This YA thriller brought all the twists! This is perfect for readers who want a fast-paced romantic thriller. I found the young adult confusion and uncertainty that intertwined both the mystery and all of the relationships between the characters heightened the stakes and made it such an engaging read. Yes, things might seem slightly unrealistic at times, but unhinged ‘bad guys’ and ‘this could only happen in a movie’ situations were what made this enjoyable. In fact, this could be a movie and will be right in the wheelhouse of readers who enjoy Pretty Little Liars. Who are the friends and who are the enemies? Buckle in and enjoy this ride.

3.5 stars, rounded up
——————

Girls Who Burn follows Addie as she attempts to find her sister’s killing, putting herself in the line of fire along the way.

This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I had to know who the killer was and how they played into the story. Was there a killer or was it a suicide? Was it random? Was it a friend? I could not put this book down until I knew and never once did I see it coming until it got there. The killer was not someone I expected. The thriller aspect of the book was interesting and engaging. It was realistic, too, not fantastical like some teen mysteries can be. The plot makes sense in the concept of two teens investigating a set of murders. The characters were well written and fit the story well. Their grief was well handled and raw. I just wish there was more thriller plot. The book focuses so heavily on developing the relationship between Addie and Seth that the plot gets buried in sweet nothings and misunderstandings. The relationship between Addie and Seth takes up so much of the book, but it was sort of underwhelming. As was the overall motive of the killer. I found it to be unrealistic, sort of unbelievable and entirely out of character.

This one is absolutely for the YA thriller fans.

"The summer before her senior year, Addie hurled the worst words she could think of at her sister—and hours later, Fiona was found dead at the bottom of a ravine. The police ruled her death an accident, but Addie has never bought it. Her ballet-prodigy sister didn’t slip and fall; she was pushed. Addie’s number one suspect: Thatcher Montgomery, the rich boy down the street who always had a thing for Fiona. No one believes her—least of all Thatcher’s cousin Seth, Addie’s childhood rival and the boy she’s always loved to hate. Arguing with Seth is easy; living with her own questionable choices involving Seth the night Fiona died . . . much harder. But when one year later Thatcher is found dead at the bottom of the same ravine, Addie is forced to admit she was wrong. To catch the real killer, she’ll have to seek help from the only one she can trust—the boy she was with during both murders."

5 star read!!!

I picked this arc on a whim and am so glad I did. This has been my favorite arc of the year so far.

The story is a story that has been written a thousand times but the way the author wrote the story and characters it stood out to me. The story had an amazing flow. The twists and turns were perfectly timed. I was on the edge of my seat while reading and struggled to put it down. I devoured this book quickly. The atmosphere of the book was so well written that it drew me in. The underlying angst that Addie was dealing with was weaved so cleverly through the story. Addie was written in a way that made her realistic and the readers will be drawn to her. She was well developed. Her emotions and demeanor were realistic for a young girl that had tragically lost a loved one. She could come across as surly and insecure but this is a realistic view from how she was raised and what she dealt with. I really enjoyed the enemy to lovers aspect of the book and found myself rooting for her and Seth to be the silver lining in the tragedy that drew them together.

I received a copy of this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

This storyline follows a woman called Addie, who has recently lost her sister Fiona to a fall down a ravine, deemed by police to have been an accident.

Addie couldn’t wrap her head around her ballet-loving, agile sister somehow falling to her death, nor why she was even down by the ravine in the first place.
She always suspected it was Thatcher, the rich kid on the block who was absolutely obsessed with Fiona, knowingly having issues together before the incident happened. Addie preached to the police and on Internet forums, trying with everything she had to get Thatcher behind bars and get justice for her sister.

That is until a year later, when another death occurs in nearly the same exact spot…and Addie was close enough to the ravine to hear him scream. Running to the edge to find where the scream came from or any signs of people around, she sees him. Thatcher..
Dead.
And suddenly everything she’s known crashes.
Who killed Fiona and Thatcher? Who can she trust?
•••
*4 stars
This was a twisty YA mystery novel that truly kept me thinking as I tried to figure out what was happening with all the moving pieces throughout the story.

Character wise, I felt it lacked a little bit. There were little quirks that were mentioned of characters throughout that weren’t really elaborated upon (Addie counting prime numbers when she’s nervous, for example,) or simply only stating the bigger pictures of scenarios growing up in their lives that left the story sometimes harder to follow. There’s also the whole enemies to lovers trope that was thrown into the mix.

Overall though, if you’re looking for a quick read, this book was definitely entertaining and a fun mystery to try and solve!

Thank you NetGalley and the Penguin Group for granting me an early ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was definitely a fun easy read, but it felt like it was missing something to make it that much enjoyable! The plot was fun, had me on the edge of my seat Ava wanting to devour the book!

I wanted to like this book.

