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.

It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls' killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school's championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes--something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past.

Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team's latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poisoned at a party, and almost immediately after, Hadley starts getting strange emails warning her to stay far away from the football team.

It's becoming clear Sunnybrook's golden boys have secrets, and after a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley’s beginning to suspect that someone wants the team to pay for their sins. Or does this new target on the football team have something to do with what happened to the cheerleaders all those years ago?

As an outsider in Sunnybrook, Hadley feels like she's the only one who can see the present clearly, but it looks like she’s going to have to dig up the darkness of the past to get to the bottom of what’s happening now. Luckily, there are still some Sunnybrook High grads who never left--people who were around eleven years ago—and if she can just convince them to talk, she might be able stop a killer before another Tiger dies.

Short and Sweet Review

It’s been eleven years since Monica solved the deaths of the cheerleaders from the high school team. When Hadley moves to Sunnybrook the focus is on the Tigers, the high school championship winning football team. Everyone loves the Tigers especially because they shine a bright light on the towns dark past. Hadley is about of the school newspaper and she’s assigned to write a story about the football team. When Hadley goes to a party and one of the football players ends up in the hospital she’s knows something is wrong but her suspicions aren’t confirmed until she gets an anonymous email telling her to stay away from the team. Now Hadley is determined to figure out what is going on before another player gets hurt or dies.

The Champions is the sequel to The Cheerleaders but it reads more like a companion novel, I think you’d be okay reading this one first but it’s nice to have some background from the previous book. We’re back in the town of Sunnybrook and the football team reigns supreme. When Hadley gets the assignment to write about the team she isn’t too happy but she’ll do what she’s needs to. It’s when Hadley is invited to the party she gets the warning email telling her not to go. When one of the players ends up in a coma, Hadley wants to know what the anonymous emailer knows but it’s not going to be that easy. Hadley gets clues and ends up snooping around and while she’s doing this she gets the attention of Peter, who just happens to be Monica’s younger brother. Hadley looks at Peter as a rival but he ends up being extremely helpful and a great ally for her. Hadley is a character who’s determined to learn the truth and once she has her mind set on something she’s not stopping until she finishes what she started. I loved Hadley but her actions always had me on the edge of my seat because she was risking a lot doing what she was doing. I feel like we see the stereotypical small town with a great football team so they get away with whatever they want. Hadley was getting close to finding out their secrets which put her in a lot of danger. I loved seeing Hadley sneak around and put the pieces together. It was also nice to see Hadley have Peter because people didn’t suspect him of working with Hadley so he was able to be more inconspicuous. I think my favorite thing was seeing Monica in this book and she still has a hard exterior but you can tell she was looking out for Hadley and Peter. The ending was great and I loved how everything was answered and wrapped up.

Overall, I didn’t think that The Cheerleaders would get a sequel but I’m glad it did! I had a great time reading about Sunnybrook again and how even eleven years later the town still had secrets that needed to be uncovered. I would recommend this book and if you haven’t read The Cheerleaders just read these two books back to back!