3.5 stars

I'm not someone who usually reads a lot of mystery/thriller. It's a genre that's always been disappointing and I lowkey have given up on it. And then I stumbled upon Prom Queen . From the premise itself, I knew this would be a pretty interesting read. To be honest, I was expecting the pacing to be quite slow but it was much faster than I expected. It was action-packed and full of intense scenes, to keep you on your toes. Trust me, I didn't put this book down because I wanted to keep on reading. I had a few guesses on who the suspect could be, but in the end, the person I had guessed, turned out to be wrong (but not exactly....spoilers!!).

While I am not someone who reads this genre, for those who are a fan of mystery thrillers, Prom Queen is a pretty enjoyable read!

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of Prom Queen in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. What a mind bending read. There were so many things I loved about this book.

1. I loved our main character and narrator Brooke. She was incredibly relatable and hard not to like. She was the quirky, artsy, non-popular, girl-next-door that you may have been friends with or may have been yourself.

2. This was one book where a jumping timeline between past and present really worked wonders for the plot and kept me guessing over who had "murdered" (maybe? or was it really a suicide?) her ex-best friend from high school. You find out so much that happened by the older timeline, while current Brooke works to figure out a. if her friend was murdered in the first place, b. if she was, then who did it, and c. who is leaving her these creepy threatening notes. Along with worrying the a podcaster that came to town might blow up her life.

3. The podcaster section of the story. This is something I've seen in A LOT of books lately (and have gotten a little bored by), but Wolfe managed to make it both a central, yet more so supporting part of the mystery. It wasn't what the story was about, which was refreshing, and just added another investigative piece to the puzzle.

4. THE TWISTS. Can we talk about how this was a thriller in which I never saw the ending coming. There of course were hints along the way, and maybe some of you readers will see them more clearly than me....but I never predicted the ending at all. In fact, I had a thousand other ideas of who might have been the murderer. Never guessed it....and I like to think that as an English teacher, I have a knack for picking up on foreshadowing. Not this time.

10/10 this was a seriously fast read. I started it yesterday and managed to finish within 24 hours. I could not put it down, and could not stop wondering what happened. Highly recommend.

My first Laura Wolfe book and definitely not my last. I devoured this book!! I *love* books that have a podcaster trying to solve old crimes and this one did not disappoint. And I also love books that keep you guessing the whole time. I changed my mind so many times. And the ending! A complete page turner and I highly recommend.
Thank you NetGalley for my advanced copy.

High school prom queen dies the night of prom. Did she jump or was she pushed? 20 years later small town secrets start coming to light thanks to a true crime podcaster that comes and stirs things up.

Wait wait wait wait.... what?! That ending was EVERYTHING! Just when you think you have your answers, BOOM! Something new comes to play. The time line jumps also really brought everything together for me. Apparently you really don't want to peak in high school.... yikes. This book was so well done and I enjoyed the carrie-esk story.

I absolutely loved Prom Queen. I loved all the twists and turns, I enjoyed all the characters and was rather shocked by the highly satisfying ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

I would like to start by thanking NetGalley and everyone involved in allowing me early access. All opinions are my own.

“Prom Queen” is a captivating thriller about prom queen Bailey Maddox who allegedly kills herself after being coronated prom queen. 20 years later, a podcaster comes to the small village of Cove Haven to question whether Bailey killed herself or was murdered.

The starting is very captivating, we get right away into the story and the short chapters, as well as the dual timeline keep the reader interested from early on. I enjoyed this thriller, and would recommend to everyone who is looking for a fast pace and addictive book. It has some plot twists and an ending that I was very far from imagining. The only downside, for me, was the lack of multiple point of views, which lead me to think some characters were less developed than others. Additionally, the multiple POVs would increase the suspense, as some chapters in the middle don’t give this vibe and could have ended up with bigger cliffhangers. Other than that, I enjoyed this book and for sure want to know more of Laura’s books.

This review will also be available on my Goodreads profile and, later on, on my instagram account (@cat.literary.world)

This is a good and well written thriller told over a dual timeline.

Best friends Brooke and Bailey have been bffs since forever. At the end of high school Bailey finds cheerleading and cool friends and moves away from her childhood friend. Drink, parties and secrets lead to the death of one of the friends.

Years later the death of one of the friends after their prom is revisited by a podcaster. Many of the original characters are still or back in town. Who has so auto hide?

