User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
ETA: The cover is live, and it's stunning! You can read part of the first chapter on Paste Magazine: bit.ly/2xdF2It
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Since a few people have asked: this book, which will be my fourth published book and will be released in December 2020, is not part of the One of Us Is Lying series. It's a standalone YA mystery, in the same vein as Two Can Keep a Secret, with a brand-new setting and different characters :)
Rating: really liked it
And the award for the biggest disappointment ft. wtf storyline, out of the blue twists, cardboard characters and forced romance of the year goes to "Three cousins " *cough* "The cousins".
I am not a big fan of author , I have only read
One of us is lying which was pretty decent I think , but due to the hype this book received I decided to read it , but ohhh no , this was such a lackluster , I forced myself to complete it!
Plot thing :- The plot was simple , three cousins go to an island and they discover something happened 24 years ago. This was "supposed" to be thrilling , like something which will glue you to your seat , and excuse me it was. But that too only because I wanted to know the end which I couldn't have guessed anyhow because the amount of out the blue twists the author threw at us , were not imaginable but rather stupid and I am sorry but it didn't made the story intersting at all. The story actually didn't picked pace till 200 pages or so , it was so slow which made it fall nowhere between a cozy laid back mystery or a glued to your seat thriller.
Characters :- None of the characters were appealing at all , I wasn't rooting for anyone . I just didn't care whether they live or die.
Aubrey ( only okaish and sensible character) ,
Milly ( buy me a drink and please give her some sense) ,
Jonah ( haha , which one?). What irritated me the most was that I had to remember the name of there parents and they were so damn confusing like why you have to name them with A.
Twists :- I wasn't shocked with any of the twists because they were so random , unimpactful and ludicrous.
Ending :- I would have given it a solid three stars if that ending would have been different . I mean com'on author could have thought of something more intelligent than that. I felt like I have read this type of ending a thousand times before and it was so rushed like people dying, fire , blah blah all accommodated in one chapter. So for a mystery lover like me , this wasn't something original at all. (view spoiler)
[ I mean wow , money , rivalry , stupidity , this isn't something new , but it's the way author present it . (hide spoiler)]Bottom line :- The thought was interesting, story had a lot of potential but Characterization was weak and the real mystery elements were missing.
Plus I have a few questions if someone can answer .
1. What was the sense of Allison Pov?
2. How the fuck is that cover related to book at all?
Rating: really liked it
“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.” Karen McManus’s books are on my automatic buy list and I don’t see myself taking her books off there anytime soon.
As I knew it would be, the writing was addictive and effortless. And from page one I could not look away.
Although, I will admit, the mystery aspect of this book was missing some key ingredients. I was not filled with a burning curiosity that is usually present when I’m reading mystery/thrillers. However I cannot say I didn’t still enjoy the heck out of this book!
The island resort setting was a nice change from McManus’s usual murder in a small town and i enjoyed this new setting thoroughly.
What the author excels at most is creating protagonists you can’t help but love and end up rooting for. I loved Milly, Aubrey and Jonah so dearly I wanted all good things for them.
The setting, characters and the Story family secret lurking in the background was enough to hook me and still have me ending this book with a satisfied feeling. I think the end had a great twist and it concluded nicely for the Story family.
I will always recommend Karen M. Mcmanus’s books to anyone who is looking for a combination of YA contemporary mixed with murder mystery.
《 thank you to penguin random house for the review copy 》___
Am I underwhelmed by the title?
YesBut I'd still read anything by McManus, so there you go
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My reviews for:One of us is lying
One of us is next
Two can keep a secret
Rating: really liked it
**3.5-stars rounded up**The wealthy Story family, although extremely private, are practically royalty on Gull Cove Island.
They own the largest resort on the island; a remote vacation destination off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
((relatable))
Twenty-five years ago, the matriarch, Mildred, suddenly disowned her four children, essentially banishing them. The cause behind this act remains a mystery to this day.
These children are now adults and three of them have children of their own; Aubrey, Jonah and Milly. The cousins hardly know one another, having only met a handful of times.
Seemingly out of the blue, all three Story grandchildren receive invitations from the Grandmother they have never met, to travel to the island for the summer and work at the Gull Cove Resort.
All three teens think that this sounds like a terrible way to spend the summer, but they aren't really given an option.
Their parents see this as a chance to get back on Grandma's good side and possibly back into an inheritance. Money, as we all know, can be a strong motivator.
The cousins meet aboard the ferry to the island and begrudgingly begin to get to know one another.
Before they know it, two hours has gone by, the ferry is docking and their summer of scandal has officially begun!
As to be expected with a McManus novel, this was full of twists and turns the entire way through.
The over-the-top drama was compelling and I was so into finding out all of the Story family's deepest secrets. There was a lot to unpack.
