It begins with a most unexpected letter. Teen cousins Aubrey, Milly and Jonah are invited to spend the summer on Gull Island, the resort home of their wealthy WASP grandmother, Mildred Story, the woman who, decades before, cut off all contact with her children, enigmatically telling them, “You know what you did.” Except the three brothers and their sister have always denied knowing what their mother meant. Now the adult siblings, encouraged by this gesture, bribe, threaten and cajole the cousins to accept the offer, for a variety of personal reasons, including, but not necessarily limited to, possible access to the immense Story fortune. Sweet Aubrey, bearing a traditional Story family name; sophisticated Milly, named after her grandmother, and extremely disgruntled Jonah meet up on the ferry ride to the island, pondering what the summer will hold. None of them envisions the events that will unfold. But when one of the first people they meet on the island tells them “you shouldn’t have come back” the cousins become reluctant allies to uncover lost family history, and to learn exactly what happened all those years ago. McManus presents another tour de force with her fourth Young Adult mystery. Delightfully, she has tweaked her style, presenting a character driven plot with the feel of a classic Agatha Christie. Breathtaking suspense takes a back seat as Aubrey, Milly and Jonah, burdened with parental legacies, expectations and disappointments, cautiously open up to each other, shedding secrets and personas molded by family legacy. Plot twists keep the reader guessing until the tempestuous climax (complete with a Christie-worthy reveal), but the journey is the true star in this book. THOUGHTS: McManus just keeps getting better. A first purchase for all middle school and high school collections, and multiple copies will be needed.

I can't wait to add this one to my classroom library!

Karen McManus' books have never disappointed me with their twists and turns, and The Cousins was no exception. I loved the unreliable narrators and realistic interactions between the cousins themselves, and I especially love when I can't predict the end of a mystery before I get there. Definite must-buy for my classroom library!

Three cousins are summoned to an island to meet the grandmother who disinherited their parents years before. Long buried family secrets will be uncovered, but everyone may not survive the truth. This story has lots of twists and will keep you guessing until the end.

This thriller has a lots of twists and turns but ultimately, it wasn't for me. There were too many narrators and I didn't connect to the teenage characters. This is a familial drama with mystery surrounding the rich grandmother and why is she estranged from her four children?
The three grandchildren of rich Mrs. Story are invited to her elite hotel to WORK for the summer. None of them have ever met their grandmother because she cut off her children years ago stating "You know what you did." The children of Mrs. Story fully expect their own children to be delighted at the prospect of spending the summer working for their grandmother. They decide to go to the lavish resort for the summer, not exactly willingly.
Told in many perspective that ended up being a few too many for me, this is the story of the family and the secrets that divide them.
The author does a good job creating flawed characters that may seem likeable to you. I wasn't invested in them personally and for me this is a three star read.
Thanks to netgalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am disappointed in yet another book by McManus. The Cousins is pitched as a mystery and thriller, but it falls in neither of these categories. It is a novel featuring loads of family drama and a hint of no chemistry romance.

The cousins are unmemorable. Aubrey has an unaffectionate and narcissistic father along with a boyfriend of five years who doesn’t like her. She is a swimmer. Jonah is good looking, snarky, and secretive. Milly is a beautiful but arrogant and discourteous alcoholic.

The first two chapters could have been excluded since they featured Aubrey and Milly before they arrive at the island. The chapters held no weight to the story since Milly’s introduction featured her dolled up in makeup and revealing clothing and sitting at a bar while she flirted with an older man so he would buy her alcohol. She revealed this was a game her and her friends regularly played and then proceeded to complain about older men hitting on her 17-year-old self. Well, maybe if she wasn’t hanging out at a bar then these things would not happen.

Aubrey’s introduction is rather dull. The reader learns there is an issue going on between her father, mother, and her swim coach. She purposely loses her swim match to strike revenge against her coach and then leaves early to hitch a ride home with her not really boyfriend.

Jonah’s introduction is his Uber ride to Hyannis where there is lots of Cape traffic and he has to run to make the ferry.

Once the cousins make it to the island not a lot happens. Aubrey wishes to gain the approval of the grandmother. Jonah is secretive and sarcastic and regularly butts heads with Milly. Milly is her typical rude drunk self. She treated Aubrey and Jonah very poorly throughout the novel and would become furious at them for no reason. That grew old pretty quickly.

The little reveals weren’t impactful and the big reveal was ludicrous. The story dragged on as the cousins were swept up in the lavish lifestyle of their grandmother and the little mystery present wasn’t intriguing. This could have been written much better with stronger characters that all don’t have names beginning with A. It was a tad confusing separating them from each other.

I couldn’t put this book down. Like Karen McManus’ other books, I read it all at once. The characters were nuanced in ways that I found pleasantly surprising. I was genuinely surprised by the ending. My students will love this book.

Karen McManus is the queen of YA family thrillers, and her latest is a soapy, melodramatic, wonderful nugget in the genre. Full of intrigue, The Cousins tells the parallel stories of the Story family - four siblings who, in 1996, did something to cause their unilateral estrangement from their wealthy mother, and three cousins in the present day, who are called back to the family home to (perhaps?) repair the relationship. Nothing is straightforward in a McManus volume, though, and I had a delightful time coming along with cousins Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah as they untwist their familial past. The book is full of twists, some more obvious than others, but all ends up settled in a supremely satisfying way.

Another great mystery from YA author Karen McManus. Three cousins meet on an island for a summer to work for their estranged grandmother. They have never met her because she cut off her four children years earlier through a letter that stated, ”You know what you did.”