Well written and a good sense of threat and terror. Well worth a read.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Prom Queen written by Laura Wolfe was a find on NetGalley last month. A suspenseful YA/NA novel that promised lots of intriguing fun. It's the first book I've read by the author, and I enjoyed it enough that I'll give more a chance. I was glad it didn't focus on too much drama at the prom, rather the events leading up to the big dance and then a murder, but little focus on the specific events at the prom. In a way, this helped generate solid mystery and kept it more as a New Adult novel, given much of the plot takes place a decade plus later.

Podcasters are all the rage right now, and I'm a fan of Only Murders in The Building, so this lent itself well to current tropes. Writing was good. Character development felt natural. I missed a bit of balance between attitude and empathy, mostly feeling like there weren't any black or white characters (in terms of shades personalities, not skin color)... everyone was sorta normal except one person who wasn't - but that was the killer, whose identity we didn't know and kinda surprised me. A fun read for a rainy afternoon.

Prom Queen is a fun coming of age thriller that had strong true crime vibes with characters that all wear the trauma of the past on their sleeves. The teenage years impact us in ways that we fail to see at the time. Parental marriage breakdowns, friendships drifting apart and life experiences being just a few that alter our personalities from our formative years and beyond. Prom Queen does a good job of breaking that down and examining how lives can take a drastic turn no matter is you want them to or not.

Brooke was never going to be part of the popular crowd, but she didn’t care, she had her best friend, Bailey, and their group of misfits. That was until Bailey got into the cheerleading squad and literally dumped Brooke like a hot potato. She still wore her friendship necklace, but she was pretty much checked out from the relationship despite wearing the matching piece of jewellery.

I know that teenagers are extremely fickle beings. They fall out more times than I have hot dinners. It only takes an unkind word or a perceived slight to set them off. Believe me I own one of them! But I found the actions of Brooke sickening. I got quite angry reading the scenes were she would basically use her friend for nothing more than amusement got me wild. If I’m being honest there weren’t really any of the characters that were particularly likeable.

This wasn’t my favourite read if I’m honest. I’m such a character orientated reader and I like them to have strong backstories and I just felt as though that it was all plot and not much character. They lacked substance and grit. We knew really from the outset of how the night of Bailey’s death panned out and there weren’t many secrets to be unveiled. It took the mystery out of the mystery novel.

The podcaster element has been done before and I didn’t feel that it really brought anything new to the table The story was okay, but it didn’t stand out as anything special in a genre that has almost seen it all. I need to be shocked, and Prom Queen just wasn’t able to do that for me.

Title: Prom Queen
Author: Laura Wolfe
Pub Date: 09 Oct 2023
Rating: 3.5/5

I just want to start off by saying how much I enjoy books that introduce the mystery on the first page. I think it was clever to pique the readers' interest in where it might go.

Prom Queen centers on Brooke, who has returned to her high school hometown because she needs to sell her deceased mother's house. Twenty years ago, on the eve of their prom, Bailey, her best friend from high school, died, and the cause of death was determined to be suicide. However, a podcaster named Hannah has arrived in town to look into the matter once more and determine whether it was truly a suicide.

It took me a few chapters to get used to the dual timeline, but I believe that the plot works incredibly well because of how the past and present are happening at the same time.

My only complaint is that the true crime podcast cliché in thrillers is starting to grow old on me. It's probably the third book this year that I've read that revolves on a podcast, but I kept reading this one because I was curious about what happened to Bailey.

To anyone who like a good mystery, I highly recommend this book. The epilogue's twist was just incredible.

Thank you to Laura Wolfe, NetGalley, and Bookouture for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A Prom Queen, whodunit, high school murder or suicide mystery full of suspense with a duel timeline ....what more can one ask for!

This book is full of misdirection and plot twists. The I Know What You Did Last Summer/Carrie/Mean Girls vibes had me not wanting to put this down. And the ending....shook

Thank you NeGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Just wow! When I thought that I had the ending all figured out, this author goes and pulls the rug out from underneath me! Such a chilling and thrilling read. highly recommend and can not wait to see where this story goes.

Twenty years ago, Bailey died. It’s twenty years later and Brooke, Bailey’s best friend, is back in the small town where it happened. The townspeople think she is involved, but when strange things happen, Brooke must find who really committed the crime.

A novel filled with red herrings and plot twists, to keep us guessing. I found my heart pounding at certain scenes, intrigued at what was going to happen next. This was a super fast-paced thriller and I couldn’t put it down.

A fantastic read I would highly recommend.

What a fab, fast paced thriller!
I read this in 2 days because I just couldn't put it down.

There's so many twists that I really doubt you will be able to suss out the ending before it happens!

