The Sorority by Nancy Bush

When the coolest clique in school sets their sights on you… it could have deadly consequences…

It all begins when Ethan Stanhope dies in a car accident killing his sister in the process. The popular girls all wanted him to die after he cheated on their leader with another girl in their clique. Years later Mac, now a private investigator, is back and when one of the sorority girls goes missing, she is hired to find her but there is much more going on than she could ever have realized.
It was ok. It wasn’t a brilliant thriller but it also wasn’t the worst one I’ve read. Too many names to keep straight and too many threads to keep up with and for the most part, it wasn’t earth shattering. Lots of secrets, lots of lies, lots of insanity. I think it was overkill but it was at least entertaining.
3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing/Brilliance Audio for an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

A group of high school friends, calling themselves "The Sorority," pledge to kill one of their boyfriends after he had repeatedly cheated on the scorned girl. When he and his younger sister die in a car accident graduation night the pack of girls swear themselves to secrecy. Ten years later the group returns home for a funeral but one of them has gone missing. They employee another high school alum now working as a private detective to find the missing woman. But as more bodies and victims start to fall their might be more behind this "sorority" then anyone could imagine.

I really liked the premise of this book and was excited to get a copy but the execution was terrible. For starters there are way too many superfluous characters with too many details that they all become one muddy mess. Since, it is told via multi POVs, it quickly gets confusing. The amount of inane details are distracting with subplots veering off in all directions, most useless to the actual story. There is no real character development, just a lot of ineffectual facts about the person or surroundings. I never thought a character's sprained ankle could bug me so much but Mac complained about the damn thing the entire book; what a horrible choice for the main character. Touted as a thriller there is little to no action. Mostly, we have the inner thought ramblings of the characters and spotty whiny memories from high school. Here's a tip ladies, grow up! Everyone is unnecessarily hyper sexualized which lent nothing to the storyline other than filler. It was already too long and could have used some heavy editing. The only reason I reached the end was because it was a review copy. The whole thing is bad. PASS

I had the audio version read by Lexi Mae who I also did not enjoy. All of the characters, but one with a horrific accent, sounded the same so I struggled to know who was talking. There are no alerts to let you know a new characters POV is starting. It immediately flows from one character to the next with no waring and it takes a minute to figure out who's now telling the story since they sound exactly the same. I blame some of this on the editing/audio production. Her continual mispronouncing of words drove me to the brink. I will not be listening to any more of her work.

This crime thriller has a strong concept at its core and I was immediately intrigued by the “mean girls” vibe and the cliques toxic friendships.

With the story being told from multiple points of view, I found it challenging to keep track of and keep up with the large cast of characters. Unfortunately, I never realized this was part of a series as it wasn’t advertised anywhere, which likely contributed to my confusion and difficulty in connecting with the story.

On the bright side, Mac was a fantastic and compelling protagonist!

3.5 stars rounded to 4 for Goodreads

The Sorority by Nancy Bush pulls you into a web of dark secrets and dangerous loyalty. The story revolves around a group of high school girls bound by a pact that takes a deadly turn, and the chilling consequences that follow them into adulthood.

Bush masterfully blends suspense and mystery as private investigator Mackenzie Laughlin uncovers the twisted truths behind the seemingly accidental deaths. The tension builds steadily, keeping you hooked. While some character development could have been deeper, the plot's intensity makes this a compelling read that fans of suspense will thoroughly enjoy.

Thank you Nancy Bush, Brilliance Publishing, and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

This novel is about a group of girls that have been together since elementary school. They call themselves The Sorority. When Ethan breaks up with Mia, who happens to be a part of The Sorority, he ends up dead...after The Sorority agreed they were going to kill him. Years later, it happens again, and one member of The Sorority is asked to look into Ethan's death. I enjoyed the sinister friend group, not knowing who to trust, and wondering who is causing these horrendous deaths and why. At times, I did feel while I was listening that there were a lot of characters involved, but I was able to figure out the story regardless. Definitely a thriller that is fast paced.

