If you love YA contemporary fiction, you should try this book.
If you love mystery in YA fiction, you should try this book.
If you love lighthearted themes but a sensible treatment of those, you should try this book.
If you like romance but not too much of it, you should try this book.
Also, pretty covers? Try this book.

Busted describes how mt heart felt after I finished reading this novel. I was really invested in the characters and their stories.

Gina Ciocca’s latest work, “Busted” is a quirky YA school romance.
The plot and characters of “Busted” are great but not something completely new. It felt like something that I’ve already read before, but it still was a great read!
The plot felt very three-dimensional, which was great at keeping me engrossed in the book.
It’s got enough drama, swoonable romance plots, and a good writing style to keep you coming back for more.
A copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

This was very fun! A bit of a lighter Veronica Mars, with Marisa spying on her friends' boyfriends to catch cheaters. Cheater storylines are never very fun for me because I hate cheaters, but it was gratifying to see her catch them. I like the friendships and supportive girl friends Marisa had. My only complaint is that the pacing is a bit slow. I would have enjoyed more action, but it's very slow moving. But it was fun!

Like Marie Kondo, I love mess. Whether it’s a messy room I get to organize to my heart’s content or someone getting rightfully dragged by social media, I LOVE IT. If you too love mess, Busted is here for you. Get out a pen and paper because you’re gonna need them to sort out this tangle of infidelities, relationships, and conspiracies!

Marisa isn’t out looking for a cheater to catch. She’s just a yearbook staffer who knows her way around the camera and seizes the moment when she sees her best friend’s boyfriend out and about when he shouldn’t be. One climb up the side of a house later, she’s on her way to being asked to expose other cheaters and then she accidentally(ish) uncovers a test-cheating ring at a school she doesn’t even go to!

Busted is a ton of fun and moves quickly. You like drama? This book will bury you in it! It almost gets too dramatic at times, but think about it. Inherently dramatic teenagers. Infidelity, which is so dramatic that it was at the center of a long-running show called Cheaters and infidelity has been the motive behind many a murder. People really don’t like being cheated on!

And that crack about needing a pen and paper? I’m barely joking. I’d draw you the cheat myself, but it would spoil a few plot twists. Seeing as the book really keeps you guessing, I don’t want to give away the game for anyone.

There’s no deep meaning to Busted. It’s not particularly noteworthy. It’s just really frothy, dramatic fun and there’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is the casual sex-shaming and ableism in the book. Sure, usage of “spaz” has changed over the years in the US, but the word still makes me shudder in a bad way.

There are other books you could be reading, but sometimes you just want fun. You want drama. You want MESS. For those moods, there’s Busted.

When I first heard of this book I was super excited to read it, Busted sounded like something I would really enjoy reading and I was right. I loved this book! I didn't fall in love with it right away though, it was one of those slow burn reads.

I LOVED this book. So many fun little layers, our main character has a reputation for catching cheaters - but what happens when she starts to fall for one? That's all I'm going to say - you'll have to read for yourself. SO GOOD but will have you yelling at the characters to get their act together from time to time, don't all the best books?

I received an advance ecopy of this title via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks publishing.

Actual rating: 4.5 stars but I round up because #math.


Busted hit all of the points I'd been looking for in a YA novel: quirky awesome protagonist, constant action, intrigue, and just enough romance.
I loved Marisa. She was funny, snarky, creative, and relatable. The very few loose ends in the story weren't related to the main plot, and they added realism to a somewhat-outlandish and convoluted plot.
All of the characters were relatable - Charlie's hilarious sayings had me rolling with laughter.
Each character was well-developed and interesting. Everyone had a purpose, and that's not always the case, especially in YA (in my experience).
The plot was fast-paced - almost too much for a speed reader like me to keep up without missing something. It teetered on the edge of being a bit much, but I don't read fiction for believability. It helps, but it's not required. I'll take relatable characters and an outlandish plot over the opposite any day.