Definitely recommend reading if you like edge of your seat thrillers

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

How can one not not be interested in this book after reading the cover. I mean come on! This is a high suspense mysterical novel with a twist to whodunit. I love the writing style and it was the perfect book to read when i was feeling overwhelmed cause i flew through it.
4/5

@lwolfe.writes has written a fantastic psychological thriller that will leave you guessing and completely in shock with the ending of Prom Queen! A podcaster comes to town to investigate whether the suicide of the 2003 Cove Haven Prom Queen was just that or whether she was murdered. The podcast investigation brings to light secrets that townsfolk would rather have left in the dark. This story is told in dual timelines and will leave you guessing until the very last page. I highly recommend reading this one!

Thank you @bookouture and @netgalley for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

(This review was also shared on the Barnes & Noble website)

Wolfe is a favorite of mine. I’ve read many of her previous titles and with each book she keeps me more intrigued than the last one.
Prom Queen by Laura Wolfe is a story that is fantastically written with vivid descriptions.
She has written a thriller full of twists and turns that hit you when you are least prepared for it.
This is the perfect read if you looking for something that is really intense to capture your attention from the very start. The characters are so interesting and devious.
Overall, the book is fast-paced, suspenseful, and fun to read.
A thrilling and twisty ride, I found this book to be very entertaining and I really enjoyed the ending.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Bookouture for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

We were all there 20 years ago...only one of us killed her...

Oh gosh...thank goodness I am not in high school any more! This was truly painful. The lies, the backstabbing, the cruelty...everything just took me back to those horrible years I wouldn't want back. Whoever said that high school are the best years of your life was not an outsider who could only watch the popular kids. And what I remember of my own high school years had nothing on the cruelty played out here.

Twenty years ago, Bailey was crowned Prom Queen and just hours later she was dead. Given her depressed state leading up to the event, her death was ruled a suicide. But was it really? There has always been that whisper of gossip lurking in Cove Haven around the young girl's death that people knew more than they let on. And rumours were only inflamed when some of the friends left town soon after graduation. Guilty conscience? Or did they know something?

Twenty years later, Brooke returns to Cove Haven to renovate and put her childhood home on the market after the death of her mother. It's the first time she has set foot in the town since she left after graduation. Just days into her stay she meets podcaster Hannah Mead after catching sight of the missing pendant she'd given Bailey for her seventeenth birthday...one half of a pendant that was never seen again after Prom night. It's the pendant which is the basis for Hannah's new podcast about the death of a Prom Queen. But how did it end up in Hannah's possession?

Brooke doesn't reveal who she is or that she gifted the pendant to Bailey or that she still has her half sitting in the jewellery box back in her childhood home. Instead she offers to buy it from her and then makes her escape before Hannah can ask her any further questions.

It isn't long before Hannah's questions begin to get a little too close to comfort for some in town. But does that mean that the podcaster is getting closer to uncovering the truth? And if so, what does that mean for the town? For Brooke? And all those involved twenty years ago?

Honestly, I did not like hardly anyone in this book. But Bailey was one of the worst. The way she treated someone who was her best friend the way she did without a backward glance, all in the name of popularity, it was horrible. I could see myself in Brooke. Time and time again, being there for Bailey, picking up the pieces when her "new friends" let her down...only to stab her in the back just moments later. She was the type of person I loathed, and still do. Two-faced backstabbers. I had no sympathy for whatever came Bailey's way because she made her bed.

The book was a fairly quick and fast paced read but it was disturbing on so many levels. I did enjoy the past and present timelines, which is often my favourite format. It revealed just enough of the story and drip fed us enough information to steer us in the right direction while still keeping us blindfolded along the way. The drama got a little boring after a while, with a whole lot of teenage angst and then the rehashing of it. The villain was a shock but at the same time no real surprise. Not when you discover why. Then it makes sense. I loved the epilogue. That threw a real twist into the mix and a real sting in the tail. I loved it. Nice move.

Overall, a quick and entertaining read for the most part that keeps you turning the pages until the final delicious twist.

I would like to thank #LauraWolfe, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #PromQueen in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

Thriller alert! This one grabs the reader and takes them on a wild ride of intrigue! Love the plot twist. Filled with red herrings. Characters are well developed. Starts out with the death of a prom queen and propels you twenty years forward. Intense reading at it's best! Thanks#Netgalley and #Bookouture for the eARC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine.

I love this author and she didn't disappoint! This is an edge of your seat thriller you won't want to stop reading!
Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read and review book!