An easy five stars. I can't wait to see what Roach does next. Please, all the queer thrillers forever and always.

Two girls, a town filled with secrets, murders, and a family of mysteries. Pitched as Knives Out meets A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, the story follows Lucy Preston, the daughter of a famous private investigator who was only suppose to go on vacation but finds herself being dragged into her mother's home town and all the secrets her mother has kept as they arrive at a new crime scene. Lucy's mom has kept her past a secret, she's never told Lucy anything about her family and now Lucy is determined to find the connection between her mom and the town. Then she meets Audrey Nelson, the mysterious girl who was riding a motorcycle on the night that Lucy and her mom found the body. Lucy and Audrey hit it off and decide to investigate together... but when more bodies start dropping and the next target could be Lucy.... they'll have to find out all the secrets before it's too late. I was so so excited to read this one because I absolutely adore Knives Out and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder... but it fell flat for me. it just never lived up to my expectations or the hype I thought. I was so excited to read a sapphic murder mystery romance but I just didn't really feel the romance all that much and i didn't really care for the mystery. The way the dialogue is written feels repetitive and boring. While this one was a miss for me, I do think other YA readers will have fun with it and I definitely would recommend it for younger mystery loving YA readers.

Release Date: August 6,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide | Disney Hyperion for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

4.5/5 ⭐️
Lucy is not thrilled to be dragged into one of her mom's investigations during her spring break. She is shocked though when she realizes she is going to her mom's hometown to investigate the death of an influential man. Her mom tells her to trust no one, but she can't help but be drawn to Audrey. Together, they start to investigate to prevent Audrey's mom from going to jail.

I really enjoyed this one! I felt it was really fast-paced, especially for a dual perspective book. Both characters were equally enjoyable to read and had fun personalities. I was expecting more clues/a wider variety of suspects rather than just all within the same family. The ultimate whodunit within the family was surprising though.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lucy and her mom, a detective, were on their way to a vacation that should have been a opportunity for them to reunite, but Mom got sidetracked to a murder in a small town. Small towns have histories and secrets and Lucy discovers her mother was involved in the town's past. Lucy connects with Audrey, a girl her age in the town who also is a bit of an outsider. Together they decided to unravel the town's histories and solve a murder. This is a standard noun adult mystery. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc and no pressure for a positive review.

Honestly, this book was a fairly engaging mystery while keeping the book in the realm of YA with some well-timed humor. The absolute best part was the adorable relationship between the two girls. I was rooting for them from the very first.

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for this digital arc.

A history rich in secrets, a trail of murders, and an eerie abandoned amusement park, made for a fast paced mystery that delivered. Audrey and Lucy were the shining stars of the book, both were headstrong, beautifully flawed, and loyal.

BETTER LEFT BURIED is a sapphic YA mystery where two teenage girls team up to investigate a murder and end up falling for each other along the way. i had such a great time reading BETTER LEFT BURIED that i finished it in one day. it really is THAT good. i loved both lucy and audrey as main characters but i especially loved their dynamic and the way they opened up to each other. i'm not much of a mystery reader so it doesn't take a whole lot for me to be surprised by twists but i loved the twists in this book and i audibly gasped several times as i was reading. even if you aren't a mystery reader, this is such a good book and i need everyone to read it!!

read if you like:
- dumbasses to lovers
- abandoned theme parks
- falling in love while solving a murder

thanks to the author and disney hyperion for the advanced copy! BETTER LEFT BURIED comes out august 6.

Better Left Buried by Mary E. Roach is a fun YA mystery with a twist that will have you shocked but will also take you on a crazy ride getting there.
This story begins when Lucy finds out her mom Katy is stopping to investigate a crime scene in the town of Haeter Lake, Tennessee instead of driving to the beach for spring break. The location… an abandoned amusement park with a previous history of death there. While in Haeter Lake Lucy meets Audrey who is around the same age and rides a motorcycle. Audrey’s mom is being charged for the murder of multimillionaire, Pierce Anselm who owned the park. There is a history with Audrey’s family and the Anselm’s, but Audrey is confident her mom didn’t do it and sets to prove that. Together the girls do their own investigating, sneaking around, and finding out clues to the current and past deaths. Along the way they find Katy has kept her own secret past with this town. Who can Lucy trust… her mom, the Anselm’s, or Audrey? Seems everyone has something to hide. Once another victim is murdered, the girls realize digging too deep puts them at risk.
This dual pov book was such an easy and fun read. The mystery of the town, who you can and can’t trust, the imagery of all the places visited, and the chemistry of Lucy and Audrey had me not wanting to put the book down. I could really see this book coming to life in a TV series with all the action and mystery surrounding this town and it’s abandoned amusement park.
The Anselm’s live in an old mansion and great detail went into describing it and the secret passages. It really helped bring me into the world as I read it, and I felt like I was hiding in the walls eavesdropping.

I’d like to thank Mary E. Roach for this ARC through NetGalley.

This was an interesting mystery with two fun characters. I loved the relationship between Katy and Lucy. The Anselms were appropriately awful. I do think the book could have used more editing. But overall it was a mystery that April Henry fans would adore.

