Member Reviews
thank you to netgalley and Macmillan Audio | Macmillan Young Listeners for allowing me to read this book. This book was such a fun ride. I love a good thriller
The One That Got Away with Murder is about a teenage girl Lauren that follows her mother from across the country to get a new start. Lauren is trying to escape from her trouble past to finish put her senior year.
Lauren meets and has a relationship with Robbie Crestmount, but Lauren soon learns that Robbie and his brother both have a girlfriends that were missing then murder. The students believe that Robbie and his brother are the reason for the two girls murders. Little did Lauren know that she is next.
The book kept me guessing. I was actually wrong about how the murder was. The characters were well developed and not awkward. There was even some guessing as to Lauren's past too. You find out there was a fire but the author doesn't come right and say what happened.
I actually recommend this book for our bookclub and to my daughter.
There’s been an unusual number of mysterious deaths in the past two years in Happy Valley, a small town in PA. They seem to be somehow connected to the same privileged family with two brothers, Robbie and Trevor. The new girl in town, Lauren, with her own dark past, starts to discover secrets that she feels may help unravel the truth or confirm who may be behind these deaths. The reader is led down several paths with many twists and turns and you are never sure who to believe or trust. The real murderer turns out to be someone completely unexpected and shocking!
Lauren has just transferred to a new school her senior year. It was ideal, but she had to get away after what happened at her last school. Her new school is okay though. She has soccer, and a no-strings-attached relationship with Robbie. A weekend away with him rocks her world when Lauren finds something that just might prove Robbie guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend, who supposedly drowned at their lake house. Now another body has just been discovered and Lauren isn't safe anywhere.
I liked this book. It's fast-paced and has all the classic YA mystery tropes we've come to know and love, Lauren was a great character. She's well-developed, and it's easy to feel sympathy for her, despite her checkered past. I didn't love Robbie, nor any of the other male characters in this book. They were all yucky in their own way. I almost DNF'd this because it jumped into sex right away. Luckily it was off page, so I stuck with it. Personally, I think it wasn't necessary to the story, and it wasn't the best way to introduce Lauren in my opinion.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. Helen Laser and Joshua Quinn were fine narrators, and this story is a quick read.
•YA
•Murder Mystery
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I enjoyed this ya murder mystery. The storyline and plot weren't predictable like murder mystery. I am normally ok with figuring out some of the storyline out, but this one had me puzzled until toward the end when the murder was revealed! And when I say I wanted to throw my phone around the room, because I totally didn't see that coming.
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The narrators Helen Laser and Joshua Quinn did a good job bringing this story alive. I wish we did get more of Joshua Quinn talking, but I mean, I understand why we didn't.
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Lauren O'Brian is the new girl in town. She is troubled about the previous incident that happened at her old school involving her. She then started a new relationship with Robbie. Robbie and his brother Trevor are accused of killing their previous girlfriends. During Lauren's last weekend with Robbie, she stumbles across shocking evidence that just might implicate Robbie.
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This is an edge-of-your-seat debut YA thriller about a teen who is forced to confront her past in order to catch a murderer before she ends up the next victim.
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♡ Audiobook Review ♡
♤ Release April.16 ♡
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♡Thank you, Netgalley, and MacmillanAudio for the ALC for my honest review.♡
This was a very well done debut! It will be interesting to see what this author comes up with for her next book. This was an edge of your seat thriller that will keep you guessing until the end as to who the murderer is.
Lauren is a young lady suffering from a trauma that only recently happened. She and her mom have moved to a small town in order to start off fresh. But Lauren is not so sure that can happen, and is reluctant to get emotionally involved with anyone. She acts aloof and uncaring, but we the readers can see through her tough girl act to the scared and vulnerable girl underneath. She is smart though, and determined to solve the mysteries of what really happened to the young women who were murdered. I liked her relationship with Robbie, even though she tried to not get emotionally involved with him, you could tell that she was developing feelings for him, even when she thought he could have killed his previous girlfriend. The trauma from her past is slowly revealed over the course of the book, which frustrated me a little as I wanted to know more about it to help me develop a better idea as to who Lauren really was.