Expertly crafted, this fast read is a fun thrill ride.

As someone without siblings, I was so excited to find a book titled Cousins! While I'm grateful my family is nothing like this one, I still couldn't stop turning the pages. This family has some serious secrets, and it was very fun to uncover them.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in return for my honest opinion.

The Cousins was one of those books that I really enjoyed reading, but left me a little disappointed in the end. There wasn't anything wrong with the ending in particular, but I just feel like it won't be one of those books that stays with me. I did greatly enjoy reading it though. It was quite the page-turner and I finished it in only a few days. It had some good twists and turns that kept me reading.

If you enjoyed Karen McManus' other books then I’m sure you will love this one too! It's a good old fashioned mystery but with a family dynamic twist that I didn’t anticipate. Three cousins come together after years of their family being estranged, for a summer of trying to figure out the mystery surrounding their grandmother's disinheritance of their parents, with a simple note saying “You know what you did”. From the perspectives of each cousin, this book interweaves the Story family past and present. Also included is their parents perspective of past events that helps fill in some of the blanks. The story wraps up nicely but does leave a little unexplained at the end which could leave room for perhaps a sequel. Pretty please?! This quick, fun, and engaging story will have you speeding through the pages to figure out what is going on.

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks netgalley for an arc of this title. My students LOVE Karen M McManus books and I have no doubt that they will love this one too. It’s another well written but classroom appropriate title that I can’t wait to share with my students. This is also a great thriller read for adults!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I love Karen McManus and I’ve read all her books and I was so happy I received this ARC. Karen is great at creating really developed characters and plot with enough mystery that keeps you interested the whole time you’re reading. This was a 3.5 for me.

I love Karen and her work, but I don’t think I vibed with The Cousins as much as I have with her previous work. The mystery was interesting, but predictable. And I feel like the ending wasn’t as dramatic or “ta da!” as it is in most mysteries. You wait for the ending to be like BAM here’s all the things and why the bad person did these things! And Karen did that, but it felt like it had less surprise ending because I had already figured out the secrets.

I think if you don’t want a scary mystery or thriller, or if you’re looking to branch out into the genre for the first time, this is a good place to start.

First, there's a typo on the family tree at the beginning of the book (which needs to be fixed before publication). The youngest son is listed as Asher, but during the entire novel, his name is Archer.

I liked this one just as much as One of Us is Lying. There are a few parts that I guessed, but the ending was a surprise. I love rich, eccentric (WASP) family mysteries. This is a great teen (14+) thriller (alcohol abuse discussions of sex make this for older teens).

I had a little trouble connecting with the three leads at the beginning of the book, but I realized over the course of the story that it was McManus' ingenious way of slowly unraveling the story through little peeks at the characters and their histories.
The plot itself isn't 100% original, but the brilliance of this book is that I was pulled in and invested in the characters even long after I'd figured out most of what was happening.
As much as there is a big mystery pulling the story forward, this book is a study of characters that lets each cousin take center stage for their biggest moments and really shine. You can't help but feel connected to them and want to figure out what's behind everything that's happening.
It really does pull you in and doesn't let go without ever getting too dark or feeling forced. That's quite an achievement.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the early read!

Another great book my McManus that is brilliantly written. The twists in this story keep you guessing and wanting to read more. I couldn't put it down!

From perspectives of each cousin, this book interweaves the Story past and present. The rich family is blocked from their mother’s inheritance for something they did, but none of the siblings understand. When a letter is sent to their children, “the cousins,” go to Cove Island for a summer job, but instead of working they seek the truth from their grandmother, Mildred. The storytelling is slow at some points but incorporates some suspense as to what happened to get cut off from the money supply.

Book Summary:

Three cousins (Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story) that hardly know each other, have been requested to work for their wealthy grandmother, Mildred Story. They know that their own parents have no communication with their own mother but why did this happen? When they arrive the at the island to work, they come across a young girl to ask a couple of questions for her research project and happens to be the grandchild of Dr. Fred Baxter. The longer they stay, the more they realize that there are many secrets that people are keeping and impacting so many lives. This is where the cousins will find some secrets being revealed right in front of their very own eyes.

Review:

Reading her previous novels, it is to be expected that this would be another mystery to solve which kept me alert and search for any clues. The plot flowed with the beginning and ending of the story which of course kept me engaged. This is great for YA readers and older that are into mystery novels and are trying to guess what happens at the end of the story.

Wow...just WOW! Karen M McManus does NOT disappoint.
The Cousins follows 3 (you guessed it) cousins who have until now been cut off from their grandmother. When their parents were just barely adults they received a letter saying "You Know What You Did" and that was the last communication they received from their mother until this summer. Milly, Aubrey and Jonah are told they have summer jobs to work at their grandmother's swanky island hotel. Their parents insist they go and patch thing up with their rich grandmother and restore the Story Family legacy and solve the mystery of the letter.
Just like any small ton, secrets can't stay secret forever. This book had so many twists and surprises I couldn't put it down!

Karen's books are so popular right now it is no question I wanted to read her latest! The Cousins was a juicy fun "summer read" set on a Massachusetts island, involving three cousins. I loved that the book didn't go where I expected it to and that I kept on guessing until finally the mystery was revealed. I thought this was stronger than her last book (the sequel to OOIL), and comparable to her second Two Can Keep a Secret. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and look forward to handing it to teen readers when it comes out!