Title: The AmateursSeries:The Amateurs #1
Author: Sara Shepard
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Published Date: November 1st 2016
Genre: YA, Mystery, Thriller
Page Count:320
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: ★ ★ ★★
Goodreads Summary:
I need some answers about my sister. Help…
Five years ago, high school senior Helena Kelly disappeared from her backyard in Dexby, Connecticut, never to be heard from again. Her family was left without any answers—without any idea who killed Helena, or why.
So when eighteen-year-old Seneca Frazier sees a desperate post on the Case Not Closed message board, she knows it’s time to change that. Helena’s high-profile disappearance is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It’s the reason she’s a member of the site in the first place.
Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, she agrees to spend spring break in Connecticut working on the case with Maddy Wright, her best friend from Case Not Closed. However, the moment she steps off the train, things start to go wrong. Maddy’s nothing like she expected, and Helena’s sister, Aerin, doesn’t seem to want any help after all. Plus, Seneca has a secret of her own, one that could derail the investigation if she’s not careful.
Alongside Brett, another super-user from the site, they slowly begin to unravel the secrets Helena kept in the weeks before her disappearance. But the killer is watching…and determined to make sure the case stays cold.
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My Review:
"Just one more day to hug her, tell her I love her, all that shit. I'd trade that for anything."
Shepard has done it again, I am invested in this group of friends getting to the real killer and all staying alive! That ending... OMG.. I need the second book now! I have to know what happens next!
This makes it a very complicated story to tell at times it would seem, but it's not. We switch perspective each chapter, which really helps us see how/what everyone's feeling and how they are helping the case. The group surprisingly work together fairly well after a few hiccups that happen, but ultimately they make a pretty good team, as long as no one is drunk.
Did things very conventionally fall together once again? Yes
Did the teenagers make dumb decisions that were extremely unsafe? Yes
Did they keep things from the police? Yes
Honestly at this point for me these are just things that are going to happen in a Shepard novel, its how she writes and it's what I've come to enjoy about her books. They make them a little too similar at times, but at the end she always throws something in that was very unexpected and has me drawn back in once again. I also love how easy I can read her books, yes they are very thrilling, but there also ones that don't scare me too much either. I can't wait for book two and to see what happens next.
This was my first Shepard novel and I enjoyed it well enough. The end threw me for a loop and I was impressed with that - but I really detested some of those characters.:)
ReplyDeleteRebecca @ The Portsmouth Review
So was I, before that I was a little meh about the book. Oh yes every Shepard novel I've read so far has had some truly awful characters that I can't stand.
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