So this book hooked me immediately given its premise is about a serial killer terrorizing a small town known as Candle Cove. I'm always a sucker for a good serial killer story. I also love the fact the main character is gay.

However, my main issue with Keep This to Yourself was in the characterization. I found myself struggling to connect with any of the characters because none of them felt very three-dimensional. For the most part they were written in a shallow way (and that's not to say the book is shallow only that these characters didn't have as much depth as I would have liked).

But I did still enjoy this book overall. I liked following Mac's journey to finding out the truth about what happened to his best friend, Connor, who he may or may not have been secretly in love with. I liked seeing him to get find a new relationship with someone who had also lost someone to the "Catalog Killer".

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an absorbing, quick read, but it wasn't one of my favorites. As far as Young Adult fiction goes though, this is one of the better ones I've read in a while so if that's your thing then I say you should give it a shot.

REVIEW IS SCHEDULED FOR MAY 20TH 2019 ON MY BLOG! Will add link after!

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an open and honest review.

While the initial few chapters grabbed me - we're immediately introduced to a small coastal town reeling from the after-effects of a serial killer - I found that the rest of the book drizzled into the mundane. If there's one thing I really felt was missing, it was atmosphere. While I figured out the killer very early on, what I really love about a good thriller is that amped up feeling of place and character that books like Donna Tartt's <i>The Secret History</i> give me, so in the end, I don't even care if I knew who the killer was all along, I'm just swimming in that suspense.

Had more time been spent perhaps on flashbacks and developing personalities, as well as that feeling of a haunted beach-side town, I think this could have become the perfect go-to for a spooky summer read.

One thing that I have always found very awkward with thrillers, that <i>Keep This to Yourself</i> unfortunately falls victim to, is unless the romance is extremely interesting or grabs me emotionally, it falls flat alongside the mystery and makes me feel like I'm being drawn away from the meaty centre of the story. Quill and Mac are cute, and the LGBT representation is great, but personality-wise there is very little that makes them unique.

As this book is, I would recommend it to late Middle-grade and early Teen readers who are looking for something teetering on the edge of a thriller, and that speaks to where they are with romance in general (there is absolutely nothing explicitly sexual, with very bare mentions of kissing, which is great for those who aren't ready for that yet!)

I went into this book with the impression that it was a thriller, but I didn't feel the tension, stress, or other things that come with thrillers until toward the end.

That being said, this was well done.
-The mystery was well set up.
-The characters were interesting and complicated.
-Even though I saw part of the end coming, I didn't see all of it. However, it was still believable.

I definitely recommend this if you like Little Monsters or Truly Devious.

Spoiler-free review:

What a journey. As someone who lives and breathes true crime shows and podcasts, this book checked all the boxes for me. I can't help but try to guess the ending along the way, despite never getting it right. A great read that I tore through in one-sitting.

This was a really exciting story. I loved the setting in a small, beach town with eerie caves. It brought to mind many mysteries I read and loved as a teenager. The main character, Mac, is a teenager himself at 18. I wouldn’t call this young adult but I think it can be easily enjoyed and appreciated by teenagers as well as adults. This is one I would’ve loved at 16.

The story follows Mac throughout the summer after he graduates high school. The town had been disturbed by a serial killer, the last victim being Mac’s best friend Connor a year before. When Mac finds a note from Connor he hadn’t previously seen it sends him on a search for who the Catalog Killer was.

While looking into the victims Mac meets Quill, whose cousin was one of the victims. Quill is as invested in finding out who the killer was and while helping Mac they begin to start their own romance. There is no sex of any kind in the book and in my opinion there didn’t need to be. That wouldn’t have fit with the story. This is a mystery first and foremost.

Mac has 3 other friends who made up a group who were close from when they were young. The group consisted of Mac, Connor, Ben, Doris and Carrie. I can’t say I liked these friends, I feel like Mac was the best person out of all of them. This was his story and for being such good friends I didn’t feel like they supported each other. But you have to read the book to find out more about these relationships.

I thought I guessed the killer a few times so I was happy to know I hadn’t. I love guessing until the end.

There were errors with spelling and paragraphs ran into each other between characters but with this being an ARC I hope they are fixed before the book is released.

If you like a solid mystery I suggest you give this a try.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for review

Loved this! Very fast paced! Would love to read more from this author in the future and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC!

Mac and his friends have just graduated high school in a small seaside town that was rocked in the past 12 months by a serial killer. His best friend and neighbor Connor, was one of the victims and when Mac finds an old note from Connor asking him to meet him in the beach caves on the night he was murdered, Mac sets about investigating what really happened.
As well as doing this Mac must come to terms with the fact that he was in love with Connor and can't let him go, but as he uncovers more in the case, he meets a great guy called Quill who seems to think Mac is a real catch and wants to help Connor solve the mystery.
There are lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing who the killer is in this claustrophobic seaside town.
For young adult fans of " One of us is Lying".

