Thanks so much to Snowridge Press and Netgalley for an ARC of this debut novel! The Gossip Games by Allie Sarah was a brother’s best friend to lovers novel set in a fancy-pants boarding school. Gracie Adams, our lead, falls asleep in the common room of her dorm hall one night and is carried to bed by none other than Dean Ashcroft, an extremely popular classmate who just happens to be her best friend Zara’s twin brother. Sparks fly as they attempt to outwit each other with pranks and games and completely non-consensual kisses. I don’t know if the vibe of this book was off, but I will admit I struggled getting through it — even as early on as chapter 4. Add in the fact that not a single character was interesting, the pacing was entirely too slow, and the weird lack of consent (the surprise kiss trope was always weird and overdone, especially in this book) I’d rate this book a 2.5 out of 5. I am honestly surprised that Allie Sarah’s next novel is a companion, following none other than Jesse — Dean’s mischievous cousin. I would have loved to see a sequel about Theo coming into his sexual orientation but I think I’d be better off counting my chickens before they hatch.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Gossip Games is a YA book that follows the story of Gracie Adams and the Ashcroft cousins. Gracie is best friends with Zara Ashcroft who has a twin brother named Dean. The book also stars Jesse and Theo who are Zara and Dean’s cousins. The Ashcrofts love playing pranks on each other and Gracie winds up being the center of one of those games when it’s assumed that her and Dean are dating and Dean encourages the rumors spreading around.

I enjoyed reading this book. I think the story idea was solid and I’m a sucker for the fake dating trope and best friend’s brother trope which were both included in this story. I thought Dean and Gracie had good chemistry. I also liked the anxiety representation in the book, although I wish it had been touched on a little more.

The reason I only gave this book 3 stars was because of the writing. The book jumped around a lot which made it very confusing. There were multiple times when I had to go back and reread because I couldn’t figure out how the characters got to the place they currently were. There was also very little description of the characters and places so it was really hard to imagine the story in my head while I was reading. The characters were all introduced quickly and sometimes very randomly with little explanation of who they were.

Overall, I liked the plot of the story, but I think the writing could have been a little more developed.

Really loved the characters in this one. Wasn't such a fan of where the story was going but it was a fun read

This was my first fake dating trope book, and I quite enjoyed it, although it wasn't what I expected.

I need to get over with saying this- WHY does the author constantly refer to characters as the redhead or that blonde or brunette?? It's aggravating. Added up, she's used these descriptions almost a hundred times, and I'm serious. What's worse is that this could easily be replaced with the names or a plain he/she.

With that put aside, I genuinely liked all the characters except Gracie- the female MC. She gave me mixed vibes going from introvert nerd to flirty popular girl in no time. I was impressed with Dean, Zara, Theo, and Jesse with their development and character arcs. I'd like some closure on the Blake matter, though, which I'm hoping for in the next book.

Plot wise, Allie Sarah was supreme sometimes, but the other places, the story fell flat. I definitely felt the long drag of the romance, because it was obvious from the start. Overall, the story is pretty good and Allie did a great job of fleshing out most of the setting.

So to say, I'm invested in this series and will be reading the next book by this author. (It supposedly follows Jesse from this one. I'd love to see a book for Theo though) She has some great ideas and talent!

Although I have mixed feeling about this book, I do still recommend it.

I received an ARC of the book from NetGalley and SnowRidge Press in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book in one day! I loved the plot of this book as well as the two main characters. However, i do believe that some areas in the plot moved very quickly with no indication it was going to happen, for example Nicole’s entrance. When she first arrived i thought she was going to be a love rival to Raina, not an old childhood bestfriend of Jesse.
Other than the plot moving quickly i do believe this book is an easy, cute romance read.

3⭐

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review.

The Plot
At the beginning, I really enjoyed how we just dove straight into the plot, which was "fake dating". I put fake dating in quotation marks since it's like a bet between them so it isn't like the other books with the cliché fake dating and I liked that I was reading something different.

