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.

Everyone in town knows about the game. For decades, J. Everett High has staged an annual murder mystery to put its criminology students to the test. And this year, crime junkie Dulce Castillo is dead set on winning. Soon, the game kicks off, and the student playing the victim, Xavier Torres, is found poisoned in the school’s greenhouse . . . except his death is not pretend.

It’s murder.

When the authorities open an investigation, all the evidence points to Sierra Fox, Xavier’s ex-girlfriend and Dulce’s ex-best friend. Claiming innocence and desperate to clear her name, Sierra begs Dulce to look past their bad blood and find the culprit.

After all, Dulce knows this school better than any investigator ever could, but she must use caution to solve this mystery. Because these historic halls are full of suspects with no shortage of motives. And in this game of cat and mouse, the other player kills.

Short and Sweet Review

Dulce attends J. Everett High School and every year the school plays a mystery game to test their criminology students. Dulce usually teams up with her best friend Emi for the competition and this year is no different, they plan on using the prize money to go on their dream trip. When Xavier, the student who’s playing the murder victim is actually found dead, things change immediately. Sierra, Xavier’s ex-girlfriend becomes the main suspect. Sierra asks for Dulces help, the only problem is they have a troubled past but with a lot of encouragement from Emi, Dulce decides to take the case.

I love mystery books and I wouldn’t say this is my favorite book but it was pretty good. I loved the idea of these high school students going to a school that mainly focused on criminology and the idea of a murder mystery competition every year sounded fun. There’s a lot going on in this book so I’ll try to break it down. Dulce is our main character and she lost her mom a few years ago and the story the police have told her has never sat right with her and since then she’s been trying to figure out what really happened that night. Our side characters are Emi, Dulce’s best friend, Zane the new kid in school and also Dulces love interest, and Sierra Xavier’s ex girlfriend and Dulces ex best friend. Dulce was an okay character she was motivated but she also isn’t a professional detective so she does make mistakes but she always tries to remedy them. We also get chapters that are flashbacks to the time when Dulce’s mom just passed and how her friendship with Sierra crumbled. In our present time we have the mystery competition taking place and Xavier was just found dead. Sierra is a suspect and needs help to prove her innocence but Dulce is reluctant to get involved but she changes her mind. Dulce does most of the sleuthing even though she has a team. I feel like sometimes the other characters got in her way and she could have been more productive on her own. Dulce learns a lot about Xavier’s murder and her moms. Honestly the book takes place in a small town and with that there’s a lot of corruption that goes on. I enjoyed the ending and everything made sense. If I had to say there was a problem it would be that the book felt convoluted and it led to the book feeling like it was dragging.

Overall, this was a good book and the mystery and setting will draw readers in and leave them excited for what’s going to take place. I would recommend this book especially for someone in the mood for a mystery, you’ll get two for the price of one.