"Better Left Buried" is a solid entry in the teen mystery/romance category (is it a "romastery"?). So these two precocious young women run around, disobeying their mothers and looking for clues. One of them gets caught constantly and is constantly threatened to be sent to her father's, but that never happens. Lucy and her mother do not have a healthy relationship. Aubrey is poor, looked down upon, and in mourning, but has a motorcycle so she's cool. Aubrey and Lucy fall in love, the mysteries are solved (kind of anticlimactic) and all is well.
Weird that I read two books in a row about murderous, abandoned amusement parks.
#NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley, Hyperion and Mary E. Roach for the ARC of Better Left Buried. I really enjoyed this YA mystery novel. It is a fun, clean story and I absolutely love Lucy and Audrey. I know a few of my library patrons will definitely devour this one.

Thank you for the chance to read this book. I did not really enjoy it, I've read a lot of modern YA books in the style (mysterious town, "weird" characters with secrets, a murder mysters, "quirky" main character with a "unique" relationship with their parent...) but others do it so much better. This just wasn't exciting, it was a bit trite. I found the relationship a completely tacked on and I did not buy their chemistry at all. I'm sure someone younger than me might like this, but there's so much better out there in this style.

I really enjoyed this. I found the idea that Lucy thinks their going on a vacation but ultimately gets dragged to her mother's hometown to solve a murder really compelling. I liked the pacing of this story--Lucy was finding clues, and finding out information about her mother's past at a frequency that served the story really well. I liked reading about the relationship between Lucy and Audrey, and though it's can feel really saccharine at times, their personalities provided really nice balance in the plot and storyline. I don't know if I would say that the dual POV was my favorite in this story--I almost think that we could have seen most, if not everything, unfold from Lucy's POV, but the second POV did offer the author a way to introduce certain plot points without slowing the story down.
Overall, I enjoyed this and I can't wait to get physical copies of this in for our library.

I wanted to like this one based on the premise, but it fell woefully short. I thought this was going to be more about the mom/daughter relationship, but the mom barely confides anything in her daughter and they’re at odds for the most part. The whole novel is this huge build up to a secret that her mother can’t bring herself to talk about, while also investigating a murder that you’re trying to unfold the details of. The ENTIRE thing is build up. And the conclusion was a let down. Honestly the only thing that kept me going was thinking I was going to find out something crazy, but I personally didn’t think it made up for powering through the book. The relationship between Lucy and Audrey is cute, almost a little too cute, but they offer each other a nice balance. That being said, this book is dual POV of the two of them, and for characters that are supposed to be so different, I sometimes forgot whose perspective I was in the middle of reading. I think it would have been better served all from Lucy’s perspective or even having a dual POV with Lucy and her mother. I unfortunately don’t have much positive to say about this one other than the cover is awesome.

I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

I absolutely love a thriller/romance hybrid so of course I was super into this book. Lucy thinks she and her mom are going on vacation, but instead they’re called to her mom’s hometown to investigate a murder. Lucy knows very little about her mom’s past and her mom is trying to keep it that way. But now that Lucy is here, she’s finally finding things out—like that her mom was raised by the wealthy family in town, who have some dark secrets of their own. In her investigating, Lucy’s path crosses with Audrey’s, a local teen whose connections to the mystery also bear looking into. Soon they’ve teamed up as they try and figure out what their moms aren’t telling them, and who’s killing people in this creepy little town.

Better Left Buried follows Lucy, who ends up entrenched in a murder mystery, instead of a spring break vacation, because she is the daughter of a famous private detective. This book surprised me with how it pulled me in and didn't let me go. I flew through the chapters and was just as determined as Lucy to entangle the web of secrets and lies that fill this book. I did find that I would have been satisfied with the book without the final chapter. It felt a bit like an add on to make everyone happy. That being said, this book kept me engaged from start to finish and I recommend it to both teens and adults that like a fast-paced puzzle to solve. This book is a great addition to any teen fiction collection.

Mary Roach is an artist. This book was scary and mysterious and I was worried for the main character's life several times but at the same time I was laughing and falling in love. I don't know how she manages to balance the high emotions of being a teenager in a spooky town where more people are being found dead. I really appreciated the mom character's humanity, it was really refreshing to see an earnest sibling-parent relationship. Thanks to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for an early read in exchange for my honest review.

Student Review

Daughter of Katy, Lucy gets involved in her mom's private investigation and uncovers things from her and her mom's past that were kept from her. She finds out who she is beginning in a town called Haeuter Lake. Lucy meets Audrey who teaches her about her past, and tags along with her when she investigates. Better Left Buried was adventurous and dug deep into the past of the characters, and their little town.

4

"KNIVES OUT meets A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER in Mary E. Roach’s debut YA mystery Better Left Buried, in which two girls try to get to the bottom of a town full of secrets, a family full of mystery and an abandoned amusement park where people keep turning up dead." I'd say it is a pretty good description of this YA mystery-laden sapphic romance!