Although the plan for this trope was very smart from the author's part, It didn't build up well to me. The fake dating trope was put out there a bit randomly so I felt like there should have been some type of build up for character development or even just for it to make more sense.

I enjoyed all the events that happened in this book and how those events turned out. I also enjoyed how we get closer to the friend group and their past.

The Characters
Gracie
I liked Gracie's character.
She wasn't anything THAT special but she didn't annoy me and I admired how hard working she was for herself. I liked how at some parts the author made her randomly sassy and bold just to annoy Dean.

Dean
Again... he was a good character. I liked how they kept pranking each other but I also felt like the author kept dragging it on and on.

I enjoyed the drama going on with the friend group but I thought that the drama between 2 certain characters was very extra and not needed. I am aware that there will be a second book for another couple and I felt like this friend drama would have made much more sense in that book instead since it would have also kept the plot going.

The book didn’t really stand out to me. While there was much that I liked, there were also things which I didn’t but that is to be expected from most books.

This book wasn't my favorite. I don't typically love YAs so I went in a little hesitant. I think it just felt a bit young for me. I was excited by the premise and just didn't feel like it delivered. With that said, I think a younger audience would really enjoy this.

Thank you netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for allowing me to read this book.
Things I liked:
-This was a cute quick easy read.

-I was really intrigued to see how the love triangle would pan out between Jessie, Raina and Nicole.

-I enjoyed how simple the story seemed but had some drama at times to keep it exciting.



Things I didn’t like:
-I felt like the timeline was a little confusing to follow
-I needed more character development

-The dialogue made me cringe at times and felt unrealistic

-It seemed like parts of the book were rushed through.

Unfortunately this book didn’t hit the spot for me, at all. The premise of the book was intriguing but it just failed to actually take off. I found the FMC Gracie to be a bit annoying, and there was so much of the book that I felt just wasn’t relevant at all. Nicole’s entrance felt extremely out of place having never been introduced previously. She gave villian vibes, rather than just an old friend. Not the worst debut novel I’ve ever read, but definitely not the best either.

The cover is very cute. I think the writing was a bit messy and felt like it was written for middle schoolers. There were too many characters and it got a bit confusing at times

Thank you to Netgally and SnowRidge press for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my review!! This review can also be found on my Goodreads ands Story-graph.

2 stars

The premise is what caught my eyes and I loved the cover of the book. However, it fell a bit flat for me personally and I did struggle to read some of it and it did remind me more of a Wattpad fanfic (nothing wrong with Wattpad or reading fanfics!!) but it just didn’t really click with me as much BUT I do think early teens could like this and I personally dont think I was the right target for it tbh. I am excited to see what Allie Sarah writes in the future and cant wait to read more from her:) The gossip games comes out on the 17th of April.

I decided to pick this book mostly because of the cover and because the premise had real potential and for the most part I enjoyed it, it’s a light and easy read but I think I’m not the right target? It’s very YOUNG and I problably would have liked it more if I was 13/14.

The story itself was pretty predictable, but is a cute book, it’s easy to read, it’s fun and some of the “supporting” characters seems really interesting, I wouldn’t mind reading more about Zara and Jesse. It was overall and enjoyable read.

I have to say, though, that the time jumps really confused me a lot. They happen also mid-chapter, like there’s a kissing scene that’s totally random and I really thought it was in the wrong chapter just to find out it wasn’t. It felt like I was missing parts of the story.

I would like to thank NetGalley and SnowRidge Press for providing me this eARC in exchange of an honest review.

For a book that is geared towards the teen/ya audience, this book screams extremely juvenile. It reminded me of the wattpad fan fictions that I would read when wattpad had just gotten popular. That being said, I think the general crux of the story was interesting but the plot had many holes (which I assumed they plan to address in later books but honestly has lost my intrigue already) and the jumps in time were incomprehensible. Truly thinking about the character that they made Gracie be, it didn’t make sense for her to continue this game of chicken even if others encouraged her to do so. There needed to be more conflict that drove both characters to continuing their charade while also allowing them to get to know each other. The Blake storyline also played little to no significance other than a very short touching scene that honestly didn’t really impact the plot. While I found the lighthearted nature fun, I also couldn’t help but think this book needed help to guide the story.

