Early 2000’s girl revenge vibes to the max.

i enjoyed this one, it was not a favorite but it was enjoyable! I loved AGGGTM so as soon as i seen this had similar vibes i knew i had to read it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how this awful boy had so many girls going after him. It was a quick book. I had a good time reading it. Just don't go in expecting a big mystery.

Described as John Tucker Must Die meets A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder I figured Heart-Shaped Lies was something right in my wheelhouse. Unfortunately, not. Every character is extremely unlikeable, especially Tommy. I would have to suspend disbelief to allow myself to believe that any girl would like him, better yet three different ones. He is a prime example of a walking red flag and has no redeeming qualities. I didn't even care who murdered him for this reason. But as someone who does not understand how to DNF (its probably my biggest fault), I pushed through to the end even though the book struggled to keep my attention.

The pacing was incredibly off in my opinion. Tommy took way too long to die! How are you going to have a whodunit and the murder doesn't happen until almost 50% into the book??? Nothing happens for sooooooooooooooooo long.

Like I brought up earlier, Tommy is a Grade A asshole. Most of his "pranks" if you can even call them that, were not pranks. It was just him abusing his friends, girlfriend, strangers etc. And none of them were funny so I found it hard to grasp him being an influencer and anyone caring to follow him. How he continuously managed to have supportive "friends" and fans, I will never understand.

I could maybe see teenagers who are embedded in influencer culture enjoying this YA thriller, but it was a miss for me.

Heart-Shaped Lies is a engaging thriller romance that follows Nevaeh, Priscilla, and Kiara— and their experience with scheming Tommy. When Tommy dies the girls become the prime suspects and a hacker causes complete chaos in their lives. I couldn't figure out who killed Tommy. The author did a fantastic job with the red herrings and kept me guessing while hating Tommy more and more. Lots of twists and secrets will keep readers turning pages of this fantastic read.

This is a good time read. Reminiscent of early 2000's girl revenge stories. Elements of John Tucker must die. An easy read - characters weren't particularly likeable but I think that it important to the story. Love the overall setting of an after hours part at a theme park. Tension and suspense were built into the story very well. Twisty in just the right places.
I really enjoyed this.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Heart Shaped Lies by Elizabeth Agyemang is a YA novel that had amazing suspense. I really enjoyed this book. It was like a mix between John Tucker Must Die and A Good Girl's Guide To Murder. This story was very well written and kept me wanting more. I didn't want to put it down. I was on my seat the whole time waiting to find out who killed Tommy. With so many characters, it was hard to guess who the killer was. They all had a motive. I will definitely be reading more by Elizabeth in the future.

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

Tommy Harding is a well known internet teen prank star. Many times his pranks go too far. With his epic senior prank at the senior theme park- a drunken party after hours in the park. Things go wrong and Tommy gets exposed for cheating on his girlfriend and claims his account has been hacked, as social media tears him apart. To my is found dead the next morning and his girlfriend, Kiara, partner, Pricilla, and latest fling, Nevaeh all look guilty of murder.

This is a YA novel that is full of unlikable characters but despite that I had a good time reading this novel

This book has such an interesting premise, but it struggled to hold my attention. It would have been more compelling if it were an adult thriller rather than one focused on immature teenagers.

The pacing felt a bit clunky, as the first half of the book was essentially just a build-up for Tommy's character. From the bus scene alone, it's clear that he’s a douche. I was hoping he’d meet his demise right away since that’s essentially the book's opener, but it took so long for us to get there.

Also, just how many girls can someone so publicly visible cheat with without getting caught? And honestly, what is there to like about him in the first place?

That said, there were a few aspects I found intriguing, like exploring just how deep everyone’s lies went. I also appreciated the way the author highlighted double standards for women, especially in the realm of social media.

Overall, though, I found the book pretty average. The concept was cool, but it lacked the tension and excitement I’d expect from a thriller.

This was an all-around fun teen thriller! I do wish the ending had been a bit different as it felt like a cheat in a way but leading up to the reveal the little suspenseful details were great like the angel costume (iykyk).

This ended up being a way different story than I thought it was going to be, but I was pulled into the story pretty much right away! It did feel like it took a bit longer than normal for something big to finally happen, but the slow burn & build up to the twists did pay off in the end. This was pretty twisty and just effed up on how all of these women were played by one guy. This felt more like a YA thriller to me, there’s nothing wrong with that, I just wasn’t expecting it to be YA at all.

If you’re on the fence about reading this one, I’d say go for it! It was a quick easy entertaining story and I’m happy I was given the chance to read this!! Excited to see what else this author has in the works for the future.

