Kit Frick
SimonTeen (Simon & Schuster)
Release Date: August 29, 2023)
YA thriller/mystery, YA contemporary
From the author of I Killed Zoe Spanos comes a YA thriller in the vein of The White Lotus and Karen M. McManus’s The Cousins following a doomed family reunion gone wrong at a posh Caribbean resort, where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.
Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.
It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect:
The peacekeeper: Addison needs a better hiding place.
The outsider: Theo just wants to mend fences.
The romantic: Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past.
The hothead: Mason needs to keep his temper under control.
It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.
REVIEW
The Reunion is perfect for fans of We Were Liars and The Cousins— Family drama, rich people problems, and a good ole mystery involving a death, family secrets, blackmail, and more. The story is told from four POVs, which switch back and forth at random, and each of them have a secret of their own. The story is set at a luxury resort in Cancun where the whole family is reuniting for the first time in a long time for an engagement party. Tensions are high as two families are merging, especially as even the original Mayweather's have infighting going on already.
My favorite thing about this book was the delivery of the mystery. I thought it was a unique way to unfold the plot. Essentially, between chapters, the author added newspaper articles, information releases, and transcripts of the police interrogations that interject as the story is unraveling in real time through he normal narrative. We even find out who dies before they do this way which made it even more interesting to figure out what happened and who was involved. It made each conversation with that character all the more fascinating and suspicious as I tried to figure out if they had something to do with the death. I did find some aspects of the story repetitive during the build up as each POV seemed to have their ONE thing that was brought up every single chapter but it never seemed like it was contributing to actually revealing the secret. The final reveal was definitely unexpected but was slightly lackluster in comparison to the build up for me. Overall, this was a fun, transportive story with lots of mysterious elements and family dynamics. I also loved the diverse aspects throughout the story and thought it really strengthened the characters.
* I received a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review on the tour. All opinions are my own.
MOOD BOARD
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Author’s website: kitfrick.com
Author’s instagram: instagram.com/kitfrick
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
There are 3 copies up for giveaway, courtesy of the publisher! Please click the following link to enter: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/1e4a114d87/?
Comments
Post a Comment