I had so much fun reading The One that Got Away with Murder. I read it in a 24-hour period and clearly, it hooked me. It was drama-filled, fast-paced and compelling. Exactly how I like my YA Mystery/Thrillers. I can't believe this is a debut!? How is that even true?!

In this story we follow Lauren. a high school soccer star, just about to enter her Senior year. Sadly, she's going to be doing that at an all new school, as she has recently moved with her Mom from California to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. Her Mom's long-distance boyfriend lives in Happy Valley, so following a scandal at Lauren's old school, they decide it would be best for them to make a fresh start there.

Lauren understands the reasoning behind the move, but it's still a difficult transition and her new teammates won't be making it any easier on her. Prior to the school year beginning, Lauren meets a boy, Robbie Crestmont, and the two begin spending time together. Hooking up, may be the most accurate term for their relationship.

Once she begins hanging out with her teammates though, when soccer season begins, she learns that Robbie isn't the most liked guy in Pleasant Valley. In fact, some of the girls are downright hostile towards him. In fact, they blame him for the death of their teammate, Victoria, Robbie's one-time girlfriend. The story is that Victoria died during a late night swim at the Crestmont's lake house. Her friends and teammates aren't buying the story that it was an accident. They suspect foul play.

Not helping is the fact that Robbie's brother's girlfriend also died a mysterious death about a year after Victoria. Two brothers, two dead girlfriends. That can't be a coincidence. Even Lauren can admit that doesn't seem right. After agreeing to go visit Robbie's family lake house over Labor Day weekend, Lauren vows that will be the last weekend she will spend with him. While there, however, she discovers some evidence that may just confirm Robbie's involvement in Victoria's death.

Lauren is scared. Does anyone know she found what she found at the lake house? She hopes not. With dangers around every corner, Lauren is unsure who she can trust. As she navigates between the the powerful Crestmont family and her soccer teammates, Lauren begins to piece together the truth of the two dead girls.

As mentioned above, I had a blast reading this. It's so compelling. It drew me in from the start. There was something about Lauren's character that vibed well with my tastes. I loved reading from her perspective, and learning about her. She can be a little harsh, a little cold, a little angry, but I like that...

You could tell that something fairly significant had happened in her past, but it was slowly revealed to you over the course of the story, instead of laid on you all at once. I enjoyed how that was done. I like that Lundy took her time revealing Lauren's full-self. She's a tough girl, but she definitely struggles with a lot over the course of the story.

I also liked Robbie and his brothers. They were extremely wealthy and powerful in this town, but instead of being the revered golden boys, as would typically be the case in these type of circumstances, they were more like social pariahs. Lauren looking into their family, and others in the town was very interesting and if kept me on my toes. There were plenty of suspicious actors floating about.

It's funny, when I was about halfway through this book, I was having so much fun, I thought, I need to go read this author's previous books! With this in mind, I went to Trish Lundy's author page here on Goodreads and discovered, THIS IS HER FIRST BOOK!?

I was seriously shocked. This is such a well-constructed and thought-out Teen Mystery, IMO. If this is her debut, I cannot wait to watch her career over the next few years. If you enjoy YA Mystery/Thriller authors such as Jessica Goodman, Karen M. McManus, or Kara Thomas, you have to check this out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Thank you to the publisher, Henry Holt & Company (BYR) and Macmillan Audio, for not only providing me with copies to read and review, but also for introducing me to a talented new author to obsess over!!!

The Crestmont brothers are privileged and handsome – and possibly killers? Every girl they date ends up dead. Is it a coincidence or just bad luck?

When new girl Lauren comes to town and starts up a fling with Robbie Crestmont, she’s warned by her soccer team to steer clear. She decides one more weekend can’t hurt, but when she finds the bloody bathing suit top of one of the murdered girls on the Crestmont’s boat, she could be in danger of becoming the next victim.

Told in short, fast-paced chapters with flashbacks to Lauren’s involvement in a fire that badly burned her ex-boyfriend, this book flew by in a breeze. I didn’t quite get what her past had to do with her present and I struggled to really engage with the characters, but I think that’s because it’s YA. Fans of Holly Jackson will enjoy this one.

Thank you to Trish Lundy, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of the book for an honest review.

The One That Got Away With Murder by Trish Lundy is her debut YA thriller. I really enjoyed this book & will definitely check out more from Trish in the future.

Lauren moves to Happy Valley, PA, with her mom from California after a mysterious accident involving her boyfriend, Clint. Once in Happy Valley, Lauren hooks up with Robbie Cresmont, not knowing his dark past. Robbie and his brother Trevor both have dead girlfriends with uncertain causes. Lauren has her own dark past. I can honestly say I had multiple guesses as to who the murder was, but I was wrong each time.

