Julie cross is quite easily becoming one of my favourite authors. Chasing Truth is my 3rd book by her and it was really good. Now is the time to read this book as the sequel Hiding lies is out in April 2018.

Eleanor is living with her sister after her life got turned upside down. Her normal is totally different to everyday life. She had just settled into a new school, Holden Prep when her best friend dies. They say it was suicide but Elenor isn't convinced.

Eleanor's past gives her skills. The kind found in the movies like oceans 11. She knows how to charm, dig for juicy dirt and identify a listening device. What she doesn't know is how to be herself but she's trying to work it out. Now BFF, Simon has gone and there is a hot new guy next door Eleanor can't help but get creative. She starts to dig into the Holden Prep's most elite. She uses her skills to befriend them. What she finds is more than she could expect. Maybe Simons death wasn't an accident? Maybe there is a possibility to make a new true friend and even an ally.

Bret, Dominic, Chantel, Jacob and justice are her new rich, powerful and dysfunctional friends. Together they hold more secrets and lies than Eleanor can sift through. Luckily for her the new hot neighbour, Miles may also have a habit of snooping.

Miles is Eleanor's opposite and equal. To him, everything is black and white while Eleanor's more in the grey. He's military sharp and she's streetwise. This duo makes the perfect team and an interesting romance. I loved this book and can't wait for more.

5 stars out of 5. The thing I like most about this author is her unpredictability and it really shines in this book.

*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. If you like your character edgy this author will be for you.

Let’s just get one thing out of the way first: I. Loved. This. Book. LOVED IT. I loved Eleanor (Ellie); her sister, Harper; her sister’s boyfriend, Aidan; and the new-boy-next-door, Miles. Oh, MILES!!! He pretty much stole my heart from the moment he appeared on the page – just as he stole Ellie’s breath the first time she saw him as she emerged from the pool!

Phew, glad that’s out of the way. Now you know of my love for this book, and I can tell you it easily earns a 5-star rating from me. I don’t want to give any of the plot away, and I definitely want to avoid spoilers, so this will be fairly short and vague so as not to give anything away. But there are some things I can tell you about CHASING TRUTH and why I loved it so much.

I have discovered that I am a huge fan of YA mystery/thriller books. CHASING TRUTH is in the great company of Veronica Mars, the Nearly Boswell series by Elle Cosimano, THE CONSPIRACY OF US by Maggie Hall, FIND ME by Romily Bernard, and all of Natalie D. Richards’ books – all books I really loved. And if you liked LIES I TOLD by Michelle Zink (with which I also fell in love), I’m confident you will like CHASING TRUTH, as the main characters share a similar back-story, along with the desire to leave it behind. What it reminds me of most, though, is the HACKERS series by Sherry Ficklin, which you may or may not know is one of my all-time favorite series. Ever. As in: Of. All. Time. So, you can imagine that CHASING TRUTH made me very, very happy :) It’s not that the plots are the same, or that the characters are carbon copies, because they’re not. But the leads in these books - Eleanor and Farris - are both completely independent, self-reliant, smart-as-a-whip, kick-a$$ young women whom I would love to know! Also, both feature positively dreamy love interests who have their own roles to play but who don’t take over and become the girls’ #1 obsessions. Finally, I got the same excitement, racing heart, butterflies, laughing, swooning, and biting-my-nails feeling reading CHASING TRUTH as I did with Sherry’s HACKERS series, and any book that can do that to me holds a special place in my heart!

The final, non-spoiler thing I want to mention about CHASING TRUTH is how smart it is. The only other book I’ve read of Julie’s (yet!) is TEMPEST, the first book in the time-travel trilogy, and I remarked upon this when I read that book, too. Julie’s writing has so much intelligence, and she doesn’t condescend to her young adult readers, or assume that certain topics are too difficult for them. Although CHASING TRUTH doesn’t involve the complicated time travel issues of TEMPEST, the plot really is no less intricate and complex. With respect to the technical information imparted in the book, Julie strikes the perfect balance between dumbing it down and overwhelming the reader with too much detailed, unnecessary information. The dialogue between characters is also smart, snappy, sarcastic, and humorous at times. I love that about Julie’s books/writing, and my first experience with Ellie, Miles, and their “it’s complicated” relationship leaves me wanting more, more, MORE! I absolutely cannot wait for Eleanor Ames #2, but in the meantime I’ll have to be content with finally finishing the TEMPEST trilogy.

Thanks so much to Julie Cross and Entangled Teen for the e-ARC they sent me for purposes of this blog tour and an honest review. Thanks also to Chapter by Chapter for letting me be part of the blog tour!

Rating: 5 mysterious, thrilling stars!

Interesting and fast-paced story. It was very character orientated which I loved and the who-dunnit mystery was well-executed.

Full Book Talk: http://forever-fictional.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/chasing-truth-julie-cross-non-spoiler.html

I want to thank Entangled Teen for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give an honest review. Receiving this book for free has in no way altered my opinion or review.

I have been a Julie Cross fan for a long time. I really have liked everything she's written. So I wasn't surprised when I enjoyed this title from her just as much as her others!

Eleanor is a curious modern day teen Sherlock Holmes with secrets to keep. She's not proud of her past and she's trying to leave it behind her but has a hard time doing it. She pretty much made the book for me. I loved her inquisitive mind and curiosity. She's tenacious and refuses to settle for things that just don't seem right. So it's not surprising that she tries her hardest to figure out the mystery of the circumstances surrounding the death of her prom date.

