A somewhat predictable YA thriller with LGBTQ+ representation. An overall ok story with a look at the world of the rich and famous , some sibling rivalry and a murder to solve

My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💫

An entertaining YA drama in the form of a novel. It gives vibes of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. Great character development and plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested.

A summer internship attending glitzy events and parties in Manhattan’s high society should have been a dream for Noa’s sister; instead she ended up dead. After a year of being racked with guilt for ignoring her sister’s texts, Noa comes across some information that leads her to believe there was more to her sister’s death than she believed. An aspiring journalist, Noa starts her own investigation that leads her to the glamorous Avalon family and the secrets they may hold about that summer.
Wicked Darlings is a fast-paced mystery that keeps you guessing.

Sure, the plot of this book is unrealistic but it is fun and a great escape. The strongest aspect of this book is that Taylor’s characters exist to build relationships with Noa and help her grow as a character, not simply to move the mystery plot along. The character of Leah, Noa’s sister, is less fleshed out; she is not alive at any point of the book but even the memories of her seem sketched out at best. Overall though, Wicked Darlings is a solid teen thriller that would especially appeal to fans of Gossip Girl and similar stories.

Thank you Delacorte Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I forgot to review this one - murder mystery set mostly in upper elite spaces within Manhattan. Felt a bit too far fetched but honestly what teen murder mystery isnt?

Noa and her sister have a tenuous relationship at best. So, when her sister dies of an alleged overdose Noa doesn’t always feel that upset about it. Yet when she finds her sister’s phone, she realizes that her sister’s alleged overdose may not have been an accident. Upon arriving in New York Noa is swept up in a world of elite children who seem to have everything in the world. Yet do they also hold the secret to what really happened to Noa’s sister?
This book is filled with twists and turns and is built in a world where money is no issue. Noa is faced with people who don’t care about what happens and tell others to take responsibility for their actions when they go horribly wrong. For readers who enjoy mysteries and Gossip Girl this book is for you.
Thank you so much to Random House Children’s and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

Ooooh this one was FUN! Anything about NYC prep school socialites? Sign me up! This story follows Noa as she infiltrates one of the New York City royalty to finally learn what REALLY happened to her sister last summer.

This was such a fun, twisty, and fast-paced thriller - I was truly hooked from the first page and the style never faltered! As a millennial who was in high school during Gossip Girl's heyday, it was very reminiscent of the same character types and themes. While it deals with some heavier topics, I think it does a great job at reaching a variety of ages and audiences. The ending was a litttttle cheesy for me and felt that the LGBTQ themes were a little forced, but overall I really loved Noa and enjoyed following her story. Thanks so much for the ARC!

Wicked Darlings follows Noa, an aspiring journalist with a secret: she’s relieved her sister died. Noa always felt her sister Leah was her competition and when she got a job at a society newspaper, stealing Noa’s longtime dream, she wasn’t all that upset when her sister died. But a year later, she finds out the circumstances surrounding Leah’s death isn’t what it seems and her supposed suicide might just have been murder. Noa infiltrates Manhattan’s high society to investigate and finds herself swept up in the glamourous Avalons’ and the seedy underbelly of their world as she risks everything for the truth.

This was a super fun mystery thriller! I loved the setting—anything set in NYC is always so fun and atmospheric. Its quite fast-paced and so easy to fly through. I read it in two sitting and found myself engaged the entire time. There were a couple minor twists I guessed but I didn’t see the big reveal at the end coming and was impressed with how it ended. I really liked the journalist narrative and loved the pieces of Leah’s time as a journalist sprinkled throughout.

The characters were really good and very distinct. There’s a decent size cast and it was really fascinating to see both perspectives of Noa (the outsider) and the high society rich people and how they move through the world. I also really liked that Noa was a very complicated character. She’s not someone I immediately rooted for as she seemed so callous about her sister, but also it was understandable that she felt the way she did. I really liked the nuance of her perspective and found her growth really well done and believable. I loved her friends and thought the romance subplot was really cute and sweet. I loved how everything ended.

Overall, if you love thrillers set in Manhattan about high society and journalists, this is definitely one you’ll want to pick up!

Thank you to Penguin Teen CA and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Didn’t love or hate this. I started out really liking it, but by the middle I could take it or leave it. Overall, it was decent but fairly predictable.

Thanks to Net Galley and Random House Children’s for the ARC.

I liked the twists and turns in Jordyn Taylor's Wicked Darlings. It was a bigger story than I expected it to be, and I appreciated the fact that Taylor included so many issues that students can identify with. I think this would be an excellent addition to a HS library.

Rich people doing bad things! I love this trope. Taylor crafted a complex main character and threw her into a sketchy situation. It was fun to read and full of twisty turns.

Thank you, #Netgalley and Random House Children's Publishing, for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Jordyn Taylor's Wicked Darlings #WickedDarlings

Noa feels alive without her sister Leah around, but there are also moments where she feels incredibly ashamed that she feels that way. Why, you might ask yourself why she feels that way; well, her sister Leah committed suicide last year. As Noa's future in college at NYU approaches closer, she gets a feeling that something is not right with her parents or Leah's death. On the night before graduation, Noa finds Leah's phone in her parent's safe and goes through it. Her investigative journalism skills are kicking in, and she notices several alarming clues. So much so that she decided to pack up her things and go to New York City herself. Noa knows her sister Leah, and Leah wouldn't have killed herself. She lived her best life working at the Sentinel and reporting on multi-millionaires and their parties. Her mission is to go undercover with NYC's top elite society members, find out who murdered her sister, and get justice for her.

Although it is somewhat predictable, Wicked Darling's plot will keep you wanting to solve the mystery with Noa.
Disclaimers: Suicide, Murder, Sexual Assault, Grief (Stages of Grief), Mental Health

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Wicked Darlings. Jordyn Taylor's books are must reads for me at this point, and Wicked Darlings, though not my favorite of hers, didn't disappoint.

I liked Noa's humanity and realizations as she went on her journey. I enjoyed the reveals from Leah's recordings and journals, and I found the side characters intriguing. Could there have been some more depth in places? Probably, but I didn't go into this book looking for a literary masterpiece I want to dissect in my English class. I went into it looking for a mystery that would keep me guessing and reveal some larger truth about human nature. I think this one aced the larger truth part and missed a little bit on the keeping me guessing part. I don't know if this is because I read a lot of mysteries or if I'm an adult, but I do think my remove from the target audience of the book (I'm reading as a preview for my school library and student book clubs) helped with that aspect. I think the target audience would probably find this a bit more twisty than I did.

Overall, though, this was a good read that will hit with a specific group of my students, and really, that's what I'm looking for.

Welcome to the world of the rich and privileged, where nothing is too expensive to hide, even murder. Ever since her sister Leah’s death Noa has been feeling guilty that Leah’s death means she is finally out of her shadow. When that guilt finally motivates her to do something she realizes that Leah’s death might not be what it seemed and her fancy internship at an NYC newspaper might have gotten Leah in over her head! As Noa goes “undercover” to find out what really happens she begins to redefine her relationship with her sister and her new friends. This was a page turner for sure, I finished it in one day!!