If you are a fan of A Good Girls Guide to Murder or Pretty Little Liars with a mix of Gossip Girl, this book might be your next favorite.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley, and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

With this one having a content warning of drvg usage, I’m not surprised that this one wasn’t my favorite. I skipped a lot of this book and still was able to guess the killer, so I’m not sure this one was for me.

The plot of this was cool. I liked that there was a secret from the main character as well as the killer. There was something going on constantly and it kept the tension super high. And because of this, the main character was something like a freaking teen detective. I really was impressed by this group of teens.

The characters in this were really wild. I don’t know how to explain it other than that. The teens literally solved this case on their own. They didn’t go to the police office and sneak in to get clues or anything like that and I was so happy. I HATE when things are too unrealistic. But this one wasn’t like that. This one just had a quick witted teen who was smart enough to get people to give up the information. Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t like all the characters. That one girl on the team deserved to get beat up. I don’t care who she was. She was a bitch and she needed a check-in with these hands. Lastly, I LOVED the way we get a few chapters from the killer is what made this for me. I don’t think I’ve ever read a YA book that did that.

I didn’t like the drvg usage. But that’s a me thing. I had the audiobook from Netgalley and the list wasn’t in it. I really wish they would list these somewhere. I ended up skipping a huge part of this. And the reason I couldn’t give this a higher rating was because I still was able to choose the correct killer. But I knew things were too good and everything just kept lining up for them. I just knew. Also, I HATED that they blamed one of the victims and used the drugs as what was going on. And of course, the lie was spread by the actual person. Idk, it annoyed me.

This had a lot going on, and I liked it, but there was one thing that really turned me out. And of course it was a big ass part of the story. I would still offer it to the teens, but I’d offer them some of my real favorites from Holly Jackson, Karen McManus, and Tiffany Jackson first.

The beginning of this book starts off much too graphic for a YA book, in my opinion. While that sets the tone for the main character Lauren’s mindset, I do not see such vivid detail necessary for teens or even for understanding or developing questions about Lauren. That said, the story moves quickly, with somewhat exciting elements at times. Unfortunately, I correctly predicted the “big surprises,” as the hints are a little too obviously unique as compared to other elements of the story. All of the key characters, including Lauren’s love interest Robbie, her soccer teammates, and even her mother, are clearly crafted around their supporting roles; in the end, though, I think there were too many clamoring for center stage for the author to fully develop any of them, including Lauren.

Note: there are numerous highly sensitive issues that should be added as warnings (e.g. sex, drugs/drinking, mental health issues), but the most important ones would give away the story.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt and Co., Netgalley, and the author for early access to this work.

I love when a book keeps you on your toes until the end. Did not see that ending coming! I can't wait to read more from this author.

Have you ever read a book that you loved so much that it left you unable to really describe why you loved it?

Yeah, that's this book for me.

This was an amazing debut that had me hooked from the first chapter when I thought Lauren was going to be the very stereotypical Valley girl. I'm so glad that is not the direction Lundy decided to go with our heroine.

Lauren dealt with so much throughout this novel and I loved seeing the changes in her in real time. Seeing characters around her change grow was also such a nice experience I haven't found in any another YA thrillers.

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a well-written character-driven thriller.

Trish Lundy is now an auto-buy author for me and I can't wait to see what she does next!

~

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

THOUGHTS

Hey, it's a mediocre story that isn't particularly well executed. But if high school murder-thrillers are your thing, you'll probably like it anyway. There's a certain balancing act, I think, to get a story like this to really shine, and this one just wasn't quite balanced. But it wasn't a horrible attempt. Just kind of middle-of-the-road.


PROS
New Relationship: This book includes some pretty socially and psychically painful conversation with mom's new boyfriend, and that... just feels right. Mom did move them across the country to be near to this guy, and at a time when her daughter is vulnerable. That, plus the general awkwardness of new-parental-lover interactions, really adds an element of realistic cringe to this book at times that I can appreciate. Mom's new boyfriend flirting with her mom at one of their first family dinners is... so psychically wounding, isn't it?

Selfish Mom: As the above pro might indicate, Lauren's mom isn't the best at being a mom. And that's often the case in YA books, but what I appreciate here is just how real this feels. Because Lauren's mom isn't hyperbolically bad. She is just kind of self-involved, and she's the predominant factor in how and why she makes decisions (even decisions that have a major effect on the minor daughter she's dragging along). So when Lauren feels so alone with what she's going through, well, I'm not upset that she didn't confide in her mother because her mother, quite frankly, wouldn't have listened very well anyway. Lauren really is going through this alone, and not just because it is easier for the author to ignore parental influence. In this case, it makes sense.

