Category: YA Thriller

ARC Review: The Wilde Trials by Mackenzie Reed

Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

Special thanks to Storytide (HarperCollins Children’s Books) for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Wilde Trials
Publisher: Storytide
Pub Date: 21 January 2025
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

From the acclaimed author of The Rosewood Hunt comes a thrilling new mystery about a high-stakes competition packed with shocking twists, second chances, and deadly deceit, where allies—and enemies—are the people you’d least expect.

Chloe Gatti will do whatever it takes to win her elite boarding school’s annual competition, the Wilde Trials. In the two weeks leading up to graduation from Wilde Academy, a dozen seniors are chosen to compete in a series of seven ultimate physical and mental tests, and the winner will take home over half a million dollars—money that Chloe needs to help her sick sister.

But the competition is fierce, and includes her brooding ex-boyfriend, Hayes Stratford, whose brother was the only student to die during the Trials a few years ago. When someone starts blackmailing Chloe during the competition, she’s forced to strike a deal with Hayes—if he helps her discover who is sabotaging her, she’ll help him solve the mystery his brother left behind.

Following clues from Hayes’s brother, the unlikely allies discover that something isn’t right about the Wilde Trials. With a lifechanging prize looming over her head and her buried feelings for Hayes rising to the surface, Chloe will have to decide what’s really worth fighting for, and if the cost of competing outweighs the potential consequences, even if that includes ending up like Hayes’s brother—dead.

Fans of Jessica Goodman and Maureen Johnson will love this dark academia thriller with a romantic twist!

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Murder (recounted), multiple murder attempts, bullying, blackmail

TL;DR: The Wilde Trials was a great young adult mystery/thriller. It’s been a minute since I read YA in this genre but this made me want to pick up more of them! The setting of the Wilde Manor was perfectly atmospheric, the puzzles fun, the mystery intriguing and even the teenage drama was entertaining. Overall, if you’re looking for a well-paced mystery with empathetic characters who are easy to root for, I would recommend checking this out.

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Blog Tour Review: Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus

Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

Hi friends, as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours I’m excited to share my thoughts on Such Charming Liars by Karen McManus. Thanks to the TBR team for having me on tour and to Delacorte Press for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!

Such Charming Liars
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: 30 July 2024
Genre: Young Adult Mystery

Rating:

(3.5 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

The newest mystery from the author One of Us Is Lying, the Queen of thrillers, Karen M. McManus! When mother-daughter grifters set out on their final job, the heist gets deadly and dangerously personal.

For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.

Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are two surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound that weekend. The last two people she wants to run into. Liam and his father—a serial scammer who has his sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter.

Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might actually be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. Somehow Kat and Liam are the new targets, and they can’t trust anyone—except each other.

Or can they? Because if there’s one thing both Kat and Liam know, it’s how to lie. They learned from the best.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Domestic abuse (recounted in minor detail), gun violence, poisoning (of food), murder

📚 BUY A COPY

TL;DR: I thoroughly enjoyed Such Charming Liars. It was gripping, entertaining and easy to breeze through in one sitting. The characters were easy to empathise with and the mystery had me eager to keep the pages turning. Some of these twists genuinely surprised me and it was so much fun! I would definitely recommend it if you’ve enjoyed McManus’ previous works or are looking to give her mysteries a try!

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Blog Tour Review: I Will Find You Again by Sarah Lyu

Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Hello, friends! I’m back with a blog tour review for I Will Find You Again by Sarah Lyu. Special thanks to the TBR & Beyond Tours team for organising the tour and including me in it!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the fantastic bloggers on tour!

I Will Find You Again
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 14 March 2023
Genre: Young Adult Mystery
Rep: Queer, Lesbian, Sapphic, Asian American, Anxiety

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

All the Bright Places meets Ace of Spades in this smart, twisty teen thriller about a girl who can’t stop pushing herself to be the best—even after losing her best friend and the love of her life.

Welcome to Meadowlark, Long Island—expensive homes and good schools, ambition and loneliness. Meet Chase Ohara and Lia Vestiano: the driven overachiever and the impulsive wanderer, the future CEO and the free spirit. Best friends for years—weekend trips to Montauk, sleepovers on a yacht—and then, first love. True love.

But when Lia disappears, Chase’s life turns into a series of grim snapshots. Anger. Grief. Running. Pink pills in an Altoids tin. A cheating ring at school. Heartbreak and lies. A catastrophic secret.

And the shocking truth that will change everything about the way Chase sees Lia—and herself.

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Suicidal ideation, depression, suicide, hospitalisation, anxiety, drug abuse, drug addiction

📚 BUY A COPY!

Note: The quotes below are taken from an advanced copy and are subject to change in the final version.

TL;DR: This was a YA mystery that I don’t think I could’ve expected and I think will be very different to what many people expect too, but for me, it was very much in a good way! This story tackles some really tough issues that were hard to read about and I would recommend checking out the content/trigger warnings beforehand because although I think this author handled these issues sensitively, she also doesn’t sugarcoat the reality of them. These pages are packed with so much tension, raw emotion, and heartbreaking moments between best friends and lovers and the struggles they face living up to societal, cultural and familial expectations. Overall, an impressive mystery that I would recommend and I can’t wait to read more by this author soon!

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Blog Tour Review: Nura and the Immortal Palace by M.T. Khan

Dini @ dinipandareads11 Comments

Hello, friends! It’s my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Nura and the Immortal Palace by M.T. Khan and I’m excited to share my review and favourite quotes with you today!

Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the amazing bloggers on tour!

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Blog Tour Review: Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty

Dini @ dinipandareads18 Comments

Hello, friends! It’s my stop on the TBR & Beyond Tours for Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty and I’m excited to share my review and favourite quotes with you today!

Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the amazing bloggers on tour!

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Blog Tour Review: You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen McManus

Dini @ dinipandareads10 Comments

Hello, hello friends! I’m so excited to be back with another #UltimateBlogTour with @TheWriteReads gang for You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen McManus. Don’t forget to check out all the other bloggers participating in this tour: here or click on the banner below! 😍

Special thanks to Penguin for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads: You’ll Be the Death of Me
Publisher: Penguin
Publish Date: 30 November 2021
Genre: Young Adult Thriller/Mystery

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand new pulse-pounding thriller. When three old friends re-live an epic ditch day, it goes horribly-and deadly-wrong.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Back in middle school they were best friends. So, when Cal pulls into campus late for class, and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch school and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Why did they stop hanging out, anyway?

As soon as they pull out of the parking lot Cal knows why. Ivy’s already freaking out about missing class, and heartthrob Mateo is asleep in the backseat, too cool to even pretend like he wants to be there. The truth is they have nothing in common anymore.

At least they don’t until they run into the fourth student ditching school that day. Brian “Boney” Mahoney is supposed to be accepting his newly won office of class president. Which is why Ivy follows him into an empty building, only to walk into the middle of a murder scene. Cal, Ivy, and Mateo all know the person lying on the ground of that building, and now they need to come clean. They’re all hiding something. And maybe their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all.

It’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with murder, perfect for fans of One Of Us Is Lying and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder. This explosive new thriller is impossible to put down.

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