by Dawn Klehr
Publication Date: October 8, 2013
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Behind-the-scenes secrets could turn deadly for Desmond and Riley
Life in the Heights has never been easy for seventeen-year-old Riley Frost, but when she's publicly dumped and outed at the same time, she becomes an immediate social outcast at her high school. So Riley swears off romance and throws herself into solving the shocking murder of her favorite teacher, Ms. Dunn.
Riley turns to her best friend, budding filmmaker Desmond Brandt, for help. What she doesn't know is that Dez has been secretly directing her life, blackmailing her friends, and hoping his manipulations will make her love him. When his schemes go too far, Dez's web of lies threatens to destroy both of their lives.
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My Thoughts:
I really liked this book!! The writing is good, the mystery is good, I am really impressed. I wasn't 100% sure if this would be for me, mostly because I thought I would HATE Desmond. I couldn't have been more wrong, and I'm really glad.
Riley and Desmond are the perfect actress/director BFF pair. Except for that whole unhealthy obsession with a lesbian thing you have going on there Desmond. Desmond could be the perfect guy. He's good looking, smart, has dreams and talents. He just can't get over the girl next door. He's manipulating her life behind the scenes, sabotaging her love-life and obsessing endlessly over her every move. And the thing is, even though his parts of this book were mostly filled with creepy jerkface stuff, I STILL liked him most of the time. I definitely think that says something for the writing in this book. Usually if the main character is a villain, I'm going to pretty much hate him/her. Not so with this book. Desmond was complicated and I really wanted to like him from page 1... wanted to, but yeah he definitely made it hard at times.
The mystery in this book is SO addicting. Riley's favorite teacher was murdered, and after some evidence turns up, she begins looking into it. I found myself completely involved in this with Riley, wanting her to solve it, and flying through pages just to figure it out. It's hard to talk too much about the plot without spoilers, so I'll just say that it takes a lot of twists and turns and is exciting.
This book has multiple layers and themes going on throughout it, and I found that it made it even more interesting. After Riley is dumped and publicly outed by her girlfriend Emma, she goes through some pretty hard-core bullying. The leader of the bullies is a girl named Tori, who uses Christianity as one of her main tools of torture. Her dad is the mayor and going on a whole "family values" campaign, which only gives Tori the feeling of righteousness in doing what she's doing. We also have the whole acting/film making art stuff going on, which I personally loved reading about. Kids with cool talents are definitely on my list of things I like in book and movie characters.
OVERALL: Thrilling, suspenseful, awesome. I loved the unreliable-narrator that Desmond was, and the confused and determined character that Riley was. A great debut for this author, and definitely one to look out for if you are in the mood for a thriller.
4/4
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Riley and Desmond are the perfect actress/director BFF pair. Except for that whole unhealthy obsession with a lesbian thing you have going on there Desmond. Desmond could be the perfect guy. He's good looking, smart, has dreams and talents. He just can't get over the girl next door. He's manipulating her life behind the scenes, sabotaging her love-life and obsessing endlessly over her every move. And the thing is, even though his parts of this book were mostly filled with creepy jerkface stuff, I STILL liked him most of the time. I definitely think that says something for the writing in this book. Usually if the main character is a villain, I'm going to pretty much hate him/her. Not so with this book. Desmond was complicated and I really wanted to like him from page 1... wanted to, but yeah he definitely made it hard at times.
The mystery in this book is SO addicting. Riley's favorite teacher was murdered, and after some evidence turns up, she begins looking into it. I found myself completely involved in this with Riley, wanting her to solve it, and flying through pages just to figure it out. It's hard to talk too much about the plot without spoilers, so I'll just say that it takes a lot of twists and turns and is exciting.
This book has multiple layers and themes going on throughout it, and I found that it made it even more interesting. After Riley is dumped and publicly outed by her girlfriend Emma, she goes through some pretty hard-core bullying. The leader of the bullies is a girl named Tori, who uses Christianity as one of her main tools of torture. Her dad is the mayor and going on a whole "family values" campaign, which only gives Tori the feeling of righteousness in doing what she's doing. We also have the whole acting/film making art stuff going on, which I personally loved reading about. Kids with cool talents are definitely on my list of things I like in book and movie characters.
OVERALL: Thrilling, suspenseful, awesome. I loved the unreliable-narrator that Desmond was, and the confused and determined character that Riley was. A great debut for this author, and definitely one to look out for if you are in the mood for a thriller.
My Rating:
4/4
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