So badly that I could taste it.

unfortunately my interest in this book died after I figured out that [the mc basically cheated on her current bf with the guy she had chemistry with and they had a one night stand (hide spoiler)] and I figured out the killer pretty dang quick.

I know I read a lot of thrillers but I didn't expect to figure it out that fast.

No hate to the author whatsoever.

But no one burned in this book (deceiving title) so ig i can put my fire extinguisher away...



I received a complementary ARC of this book via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.



pre-review:
Review is currently simmering in the ravine with all the dead bodies

I’m not the right target audience for this, but it was a quick read that kept me entertained. It gives A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder vibes but doesn’t reach the same level. I wouldn’t call it a knock off but you can tell where the inspiration came from.

This is a 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for me!!

Such a great read from start to finish! This compelling novel will keep you guessing from the start! I loved the ongoing mystery and the final twists near the end. I thought I knew who the culprit was, but the author did a great job of fooling me! 😊

I fell in love with Seth - such a caring, understanding, and helpful guy who only wants what's best for Addie.
Addie, on the other hand, would sometimes frustrate me with the decisions she made. I did like, however, how she did not give up and kept digging information to find out who murdered her sister. I am glad this story had a happy ending (as much as it could be).

I will definitely be reading more books from M.K. Pagano. This was my first novel by this author, and it did not disappoint!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The small town of Bier’s End is rocked by the death of a promising young ballerina named Fiona who was destined to attend the American Ballet Academy. With no reason to suspect murder city officials classify the death as a suicide/ accident and the town starts to pick up the pieces. The only problem is Fiona’s feisty younger sister Addie is convinced that it wasn’t an accident or suicide instead she thinks Thatcher Montgomery, one of the sons of affluential wealthy family is to blame. The only problem with her thinking that Thatcher was the one to kill her sister is that he ended up dead the following summer in the same exact manner. With her top suspect dead Addie is forced to look at friends and enemies as suspects.
Together with their childhood nemesis and one-night stand Seth Mongomery, she tries to piece together clues to solve her sister and Seth’s cousin Thatcher’s’ murders. Addie thought working with Seth to solve the murders would be easy, but nothing is easy when memories of that hot summer night a summer ago are burning beneath the surface.
However, in small town cops are corrupt and secrets get buried and people trying to discover the truth end up dead or disappear. Just when Addie and Seth think they have figured out who killed her sister and Thatcher they are blindsided by another clue and sent a whole different direction.
The Girls Who Burn is the ultimate whodunit that will keep you guessing until the murder is finally revealed. This enemy-to-lovers page turner will keep you enthralled until the last page.
This is my first book by debut author MK Pagano, and it won't be the last, as I look forward to reading more of her in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group/Nancy Paulsen Books for sharing a digital copy for my honest review.

Penguinteen truly never disappoints with their thrillers MK Pagano truly wrote a gripping and fast paced story, that I could NOT put down and read in one sitting on this perfect gloomy day. there were so many twists and turns, short chapters (which I adore) and every one left me on a total cliffhanger so I truly could not stop!! I highly recommend you mark your calendars for July 16, 2024 because this is your perfect summer thriller read - romance, riches, secrets and so much more! Thank you @penguinteen for the advanced readers copy! 4/5 ⭐️!!

I enjoyed this quick little thriller and it was an easy read. I’m a huge fan of the murder mystery, and YA mysteries are always great page turners.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! This book will be out in July.

Lately, I’ve been reading lots of YA mystery/crime novels. Many of those have been debuts. Most of them have moved in original and interesting directions, proving that writing for a young audience doesn’t mean having to write about the same things in the same ways.

Well… all good things have to end and my continuous good-luck strike with innovative and interesting YA books has been broken.

Girls Who Brun is not a bad novel. Not in the most strict sense of the expression. It is well-written, the story moves along at a good pace and some of the events are kind of intriguing. The problem is that all of it has been done before in a very similar way.

In other words, this book failed to surprise me or impress me in any positive way.

The characters feel like flat sketches. For instance, Addie Blackwood, the protagonist of the story and whose sister died a year before in very suspicious circumstances, recites prime numbers when nervous. Well, reciting prime numbers past one-hundred (fyi, there are only 25 prime numbers between 1 and 100) isn’t an easy endeavor. Since, on more than one occasion, Addie’s supposed to recite prime numbers for more than twenty minutes at a time, she must be some kind of mathematical prodigy, yet there is nothing else in how Addie sees the world pointing to such a trait. None of her actions or inclinations show that she has an affinity for math or a real reason to be able to list prime numbers into the thousands (again quite a difficult thing to do). Yes, she has been accepted to Rutgers and she plans to complete a master's degree to go into academia, but those facts are not part of her, they’re just coloring filling the big blank where her love for numbers and her everyday life should connect. For me, this is just one example about how Pagano tried to build her characters by throwing random facts about them, instead of actually thinking about how those facts may have served to form their personalities and control their reactions.