Sporty Girl Rep: I always appreciate when hobbies and activities are included in books that aren't explicitly about those hobbies or activities. It's nice to have an athlete as a main character in a book that isn't, you know, a sports book. Any average American teen can tell you just how much of their time is spent involved in activities--sports, clubs, other hobbies--and yet these activities get so little screentime in teen media. So I appreciate that this book spends time at practice, in the locker room, at the games even though the sport isn't the actual focus of this book in any way. Because while Lauren's thinking about murder, she's also playing soccer.


CONS
Too Much: This book... really pushes what's okay in YA. And opening with a sex scene just felt like too much. We've got condoms, we've got talk about a "release," and we don't even really know the characters yet? This might be expected (but no more welcome, at least for me) in adult spaces, but in a YA book, it was kind of shocking to have sex right away. Also, in what high school world are kids encountering cocaine enough to casually comment, "I've been at enough parties to know what it is." What high school parties are swimming in cocaine? I've got a lot of questions about this. This book feels like it might have been written for an older demographic to begin with and aged down, but I don't think it was done well if that's the case. Teens experiment, sure, but do they really say, "Plenty of people do coke"?

How Stupid?: I'm sorry, but in what world do you find out your hook-up is probably a murderer and then not break up with him? Especially when you were already set on breaking up with him before you found out he was a (probably) murderer? There is absolutely no reason not to break up with him here. Lauren gives some "reasons," certainly, but even in context, these reasons feel pretty flimsy.

Shaming: I can get behind the idea that Lauren's peers would bully her about, you know, dating a murderer. Her teammates lost a friend, and they're pretty sure they know who did it. Why would they want his new girlfriend hanging around them? But as much as I can see getting shunned by her peers, the adults jumping in on it didn't make sense. Some of it is to give us red herrings throughout the book, but really, why is every adult man Lauren comes across in this book so skeevy? Makes no sense to me.


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/10
Fans of Wendy Heard's adult thriller You Can Trust Me will like the glitzy wealth of this new murderous teen book. Those who enjoyed Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder will like to dip into a brand new cover-up.

Wow for a debut author it was really good!! I started it and I couldn't stop reading, I needed to know what was going to happen. And the suspects © I would think I had it figured out and then nope I wasn't right! I love that in a mystery! I will definitely be watching for the next book from this author.
Thank you Net Galley and Trish Lundy for the privilege of reading an advance copy of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillian Publishing for the opportunity to read and review The One That Got Away with Murder which is now available at all book retailers. All opinions are my own.

Lauren has a bit of a troubled past. She has moved away from her problems with her mom. Unfortunately, her problems followed her, and she gained some new ones as well. This is her senior year; she plays soccer, meeting new people (including a no-strings attached relationship) with a boy who has a possible dark past as well.

Pros: This is a fast read jumping from one theory to the next about who is the murderer and who isn't. Pretty early on in the book I had it narrowed down to two different characters. This reminded me a little of Good Girls Guide to Murder minus the podcast. Lots of twists and turns to keep you engaged till the end. Happy Reading!

Lauren is about to start her senior year of high-school after moving from California to Pennsylvania. There was a scandal around Lauren at her last high-school and her Mom feels that a new start would do Lauren good. Plus Lauren's Mom can be near her long distance boyfriend.

Lauren is afraid to make new friends, because of a history that is slowly revealed. She does start a relationship with a boy, Robbie, who volunteers at her Mom's medical clinic job.

When Lauren's new soccer team warn her away from Robbie, Lauren makes some pretty stupid choices. Robbie and Trevor Cresmont are the community pariahs. Each of the brothers had a girlfriend die under suspicious circumstances. Yet Lauren agrees to spend a weekend with Robbie and lie to her Mom about where she would be. Lauren at times is overly harsh with her mother and self-centered.

Despite this beginning, I ended up enjoying the story. Lauren finds something, during her weekend with Robbie and his family and from there she starts digging in to what really happened. I had an idea, from the very beginning, who the killer of both girls was. It was the same conclusion Lauren and her eventual friends felt drawn to. We were all wrong.

ThanK you to Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the opportunity to enjoy this YA Thriller e-ARC

I think this was an interesting book and it has a kind of plot I would typically enjoy. It catches your attention and pulls you in.

omg.

Such a good book, highly recommend! If you like mystery and murder this is it.

I saw this ended coming about half way through BUT didn’t want to. Surely not! But yes.