The Gossip Games follows Gracie as she somehow finds herself the center of a rumor stating that she is dating her best friend's brother Dean! Not willing to admit defeat and put the rumor to bed, Gracie decides that it's her turn to beat Dean at his own game and initiate a giant game of chicken to see which one of them will admit that their relationship is fake first. Reading this book is like getting to experience all of the roller coaster emotions of your first love all over again, like every thought is life and death and like every concept is painted in black and white. The concept for this book was really intriguing and I'm really glad that I gave it a go, since I was able to finish the entire thing in one afternoon.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Allie Sarah for my eARC of The Gossip Games in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of the book was interesting but I found the writing to be very juvenile and lacking in real content. There seemed to be too many small problems or details that weren’t necessary to the main plot. The characters were cute and likable. I did find myself rooting for them. This book might be better suited for preteen or young teen readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the published for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this book missed the mark entirely for me.

The writing felt somewhat elementary, as though this was a draft and not the final edit?

I couldn’t connect to the characters as almost everything about them was extremely vague. In contrast to this, there’s a whole lot of information dumping and descriptions that felt super unnecessary and made it difficult to push through.

I could not finish this one.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley - all thoughts are my own.

The Gossip Game by Allie Sarah

Publisher- SnowRidge Press
Publication date- 18 Apr 2023
Categories- Romance, Teens & YA


I absolutely loved this book, it was so cute!
It has pranks, best friends brother trope, school romance which all made such a good lighthearted teen read! I absolutely loved all of the characters, and how they developed throughout the story, I’d love to read about jesses story !! I’d definitely recommend this book to someone who wants a fun, light, cute read.

A fantastic debut novel from Allie Sarah. I enjoyed every minute of it!

I’m excited to learn more about Jesse’s story (and hopefully Theo too)!

This book was cute.

This was a very easy lighthearted read. The Mcs were adorable and I felt that they had good chemistry.
There are quite a few secondary characters though and they’re all kinda thrown at you all at once.

First, the bad:

I found that some of the writing felt overly rushed with not enough detail. It felt like I was missing chunks of the story and I would end up confused having to reread something over to understand what was going on.
I also felt that there were a lot of unnecessary problems throughout. It want just one or two main conflicts that the characters had to resolve, it was like 20 minor conflicts that didn’t feel needed to move the plot along.

Almost all the characters were annoying at one point or another. Lack of communication at times was unnecessary in my opinion.

Now the good:

Most the characters have their own little quirks that get you to root for them. The characters are complex in the sense that we know there’s more to them then is being given, but most of their depth seems to be kept from us, probably to save for their own book in the future. It was nice to see such strong family and friend relationships throughout because it made me want to read more to see how outside characters were going to react to something or face something together. There were a few lgbtq+ characters throughout so it was nice to have some diversity.

I think for a debut novel Sarah did a great job in setting up a world for us to be intrigued in. I already want Jesse’s story just from getting bits of it in this book. I also want to read more on Zara and Theo, which will also hopefully come in other books.

I definitely this is worth picking up if you’re on the fence. It was the perfect amount of lightheartedness and not too long of a read either.

wanted to love this book, I really did… however that was not gunna happen, the writing straight away was was too juvenile and not in a YA way, in a… was this wrote by a twelve year old or a boomer that doesn’t know how teenagers act/ speak/ interact way?

The main character Gracie, her “personality” was all over the place, one second she’s a badass and the next she’s acting like she’s ten… it made me think for a minute this book was written for a younger audience then teens… until they started mentioning sex? And I’m like 👍 okay then….

I DNF this read. I usually love YA novels but this just wasn’t it.

I was given an ERC for an honest review.
2/5 would not recommend.