All you need to know is that I devoured this book in two days and the only reason it didn't take me longer is because I had to go to work and actually, you know, do work. I fell in love with the main character and the mystery kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading. I often feel really disappointed when I read the end of a mystery, but it wasn't the case with this book. I was actually surprised by the twist and felt super satisfied by the end. I definitely recommend this one!

On their graduation night, Mac and his friends meet to open a time capsule. Last year their community of Camera Cove was traumatized by four murders and the killer has never been caught. Their friend, Connor, his final victim, was different than the others, but with the same catalog photo cut out corresponding to the victim. When Mac finds new evidence, he starts on a path digging up secrets that should have stayed buried.

This YA murder mystery reminds me of the recent US release “One of Us Is Lying.” It has the mystery of an Agatha Christie novel, the characters of a modern YA, and a group of friends that harken back to Scooby-Doo and Veronica Mars. I loved this book. It was very compelling and extremely well plotted. I was amused and happy that Mac’s first action after finding new evidence is to immediately go to the police. In so many far-fetched murder mysteries, I thought this one felt very real and natural. I loved the journey with Mac and his friends as he tries to uncover the truth, while most of the town just wants to move on. It’s nice to have an main character with a queer point-of-view, and a romance that is adjacent to the story, but neither a coming out tale or a tangential pandering to a certain audience. It was so readable that this didn’t feel like YA to me, but a really good mystery book. I don’t know if a lot of people will be shocked by the ending, but I don’t think readers will figure it out easily. We’re on the journey with Mac and our suspicions change with his until the truth is finally revealed. This book was excellent and I hope someone buys the rights to turn this in to a CW television series. This book is released on May 21, and I hope you pre-order from your favorite Indy bookseller, right now.

Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan was well written, fast paced, hard to put down Young Adult Mystery. The one complaint I have is I could not find a place to stop reading and I ended up reading the entire book in one sitting. It is not a very long book, only 320 pages, but I could not stop reading. Using Goodreads' rating system, 1 - 5. I would rate it a 4.5.

A year has passed since the Catalog Killer killed 4 people then disappeared, never to be caught. The last victim was Connor, an artistic teen who was the best friend of Mac. Mac is distraught and, upon finding a letter from Connor which was written the night he was killed, begins to search for Connor's killer.

I found often authors have their characters behave in unbelievable ways and place them in impossible situations. I did not feel that with this book.

I enjoyed the story and Ryan's writing style. This is the first book I have read by Tom Ryan. He has written several others and I added him to my "want to read author" list. None of his novels appear to be part of a series.

This review was published on Goodreads on 4/23/19. Will publish a review on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on its release date, 5/21/19. When available, the review will be published on Scribd.com and, using Overdrive, will be rated in 9 libraries.

I was in the mood for a mystery that really made me think, and Keep This To Yourself checked off that box, and more.

The setting is perfect - a small beach town full of secrets, where everyone knows everybody's business. I immediately connected with Mac, and his determination to hold onto strained childhood friendships in the wake of a tragedy. He's fiercely loyal to his murdered friend, Connor, and the fluctuating emotions he feels are genuine and portrayed well. Mac's budding romance with Quill is quick, but totally sweet, and they share the goal of finding the serial killer.

Tension-filled scenes had me reading late into the night, and I finished over half of this book in one sitting. At some point, I suspected nearly everyone, and the twist at the end is part of something that occurred to me, but I convinced myself I was wrong.

Keep This To Yourself is a clever YA mystery full of red herrings, an endearing narrator (and he works in a library!), shocking twists, and touch of romance. I enjoyed it from beginning to end, and I'm looking forward to this author's next book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

"There's a whole unseen world beneath the surface."

5/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Yes you read that right I gave a YA Mystery/Thriller 5 stars. Honestly I'm having a bit of a crisis of faith. I don't think you should know much about this when going into it, so I'm going to give you the basics:

1. It's a YA Mystery Thriller
2. It has LGBTQIAP+ representation (and good rep at that)
3. I didn't see the ending coming
4. The writing is absolutely amazing

Honestly, I have absolutely no reasons why you shouldn't read this book when it releases. In fact, I implore to read this book when it releases. I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. I know I wasn't.

4 STARS

TW: loss of a loved one, death (including murder, off-screen animal death), violence, underage drinking and smoking, drugs and drug dealing, homophobia, gaslighting, animal cruelty

As I write this, I've been on such a murder mystery kick, which means that 4 stars is SOLID. SUPER SOLID. After all, I've had comp material to compare it to, and this is the one that's stood out as the very best at the end of the day. So, why should you read it?

