⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 (4.5)

NOTHING BAD HAPPENS HERE by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
Thank you so much Netgalley and GetUnderlined for the earc(Mar 18)

When Lucia's mom drags her to New England to meet her boyfriend, Lucia is reluctant. Her mother says it will be good for her, help her dwindle less on the past. When Lucia finds a body on the beach, she's taken back to the accident, and all she wants to do is figure out who and what happened to Jane Doe. As she investigates, she becomes entwined with The Three and their world.
NOTHING BAD HAPPENS HERE was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025, and I was happy to get a early copy. It was everything I wanted and more.
This book delivered. Like capital delivered. Everything that happened was nonstop boom, boom, boom as the mystery grew deeper and more things happened. This book was thrilling and it gripped me. Though it took me longer than I would have expected to read, it was great. Interesting, mysterious, and twisty. Oh the twists. The first one I sort of called when said character was introduced because it felt obvious. I even called another one, though that was never proven to be true (mystic and supernatural). Now, when I tell you my jaw hit the floor when that final twist flashed across the page. For real!? How? Why? Shocking.
I loved this. I loved that it was intriguing and action packed. I even loved how the ending left room for the reader to decide what happens next. 10/10 would recommend to thriller lovers and even supernaturally lovers.

Lucia’s mother drags her off to a summer in Nantucket with her new boyfriend. Lucia recently experienced a tragedy and feels alone in the world and is looking for new connections. In her first week there, she finds a body on the beach. She is also suspicious of other things that start happening so she starts trying to figure out who killed the girl found on the beach.

This was a good, fast-paced young adult thriller. There were also some fantasy type vibes that were never truly confirmed but made you wonder what truly happened. In the end Lucia finds out the truth but it just brings her more drama and problems.

There are a lot of twists and turns throughout this and there was even some romance vibes too. This was a very quick read for me, because I wanted to know who was guilty of the crime. This will be a good spring break or beach read. The descriptions of the beach town made me want to go to the beach right now.

Thank you to netgalley for this free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I came for the rich people behaving badly murder mystery and stayed for the surprise sirens. I had so much fun seeing how this story unfolded and I loved Lucia and wanted to shake the adults in her life. I didn't totally buy into the final twist but the ending did feel satisfying.

I loved this book so much. It's a beautifully written page-turner with a protagonist that feels so real and relatable. The underlying themes—no spoilers, but: wealth imbalance, grief/healing, mental health, a little bit of female rage—feel so relevant to this particular moment in time. Publishing in March . . . and the author also wrote a Golden Girls mystery that's publishing in April!

have some mixed emotions about this. Overall, I liked it as a fairly standard YA mystery/thriller. I did figure out who the killer was, and that part was a little predictable for me.

I was both intrigued by and irritated by the other twist. It was unexpected for sure, and it opened up some great misdirection, but I also felt a little tricked into reading something that turned into something else. Fortunately, the fact that it still remained a mystery/thriller overrode my annoyance.

Given the twist, I can’t help but eye roll a little at the names of the dead girl and the killer, though.


I’ll definitely read more from this author in the future.

Thanks, NetGalley and Delacorte for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Children's for the arc!

Lucia is on vacation in Nantucket with her mom and her mom's new boyfriend. While there, she stumbles on the dead body of a girl no one seems to know. Lucia decides to investigate and send some old wounds in the process while meeting three girls who may not be what they seem and discovering new secrets about the people around her.

I really loved this one! I love the setting of a summer on Nantucket and the author did a great job bringing it to life. I also loved the writing and the characters, especially the Three.

Could not put this one down! Not only did the author make Nantucket come to life, she created believable (and flawed) characters to care about. Twisty and fun - highly recommend!

I really enjoyed this book a lot. I really loved the Three. The writing and characters were amazing! I didn’t feel like it really had any slow parts and it kept me reading more to find out what happened. I will probably be thinking about this one for a while! Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review!

Lucia is on vacation in Nantucket with her mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. While on the beach one morning, Lucia stumbles upon the dead body of a teenage girl on the beach. Finding the body opens old wounds from her past and the dead girl is unclaimed and unknown. Lucia feels the need to investigate it herself to give the girl a name and find out what happened to her when not everything is as it seems.

"Nothing Bad Happens Here" is a fun and gripping page-turner that hooked me from the first page. Rachel Ekstrom Courage's expertly crafted pacing drew me deeper into novel's central mystery with each chapter. With unexpected twists, relentless tension, and a touch of the supernatural, "Nothing Bad Happens Here" kept me guessing until the last page. It's a must-read for anyone who loves suspenseful and addictive YA thrillers.

So the whole premise is girl finds corpse, girl kinda investigates, right? Except what happens is that girl finds corpse and corpse is not mentioned again until the book is 75% over. Seriously.