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

The Reunion by Kit Frick
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on 8/29/23
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 317
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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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.

Short and Sweet Review

Addison and Mason’s mom is marrying Theo’s Dad which means a little family vacation so that everyone can get to know each other. The family goes to a resort in Mexico and also invited were Addison and Mason’s aunts and two cousins, Natalia and Mia, and also their uncle Corey and his girlfriend Holly. Addison wants to try to talk to Natalia and Mason about something that happened in the past but they’re avoiding her. Theo is being avoided by Mason and there’s just a lot of secrets that each of the teens know about each other. At some point on the trip one of the Mayweathers ends up dead and only one of them knows what happened.

The Reunion, is a pretty engaging story. There’s eleven Mayweathers on this vacation but we only get the POVs of Addison, Mason, Natalia, and Theo. We immediately get the sense that they each have something to hide and it was interesting trying to figure out what they were all trying to avoid. I will say my least favorite character was Mason, mainly because he had this jock energy about him but his dislike of Theo wasn’t really warranted. Addison also had some things she wanted to talk about but Natalia and her brother were avoiding her and she kind of feels helpless because she’s getting texts about a situation that they were all involved in. Natalia spends her time talking to her boyfriend who she met online and also looking out for her little sister Mia. Theo is just trying to get to know his new family and also defend his dad against Masons misconceptions about him. At the beginning of each section we get to read emails sent by the hotel about a guest that has gone missing, and this is my favorite thing because it also mentions this surf school along the beach that could also be involved. I liked the way everything was unraveled in the end, secrets were exposed and we find out who died and what actually happened.

Overall, I was glued to this book from the very first page. I liked reading from the different characters POVs and learning more about them and what was going on in their lives, and also trying to figure out who was the one who ends up dying. The Reunion is a fun mystery book and I loved the writing and how everything was eventually revealed.

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

I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on 6/30/20
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 381
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
Buy on Amazon

What happened to Zoe won’t stay buried…

When Anna Cicconi arrives to the small Hamptons village of Herron Mills for a summer nanny gig, she has high hopes for a fresh start. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year’s Eve. Anna bears an eerie resemblance to Zoe, and her mere presence in town stirs up still-raw feelings about the unsolved case. As Anna delves deeper into the mystery, stepping further and further into Zoe’s life, she becomes increasingly convinced that she and Zoe are connected—and that she knows what happened to her.

Two months later, Zoe’s body is found in a nearby lake, and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna’s confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn’t satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina’s podcast uncover the truth?

Short and Sweet Review

Anna is in the Hamptons for the summer for a nannying job. Anna wants to move on from the party girl she used to be and have a fresh new start before college. When Anna arrives in the Hamptons in the small village of Herron Mills she gets a strange reaction from the residents, mainly because she looks like Zoe Spanos, a local girl who just recently went missing. Anna believes that she and Zoe are connected somehow and starts looking into her disappearance, but two months later when Zoe’s body is found Anna is charged with manslaughter. Anna’s confession is a mess and there’s a lot of inconsistencies, the only person who believes that Anna is innocent is Martina, also a local resident of Herron Mills and she has a podcast discussing Zoe’s disappearance.

This book alternates between the past when Anna first arrives in Herron Mills and the present where we see her locked up and Martina doing the investigating. Anna for some reason feels like she knows Zoe and that was the weirdest thing for me because when we read from the present POV when she’s in jail and taking the blame for murder Zoe was already missing when she arrived in Herron Mills and Anna had no idea who she was. That was the biggest thing that threw me off because I knew that Anna didn’t do it even though she is an unreliable narrator because she has blackouts but now it was just like who in this town actually had something to do with Zoe disappearance and murder. Anyway I felt bad for Anna because she was basically coerced into giving a confession and it was just so strange because she sounded crazy. Martina on the other hand was basically rocking the boat, outsiders may have loved her podcast but people in town thought she needed to leave things alone.

This was a book that held my attention because I wanted to know where things would go especially with Anna’s weird confession and Martina’s mission to find the truth. The ending was okay, I feel like people in small town keep big secrets that are eventually going to be exposed.