For one, if you like murder mysteries, this is an excellent one. All mysteries should have twists, but this one has twists I liked more than other books, going in a direction I actually didn't anticipate. Given that I just love love love piecing together a mystery before the characters do (I challenge myself to do it all the time!), the fact that this surprised me? Basically calls for a standing ovation from my corner. I love being surprised in mysteries! As long as it's not totally weird and out of left field, of course. And this was not weird and out of left field; it was carefully laid out and made sense and was EXCELLENT.

Point two, it's queer! The protagonist, Mac Bell, is gay, as is another character who comes into the novel (who could be bisexual or queer in some other form, but is definitely a boy who likes boys), and neither of them are buried gays! Excellent! Low bar to meet, to be sure, but moving past that, they were well done. I can't say I share the exact same experience, since I'm not a guy, but I am queer, and some of the anxieties Mac feels about confronting how he feels about certain people in his life felt very familiar, as did some of the relief he felt at connecting with someone else who also isn't straight. Not to mention the discomfort during a scene with homophobia targeted at him (for those of you wary, it is a brief scene, and the homophobia is condemned instead of being allowed to slide by, so yay for that too!); he really felt familiar and real and excellent.

It probably helps that this is an emotional book, set a year after Mac's life was turned upside down by his best friend's death. Mac's upset, and when the message mentioned in the summary comes into his life, it comes with all kinds of emotions that no teenager is really equipped to handle rationally and calmly. Life's rough for Mac, and even though he makes questionable choices sometimes, and thinks his ideas are smarter than they might really be, he's a grieving kid who's doing he can with the resources he has, and he wants closure. All that together is a powerful thing that really made me like him a ton as a lead!

And when you cap all of this off with an unsettling seaside town and the lurking uncertainty about who the killer could be, about who's watching, who's waiting, it makes for an excellent, eerie read. I can totally picture reading this on a late summer evening near a beach, with a foggy coastline and approaching dark and the sense that something just isn't right... It's atmospheric as hell, folks, and it's another huge part of what made this book so amazing.

Honestly, possibly the only thing I didn't love was that the story to some extent relies on miscommunication (and active lying tbh) from people who should be up front with each other, and that there is a particular aspect of it that requires some suspension of disbelief in order for everything to close smoothly. It's still a phenomenal novel, and I had a blast reading it, but those two little things did irk me a bit, since they felt like a patch rather than a fully integrated, logical portion of the narrative. When you have a murder mystery, you need logic, especially when you're closing it all up; logic is the name of the game at the end of the day.

But it wasn't enough to knock off more than a star for just being distracting. Other than that, Keep This to Yourself was riveting and immersive and more than a little chilling when the pieces started to click into place properly. I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants more murder mystery on their shelves, and especially to folks who want queer murder mystery without the bury your gays trope rearing its ugly head!

At this point, it's definitely not too late to pre-order Keep This to Yourself, or to request it at your library! It comes out on May 21st, a hair under a month from now, and there's also a pre-order/library request campaign you can submit your receipt to, if you're so inclined! One of the gifts is classified, so perhaps it's something fancy. Or alarming. Who knows? You'll just have to wait and find out after lining up your copy of Keep This to Yourself in some form or another...

[This review will be published on The Words Gremlin around 10 am EST on 4/22/19.]

Actual rating: 3.5 (rounded down)

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

*It should be mentioned that the copy I read is an unfinished draft, and may be subject to change upon release. Thereby, my opinion henceforth is of the said uncorrected document.*

Right from the start, I was hooked! I breezed straight through this one, which is always a happy surprise. It’s the sign of a great story when it keeps you reading ‘til well after you should’ve gone to sleep. I simply could not put this book down!

As far as characters go: they were not nearly as fleshed-out as I’d have liked them to be. Outside of Mac, every character felt a bit like paper people with some personality traits written on their sleeves— Mac’s parents were just figures in the background, the group of “friends” like Breakfast Club caricatures.

I didn’t buy the romance one bit. The story would’ve been so much better off without it being so prevalent. It was too ‘lust at first sight’ They’ve only known each other for, what, a few hours cumulatively? And they’re already at first base? The whole thing just seemed too forced— like, “Okay, here’s one gay character, and here’s another gay character... and they’ll obviously fall in love with each other instantly, because they’re the only two gays around.” What did they even like about each other? There was nothing there— no chemistry. Just the fact that they both liked the same gender? And I am just gonna put it out there: I. Didn’t. Like. Quill. At. All. Some of his behavior was aggressive and petulant, which is unhealthy and uncalled for.

There was some repetitive imagery: three or four instances of “curtains shifting” and people sneaking in windows, and male midriffs as they stretched. *This may be fixed/adjusted upon the release of the completed, edited book.*

I wanted to like the *big* twist more, but I called it pretty much from the start. It had been my main, running theory until the end. But it’s an interesting twist, and I still give it credit. I did, however, miss a key element to it. So, kudos to that. But there had to be a helluvalot of disbelief to suspend with the whole situation with the police at the end.