Milly, Aubrey and Jonah were each unique, with their own insecurities and hang-ups. I liked how their relationships evolved over the course of the story, as they began to work together to get to the bottom of why their parents got disowned.
In addition to the current timeline, there's also a past perspective following Milly's Mom, Allison, in the summer leading up to their disinheritance. Eventually, it all pieces together into a more than startling conclusion.
This is a super quick read and I had a lot of fun with it. What's not to love about a remote seaside setting, a possible inheritance, decades old family secrets and rich people drama?
Incidentally, I live on a remote island off of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, so can attest to the setting being well done. I loved that McManus even used the actual name of the ferry company that services our island.
Details like that made me feel connected right away.
I am so glad that I finally got around to picking this one up and now can anxiously anticipate her next release, You'll Be the Death of Me!
Rating: really liked it
well, Karen M. McManus has decided to write a novel on one of the most terrifying things in the world....
family
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Rating: really liked it
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 you’re getting attacked by a few sucker punches that you didn’t 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 Ewing’s villain laugh always brightened my life! )
Dynamics between Story family’s A lettered siblings ( Adam, Anders, Allison, Archer: if their mother could give more 4 births maybe she would start to name them with B letter! ) reminded me of a little Succession series ( they don’t have a father who advises them f*ck 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,Allison’s daughter. Aubrey ( here we go, we have another A lettered character) insecure, sweet, peace maker, successful swimmer.: Adam’s daughter who hates her father’s guts but we don’t 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 don’t know the reason why!!
The story is told by their POVs and flashbacks from 1986 to learn the siblings’ story by getting snippets of Allison’s 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 didn’t irritate me much like their parents!
I was so close to give five stars 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 nearly 3 decades ( 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 author’s work and when my arc request has been rooted at the pending purgatory of NG , I’m so happy to buy my own copy! It’s worth every penny you spend!
I’m giving my four mysterious, spooky, weird, dysfunctional, imposter stars!
Rating: really liked it
i just want to say that this book, for what it is, is decent. i personally dont read a lot of YA mystery/thrillers because they feel very watered down compared to adult mystery/thrillers, which kinda defeats the purpose for me, and this book is no exception.
the pacing is slow, but good if you prefer a more relaxed kind of mystery. the character development is missing, but they are a little entertaining regardless. there is no tension found anywhere throughout this and it reads more like a contemporary YA story. but i think my biggest issue was the ‘twists’ and ‘reveals’ being too farfetched.
again, these arent necessarily bad things, they just arent that great either. KM is a fun author and i will still read her books, but this one just fell a little under the mark for me personally.
i think fans of
‘we were liars’ will really enjoy this as it has a very similar vibe.
↠ 3.5 stars
Rating: really liked it
Now a Goodreads Choice finalist in Young Adult Fiction! Karen McManus is always my cure for a reading slump. There’s something about her YA thrillers that immediately pull me in and keep me compulsively turning pages until the end. Though a little different in tone from her previous hits like One of Us Is Lying and Two Can Keep a Secret,
The Cousins is no exception to that rule.
Milly, Aubrey and Jonah Story have never met their grandmother, Mildred Story, before. She mysteriously cut off contact from their parents twenty-four years ago, and hasn’t seen any of her children or grandchildren since. So it’s strange that all these years later she’s reached out and invited the three of them to visit her estate on Gull Cove Island now that they’re all nearly grown. Even stranger, they all accept and spend their summer living and working at one of her hotels, each seeking out something different from their elusive grandmother.
As always, McManus uses a roving perspective, moving between the distinct voices of Milly, Aubrey and Jonah with ease. As the cousins get to know each other, they also begin to learn more about the history of the island they’re now living on, and by extension their grandmother. Gull Cove Island is a little-known east coast getaway that features local residents and wealthy vacationers alike. There’s layers of mystery and decades-old unanswered questions for the Story cousins to unravel, especially when they find their own parents at the center of it.
I liked this book, but it felt a good deal slower than McManus’s previous works, especially in the beginning. I’m used to her books hitting the ground running and with
The Cousins you have to wait for the story to come to a boil. The ending also felt a little rushed, probably because of the slower pacing in the first part. That said, I’m glad that the author is trying out something different from her last three books, and I hope she feels like she can branch out even more in the future.
Karen McManus also has an upcoming book in 2021, You'll Be the Death of Me, which is sold as
Ferris Bueller’s Day off meets a YA Murder mystery. It sounds amazing and EXACTLY up McManus’s alley, so I’m extremely excited to read that one!
*Thanks to Delacorte Press, Random House Children’s & NetGalley for an advance copy!**
For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
Rating: really liked it
This family was a mess! And that ending was insane. But I had a great time reading this!
