One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

Hello my dear bibliophiles,
So this one was recommended to me by my friend, looking at you CA. I really enjoyed it am and really glad I read it. It really gave me a little bit of a Riverdale™© feel. By that I mean some of the relationships and action remained me of season two of Riverdale, which I stopped watching like halfway through because I got bored. I'll watch it on Netflix when it gets there. So now that I've made you curious I'm going to tell you about the characters.

• Bronwyn- She's the perfect, straight-A, Ivy League bound student. Everybody knows one. Heck I am that person or at least strive to be that person. So yeah, she's that person. Some people love her others not so much.
• Addy- She's your popular girl. Not a cheerleader per say but she's at every gathering and social event. She's dating a football player for heavens sake.
• Nate- He's the bad-boy. He deals drugs and everything like that.
• Cooper-He's the jock. He plays some other sports, but he is the king of baseball (and honey you should see him in a crown). He is an all-star pitcher.
• Simon- He's the outcast. He created a gossip app and tells everybody's secrets.

There you have your main characters with slightly more information than the cover. Do you see where I'm going with the Riverdale thing? 

So here's your story. All five of these kid's end up in detention one day. Only four come out. Simon dies that day and everyone in detention is a suspect. See Simon was planning on revealing secrets on his app the next day. They don't seem like the kind of people to have secrets that they would kill to keep from coming out do they? Well everybody has their secrets.

Like I said I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a really good mystery and it kept me guessing throughout the book. Somewhere around half way through I thought I had it figured out and I was going to be very disappointed. I was very wrong. I give it ten of ten paw prints. 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

13-14 years old minimum so like eighth ninth grade.

Tootles,

Merlin:)

Zenith: The Andromeda Saga by: Sasha Alsberg and Lidsay Cummings

*Hat Tip*

Yes, I did just make you picture a person you've never seen before tipping a hat in your direction as a way of saying hello. Don't y'all just love me? If I were you id probably be picturing a shadowing figure somewhat like a demon standing in a corner with a big ten gallon hat on tipping it. And yes I just called myself a demon. 

Anyway, I do have a purpose for this post not just, you know, having a one sided conversation with imaginary people. The purpose is to tell all y'all about a fabulous book. This book is called Zenith and it is the first book in the Andromeda Saga. I thought it was absolutely fab for several reasons which I may or may not reveal later in the review.

The Characters:

• Andromeda Racella- Andi. She is the captain of the Starship Marauder and a feared mercenary known across the Miracle Galaxy as the Bloody Baroness. 
• Breck- Very strong powerful alien who due to her species is virtually indestructible. 
• Gilly- So take a nine or ten year old girl and give her the rage of a teenager in abad mood. That basically gives you Gilly. She is pretty awesome if I say so myself.
• Lira- She's much less violent than the other three and calmer. Andi calls her the best pilot in the Galaxy

Where are all the male characters? you ask "All of the characters here are girls who are kick-butt (feel free it insert stronger language if you wish) and thats great but they can't be all the main characters, right?" Well you would be marginally right. These are four incredibly amazing kick-butt female main characters, but there are two guys and I can only tell you about one of them. So here goes. I present to you, the only male main character I can describe without spoiling things, 

• DEXTRO- he comes in in chapter four and that itself would be a crime to reveal anymore than this. But, I will say this he is one of the main causes of the girls adventures.

So now that I've infuriated you or on the other hand made you curious with those character descriptions on to why I loved this book. So first of all who doesn't love a good sci-fi/adventure story? However, the real reason for my absolute love of this book lies in the amount of power in the female characters. FOUR, I repeat four female main characters that aren't a love interest. Four girls with their own individual backstories and complicated histories, and guess what their part in the story isn't as a love interest. That never happens anymore. I mean yeah you can argue that Katniss was a character like that but she ended up a little like every other cliché female character ever but also a little in reverse. She became just the daring archer who fell in love with someone she originally had no chance with and defied all the odds. Bit like Romeo and Juliet. Anyway, that makes all these characters that much more awesome. 

I recommend for thirteen/fourteen year olds and above. especially girls. Everybody deserves representations like this. Ten of Ten paw prints 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

Farewell, 

Merlin:)