Miles is a mystery in and of himself. I'm still not sure if I like his character or not. I feel he wasn't completely truthful with Eleanor but at the same time he had his reasons, and she did the same to him. In the end, he grew on me enough that I was ok with him, though.

Julie really does a great job with the suspense in this book. I didn't figure out the who done it at all, which was great because I hate figuring things out before they come to a head! And her writing is really top notch. I was worried with the length of the book the pacing would be too slow for me, but it wasn't at all and I finished it in a day!

I'm excited to see more from this series for sure. Lovers of action and suspense with thrills and romance thrown in will truly enjoy Cross' sassy heroine and her band of friends!

Took awhile to get into, but once I did it kept me there. Loved it!

Chasing Truth is my first read by Julie Cross and it's one of those books where it was a little hard going getting through it, but in the end I'm glad I finished it. I'm definitely keeping book 2 under my radar.

Our main character Eleanor "Ellie" Ames is a former con artist, and because of this her mindset sometimes goes to there--trying to find ways to deceive or dupe someone first. This makes her feel like a freak and she's trying to leave that far behind her to live like a normal person. She's living with her older sister Harper and her boyfriend Aidan in Washington, D.C.

Thanks to Aidan's connections, she's enrolled at an elite prep school. She hasn't really connected with any of the rich kids except for one, Simon, who was an awkward nerd and an outsider. Simon and Ellie went to homecoming together as friends, when after dropping her off at home, Simon supposedly commits suicide at his house.

Fast forward to a new school year, and Ellie sees a new neighbor move in at their apartment complex. He is Miles Beckett and he is a sexy, if arrogant and, at first, a tad awkward. But, it wasn't long before he is hanging out with the most popular kids at school, who Ellie also befriends (she cons her way into their circle) them because she's suspicious of them and believes one or more of them may be connected to Simon's death. But, Miles seem to be asking the same questions as Ellie--are they on the same side?

With a premise like that, I was excited to read Chasing Truth. Unfortunately, I found the beginning to be really slow. We are getting all of this information about Ellie and her past with her family and how they conned people, as well as information about what happened last spring with Simon. Then, we are also introduced to a lot characters like Ellie's sister Harper and her boyfriend Aidan, as well as Miles Beckett, and all the group of popular rich kids at the prep school. All of these characters do all play a role later on in the story so it was important we establish their backgrounds and such, but it was a lot and most didn't read new and refreshing. Like, I've read most of these characters before in similar books, so reading the first 30% felt really slow going. After details about Miles were revealed things did get more interesting and the pacing speed up and I found myself reading faster. Just had to get over the hump in the beginning.

My favorite characters were Ellie, her sister Harper, and Harper's boyfriend, Aidan, who is part of the secret service. Harper and Aidan become surrogate parents of sorts to Ellie--the kind of parents she never had before. I really enjoyed Ellie's relationship with both of them. As for Miles's character, I had him pegged early on as to who he might be. But, I'm not going to say anymore to avoid spoilers. I did like the tension/attraction between he and Ellie--I was shipping them from the start.

Chasing Truth is described as Veronica Mars meets Pretty Little Liars, and I see that. My biggest issue with it is the slow pacing in the beginning and there were times I felt like the story dragged when it shouldn't. It wasn't that I was bored or anything, but I wished there was more action in the beginning. Also, the story almost felt a little too long. However, if you are a fan of Julie Cross and you like mysteries set in a prep school, definitely pick this book up.

First of all, I am a huge Julie Cross fan! Seriously, the woman had me at Tempest, and then cemented my love for her at Vortex. I am such a huge fan of mystery/thriller's, be it movies, tv shows, documentaries, true crime books or fiction books. I go nuts for it! So I was super stoked to see that she had written a YA Mystery/Thriller. Yassssssss, get it girl!

From the Veronica Mars inspired dedication, I was once again HOOKED!!! Julie Cross....you get me girl, you get me! This book was fantastic and one of my favorites of 2016. It was so suspenseful and it was so hard to put it down. I'd stay up reading late into the night.

I loved the character's , even the secondary character's, and I am so stoked to read more in this series and see where the author takes it.

4.5 Stars

'Chasing Truth' is the explosive first installment in a new young adult thriller series. I've read several of the author's other books and really enjoyed them, so I was excited to get my hands on this one. I was not disappointed. This novel lived up to my hopes and expectations - and then some. Everything about the story is incredibly well done - from the characters and plot to the setting and writing style. Eleanor is a fantastic main character for the book. She's smart, determined, down to earth, realistic, and a force to be reckoned with. I loved watching her figure out the mystery behind the death of her date and overcome all the difficult situations she comes face to face with.

Another part of the book I really enjoyed was Eleanor and Miles. I liked seeing their relationship with one another change and grow throughout the story. The romance aspect was a great addition to the plot, but it didn't overshadow the real story line. Speaking of the plot - I thought it was great. Just the right mix of mystery, thriller, suspense and romance. There were lots of twists and turns I didn't expect - which doesn't usually happen anymore. The pace was quick and had me drawn in from the very beginning of the book. I ended up reading the novel in a few hours because I couldn't put it down. I'm so excited that this is just the first book in a new series! I can't wait to see where Eleanor ends up next and what kind of trouble she'll get into. Very highly recommended to fans of thrillers, mysteries, suspense, and even romance - there's a bit of something for everyone to enjoy.