Having read Kara’s work with “the cheerleaders” I was so excited to request and read this one.

I love a good YA thriller and this book did not disappoint at all. I loved how up until the end of the book I still suspected everybody involved. And I felt dumb when I didn’t pick up the signs and the evidence. 😂

But I love this book nonetheless and will buy the paperback when I can

I love Kara Thomas’s books. I’ve been reading them since her fist one published many years ago and whenever I see she has another one coming I get excited! The Champions is her latest release. If you’ve read The Cheerleaders (not necessary but it does enhance this one) then you’ll definitely find some similarities. I think this one reads just like that one but with different characters and a few more plot holes. For some of it you DO need to suspend belief (who talks to a new kid and tells them all their dirty secrets like this LOL) but its fiction and it gets us to where we need to be. I do recommend that readers check the books trigger warnings though because this one deals with some heavy topics. I don’t think it’s suitable for a younger crowed but upper young adult (those at least in HS) may enjoy this one.

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Champions didn't quite work for me. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and folks I forgot about from The Cheerleaders kept popping up.

I think average is the perfect word to describe this book. It hooked me at first, but once I saw the direction it was going in, I definitely lost interest. To be completely honest, it kind of came across as a 13 Reasons Why rip off (or at least certain aspects of it). I didn't care very much for the main character or really any of the characters. The main character's mom actually infuriated me, which made it that much harder to read.

I love a dark YA, The Champions takes place years after the second Cheerleaders book. It was a really good mystery, not as good as the first, but still captivating. It's well written and fast-paced.

11 years after the events from book 1 the town of sunnybrook is just trying to move on, but everything is not sunny in sunnybrook. Hadley is assigned to write an article covering the football team, the towns pride and joy. As she learns more and digs more nothing is what it seems. And it seems she is the only one not wearing blinders when it comes to the team. While I did enjoy this book, just not as much as the first. Sometimes connected stories like this don’t tend to live up because there is so much expectation surrounding. Sometimes like in this case we may have been better leaving sunnybrook at the end of the cheerleaders.

The Champions, the second book in the Cheerleaders duology, takes place eleven years after the killer of the dead cheerleaders in Sunnybrook is brought to justice. Hadley has just moved to Sunnybrook and is hoping to become editor of the school newspaper. She is disappointed when she is assigned a story about the school’s championship Tiger football team, which is a positive focus for the town. However, soon after she turns in her story, one of the team members, whom she interviewed, is poisoned, and Hadley begins getting strange emails telling her to stay away from the football team. It is clear that the players have secrets, and when a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley wonders if someone wants revenge for their sins.

Though I couldn't remember a lot of the specifics I remember really liking Thomas's book The Cheerleaders when it came out and was hoping she would continue on with a quality Young Adult mystery with The Champions. And I think she did a pretty good job of keeping the mystery just as compelling.

The Champions is in the same universe as The Cheerleaders, a story of how the town was "cursed" with the murders of their cheerleaders. Now, years later, our main character Hadley, is asked to write up a newspaper article about the football team. She, of course, stumbles across something suspicious and things quickly spiral out of control, leading to a poisoning and then a death of several of the football players. But who is targeting them?

Hadley, with the help of an anonymous push, starts to piece together the whole story, discovering a conspiracy that spans not only the student body but the administration as well.

I felt as though the story was pretty cleverly crafted and though I would like to think the answer to the mystery is unbelievable I know better. In some places, sports are truly as important as they're presented in the book.

Overall I really liked it though I'm not entirely sure it's as strong as the first installment.

It's been a few years since I read 'The Cheerleaders' and I enjoyed it so I was excited to be approved for this on NetGalley. I think this is a good sequel. It's well written and I was invested in how it was going to end. If you enjoyed "The Cheerleaders" I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Kara Thomas, Random House Children's and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Took me a little longer to get to this one because i wanted to reread the Cheerleaders just in case......Hadley is new to town and will be writing for the school newspaper. When she is asked to start cover the football team. Of course, like in the Cheerleaders someone dies, and someone has to uncover the truth. Hadley is determined to find that out even though she is being threatened to stay away. Will she be able to uncover whats going on? This book was a fast read if you're able to binge read.