There is a nice supporting cast of characters, some who are of course suspects. I kind of liked Robbie, even during the times when I thought he was guilty. He did seem to have a heart of gold, even when he was trying to act the role of bad boy. There are some girls on the soccer team that are also important to the story. They initially give Lauren hell when they discover her relationship with Robbie, but they do turn around as they get to know her. Lauren’s mom is also a great character and they have a really nice relationship.
The plot is very compelling and very well written with some really good twists and red herrings that will keep you guessing who the true murderer is. The pacing is well done, with lots of nicely done dialogue. I could have perhaps done with a little less commentary on the soccer games, but that is just me. The final reveal of who the murderer is was nicely done, but there could have been a better explanation of the motive for the first murder.
The two readers do an excellent job. Most of the book is told through Lauren’s perspective, so we only hear from Joshua Quinn at the end. Helen Laser does an excellent job of voicing Lauren and all of the emotions that she goes through in this book. Joshua Quinn also does a great job as the voice of the killer. I would definitely choose an audiobook with them as the readers again.
Overall it was really hard to believe that this was a debut. It is an excellent thriller with lots of twists that you won’t see coming. The audiobook was also well done and one that I would recommend you give a listen to. I will be keeping an eye out for this author’s next book. I think she will be an author to watch.
3.5 stars rounded.
The best part of this book is the writing style. This book isn't insanely cliché by any means, but it takes a familiar premise and some familiar elements and joins them together into a solid but relatively average story. The writing style, however, is exceptional. It made even the most unoriginal parts of this book entertaining and compelling enough to want to keep reading. If this is Trish Lundy's debut novel, then I very much look forward to seeing what she can come up with in the future with more experience under her belt.
Extra bonus points to the author for creating a list of content warnings, included in this link (I would recommend checking them if you are sensitive to certain content): https://trishlundy.com/books/
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I don't really know if I need to include that like I'm being sponsored or something, but eh.
This was an interesting mystery. I enjoyed the story and reveal. I would read more by this author. The audio narrators were excellent.
This was a really fun YA thriller! Lots of good twists and turns and a really good twist at the end! I do wish there had been more information about the killer fleshed out as to motive, but I did enjoy the character development of the main character, Lauren. The narration was also really good!
Overall, this was a fun read! Starting off, I was hooked! A new girl with a dark past comes to town and finds two brothers with two dead girlfriends? Count me in.
The middle of this book was a little slow for me. Everyone is trying to figure out who the killer is and coming up on dead ends.
Now the ending…. I was impressed by! Because the middle started to fall a little flat for me, I was sure that the ending was going to be predictable. WELL it definitely was not!! You for sure won’t guess whodunnit! 🕵🏼♀️👀🔎
This was kind of wild. There were lots of really good parts about this book, especially considering it's a debut. First of all, there were several reveals in here that genuinely shocked me (like the third person who died??? did not see that coming). I thought the characters all had really distinct voices and personalities, and the writing was pretty good. I think this is a really solid YA mystery debut, and I'd definitely be interested to see what the author writes next. I think she has a really solid foundation here.
And I really liked Lauren's arc over the book. The way her own personal story ended was really sweet and hopeful, and I liked it a lot. I was hoping it would go in the direction of giving her some much deserved closure, and I think the author handled it very beautifully.
There are still some things I didn't love though. The big two for me are the audiobook narrator and Lauren. The audiobook narrator did the whole thing in what felt like one tone, and it made the narration honestly really grating. I thought at first that I just didn't like the writing or didn't like Lauren's inner monologue, but after a while I realized that it was actually the narrator. Not to totally knock them; they did a great job on using different voices for different characters. But for Lauren, I felt like literally every sentence sounded exactly the same no matter the content of the words. I think I would've liked this more if I had read it physically.
