Win The Cousins Penned By Karen M. McManus Ebook

was so unsatisfying. The Cousins is a dark, dramatic family mystery that comes to light when the Story siblings children, Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah, are invited to work at their grandmothers resort, despite their parents being cutoff from her for many years.


Their parents are clear The cousins are going, The invite isnt optional, and perhaps presents an opportunity to get back on their mothers good side,

When they arrive, cousins Milly, Aubrey and Jonah quickly realize things are off at the resort, and on the island Who is their grandmother and why did she drive their parents away

The Cousins was pretty interesting though elements of the conclusion felt a little farfetched.
While this one held my interest and I found each of the cousins to be likable, I didnt like this book as much as One of Us Is Lying.
That said, its clear McManus knows how to keep an audience intrigued, Another sitelinkKaren McManus young adult mystery jam :, Over two decades ago multimillionaire and the most powerful person on the elite getaway island Gull Cove, Mildred Story, completely severed ties with her four young adult children.
Now their children, the 'cousins', have been invited to Gull Cove for reasons undetermined, but the dispossessed smell maybe the return of their onetime lost inheritances.
Now, back in touch with the family matriarch, the cousins find themselves drawn into conspiracies of secrets and lies, both in the present and in the past! This being a McManus jam, there is also a major romantic subplot.


McManus yet again puts all the pieces in place to create a contemporary reality of mostly good looking, young, rich and white people, that have enough flaws and idiosyncrasies to be engaging and draw empathy.
The main mystery is as well crafted and nicely managed, as is the norm by McManus, however it is also a bit more traditional and mainstream than her other books.
Lastly, there is pretty much zero character development of any of the possible protagonists, which I would have preferred, Still a fab young adult read that is more fun, than it is social commentary, and works well because of it,out of

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“Everybody has secrets,” she says, taking a sip of her drink, “That's nondebatable. The only question is whether you're keeping your own, or someone else's, ”

The Goodreads plot summary of the The Cousins tells you everything you need to know going into this novel, Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story, the titular cousins, are each keeping secrets, Their parents have been keeping secrets for decades, And their grandmother Mildredwho disinherited her own children with a simple letter cryptically stating “you know what you did”may have the most secrets of all.


The Cousins is told in chapters that rotate narrators between Milly, Aubrey, Jonah, and a series of chapters from when Millys mother Allison was.
I found this storytelling method was fairly effective, In both of the books by Ms, McManus that I had previously read, the characters felt more like stereotypes, I thought Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah were all well developed in this book,

The plot is wellpaced, with twists coming at regular intervals, There are red herrings sprinkled here and there, and a number of suspiciousbutultimatelyinnocent characters, but the story was unpredictable enough that I did not guess the answer to the mystery before the reveal.
Theres also humor here, as all three presentday narrators are snarky and sarcastic, and the Summer Gala scene with Milly and Jonah was cringey, laughoutloud funny.
All in all, I think The Cousins might be my favorite of Ms, McManuss books so far. This is my new favorite of Karen McManus's YA thrillers! It hit many

sweet spots for me: beach town, family secrets, rich assholes, and a few more that are spoilers.
It's kind of unfortunate for everyone else this won't be out until winter, because it's a perfect summer jam!

Karen's books are always adept at multiPOV, but I really gelled with the characters in this one.
I think b/c this one focuses on family trauma and the "sins of the father" being carried out on the children, there was a lot to latch onto since I enjoy that stuff.
The cousins are Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah, whose parents were disowned by their megarich momyears ago and no one knows why, After two decades of radio silence, Grandma Milicent reaches out finally to her grandchildren and invites them to work at her resort for the summer so she can get to know them.


Milly short for Millicent is named for her estranged grandmother and is the daughter of the only Story daughter, Allison, We get third person close chapters from anyearold Allison back inthroughout the book as we try to piece together why they were disowned.
Milly is a New York socialite with a ton of sass, who doesn't end up getting exactly what she wants from her reunion with her grandmother.
. .