And thank heavens for a book where [hormone-fueled teens don't explicitly sleep around. Mentioning it is fine, but I was getting real sick of everyone hopping into bed and deciding to describe it to me. Not necessary. Any physical romantic gestures, while well-written, were actually the lower points of the book. And it didn't really impact the plot at all in most cases (haha, I'm making the boinking stuff sound way more prevalent than it was.). It's the drumroll that's exciting - thank you Gina Ciocca for more or less sticking to that. (hide spoiler)]


The only thing keeping Busted> from earning the full 5 stars from me is a name issue. Authors, PLEASE stop having major characters with names that start with the same first letter.
Jason. Jordan.
If one had been a girl, it might have worked. As it was, I spent half of my time reminding myself who was who. I still think I missed something.


It'd be too easy to dismiss this title as a nosy girl being even nosier, or a simple "catty girls will be catty" saga, but Busted is proof that anything works when executed properly. Brava!

**Review can be found at https://smadasbooksmack.blogspot.com/ **

When Mia inadvertently catches her best friend's boyfriend cheating on camera, Marisa is suddenly in high demand from other girls to catch their boyfriends in the act. When she runs into someone from her past, she has a hard time saying no and ends up stalking the girl's boyfriend to see if he is cheating. What she finds is that she may have feelings for the boy and that nothing is as it seems.

Who knew that this was not just a cute contemporary romance about miscommunication like I had anticipated? But instead I found myself reading a super complicated, convoluted (and I mean that in the best of ways!), YA mystery with a subtle hint of romance. The light-hearted read I expected turned into a pretty messy mystery endeavor for Marisa, with some surprising twists thrown in to keep you guessing and caught up in the story.

My favorite part of the book was the relationship dynamic between the characters. I love the relationship between Marisa and her best friend Charley as well as between Marisa and her younger brother Nick. Marisa and Charley and Nick all that that unquestionable bond, the call in the middle night and bail you out of jail no questions asked kind of thing. I loved how they watched out for each other without doubts, full of love and support and mayhem. I liked Marisa's love interest well enough but he was not as developed as I was hoping for and they did not seem to spend enough time together on the pages for me to really be invested in him.

Busted is perfect for fans of more light-hearted YA mysteries like the Heist Society series or the show Veronica Mars, with a teen sleuth. This was my first book by Gina and enjoyed her characters and the plot so I would love to read more from her in the future.

That was a lot of fun! It had a vibe of Veronica Mars to it and I loved that. Lots of twists and turns and nothing was what you thought. Gina is quickly becoming a fave author. Her story telling and characters are always spot on and there is never a dull moment. An author and book I would recommend!

This is a cute quick read. Marisa had not planned to catch her best friend's boyfriend cheating, but when the opportunity came, she took it. When a former friend moves back Marisa gets involved in a convoluted plan to catch cheaters--both the romantic and academic kind. Reputations will be ruined and restored when all the pieces fall together.

This book took me by surprise! It started out pretty slow, and I wasn't exactly sure where it was headed in terms of plot.

I know a lot of people have made this comment about the book, so I'm not alone here, but this book was filled with multi dimensional plot points and characters that took me by surprise with their endearing nature. I loved our main character, Marisa. Her relationship with family members, and her friendships were so lovely. I also adored how passionate she was about her artwork.

My only gripe, is that I'd like to see more books that focus on strong female relationships and friendships, and this book played on girl drama, and girl on girl hate, which feels to me like an overused trope.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read, and I recommend it to fans of YA contemporary!

I absolutely adored this book! It's addictive to the start and has so much drama. I am a sucker for drama and it makes the book so much More to me. The characters are slightly hard to get involved with but the storyline really helps move the book along. I would recommend this to anyone who loves scandals and drama.

I loved this book! It’s been far too many books since I’ve had a YA in front of my eyes, and I’m so glad this was the one I picked up at this time.

