The Cheerleaders

??This has to be my least favorite Kara Thomas book. But let's start with the good parts.
This is a very well written book. The writing drew me in & didn't let me go until the very end. Like all of Kara Thomas' books, this was compulsively readable. And for a thriller, this was pretty thrilling. I actually felt anxious for the characters at many points during this book.
I also really liked how complex all the characters were!
They were not one-dimensional at all & I really appreciated that. I do love me some morally grey badasses! Though I have to add, some of the characters (that I assume we were supposed to care about) were just plain assholes.
Now on to the negatives. Hmmm, where to start.
For a mystery, I don't think the mystery was very good at all.
I had so many unanswered questions by the end of this book. Like why did Jack say “I'm sorry” if he was innocent? Also, all the deaths didn't even turn out to be related at the end?! There weren't five murders, just three (plus a hit and run) unlike what the book would like you to believe.??
I felt like this entire book, we weren't getting anywhere at all. Like Monica would come across an oh-so-shocking clue and then we would somehow be back to square one? It was a lot of beating around the bush.??
Most of the discoveries that Monica made weren't even relevant until the end? It was like KT was trying to fill up pages with vaguely “thrilling” shit until she reached the desired page count. There was like ~one~ measly twist that actually shocked me.??
The ending was very weak and the whole thing just felt lazy. It was sloppy at best. The ending was also very open which I'm not sure I liked. There was no real closure when it desperately needed one.??
Anyway, I've read so much better from this author.??
??

This barely scrapes 2.5 stars for me. I almost rated it two stars, but added a half star is for the fact that this book did keep me interested in it long enough to finish it.

I liked the premise and the jumping back and forth between Monica and Jennifer five years ago. But the ending was so sloppy in so many ways that it made the nearly 10 hours spent listening to the audiobook feel like a waste.

There were way too many red herrings here, with no clues given to the actual killer, so when we did find out his identity it was out of nowhere. Plus, because there are all these little details trying to misdirect the reader, I had absolutely no recollection of the small things that turned out to be important to figuring out the killer in the end crucial in the end - specifically the earring and a dog bite scar.

I also didn't feel the motivations for the murder were believable, and there were just too many little coincidences used to explain things. The whole way through there's this sense that you're going to find out how everything is connected and why they died, but it boils down to the most boring explanation possible: coincidence.

 This has to be my least favorite Kara Thomas book. But let's start with the good parts.
This is a very well written book. The writing drew me in & didn't let me go until the very end. Like all of Kara Thomas' books, this was compulsively readable. And for a thriller, this was pretty thrilling. I actually felt anxious for the characters at many points during this book.
I also really liked how complex all the characters were!
They were not one-dimensional at all & I really appreciated that. I do love me some morally grey badasses! Though I have to add, some of the characters (that I assume we were supposed to care about) were just plain assholes.
Now on to the negatives. Hmmm, where to start.
For a mystery, I don't think the mystery was very good at all.
I had so many unanswered questions by the end of this book. Like why did Jack say “I'm sorry” if he was innocent? Also, all the deaths didn't even turn out to be related at the end?! There weren't five murders, just three (plus a hit and run) unlike what the book would like you to believe. 
I felt like this entire book, we weren't getting anywhere at all. Like Monica would come across an oh-so-shocking clue and then we would somehow be back to square one? It was a lot of beating around the bush. 
Most of the discoveries that Monica made weren't even relevant until the end? It was like KT was trying to fill up pages with vaguely “thrilling” shit until she reached the desired page count. There was like ~one~ measly twist that actually shocked me. 
The ending was very weak and the whole thing just felt lazy. It was sloppy at best. The ending was also very open which I'm not sure I liked. There was no real closure when it desperately needed one. 
Anyway, I've read so much better from this author.