booknerderika's reviews
664 reviews

Well, this book really surprised me. I hate most murder mystery books because the person is always the obvious one that no one in the book thought to suspect, but you know the whole time and it is so annoying waiting for the characters to catch up and put it all together. This book, however, wasn't like that at all!

I refuse to give away any spoilers, so I will just add that I was very wrong about who I thought was the killer. I changed my mind like five times before they were finally revealed.

The whole idea of the book was brilliant. I got a lot of Pretty Little Liars and Breakfast Club vibes like most people have, so the blurb isn't wrong, but it offered more than those two. It wasn't as telenovela-ish as PLL with evil twins and all that and the characters continued to interact long after detention unlike Breakfast Club where we have no clue what happened after. It was very realistic and believable, touching on topics that are so big in this country involving teens (sorry, but again no spoilers).

I wish it would've gone a little faster. It took so much time for everything to come together and there were so many details (I give the author props for that), but it dragged a little at some parts when the characters were struggling to put pieces together or waiting on information to come out.

More like 4.5 stars for me.

This book was so much more than I expected. I love how it touched on the topic of gentrification in Brooklyn and racial prejudice. Definitely brought some new aspects to the classic story of Pride and Prejudice. I wasn't a fan of the ending, I felt like it was building up to a happier ending and then the incident happened that shifted the focus from the relationship growing between certain characters to the reality of the world around them. I felt like the changes took away from the romance and the ending felt a little like a forced scene to try and bring the story back to the MC and her love interest.

It was still a good book overall though.

So many emotions from this story. I almost cried at the end. I'm glad a certain character changed his views and started to educate himself, it really helped that he was able to be redeemed and I had a lot more respect for him. This is definitely not a book to read of you struggle to handle the emotions that come from racial injustice. I had to mentally prepare myself for this one, but I'm so glad I did. Definitely a favorite book of mine now.

I finally understand why this book is so popular, especially among entrepreneurs. I liked the lessons it taught about following your dreams (Personal Legend) and how God guides you.