Jennifer Lynn Alvarez's new novel 'Friends Like These' is an immediately gripping thriller, starting with the end of summer party and descending into a twisted web of sex, drugs and murder. Jess and Jake are two of our narrators, who are a blissfully in love couple about to start their senior year. At Jake's insistence, they attend a huge end of summer party at Tegan's house, your classic popular rich girl who also happens to be Jess' ex-friend and Jake's ex-girlfriend. What could go wrong? I do not want to give too much away about what happens as the party (the blurb describes it as a 'prank gone wrong') but Tegan is missing after the party and Jake is in the frame for it...

An enjoyable feature of the narrative is that, despite being missing, we get to read chapters from earlier in the summer from Tegan's viewpoint. It certainly makes us care slightly more about her fate, even if she is portrayed as a completely horrible person. The story as a whole kept me guessing and I was surprised by the overall 'culprit' at the end of the story (even if I am not convinced that conclusion made complete sense, but it was fun). Jess and Jake narrate the majority of the story and are an interesting pair who make some pretty ridiculous decisions, but again that is half then fun!

Overall, this is a twisty thriller with some surprises along the way. I wad gripped and read it super quickly so definitely plan to look out for more novels by this author in the future. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Friends Like These || Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Genre: YA mystery/thriller

Perfect for fans of Karen M McManus! Friends Like These is a standalone YA psychological thriller by author Jennifer Lynn Alvarez. This is my first book by this author but it certainly won’t be my last one.

Told in current POV by Jessica and Jake, a teenage couple who attend a beginning of the year party where a video prank goes horribly wrong. Shortly afterwards Jake and Jessica find themselves in the midst of a missing person’s investigation where it’s a race to uncover the truth about what happened to Tegan before it’s too late. We are also treated to events in the lead up to the party as told by Tegan. These bite-sized pieces of the puzzle give us vital backstory to the prank and subsequent crime when every teenager is potentially hiding deadly secrets. The twists and turns in this one will give you whiplash and I can honestly say I didn’t predict the turn of events that occurred or the motivations. This book felt like a guilty pleasure, a fun-filled reminder of the heightened time of being a teenager where social connections and relationships are so intense.
I will be reading more by this author and intend to go back and read her well known YA thriller, Lies Like Wildfire. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I didn’t like this one. I found it hard to get into and couldn’t relate to the characters so stopped reading and no proper review unfortunately

A really good Y.A novel about toxic friendships. Always one of my favourites and this was really great. Dark and twisted at times, a thoroughly enjoyable one xx

Phew. What an intense and gripping book! I was on the edge of my seat and rapidly devouring the book to get answers. The twists and turns, the intrigue and the suspense. It definitely made for entertaining and exciting reading.

I love these kind of books. Teenage drama, mystery and murder. A whodunnit at it’s finest with a story that will keep you guessing.

Tegan throws a house party that rapidly spirals out of control. Jessica and Jake are flung onto a path that sees them in police interviews, accused and on a mission to clear their names from any wrong doing. It was so good and honestly had me hooked. If you love a murder mystery, you won’t regret reading this.

Friends Like These is a YA thriller about bad decisions - a whole summer of them - that spiral out of control.

The mystery is decent, utilising multiple perspectives and interlocking timelines, and there are a good amount of twists and turns to keep you guessing. But it annoyed me that those twists were often the results of unbelievably stupid decisions. I found it hard to sympathise with Jake and Jessica when they seem so intent on self-sabotage. It seems a shame that what is essentially a solid narrative structure shiould be let down by an unconvincing execution.

I usually love a YA thriller, but sadly this one was a miss for me!

Friends like these is a book full to the brim with twists and turns. This book follows Jessica and her boyfriend Jake, their relationship falls apart at the last party of the summer but when a body is found the next morning, and no one can remember exactly what happened they have to uncover everyone's secrets before someone pins it on them. I did see some of the plot twists coming, 1 or 2 small ones, but this book was really well written I think having multiple povs was a really good choice for this book. Overall this is a fantastic mystery and perfect for any murder mystery fans!!! (PUBLISHED 1ST NOVEMBER)

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟(5 stars)

This was a thrilling read that kept me guessing right to the end, the concept is original and relevant to our current society! Tegan was an excellent character that had layers of depth that made you want to keep reading. I devoured this book in one night! Read it now, you will not be disappointed.

Wow, another really great, gripping, dark, and twisty YA novel from Jennifer Lynn Alvarez.

A tale of dark friendship, sexual assault, rich kids vs poor kids, reminds me in places of Veronica Mars in setting.

Thank you so much to the publisher for the chance to read and review this book. Can't wait to see what she writes next!