The perfect book to bring you back to the nostalgic days of Friday nights. When football friends and first loves Robb mattered. I love this book so much and it was so sad when it was done.

Is it happening again?

The town of Sunnybrook has already had its share of tragic teen deaths, & now more than a decade later the high schoolers are once again afraid for their school team - only this time it’s not cheerleaders dying, it’s football players.

This is definitely one of the darker young adult books I’ve read, so be sure to check content warnings. I did really enjoy the links from Book One that I found in Book Two, & liked getting to see what some of the adults were up to all these years later, as well as what some of the teens from Book One are now doing as adults in Book Two. The town dynamic around the football team was fascinating, & the way that journalism was promoted throughout the story was inspiring.

Thank you to NetGalley & Delacorte Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was full of twists and turns. I would think that I had it figured out and then another red herring would show up. Another fantastic book from Kara Thomas!

Kara Thomas just has that writing you know, it keeps bringing me back to her books even when they are clearly written for a younger age demographic.

My main complaint is that I did not like the main character of this one. Obviously, she is a teen so her decisions at time weren't the best on purpose but she still was just not a strong lead.

I still did enjoy the plotline and the writing as well as the throwbacks and cameos we got from the previous book.

Thank you to the publisher for the copy.

Kara Thomas is a must read author for anybody that loves a good mystery, especially for those who loved Pretty Little Liars. This is a continuation from The Cheerleaders and while you should read that book, you don't have to. It has been years since I've read The Cheerleaders and I had to go back and familiarize myself with what happened, but again it is not needed to understand what is happening in The Champions. The Champions focuses on the football team and their hard work and determination to win their third state championship, but when football players start dropping left and right, people start questioning who might be after them. Hadley is new to the district and only knows what evrybody is willing to talk about in terms of the cheerleaders. Tasked with writing an article for the school newspaper about the football team, she soon starts receiving emails from an unknown source warning her that she should stay away from the football team. Hadley starts looking into the connections between the champions and the cheerleaders, searching for answers that nobody seems to want to know. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and the published for the free copy of The Champions by Kara Thomas in exchange for my honest review.

I was very excited to read a sequel to The Cheerleaders because at the time that I read it, I absolutely loved it and was so invested in the book. The Champions didn’t live up to the hype. I think the main issue was that there was no thriller aspect to it, but was more of a mystery and the mystery wasn’t that interesting. Not to mention that a murder didn’t even occur until 70% in the novel and by then all the football players have the same personalities that you really don’t care what would happen to them. That’s another issue with this book, is that the cast is very large and you can’t tell them apart aside from the major characters. And speaking of the main character, Hadley was the least interesting MC there could be, not to mention that she had a crush on one of the football players and when he went into a coma she had no real reaction to it (you’d think she would’ve been sorry about it). She was more interested in who was going to get editor in chief at her school newspaper than her crush being in the hospital. It was very odd. The chapters were also incredibly loooong.

The whole book just reinforced stereotypes of football players being awful people to young teens and how they can get away with anything because the whole town worships them. I was really hoping the novel would’ve gotten better at some point, but it never did.

This book can be read as a standalone novel so if you’ve read The Cheerleaders, you really don’t need to read this sequel, as it doesn’t add much to the first book’s plot, other than having cameos from some of their characters.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I had a little bit of trouble with the likability of the MC, but otherwise a very solid book. I love a good ya thriller.

I really wanted to like this more but I felt at times it was slow paced. I was upset because I even went a reread The Cheerleaders to prepare myself for this book. I did like that the how characters from the first book made appearances in this book. It was a nice touch. However, this book just ended up not being for me. I look forward to reading whatever Kara Thomas comes out with next.

This was a gripping mystery that blends elements of high school drama with a chilling suspenseful plot. It was a short, fast paced read filled with twists. I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it to others.