I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The troublemaker. The overachiever. The cheer captain. The dead girl. Like every high school in America, Jefferson-Lorne High contains all of the above.

After the shocking murder of senior Emma Baines, three of her classmates are at the top of the suspect list: Claude, the notorious partier; Avery, the head cheerleader; and Gwen, the would-be valedictorian.

But appearances are never what they seem. And the truth behind what really happened to Emma may just be lying in plain sight. As long buried secrets come to light, the clock is ticking to find Emma's killer—before another good girl goes down.

Short and Sweet

Emma Baines was murdered and all fingers are pointing at her three classmates, Avery, Gwen, and Claude. The truth behind what happened to Emma is in plain sight but the secrets that her three classmates are hiding need to come out in order to find the killer.

Characters

Claude: Claude is our small town trouble maker. Claude is known around town to be easy. She has a tough exterior but I think its because she now plays a character of what everyone expects of her. Claude isn’t afraid to do risky things if she thinks they’re the right decision.

Avery: Avery is our head cheerleader and of the three girls she was actually friends with Emma. Avery is more than willing to help the police figure out what happened to Emma, but Avery is also hiding some secrets she hopes the police don’t find.

Gwen: Gwen is our smart girl. Gwen seems like the most likely suspect because she was in competition with Emma for a scholarship. Emma’s death isn’t the first one Gwen has had to deal with, a couple of years ago Gwen’s sister committed suicide, and Gwen is still dealing with that.

My Thoughts

We get all three girls POVs, I don’t think there was one I preferred more than the other. I found it interesting that they all knew more than they led on and in the end it all came together. During the police interviews we see that each girl is hiding something. I did feel like at some points the book felt a bit scattered and some things just didn’t make sense. Especially when we find out what happened to Emma, mainly because it kept jumping from present day to the past.

We do get to see Emma’s diary entries and we learn more about her life which isn’t the best. I also liked that each of the girls actually had a closer relationship to Emma than they wanted to admit. Gwen and Emma have the most tumultuous relationship, because of how closer Emma was to Gwen’s older sister.

Overall

I think the synopsis was better than the actually book. The ending of the book left me unsatisfied. I understood why each of the girls did what they did but I feel like it went too far, like they could have let someone know what was happening but they decided to take it into their own hands. I liked some aspects of the book but it felt slow and I just wanted it to be over.