Now on to Lauren. I didn't dislike her as a character necessarily, but for like 50% of this book she was genuinely being so frustrating. I think this book should've stopped being about investigating Robby about 30% in, because I think the whole investigation afterwards with the five of them was so solid and much more intriguing. I genuinely spent the entire first half of the book wanting to scream because Lauren was being so stupid and judgemental and making the entire ordeal longer by refusing to see the obvious. The fact that she was so dead-set on being suspicious of the Crestmonts was so annoying. And maybe it's meant to be a parallel to Trevor and his particular theory about what happened, but it just made me want to slap her.
On a lesser note, I thought that Mara's friendship with everyone by the end was unearned. John, Robby, Lex, and Lauren had a really solid foundation for being a little group, and Mara felt totally out of place because it felt like she had done a full 180 in order to be included. I think if we had spent less time on Robby and how "suspicious" he was, Mara could've been more fleshed out.
And finally, oh my god they were so judgemental about Ainsley. It was so uncomfortable! Yeah she's doing shitty things and it's not something to be romanticized, but they were outright shaming her for having an addiction. She deserved better honestly.
This was a pretty solid YA thriller. There was just enough action without being too crazy to keep my attention. There were a lot of twist and turns. At some points I think there might have been a little too many twist in turns. It kept me on my toes with trying to figure out who the killer was, but it could get a little confusing.
My only dislike of the book was how Lauren's mom fell so hard so fast for Mark. She basically moved her and her daughter in with a guy she fell for on the internet without really knowing him that well. It came off as desperate and I wasn't a fan of that message.
All in all I enjoyed the book. I definitely didn't expect the killer to be the killer in this one.
Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the ARC!
I really liked this story.. I thought for sure that I had it figured out. But I didn’t.
The author was able to make me feel for Lauren and hope things workout for her.
I was so captivated by the story that I was getting annoyed when I had to pause it while working because people kept coming to my desk.
I wanted to like this one but I just couldn't get into the audiobook. I found the narrator didn't hold my attention. I paused the eARC audiobook but I might still try the physical/ebook.
I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.
This was such a gripping read. Although at times it felt a little too adult to be a teen read, the story was so compelling, with many twists I didn't see coming. I will definitely be recommending this. The narrator was also top notch, and conveyed all the emotions and turmoil going on within the character.
I think I might have whiplash from all the twists and turns in this book. Every time I thought I figured out the mystery another clue emerges and throws all my predictions out the window. Really well done in regarding to forcing me to continue to read.
I really enjoyed Lauren's character and how she was determined to solve the mystery of two high school girls deaths while also dealing with her own grief of a life she left behind in her old town. Lauren's character development was done so well and had me routing for her the entire book.
While I really enjoyed this book I did feel like there was some major plot points missing especially revolving around Mark's character. While a lot of my questions were answered in the last few chapters I was still left wondering once the book was done.
If you are a fan of Holly Jackson then this book is for you. This book was an easy read and never seemed to slow down!
I listened to this audiobook and the narration by Helen Laser and Joshua Quinn was amazing and truly brought the story to life.
this was such an amazing book! i was hooked from the beginning. it was so engaging and entertaining. some of the twists i didn’t see coming. i would totally listen/read it again!!
This was okay. Narrator did a good job but the story line fell flat for me. I felt like it was pretty similar to other thrillers I’ve read. The story line was enough to keep me hooked but it wasn’t really much to write home about.
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio ARC! The One That Got Away with Murder by Trish Lundy is the perfect recipe for a great YA thriller! Lauren moves to Pennsylvania with her mom to get a fresh start during her senior year of high school. She starts hooking up with Robbie Cresmont and soon chaos ensues. She is tangled in a web of murders and she is determined to uncover the truth before she becomes a victim. I loved the twists and turns in this book. If you're a fan of Jessica Goodman (They Wish They Were Us) and Karen McManus I highly recommend this. The audio was done really well too.
I enjoyed this very much! It was enough of a mystery to keep me guessing. It reads more like a teen/YA book, in my opinion. It has "One of Us is Lying" vibes. If you liked that book, you will probably like this one. The ending felt a little rushed, but overall, I enjoyed how the secrets were revealed throughout.