This book is better with the audiobook. I enjoyed the ride. It was a fun book that isn't exactly a satisfying ending. I personally think the young adults will enjoy this book, because it provides the same space for rich Black girls to experience things that isn't stereotypical.

I kind of love that our protag is unlikeable, the whole time. I thought I would get frustrated with that, but you know, not every character needs a redemption arc and that is fine when its done well.

It was interesting to be inside the mind of someone who lives outside of people's expectations. Loli is reckless and this created a wild ride that I was happy to be on.

The writing itself is great here but boy did I despise the main character. She was obnoxiously selfish and irresponsible in a way that was very perplexing even when you factor in her being a teenager. The whole thing with her being obsessed with this guy she barely knew from a closet encounter was odd. And I thought Ryan deserved better than her frankly. All that being said, I finished the book in 1 day so the storyline was interesting enough to keep me reading but I don't think I'd ever revisit it.

A great Gen Z coming of age story. While the main character could be unlikable at times, I overall enjoyed her story. Also, can we continue to bring chapter title tracks into other books for adults and young adults? Because I was obsessed with that in this book. She has a lot of growing and learning to do, but at that age, I think we all did. Solid 3.5/5 for me.

This book is perfect for people looking for a YA book with some thriller scenes and elements. The dialogue was engaging and keeps the reader interested. I was happy to see a character who falls on the ace spectrum. Overall, it was a fun YA read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for access to this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Loli takes high school dare devil to another level in this YA coming of age novel. I created a playlist out of the chapter title tracks and listened to a few while reading their respective chapter which I highly recommend. Music plays a large role in this novel as well Loli and her friends lives just like most teenagers of today and years past. Highly relatable to todays teens and their struggles with friendships, parents, technology and everything in between.

I wanted so badly to like this book. It sounded so promising from the description. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past how unlikeable the main character is; a not-like-other-girls girl who tries so hard to not be a cliche that she oozes with them. For weeks I tried to get into this story and just could not finish it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the copy and the chance to read it.

This was a really fast paced and entertaining book, this debut author really has talent and I will def read another book by her. However this book wasn't really for me, while i got through the audiobook in a day because i needed to know what happened! the MC was so frustrating and home girl didn't even really lesson for real! shes a spoiled rich brat who somehow has friends despite not caring about them at all. Girl went from reckless to just ridiculous and everyone was just forgave her? Like almost immedlately. I would never be friends w/ her because I be at home reading instead of adventuring IRL lol.

fast paced thriller that i couldn't put down

thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the copy for review

huge thanks to NetGalley, but mostly to the author ( 🥰 ) for writing this amazing book and the opportunity I had to read

Ride or Die é um YA em que a nossa prota, já nas primeiras linhas, se mostra ser uma adolescente que faria qualquer coisa para sentir aquela pontinha de emoção, as vezes sozinha e outras ela leva os amigos juntos para as suas aventuras.

Eu gostei de como a autora desenvolveu essa personagem (e olha que ela é insuportavel de vez em quando), mas gostei de como ela teve os conflitos e resolveu eles, como ela só precisava perceber que está tudo bem aceitar clichés. Outra coisa que gostei é ver a personagem perceber que existe aventura que são pelo divertimento e ta ok as consequencias que você vai enfrenta-las, mas que em outras isso vai acabar afetando outros e que tem ter uma dosagem.

Por fim, amei o livro. Os mistérios, as missões, as cartas e mensagens anonimas, mas especialmente o romance em segundo plano.

Ride or Die follows Loli, a troublemaking teen who loves getting into all kinds of shenangins with her two best friends, Ryan and Cairo. At a party, Loli meets a mysterious classmate dubbed "X" and they start playing a game of dares that ends up escalating as it goes on. This book was a really fun read, and I loved following Loli as she fearlessly completes these dares. She thrives in chaos and is the complete opposite of me but I really felt connected to her and her friendships throughout the story. I found this book to unravel in an interesting and unexpected way, but I loved the direction it took. It truly felt like a 2000s teen movie and it made the story all the more enjoyable. Would definitely recommend!

This book was a WILD RIDE! As soon as I read the premise and saw that beautiful cover I was hooked. Loli is a fun, lively and beautiful main character who constantly seeks out adventure and it was so refreshing to read about a someone who wasn’t pictures- perfect but rather unapologetically herself.

I don’t have any complaints about this book and I think the author truly has a gift for storytelling. The problem is that I lost interest halfway through because I felt like the pace lost its momentum in the middle and I didn’t really know where the author was trying to take us. Some things happened that I am still trying to make sense of and I closed the book feeling rather confused.

If you are curious about this story, I would actually still recommend giving this a try because it was really enjoyable but maybe go into it for the sake of the characters and the overall old-school vibe rather than what the premise sells.