Aubrey is a state swimming champion whose dad is a selfcentered, onehitwonder novelistthe eldest Story, the family's former golden boy, Aubrey, her dad, and Aubrey's growth are, IMO, the heart of the book, She starts off the least interesting cousin sorry Aubrey! and grows into the The Cousins's strongest character as she comes to terms with who her dad is, and what that makes her.


Jonah is the son of Anders, the charismatic and coldhearted second sonhis most recent newsmaking turn is running a financial scheme that bankrupted people.
Jonah's a bit much, really, but even though he has a major chip on his shoulder, that doesn't stop him from liking his cousins rather a lot, really.
. . but will those warm, fuzzy feelings stop him from doing what he came to the island to do

Aubrey is probably the most layered character who experiences the most growth I definitely cheered for her at certain points.
It's really her book, IMO, Milly starts out VERY strong I longed for more of her chapters at the beginning but that said I do wish she'd been equally as strong at the end meaning, wish she were more involved in the The Cousins's climax Maybe because we also get POV chapters from her mom in the past, I found Milly the trickiest to parse as the book went onher mom then and Milly now didn't always connect.
But when Milly came out swinging I LOVED her, Jonah was his own brand of fun, though he largely exists to augment the girls', which I was aok with, Regardless: once I got to know all three cousins, I was equally happy to be in any of their given POVs, and I cared about what happened to them.


The tension was delicious at times and I was turning pages trying to piece together why on earth the Story kids were disownedwhat did they do!and that alongside the summer vibes and characters made this just a thoroughly fun read.
It has some really juicy twists and of course a swoony summer romance, Highly recommend for YA thriller fans generally, but particularly those who like beach towns, summer vibes, family secrets, etc, “Everybody has secrets,” she says, taking a sip of her drink, “That's nondebatable. The only question is whether you're keeping your own, or someone else's, ”

After reading You'll Be the Death of Me by this author I told myself I wasn't going to read this one because I knew I would be meh about it but I picked it up anyways.


This was enjoyable, though the plot was a little crazy, and again, as I said in my You'll Be the Death of Me review, I do not like mysteries with romance A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is an exception I actually liked those characters.
and the one in this book just felt off and not needed,

The Plot



So, there were a lot of plot twists in this book, Many of them I didn't guess most of them, actually, It just felt like they came out of nowhere at times, And some of them you could probably miss if you were skimming or just not paying attention, which honestly probably would've happened to me if I was skimming, which I wasn't cheers

I was able to predict one of the twists at one point though, but there were many subtle hints leading up to it so it wasn't much of a surprise, but STILL.
I predicted it and I'm counting it since I rarely ever do,

But I do feel like the ending was quite, rushed and farfetched. Like how was any of that possible There are multiple factors that could've caused it to go wrong, but apparently nothing really did, So were a lot of the plot twists, some of them seemed really unnecessary and very out there,

Also, there was no point in Allison's POV, It didn't give me any information, and when it did, I already knew about it because the present timeline had already covered that so we were basically just getting another confirmation.


This book also reminded me of We Were Liars with the islands, family with secrets, very rich people, and the ending, And I didn't like that book,

The Characters



I have strong feelings about each of the characters, which I guess you could say is good, but it depends on the context.


Milly

Haha, I have many feelings about her, I hated her SO much in the beginning of the book, She was rude for no reason, really bratty, and annoyed me so much with how she interacted with the other characters,

I hated when she was ignoring Aubrey and all that stuff because she was being completely unreasonable and jealous and it was so annoying.


Also, she was really rude to Jonah, Sure, Jonah was an asshole at times, but still, Yeah maybe I'm the unreasonable one now, But still, I did like her character near the end of the book, because she had grown and I loved her and Aubrey's friendship,

Aubrey

Aubrey is probably my favorite character, because I actually like her personality, She's sensible, smart, and genuinely nice, which was great compared to the other characters, I loved when she called out all of the manipulative and selfish people in her life and I feel so bad for her about her dad and all that, no one deserves that.