This book started out really strong but then kind of lost its way. There were so many characters to keep track of and the storyline kind of veered, so much so that at multiple times I had no idea what was going on. It is a shame because the synopsis had a lot of promise. The audiobook was well narrated. I did find for a thriller that the chapters were quite long though.

The story had an intriguing premise with its focus on uncovering what happened ten years ago and how it affects the present. Despite not liking the main character, I found myself compelled to keep reading to find out the truth behind the events. The mystery kept me engaged, but as the story delved deeper, the reasons behind everything felt increasingly unsatisfying. The more I read, the less I was able to connect with the plot and characters. It had potential, but in the end, the resolution left me feeling more frustrated than fulfilled. A decent read, but not one that fully delivered for me.

This was pretty good. I enjoyed trying to guess who the killer was throughout the book & it kept my interest fairly well. There are A LOT of characters, which made the audio version a little more confusing than the physical book probably would be, however, most characters were easy to distinguish from one another & the names weren't similar (absolutely hate seeing this in books), so it didn't bother me much. The two main reasons for being only 3 stars are the amount of romance, which will always feel so cheesy to me, and the ending. No, not the "who done it" part, but the random cliffhanger related to one of the side characters. I guess maybe it's a setup for a sequel, but it felt super out of place & I can't stand a book ending that way. Overall, not bad though!

The story sounded so interesting the premise was so interesting, but the execution just didn't work for me. It got very confusing, there's so many characters and I didn't know these characters were from prior books and I think it would've helped with the backstory. I had to DNF unfortunately.

Thank you to Nancy Bush, Brilliance Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've seen Bush's name around for a long time but never got around to trying her work, so when I saw this galley I thought it was time to give her a try. And she's not for me. I got to 60% and paid progressively less and less attention, so I'm calling it quits because I'm bored and I have other things to listen to.

The narration was fine, but I just couldn't find any shits to give to the narrative. The biggest problems were POV and character. There's so much head hopping, which I hate in general, that I was struggling to get to know the supposed protagonist, Mac. On top of that, Mac was given the conflict of a sprained ankle and the status of a wannabe PI, which lent her an overall bumbling, incompetent quality, which only encouraged me to not pay attention to her. So little time spent with her plus a vibe that no one takes her seriously equals a reader who doesn't care about the main character. Not good.

Next, too many characters! Too many names to keep straight! If I were reading a print version, my photographic memory would help me remember who was who, but audio goes straight to my adhd brain, so any unnecessary exposition just muddies the waters. Entering each of their POVs and experiencing their memories and home lives and work lives---too much to keep straight. On top of that, they were all unsympathetic dinglefritzes, so I didn't care enough about them to try to remember.

The victims weren't all that sympathetic either, except the sister, so I didn't care that they were murdered. And the writing style was dry, and---there was just nothing to care about. Don't start a book from the POV of an arrogant teenage jackass who views females as sexual playthings and expect me to care about how he died. Don't immediately lame the protagonist, give her no occupational power to accomplish anything, throw in a player boyfriend, and expect me to take her seriously. Don't pad your word count by hopping from unsympathetic POV to unsympathetic POV and expect me to keep up.

This is how not to write a novel.

This is one of those 'love the idea, hate the execution' books. It's a pretty straight forward concept: a group of high school girls pledge to kill a guy and then he actually dies. Ten years later, one of the girls is missing and people are dying again.

Somehow, this simple idea became so chaotic. There were so many characters: the "sorority", the cops, the families of the victims, etc; I couldn't keep any of them straight. To add onto that, there's this weird side plot that comes out of nowhere about Mac's boss and money he inherited? It was super confusing to me and I had a really hard time following it. It added nothing to the actual story and I think it was just a way to make things more dramatic.

The ending felt rushed and I really wasn't a fan of the epilogue. Without spoilers, one of the characters did something that put a gross taste in my mouth, and I didn't care for the set up for a sequel.