Good pace and sense of urgency, believable characters, fast plot. I wish I'd read The Cheerleaders first to give me background, but it stood on its own!

4 stars! This was a good follow-up to “The Cheerleaders”. The plot kept me engaged for the whole novel, and I appreciated that this book delved into some serious topics, as well.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for the galley copy of the book!**

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

I just recently read The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas, so I pushed this to the top of my TBR since it is set in the same town. The Champions tells the story of a winning football team who the town loves, but secretly has a dark side. I liked the tenacity of Hadley, the main character. She is relatively new in town, has dreams of an exciting future in journalism, and uses those skills to uncover what is really going on with the football team. Overall, the book was fine and I enjoyed the story, but it wasn't groundbreaking. The story included some serious topics, but they were addressed in a pretty superficial way, which almost seems like an insult to teen readers who may be dealing with those things in their own lives.

The Champions is another amazing book by Kara Thomas. This book kept me guessing and believing the false leads through the entire book. I was rooting for the evil characters without even knowing it. I can't wait to a dd this to the library collection so that I can recommend it.

Looking back, I see that my reviews for her other books were...not overwhelmingly positive (I evidently disliked the cheerleaders so much I felt bad leaving a review - not something I normally struggle with), so I'm not completely sure how this one ended up in my pile. That said, no major problems and that cover is lit, so.