Jonah

Now he's interesting considering what happened with him in this book, I did enjoy his character at times, but I didn't really care, He's the one I'm most indifferent about out of all of them, mainly because I don't know much about his character Just the character he's posing for.


The Friendships and Relationships

Now I'll start off with the best of the two, which is the friendships.
I liked watching the three of them go from strangers to best friends, and I really liked their whole overall friendship, Not much to say, since we didn't get much, since it's a short mystery book,

And then there's the unnecessary romance, The same thing happened in You'll Be the Death of Me, and it ruined the whole book for me because I'm dramatic like that, but also because I just don't like romance in mystery because I feel like it takes away from the story.
I can't get much into the people in the romance because it's a spoiler but it also felt really weird considering what they were beforehand.
. .

So overall this was a quick read that I actually couldn't put down, so that was nice, And it was also myth book of the year!!
stars

“Leave the past where it is, ”

ltgtltgtltgtltgtltgtltgtltgt
this was, crazy

rtc The Cousins is a great YA thriller like I expect from Karen M, McManus.

I was invested in The Cousins from the first page, I was so curious to find out why Milly Story disowned her children, Milly, Aubrey and Jonah havent seen or talked to each other in years, Together they try to figure out what happened eighteen years ago, Milly and Aubrey quickly become close, I enjoyed reading about their new friendship, All of the family drama was interesting and I couldnt wait to find out all the secrets, Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah all have difficult relationships with their parents, The grandmother was very standoffish and avoided her grandchildren which made me even more intrigued,

Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Random House Childrens UK, and the Write Reads for The Cousins,

Full review: sitelink wordpress. com Twist and shout, come on come on come on baby, work it on out! I keep singing this song after reading this ultra twisty, surprising book with full of deliciously juicy mind games!

My head is dizzy! This book is crazy roller coaster! First it builds up the tension and gives you the clues, then it makes a sudden u turn by giving you stomach knots and a few chapters later it throws another bomb into your lap! At the end youre getting attacked by a few sucker punches that you didnt see it coming!

Finally it ends with another explosive twist! You clap! You congratulate to the author for her evil genius mind I can literally sense her evil laughs making fun of my dumbness even though I guessed some of the revelations before hitting the ending chapter!

This book is so much different from One of Us is lying installment.
Dark family secrets, lies and more adult Ponzi schemes were included into this equation! But I loved this work of hers more than my favorite installments she has written.
I love juicy, dysfunctional family relations Instead of watching cartoons when I was little I preferred to watch Dallas and JR Ewings villain laugh always brightened my life!

Dynamics between Story familys A lettered siblings Adam, Anders, Allison, Archer: if their mother could give morebirths maybe she would start to name them with B letter! reminded me of a little Succession series they dont have a father who advises them fck themselves but entire clan are a little vicious to get the inheritance money

The teenager cousins who are sent to the resort which the grandmother they never met owns, barely know each other.
Let me introduce them: Milly: cool, cunning, sharp witted, posh one,Allisons daughter, Aubrey here we go, we have another A lettered character insecure, sweet, peace maker, successful swimmer, : Adams daughter who hates her fathers guts but we dont know the reason at the beginning,

And Jonah: good looking, a little douche, mysterious, smart, perfect pool player: Anders son who truly hates his father and we dont know the reason why!!
The story is told by their POVs and flashbacks fromto learn the siblings story by getting snippets of Allisons POV !
I loved the intriguing pace, riveting story telling and well developed characterization: I loved all of the cousins: Both of them are flawed, lost, dealing more burdens they can handle but they didnt irritate me much like their parents!

I was so close to give five but the final revelation made me question the entire premise because there are still plot holes and the big twist at the end was too hard to be kept hidden for nearlydecades as you consider the characters live in a small island with noisy, gossiping inhabitants so this kind of mystery cannot be kept too long!

But instead of that it was entertaining, promising, mind spinning, quite fun reading!
I love the authors work and when my arc request has been rooted at the pending purgatory of NG , Im so happy to buy my own copy! Its worth every penny you spend!

Im giving my four mysterious, spooky, weird, dysfunctional, imposter!.