Marisa, Charlie, TJ and even Nick were all great characters to read about. They all had their negative character traits and their positives, which made them feel very real. By the time I finished the book I was glad to have gone on this journey with them, but also sad to be saying goodbye. I want a sequel to read more about Marisa, but I don’t want any more bad to come to her, so… I guess I don’t want a sequel?

I loved how there were so many layers in this book. Anything could be a clue as to what the hell is ACTUALLY going on, and you just don’t know until you get to the end and realize the significance something you read earlier has.

I even loved Marisa’s parents. They were very cool and trusting parents.

It’s been… a few years… since I was in high school, and I just hope that not all high schools are full of such shitty boys like the two schools in this book! The good guys in this book certainly seemed to be the exception to the rule.

I would absolutely recommend this to teens and adults alike who are looking for a fun contemporary with a touch of romance and mystery. Nice work Ms. Ciocca, I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

My friend recommended this book and GAHHHHH I love it!

I received this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

This was cute and a nice quick easy read. I really hated how much of an absolute doormat the main character was- she just did everything anyone asked of her despite misgivings and how badly these people treated her, but she just went along with everything anyway.

But yeah this was fun and sweet and I enjoyed it all in the space of a day.

Busted is an easy breezy all around good time kind of read. Looking back on it a lot of it is quite comical in the best of ways. So much hiding and drama come together to create a novel anyone could enjoy!

Things happen in this novel that border on insanity all because of a happenstance at the beginning of the novel. As the story progresses things get more and more complicated in unique and fun ways and I found it difficult to put this book down!

Busted is one of those novels that I don’t want to say too much about because everything connects and it’s so much fun to experience for yourself. I could see this being an amazing romantic comedy of sorts as a movie. The extent that Marisa goes to to catch a boy in the act of cheating is impressive and as she gets closer to Kendall’s boyfriend TJ, things get increasingly complicated.

I adore Busted. It’s such a fantastic read that I highly recommend!

I tried. I really did. But I just couldn't connect with the MC's voice. Busted was particularly disappointing because I read Gina Ciocca's previous book and loved it! This one, however, was a miss for me.

It was fine, nothing stood out to me, I can think of much better books in this genre.

3.75 stars

I immensely enjoyed Busted. It’s a YA contemporary with some mystery elements thrown in that makes it extra fun and suspensful! I won’t pretend like I hadn’t figured the plot twist out, but still it came as a surprise, so that counts for something.

Busted is a typical girl meets boy contemporary story, but also not. I won’t get into detail about the romance aspect; I want to discuss some other elements that made this book for me.

Firstly, I loved, loved, loved the female friendship. It’s so hard to find good female friendships in YA, and yes, it is as sad as it sounds. I mean most YA heroines do have a female friend but she is sidetracked and doesn’t play an important role. In Busted though, Marisa and Charlie had an awesome friendship and it felt real. When Marisa had a problem Charlie would help and vice versa. They spend time together, like actual best friends and discuss everything; from important drama that happens to them to trivial everyday stuff. I especially liked when in one scene, Charlie’s behaviour was problematic and instantly Marisa talked to her about it and guess what? They did not fight at all, but actually discussed it and Charlie accepted the criticism and improved.

The other thing I liked is Marisa’s relationship with her brother Nick. What can I say, I’m a sucker for healthy sibling relationships. They helped each other out and it was so obvious they loved one another. They fought like all siblings can verify, and oh my God their fights were so realistic and funny!

The last thing is connected to the above in the sense that the characters feel like real teenagers. They actually use their phones all the time *gasp*, social media is their holy grail and they communicate, realistically.

I have used the words “real” and “realistically” a little too much in this review, and this is exactly why I didn’t give this book the full 4 stars. It was doing so good in terms of realism and had my expectations so high, aaaand the ending was a little bit too over the top??? I don’t know, it felt like too much for me to believe.

General Thoughts: Busted is a perfect YA contemporary novel, with just the right amount of mystery and the most cute romance that will have you rooting for the couple to KISS ALREADY. Recommend it to anyone in search of a fun, fast-paced book with strong female friendships and sibling relationship.

I received this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.