So:
•Quick, engaging story
•Exciting mystery
•Cardboard characters
•Forced insta-love
•Predictable (but *humble brag, but really just a full-on BRAG* I’m too perceptive for my own good)

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

This book was great. If you're into suspenseful serial killer tales, don't hesitate and grab this book!

I liked the twist but I also struggled a bit getting there. That said - I definitely think teens will be on board with the suspense and unraveling mystery, while simultaneously wanting to punch Conner in the face.

Interestingly twisty and fast-paced, this one certainly kept me guessing (which is not SUPER hard to do, but I definitely kept thinking I was three steps ahead and then turned out to be entirely wrong). I liked the well-integrated gay rep, and while none of the relationships weren't examined entirely deeply (Mac's friendships, for example, were generally a little tell not show), the romance was sweet. I also appreciated the immediacy of the narration - there were moments that it felt like I was watching a movie, or listening to a true crime podcast, which was interesting. Overall, it reminded me of Caleb Roehrig's White Rabbit.

This was a truly intriguing mystery that kept me guessing up till the end. I totally figured it out...I thought. And I was wrong. I love when books are unpredictable. I liked the romance subplot and felt it added to the main plot line without taking over the main plot line. I loved the characters enough to want to see more books with them in it. Highly recommend.

4.5 stars!

Wow. I read this entire book in one day - practically one sitting. I'm a huge fantasy buff and rarely read contemporary novels, let alone mysteries. This was both, and it was so good!! I think it awoke my inner mystery-lover - the part of me that CAN'T STOP READING because I simply MUST KNOW. That hasn't happened to me in a loonngg time.

KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF is about a boy named Mac whose friend Connor was found dead the year prior - one of four victims killed by the "Catalog Killer," who was essentially going around town murdering a nuclear family and pinning a catalog picture to their bodies. Connor was the charismatic, handsome, good-at-everything one in Mac's friend group, and things just aren't the same without him around. No one can put him out of their minds, even a year later. Even more weirdly, Connor wasn't killed in the same way as the other three victims. Did the Catalog Killer stray from his preferred methods, or was there a copycat who wanted Connor dead? If so, will the Catalog killer return to complete the job properly?

After Mac and his friends dig up a time capsule they buried when Connor was still alive the year before. Mac decides to finally open the bag of comics Connor left at his house the very same night he died, not having been able to bring himself to do so before now. In the comics he finds a note from Connor asking Mac to meet him at the caves down by the beach. The final line of the note? "Keep this to yourself."

This sends Mac into something of a spiral. Was Connor trying to tell him something? Might he still be alive if Mac had opened the bag and gone to meet him that fateful night? Mac decides he needs to solve the mystery once and for all.

He goes to the houses of the other three victims under the guise of collecting for a library rummage sale, trying to find clues. At one of these houses he meets Quill, a boy whose cousin was also killed. The two decide to try and solve the case together. Unsurprisingly (but still adorably), they strike up a romance. From there the story revolves around Mac and Quill uncovering clues one by one. This was when I realized how much I've been missing by not reading mysteries; I HAD to know what happened, and I kept thinking I knew the answers only to be wrong. The author does a great job of leading you astray.

Mac is a very likeable main character, and the queer rep is great. I really liked Quill, too. My only qualm is that the side characters (Mac's other friends) are not super well-developed and you kind of don't really care about them. Then again, you only really care about the plot because you need to know how the mystery gets solved, so maybe that's not a big deal. It's a pretty short, fast-paced book, so maybe more description about other characters and the setting would have ruined the pace. I don't know. Personally I like more characterization and world-building, but it didn't make or break the book for me.

Then there was the reveal at the end!! Guys, I wasn't ready for that. Like I said, you'll keep getting led astray. I totally thought I had guessed who the killer was, and I thought I was being proved right, and then I....wasn't. As someone who doesn't read a lot of mysteries, I was very impressed by this. It was just so much fun to read that I didn't care too much about the lack of depth in some areas. I will say that some events that happened at the end of the book weren't very believable to me (I can't say without big-time spoilers), but I suppose the ending would've been kind of ruined if things played out the way they probably would have in real life.

In conclusion, I definitely recommend this! Quick, fun, cute-but-a-bit-creepy, suspenseful, and a great into to both mystery and contemporary for someone who doesn't tend to read either genre. :) I am pleased.

I figured out half of the ending of this, so I didn't have the total shock moment some readers had, but it was still a very enjoyable read. I had some issues with the secondary plots (like the way-too-fast romance that, to me, came out of nowhere), but the mystery was solid and the characertizations realistic, for the most part.