Read it for sure.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review

This was a great debut, full of twisty turny goodness. I love the MC having secrets and bringing those emotional and mental traumas to her new life, and then having that world equally full of darkness and mystery. I do think the ending was wrapped up a bit quickly, and I would've loved a splashier climactic moment, but overall a solid read!

I give The One That Got Away With Murder 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4, because the world needs more soccer girl thrillers!

While this was definitely geared toward a more YA audience, as a fan of series like Pretty Little Liars and books like A Good Girls' Guide to Murder, this was right up my alley.

Lauren and her mother move across the country to be with her mom's boyfriend, but there's more to the story - this is a fresh start for Lauren. She's done something terrible, and her ex boyfriend will never be the same again. The reveal of the past was done very well, and it kept the reader's attention throughout.

Lauren's fresh start is going well. She made the varsity soccer team and met a cute guy named Robbie... But a night of team bonding with her soccer friends reveal a troubling past of Robbie and his brother, where their girlfriends end up dead. Between that, Lauren's past threatening to catch up with her, and her mom's fast-moving relationship, Lauren's fresh start is going up in flames.

A+ for character development. This hit like a Jaime Lynn Hendricks -- a really good "who done it" with lots of finger pointing. I had a few theories - they were wrong. Which I loved! A great summer read.

this is a YA murder mystery and it is very well written. The twists make sense but still completely surprised me. Lauren was a believable teenager and was very complex. She was very intriguing and the best part of the story.

I really wanted to love this one, and I definitely had some things I liked, but overall it felt kind of far fetched and the characters were not super likeable to me. I did enjoy the family drama and I was glad to find out what happened to the teenage girls in the end.

The One That Got Away With Murder is a fun whodunit debut thriller by Trish Lundy.

“Every girl the Crestmonts dates, winds up dead.”

Lauren arrives in a new high school her senior year running from her dark past. To move on, she starts hooking up with Robbie, a boy who volunteers at her mother’s job. Lauren quickly realizes however, Robbie has a dark past as well, darker than hers even, and his past contains a suspected murder of his ex.

Robbie’s brother, Trevor, also is suspected of murder of his ex, and so everyone warns her to stay away from them- they are bad news.

With short quick chapters, this thriller was a fun read, though the huge mass amount of characters straight from the beginning took a while to get sorted.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a fast paced thriller who doesn’t mind some plot holes, but just enjoys the “ride”.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was crazy, there were so many theories and suspects and new evidence being unraveled making you question everything you know about the characters. I loved it, I'm always down for a good mystery that shocks me and oh boy did this book shock the hell out of me.

But since I know that I won't be able to stop myself from spoiling the plot twist if I keep talking, I'm changing the topic, like how I loved that Lauren got her closure at the end and that we also got her whole backstory which was good, because I absolutely abhor it when I have more questions after finishing the book.

I'm happy that the murderer got put away and that the devil is always in the details and the parts you don't focus on when reading a mystery book. And finally, I'm happy that they all got their happy ending which was realistic and wholesome

4.25 stars

I started this book at bedtime and stayed up way too late finishing it in one go. Oops. But it was such a good time, in spite of--or maybe because of--the absurd and campy twist. When I say I didn't see that coming, what I mean is I sat up and said "WHAT" out loud at 3 am.

Lauren O'Brian has just moved to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania from California after a disastrous end to her junior year of high school. Before school even starts she finds herself in a no-strings-attached relationship with a future classmate, the wealthy and privileged Robbie Crestmont. Until she joins the varsity soccer team and learns that Robbie and his brother Trevor are infamous because all of their girlfriends end up dead.

Lauren is no stranger to the rumor mill capitalizing on personal tragedy and doesn't want to believe Robbie's capable of murder. But his ex was a soccer star too, and Lauren's new teammates are adamant: the Crestmonts are bad news, and their rich family and lawyer father are the only reasons they aren't in prison. But the only way to prove Robbie didn't do it is to find out who did---and when another death happens and more evidence starts to surface, Lauren grows less and less sure who she can trust.

I really enjoyed Lauren as a narrator, and the dynamics between her and the other major characters felt really authentic to read. They're all flawed, and while that meant they weren't always likable, it did make them easier to connect to. The banter between Lauren and her friends was hilarious, and I appreciated how the trauma of the characters' past colored their present relationships instead of just being brushed under the rug. There were a lot of red herrings in this and I was sure I knew who the killer was but was SHOCKED by the reveal. Like, I don't know if I like that the story went that way SHOCKED. It was bizarre, and I don't know how believable some elements were, but I didn't see it coming, so props to the author on that. I need someone to read it and come discuss with me, because once again, WHAT. I'll definitely check out her future works, since this one was a great time! Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.