Overall, I think I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. Some of the characters were likable, but I never really warmed to the protagonist. The plot was decent, but I was able to predict the big “mystery” almost immediately. I enjoyed reading it, but I kind of hoped for a bit more than just okay.

This story pulled me out of my slump. It was super twisty in the best ways, and I loved how vibrant the characters were. I felt viscerally stressed, offended, and shocked by turns, which for me is a rarity among contemporary YA. Loli is the best and worst character - she's so completely arrogant, selfish, and spoiled, and I really wanted to hate her (and sometimes succeeded, honestly), but somehow Musikavanhu made me love spending time in Loli's brain. She was engagingly written, relentlessly flawed, and so utterly blind to it. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, and when we finally reached the breaking point, it was somehow both shocking and the only logical consequence for her actions. And the other characters are no less engaging, even the secondary ones. Wolf was one of my favorites, I'd love to read more about him, and I also loved that Loli and Ryan's moms were seen so frequently.

The Mysterious Voice's identity evaded me completely. I can't praise the author enough for her skill here. Usually I can see this coming a million miles away, but the fact that he was literally under our noses the whole time was just *chef's kiss* Honestly, the author (and Loli) mention cliches all the time, and I loved the way Musikavanhu played with them. There are a bunch of examples of common tropes that she uses, like the prom ending, the romance with MV, the life altering party at the beginning of the story. My favorite is probably the chase scene with the train, where Ryan literally jumps onto a moving train to save Loli. That is straight out of every action movie ever, and it made me chuckle.

So yes, I highly recommend this one for absolutely anyone. I've made a playlist on Spotify with all the chapter tracks (just search "Ride or Die"), so you can listen as you read. I have trouble listening to music while I read (especially if it has words), but musical accompaniment was too much fun to pass up, and it rounded out the main trio even more.

I want to be top-tier friends with Loli, Cairo and Ryan. I'd never pass their Friendship Tests. I'm not vivid, or fearless, or that imaginative.

When Loli least expects it, she comes across a mysterious stranger who meets all these criteria, but it was in a closet so she doesn't know who it really is.

They communicate by texts and letters, challenging each other to perform riskier and riskier stunts, until meeting on prom night.

This is a (multiple) heist book,
A Friendship book,
A cautionary tale,
A romance,
A suspense.
It's hard to believe this is a debut.

Part The Agathas and Part Heather's, you'll want to devour this.

Plus Ace rep too!

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

The first 50% of this book was strong. We had a main character who didn't care what anyone else thought. We had a mystery and clues. I was intrigued. Where this book lost me was that the main character wasn't LIKABLE and I didn't know who I was supposed to be rooting for her to be with: the mystery guy or her best friend? I was getting mixed signals from the author and I don't think it was plotted out well. The "twists" were laughable and the ending was wild in a dumb way. This was truly a waste of my time.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC for this title. Loli, Ryan, and Cairo are the best of friends. They compliment each other in the best of ways. Loli decides to throw a rager at her ex's home. It is attended by the best of the best at Woolridge High. The thing is, the party is a cover for Loli to perform the perfect heist-to retrieve an item that was rightfully hers. In her quest to retrieve the item, she ends up in a dark closet with a stranger who sets her on a rollercoaster of thrills and adventures that nearly cost her everything. This novel was well done and was full of the high school tropes that we've come to love in storytelling. It tests the boundaries of true friendship, high school angst and discovery, and choosing the things that matter the most.

I was fully prepared to make this my new favorite book... Again, I'm writing this review a long after finishing, but I think that's probably to this book's benefit.

As a summer release, I think this is a fun time. Kids that are out of school looking for something that will be highly engaging will definitely find that with this book. They'll likely have a better than than I did...

While the setup was good, getting these two characters together and getting them to agree to these missions was initially fun that lost it's luster for me pretty quickly. The narrative started to feel a little one sided, where the reader saw one character struggling to accomplish things that the other side was able to do off screen and with very little fanfare. It's the kind of narrative that might work cinematically, but here I was left to question if it was working as a novel.

I suppose that some of that works this had been compared to should have led me to understand that there would be an element of thw ork that was a little unserious, I don't think I was as prepared for that as I could have been. In the end it amounted to a book that I thought was okay, but not the new favorite that I had been expecting.

The premise of this book intrigued me, but the 10% I read of it did not interest me at all. YA books are becoming more and more difficult for me to enjoy and for some reason this one was just like other annoying YAs I've tried to read recently. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters and the dialogue bored/annoyed me. I also felt like it was marketed as a "thriller" but it didn't give me thriller vibes at all. Thanks anyway for the ARC, but this book just isn't for me.