Cousins

I mean I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece from the reviews which was a shame because ‘One of Us is lying’ by McManus was quite good.

This book maybe had potential, and by that I mean that the storyline maybe had the potential to actually be really good if it were better and didnt have that kinda crappy plot twist. It just suddenly became really far fetched and as soon as a character basically was like “Guys! I think I know what’s going on! It’s _____________________ because __________!” and they were right first try about it?? What?

Even though I didn’t like this book much I kinda read it really fast because it was easy to pick up, in a mean kind of ‘there are other books I would rather be reading right now’ way.

Not your best work McManus but well done for trying!

Thanks for reading my review 🫵❤️

2.75/5⭐️

While this wasn’t bad it was great either. Nothing truly happened in this book until the last maybe 15% of it. And at that point I was kind of checked out. All it did was make sense of how things were the way they were but there just weren’t any factors that truly captivated me throughout to keep my attention and have me love the book.

Where was the thrill? The twists were so uneventful and barely did anything for the story except (view spoiler)[the grandma thing (hide spoiler)] but that was predictable. Where was the shock?

This was just okay. I did finish the book because I did want to know the secrets of the Story family but the writing was just so meh and too heavy handed. Anyway, I can still see myself recommending this to students who love mystery.

it took a while for this book to get to it, but the twist was a lot better than i was expecting! i ended up really enjoying it overall

uhhh so why didn’t more people rate this book 5 stars????? i loved everything about this book. the setting is amazing and is so well written, the characters are nuanced and well developed, the plot was intriguing, and the ending was perfect (in my opinion). to be honest though, the first third of the book was *kinda* annoying because it felt like they were reeling you in but not giving anything? like they were saying “hey theres this super big secret” and you’re like “sweet! what is it?” and they go “it’s a secret!” and then they do that over and over again. but you know what? in the grand scheme of things, it worked. this book had a chokehold on me. i have an activity due tomorrow and yet i chose to finish this book because i desperately needed answers. i was sooo lose to looking up who did what, but thank goodness i didn’t because that ending was worth it for me. final thoughts: favorite character has got to be archer. milly was who i was all about initially, but aubrey’s character and story (haha no pun intended) was just more interesting to go along with so she’s second best for me. jonah is okay… i don’t wanna say much because spoilers but if you know, you know (or maybe not idk).

** spoiler alert ** it’s was very predictable but i did enjoy the grandma plot twist (•:

it’s so rare that i find a book where i actually never know wtf is gonna happen next so shout out to karen for consistently delivering

3.25 stars I definitely think the plot was more compelling in this one compared to "One of Us is Lying"

FINALLY. A book that I feel a satisfaction reading BECAUSE I DONT KNOWW THE TWIST.

Stupid book

3.5

I'll start by saying that I've read all of McManus' prior books voraciously and enjoyed them. This one felt like something was missing (although I still read it quite quickly). The characters feel underdeveloped and it doesn't have the same thriller-y feeling as One of Us Is Lying or Two Can Keep a Secret. I think this might be a side effect of her churning out a book a year and perhaps not having the time to draw out her characters more deeply. Nonetheless, I remain a Karen M. McManus fan and look forward to her future books (looking at you, You'll Be the Death of Me!).

Different from her other stories!

** spoiler alert ** 3.5 stars i don’t even know what to think, i enjoyed the book but i do see the flaws but my GOD i was invested. i hated matt so much, i was honestly rooting for something horrible to happen to him (not that i thought it would be death?!?!) i think the anders + adam + matt murder thing was a bit out of character, i just don’t feel like they would have gone that far?! (beat him up sure, ruin his relationships yeah, but murder?!) the other thing that got me was the ending. The Story’s were left without the money and prestige their name gave them which is essentially the whole moral subplot. Still i felt unsatisfied with their lack of reward, it seemed to just be very downhill the entire time. this could just be me prioritising money and prestige over everything (just how the media has taught us) but it’s just my opinion.

Hmm I think this is my least favourite of Karen M. McManus' books so far.. I really liked the characters we followed int his book, but the plot just wasn't really something I loved. It kind of reminded me a bit of We Were Liars, which I also didn't like that much. I do have to say that the reveals towards the end did actually surprise me (view spoiler)[even if I did predict that at least one of the siblings had murdered Matt (hide spoiler)] so kudos for that!

Not too bad.

Finished this and it’s once again another amazing book. I am loving my binge of Karen M. McManus. This is a story about 3 cousins being invited to their estranged grandmothers for reasons they don’t even know. Things that happened in the past are resurfacing and people are not who they seem. Neither are the deaths. I gave this a 5 star read because it kept me reading. The only reason it took me so long to finish this was because I was sick with a cold, but once I got better I dove right back in and couldn’t stop!

3.5 i think fun but not anything special

This one felt so insaneeeee compared to the other books from this author. It was super fun! Was not expecting where that went at all and I read it in a day bc I really needed to know where the story was going! I really do love multi perspective in mystery books so these are always so perfect and I love all the characters!  Need KMM to hurry up and write another book already bc that’s the backlog finished and I need m o r e !

karen m. mcmanus never fails to surprise me

so another unpopular opinion but this was my favorite of this author. basically because it's about family drama and because it's too dramatic. loved it.

Oh my god, in what universe was that a mystery/ thriller novel? easy. it wasn't.