse it will get. Later, when she is on the road with her best friend Chloe in the night, they hit a deer on the road, or so they think..Life for her at high school is a living hell. She know is the laughing stock at high school and Jake is some kind of good guy who all the guys shoulder pat for what happened between him and Tegan. But that changes when Tegan goes missing. Now, as Jake is the last who has seen her is a serious suspect and followed by the police and FBI. Things even get a turn for the worse when he finds Tegan's phone in his car dashboard, how did it come there? And why does he gives the phone to Jess to hide it? And then one of their friends, Shawna, is found dead at the beach..what is going on? Where is Tegan and what is the connection between her and the dead girl on the beach? Life becomes very difficult for Jessica and Jake in a dark connected web of lies, even by the friends they trust the most..

This is a new YA thriller that keeps you page turning at the edge of your seat. Wow! I didn't expect this book to be this tremendously good!!! The story keeps you guessing and guessing, altough I did have a suspect in my head that was a bit under the radar, which turned out to be true..(spoiler alert..) but altough I had a slight feeling of the ending, It totally surprised me at so many points. The characters and storyline are all sublime. Everything is in the right place at the right moment, and it reads like it is a thriller movie. And the ending was just brilliant!!! A very pleasant surprise of a book that I certainly recommend!!

This is a weird book for me to rate because on one hand, I didn't really care for any of the characters - I didn't really find much redeeming in any of them (except for <spoiler>Jake but that's only because his character literally got screwed by being in the middle of a feud between 2 girls and his 'cheating' early in the book was actually rape due to being drugged, and idk it felt a little weird to me how this was done</spoiler>) but on the other, I was intrigued by the mystery and wanted to learn more (<spoiler>I also guessed who it was but I am not sure if that's because of deductive reasoning or because I was checking the number of chapters in the book and saw one from a character we didn't see anything else from all book. So probably not smart to check ahead if you don't want to be spoiled.</spoiler>). Admittedly I don't know a ton of the actual process for detaining/arresting suspects, but I did feel like some of those scenes just did not feel very realistic.

Overall, this is a story of toxic friendships and relationships and the consequences of what can happen when things are taken too far. I didn't really get some of the characters' motivations for things (or sometimes I just thought it was stupid) but I guess it was a pretty quick read and still fun despite the characters being annoying.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars.

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

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I was drawn into this by it being compared to Gone Girl and Karen McManus, and it did not disappoint. The writing is excellently crafted, and the characters are well-developed...even if they are obnoxious. Jess, especially, was frustrating. But the TWIST. I wasn't expecting it to be so...like that. I was taken aback, which is such a good thing I can't overstate it. I'm used to predicting twists by the halfway point, but not this one. I'd agree with the publisher's comparisons, but I would also say that this book would be great for fans of Kara Thomas or Courtney Summers as well. A great YA Mystery/Thriller that stands out in a sea of Mystery/Thrillers. The only reason I'm giving it a 4 instead of a 5 is because of how viscerally I disliked some of Jess's actions.

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Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you’ve read my blog and/or reviews before, you know I love a good YA mystery/thriller, so I was excited to read this latest from Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. And Friends Like These did *not* disappoint! This book had everything I love in twisty books like this: alternating multi-POVs, short chapters that keep you flipping pages, exploration of toxic relationships--and toxic people, and so much more. I read the whole thing in one sitting! I’d actually love to read this with some teens and have a deep discussion with them about the themes that the author touches on here. Do read the trigger warnings because there are in fact some heavy--but important--themes discussed in this book. But overall, it’s a can’t-miss thriller that will have you continuously flipping pages to see what’s next. Highly recommend this one!

Rating: 4 stars!

**Disclosure: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.

"Whatever happens next, stay away. You don't need friends like these."

This is a great, twisty, mystery filled with teenagers, secrets, and some heavy topics that are handled well. I've got five great reasons for why you should be sure to read Friends Like These:

1. The book hits so many great notes, combining a high school drama, with a dangerous party, secrets, friendships, romance, machinations, and a death that no one saw coming. It reads like a well-executed teen drama tv show, and I enjoyed it from start to finish.

2. Every character seems suspicious and has secrets, which all of them interesting. The author weaves a great web of doubts and questions...who did what, and who knows what, and why?

3. The book is written with dual POV, plus narration from an important missing character before the events of the book. All these viewpoints give you a more complex picture of the story and help the reader engage with the characters.

4. It is quick paced and bingeable. I would have read it in one sitting if my kids didn't keep needing me for things.

5. Best of all, the book keeps you guessing until the end!

5 reasons to read this book:

Genre - Who doesn’t love a whodunit? But when you add in teens/young adults, the abuse of alcohol, broken friendships and revenge plots… it creates the perfect combination for a book.

Social Media - Not to say that I’m not addicted to my social media (lol #bookstagram) but the characters in this book live and breathe their online personas and how many follows/likes they get. To the extreme that choices are made that can never be taken back.

Characters - The MC, all her friends AND frenemies are relatable. They can be empathized with, but they also have extreme personality traits that create chaos, make even small situations life or death and its so interesting to see how it all unfolds.

Writing Style - The book is so easy to get into, I read it in one sitting. I was entrenched in the mystery, in the jealousy & anger, in the hurt. Alvarez does a phenomenal job of making a YA story so captivating without making it too juvenile for a grown woman like me.

The “twist” - As I read, I was trying to figure out the bad guy of the story. Without spoiling anything…I was wrong, but also not. It was a bunch of small moments and small choices that allowed every piece of the puzzle to connect seamlessly