Read 11/27/24

🫀"Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats."🫀

🥀Another day, another great book tour/review. Today's book tour is for Heart-Shaped Lies by Elizabeth Agyemang.

📷SYNOPSIS📷
John Tucker Must Die meets A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder in this tongue-in-cheek mystery about three feuding exes of a social media prank star who are forced to work together to uncover the truth behind his death when his deactivated account resurfaces online with claims that one of them murdered him. Come for the mystery and intrigue, stay for the romance, drama, and betrayals!

🧠My Thoughts🧠
Books like this are the reason I still read YA. If you are looking for a fun, messy af whodunit then definitely add this book to your TBR!

Someone should have told poor Tommy Harding that you can't be an influencer from the grave.

It has all the elements of a perfect Book-Tok friendly binge read:

✋️A non-stop mystery
👥Three unreliable narrators
🪢Plenty of unexpected twists
🫠Several swoony romances

⛧A huge thank you to @getunderlined and @onceaddai for sending this book my way! And thank you to @storygramtours for hosting! Even though the book was gifted, all thoughts are my own.

Check my comment below for a link to buy the book!

💬ⓆⓄⓉⒹ: If you were cheated on, would you want to get revenge?

I read another book that was similar to this, that’s why i had to get my hands on this book. these books just prove that men aren’t worth it. because WHAT??? how do you even keep up with the lies? is it fun?? worth it?? well i guess not cause he left early on

3.8 ⭐️

This is the type of suspenseful YA that I’m all about. I was on the edge of my seat as the cards stacked against the trio of suspects. I love the unique setting, usage of social media, and how everything played out, leaving you unable to sort out the killer until the very end.

I appreciated the character dynamics and how they both bonded and distrusted each other all at the same time. And boy did I love to hate Tommy. He is so demented and I wanted to see him go down!

This is my first experience with this author, and I quite enjoyed the story. Overall, the writing seemed good with the exception of majorly overusing “other girl” and “girl” which felt like a disconnect from the story. It was very confusing at times, as it felt like a random girl entered the story all of a sudden.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and Elizabeth Agyemang for providing me with a complimentary ARC to review!

DNF at 40%. Spoiler alert: the murder victim still isn't dead. The pace of this book was way too slow for me. The book was forty percent done and it felt like nothing had happened yet. Instead the author kept repeating the same points over and over (the perfect girlfriend isn't so perfect, the affair partner is lusting after the taken guy, etc.), and introducing side characters who didn't seem all that important. I love a YA thriller but I would not recommend this book.

This gave all of the thriller vibes I needed. I was immediately sold with the 'John Tucker Must Die' because I used to watch that movie so much. And it definitely gave the JTMD vibes 100%. I will definitely be reading again and recommending.

Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent. Decent.

I liked the premise, the influencer found dead, the concept of the girlfriends finding out about each other, being accused of revenge. But I found the set up took too long. I liked the second half of the book and I wish we got flashbacks to previous events and less of the before he died part. I hated the characters but I liked hating them, and I liked the ending.
3.5 stars.

John Tucker Must Die, anyone? If you’re a fan of that movie, pick this book up. This young adult story finds three women with nothing in common, except they find they are all dating the same influencer. But unlike John Tucker, this one actually does die.

Meet Tommy- mega influencer and serious jerk. To the point he was such an uncharming jerk, I couldn’t believe any girl, let alone 3, would fall for it. Each moment I learned more about Tommy, was another moment I couldn’t believe a girl would forgive him for. The insecurity high school stereotype girl feels a bit overplayed and out of date, especially in 3 format. The way the female characters were written was eye rolling and insufferable, the way they kept going back for more as awful as Tommy was. You wanted to root for them but mostly, you wanted them to root for themselves. You have to make it about halfway through the book before it starts to feel less stereotypical. I think the story would have been told better in dual timelines.

The story was a good look at influencer life and the critique and pressures of “cancel culture”, particularly that of the non existence of it; and its effects on high school ages. Also, the author spent a lot of time, maybe too much, successfully building up everyone is a suspect. I would have loved to see the teenage girls as more than insecure, vying for a boy and ready to turn on each other.

This book was a wild one.

Right off the bat I hated Tommy. I'm pretty sure that was the goal, but I read a reveiw that said "It took too long for him to actually die" and I cant help but laugh and agree now.

I didn't really care for the other characters either. I didn't find Jonny bad, but man the rest of them really irked me. Kira wasnt horrible either.. I guess. Just couldn't really find a character that wasnt all about me me me.

That being said... it made for a great story line. Everyone wanted to protect themselves and the character who did it took us by suprise.