Similarly, every trait of Addie’s brother's personality and temperament changes—from innocent and happy to serious and dramatic—not in response to changing circumstances and time, not as in a character developing along the story, but simply to fit the particulars of each scene.

As I said, the story is not a terrible one, I will go as far as to call it entertaining, but it feels flat and empty in every place where roundness and meatiness are the most needed.

Also, Pagano went for the lowest common denominator, with the motives behind the crimes being the most cliché one can think of.

One more thing, even though the characters are in their late teens, which may serve as a forgiving fact to the many unexplained contradictions along the story, some of them are too glaring not to bother me. For instance, there’s a moment when Addie gets mad because Seth didn’t tell her about something that had happened a year before. The thing is, how can he have told her anything when she had blocked him out of her life? Short of sending her a letter, how did she expect him to inform her of anything?

Anyhow… if you like quick-moving crime stories with lots of tropes in their making, this is the book for you. It, sadly, wasn’t the book for me.

Two-and-a-half stars.

My FAVORITE YA Thriller (in a while)…

MK, this is a VERY GOOD BOOK!!!

Admittedly, I don’t often find myself perusing the YA section. However, I have come across few thrillers in this category that drew me in the way GIRLS WHO BURN did. I think the last one was A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER?

There aren’t any glaring similarities that jump out between the books, except YA and both held my interest. Also, in both cases I caught myself wondering if I would have been as smart or as dumb (whatever the case was at a given point) when I was a very young adult—and isn’t that what it’s all about?! Getting excited about the story & making a connection to the characters!

I love that I related to the characters AND ENJOYED the story. There was mystery, there were twists, and no one WILL BELIEVE WHO THE BAD GUY IS???!!! OMG! Just saying ;)


#GirlsWhoBurn #AGoodGirlsGuideToMurder #YA #YAThriller #NancyPaulsenBooks #PenguinTeen #EnemiesToLovers #2024Debut @mk_pagano @netgalley @bookshell_f

I love a good thrillerbook. This one was exciting and fun. I felt like the pace was good too. I enjoyed this book a lot and would recommend it to others.

Overall this is a really great fast paced YA mystery/thriller! I didn’t think I would enjoy the enemies-to-lovers as much as I did, but I really enjoyed it! I found each character to be super interesting and low-key thought each one of them could have played a role in the mysterious death of Addie’s sister, Fiona! The further I read the more the twist became unpredictable to me! I also want to add that I really enjoyed how this book ended!

She burned too bright for . . . all of this.”. This book! I felt so strong for Addie; she’s lost her sister; her mother and herself. The story follows Addie as she sets on a mission to find out what happened to her sister and find an away to redeem herself. This is Scooby doo with a love story. You'll never see the twist coming. I loved this book and would love to follow Addie and Seth in the future.

When I first picked up this book, the cover made me think it would be a sweet little mystery appropriate for middle graders, but the summary had me interested. I’m glad I continued because it definitely is not a book for middle grade kids and it was super good. A slow burn romance/thriller is definitely my genre. My only issue was that the conclusion left me wanting a little in that the “villain” explained everything and forced pieces to fit (rather than that “OH” moment the reader gets when seeing how the pieces fit once the “villain” is revealed), so that combined with the cover and title not matching the story, I gave it 4 stars.

this is one of those quick reads you can finish in one sitting. not just because of the page count, but also because of how i couldn't put it down. some may say this is another typical YA thriller, but i still found it written so well and gripped my attention. it's twisty, riveting, fast-paced, and cleverly put together.

i especially loved the MFC, Addie. despite being a teen, she felt relatable. she's not just another teen girl going through the usual teen angst story line. but with everything she's been through and is still going through, it made her real. the side cast of characters made for a well-rounded story and kept you wondering what secrets they kept.

i'd definitely recommend this. i enjoyed the writing style and the way the story was crafted. this author is someone i think we can look out for in the future. wouldn't mind reading more of their works. 4/5 STARS for me!

thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group, and Nancy Paulsen Books for allowing me the opportunity to read this book. i received this as an ARC and leave this review voluntarily.

You can read through this very quickly in one sitting. The story keeps you entertained but I'm not sure how particularly memorable it will be. Also this is not a big deal, but while it's a cool title I'm not sure where it came from/what it's referencing, even after reading the novel.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 Stars
First I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a very fast read and a good quality YA Mystery/Thrilled with plenty of twists and turns.
While I figured it out, it wasn’t until later in the story which was a nice treat for once.

There was t great character development but it really didn’t matter. You knew enough to engage with the characters and root for them throughout.

It did remind me a bit like Pretty Little Liars so fans of that series will enjoy this book.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again