So, Milly, Jonah and Aubrey are cousins. But they’ve only met once or twice when they were younger.
When they all receive a letter from their secretive and extremely wealthy grandmother they find it very odd.
Their grandmother has never met them. She cut off all contact with their parents years ago with a letter saying “you know what you did”.
So when all 3 are invited to spend the summer working at their grandmother’s illustrious holiday resort their parents see it as an opportunity to find out what really happened back then.
Full of secrets and drama. I found it gripping. Yeah sure some of it is a bit far fetched but ultimately, I was entertained and that’s all I really needed. 😊
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All my library holds are coming in and I am both excited and overwhelmed!
Rating: really liked it
This was fine. 🤷 That ending was over the top whack, though.
Rating: really liked it
Another Karen McManus young adult mystery jam :). Over two decades ago multi-millionaire 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 one-time 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. 7 out of 12
2021 read
Rating: really liked it
If this book's title doesn't start with the word "three" then what's even the point?
EDIT 21/10/19: Okay so.... disappointment much?? I mean it even says in the description it's about THREE cousins so why you gotta be so lame with the title and ruin the tradition of McManus book titles??? C'mon...
Rating: really liked it
the way this could've been titled "three's a crowd" and it would've made sense and kept up with the ~one.. (of us is lying)~ and ~two.. (can keep a secret)~ trend going on is such a missed opportunity but i'll take it
Rating: really liked it
I’m on BookTube now! =)
”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.” Okay, I admit it: This was a fun read and it had me engaged until the final page. BUT - and every one of you who ever read one of my reviews that had this huge “BUT” in it, knows there will come some criticism now – it was not as good as all her other books and it kind of felt like McManus went with her typical formula here. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked and enjoyed every book I read from this author and they were all nice to read. I mean I wouldn’t have read all of her other books if that wouldn’t be the case, despite all that it’s undeniable that there are a couple of similarities that just rubbed me the wrong way in this one?!
For instance we have three cousins whose characters are all very similar to those in
“One of Us is Lying”. We have Milly who’s basically Bronwyn, we have Jonah who’s like Nate and we have Aubrey who’s the equivalent of Addy. Their characters reminded me a lot of those three and at times it felt like only the names were changed and they were put into a different environment. Which isn’t exactly bad but it isn’t something new either and it made it very easy for me to see where the plot would head. So in the end I saw some of the twists coming from miles away because I only had to remember “One of Us is Lying” and already knew what would happen next. It’s hard to describe this but I hope you get what I mean?!
”Did it ever occur to you to get in touch with your grandmother yourself, or speak with her assistant?” I don’t reply, and his voice turns even more condescending. “I didn’t think so. Because you don’t act, you react. That’s what I mean by proactive.”As for the family mystery and their grandmother’s behaviour: Well, that one was interesting to discover and even though the solution that was presented at the ending was kind of far-fetched I still enjoyed the idea behind it. What I probably liked the most about “The Cousins” was the romance and the background story of the four siblings that got disinherited by their own mother. I really disliked Anders and Adam and they were two truly horrible men. Allison was okay I suppose even though I could definitely teach her a couple of things about good parenting. *lol* The most likeable and the nicest one out of the four siblings was definitely Archer though! I really liked him and the way he interacted with his nieces and nephew. It was really interesting how McManus made him the most decent person out of the four siblings and this even though he clearly wasn’t the most reliable one. In my opinion he was very responsible, compassionate and kind though. All traits his brothers clearly didn’t share with him.
”Family first, always”All told, I enjoyed
“The Cousins” and read through the book pretty fast which is always a good sign. Still, for me the characters felt way too similar to some of McManus’s other books and because of that the plot and the twists were predictable. So this time around this means 3 stars from me. Fingers crossed McManus’s next book will be able to surprise me again. =)
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This was a fun read and had me engaged until the last page.
Probably not as good as “One of Us is Lying” or “Two Can Keep A Secret” but it was still nice to read. =) I really liked the Cousins even though their parents were mostly horrible.
Full RTC soon! Stay tuned ;-)
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I think aside from the McManus book that just came out last November (“You’ll Be the Death of Me”) this is the only McManus book I haven’t read yet. XD I really love her books because they are always something nice to read in between.
The mystery element is great and since I said that I’d read
“The Cousins” when I did My January TBR video I decided I’d go for it now. I mean it’s already the middle of January again. So what am I waiting for? *lol*
Did you read some of Karen M. McManus’s books too and if yes, which one was your favourite so far? =)
Rating: really liked it
I’m having issues with YA books lately, not all of them, but a lot of them. I’m getting book burnout a bit too. I’m not sure if it’s because of said books or I just need a break 🤔
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
