Long-time readers of this blog will know that I absolutely adored Hannah Capin's Foul is Fair when I was lucky enough to receive an ARC from Netgalley last year. I have a soft spot for sapphic contemporary retellings of classic literature and legitimately squealed with excitement when my wish was granted and I received a copy of this release as well. While I still prefer the lush lyrical prose of Capin's work, I was not disappointed by the absolute thrill ride that was this young adult thriller.

As someone who has only a passing knowledge of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the inspiration for this book, I likely got less out of the experience than an aficionado would. Similarly, somewhat jarring plot twists and third-act reveal likely felt more out of place to me than someone familiar with the original. This isn't a bad thing necessarily - I was still able to follow the plot and its direction, and it was fairly obvious who the Dorian stand-in was (Mick) which made following the somewhat jarring character changes much easier. I still am not entirely convinced by the second of our two protagonists (Veronica) and even less so by the antagonist (Nico), but Mick was compelling enough that I found myself rooting for her, even as I was somewhat baffled by the decisions she makes and the motivations for making them.

It should be perfectly clear, however, that this isn't a retelling of Dorian but a reimagining, and fans of the original expecting a shot-for-shot retelling will find themselves disappointed. Ultimately, I think this is for the best: while beloved by fans of classic literature, the substance of Dorian has found its way into pop culture less readily than Shakespeare's canon. In the end, I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone who loves thrillers, complex WLW romances, and the hot, sexy, slightly disgusting feeling of summer in California - or anyone just on the hunt for an utterly binge-able young adult adventure.

This is a story about a girl on the edge.. and also ecoterrorism. And 2 or 3 other things.

First I want to say that I really enjoyed reading this- I read it in one sitting & was never bored. The sapphic love story is beautiful, and although I’m not a romance person I enjoyed the first 40% of this book, which I would classify as a romance. Then it suddenly became about activism, ethics & art- which I also enjoyed! Then it became a solid thriller for the last 30%.. all of these aspects where well done, but it felt like there were at least 3 separate books happening here. I think if there writer wasn’t so blatantly talented it would’ve been a mess, but as it stands it was somehow still very good!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thanks Netgalley & Macmillan & Henry Holt & co for this e-ARC!

Thanks to Henry Holt & Co and Netgalley for providing me with an arc for review!

Within the blurb, this book is described as electric. It is a perfect word to describe the tension of this story. Sold as a sapphic The Picture of Dorian Gray I was definitely intrigued. I FLEW THROUGH THIS BOOK. The imagery in this felt like it would be perfect for the screen especially with all of the performance art.

I just had a really good time with this book and hope that you give it a shot (when it comes to release date, RIP)!

First off I would like to say an extra BIG THANK YOU to Wendy Heard and NetGalley for granted me this wish of reading She's Too Pretty to Burn. It was such an honor and a joy! And trust me I shouted with glee when I got it.

Synopsis:
The summer is winding down in San Diego. Veronica is bored, caustically charismatic, and uninspired in her photography. Nico is insatiable, subversive, and obsessed with chaotic performance art. They’re artists first, best friends second. But that was before Mick. Delicate, lonely, magnetic Mick: the perfect subject, and Veronica’s dream girl. The days are long and hot―full of adventure―and soon they are falling in love. Falling so hard, they never imagine what comes next. One fire. Two murders. Three drowning bodies. One suspect . . . one stalker. This is a summer they won’t survive.

Let me just start by saying WOW!
You start off with following Mick whose dream is to earn a scholarship from her swimming and move away as far as she can to be away from her aspiring model mom. Her mom is the perfect picture of everything you don't want to be as a mom for you child, so Mick is trying so hard to get away. Her best friend Liz invites her to a party so Mick can at least try to "act normal" it is there that she meets Veronica and her whole world changes. I don't want to give to much away for this book because it is definitely beyond worth reading.

This book is definitely worth 5 stars in my opinion because it gives you the drama, romance, suspense, problem solving, and of course murder! I loved how the author executed the aspect of their relationship in the sense that it wasn't perfect but it was something to work for and how it was a LGBTQIA romance as well. The ending also had me on the edge of my seat as well with the plotting, the execution with the murders and the character who was causing the distress! The ending also has me wanting more and honestly I hope that there will be a second book. When this book comes out on the publish day, I will totally go run and buy a copy!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for a copy of this stunning book!*

“The earth itself is your judge and jury.”

Coined as “a sapphic, psychological thriller retelling of the “The Picture of Dorian Gray, She’s Too Pretty to Burn immediately and effectively caught my attention. Talk about seduction.

Nico and Veronica are “artists first, best friends second”. Nico is devoted to his art and Veronica is searching for her new muse. When she meets sweet and shy Mick, and it’s as if everything has clicked into place. The two girls crash together in a whirlwind romance, but nothing stays sunshine and roses for long. Soon obsession, loyalty, and desire come into play and then they have a murder on their hands.

“How is my own private human body a waste?” There are so many lines in this book that took my breath away. The relationships between these characters and the way they view themselves and the world felt authentic and raw. In She’s Too Pretty to Burn the characters are some of the best I’ve had the pleasure to read. Complicated, fierce, selfish, funny, confident. Real. They are characters that feel lovingly crafted, their hopes and dreams and flaws and fears, all cleverly thought out and presented in this fast-paced thriller.

I couldn’t put this book down, plowed through it in a day captivated by the story and characters. It’s rare a book leaves me in genuine suspense- the kind where you have to scream into your pillow and then get up and take a lap around your house. It’s the kind of book you can read again and again (and I plan to!) because it just works. Every element of this book in complimentary. The tone, the pace, and the setting all come together slightly to create a timeless read. The only issue I had with this book is that it ended.

My review is as follows:

I recently entered the world of YA Thriller. I was first captivated by Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder but found myself with few other options. After all, YA Thriller has only emerged as a category within the last few years. I was interested in the premise of She's Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard because honestly, how often do you see a Queer, thriller, murder mystery retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde? She's Too Pretty To Burn was a phenomenal, binge-worthy read. It surpassed every one of my expectations.

She's Too Pretty to Burn focuses on the perspectives of Mick (short for Michaela) and Veronica. Mick is a talented swimmer who struggles with social anxiety. Much to her dismay, Mick is often described as being beautiful and having "model potential". Mick, however, hates being in front of the camera- a feeling which is partially derived from her mother's model aspirations. Growing up Mick was often an afterthought as her mother focused on her career rather than her daughter. Mick wants nothing more than to earn a swimming scholarship at a university and move as far away from San Diego as possible.

Enter Veronica. A queer, vivacious, Latina woman who is often accompanied by her friend Nico, who creates art installations. Veronica is an avid photographer who only shoots using film. With only a limited number of shots, Veronica feels that she must be more intentional with each photo she takes. With her mother being an art professor at a local community college, Veronica wants to prove herself as an artist and make her name known in the art world.

As Mick, Veronica, and Nico’s worlds collide, they find themselves into only in an increasing amount of trouble, but more worryingly, danger. Love and fear, power and control, all in the pursuit of art and meaning.

Central to She’s Too Pretty to Burn is power. It's addictiveness. It's drug-like effects. The feeling of control when everything around you is utter chaos. Power is riveting. Power is freeing. All that to say that having power is not without its consequences, which our teenage protagonists realize throughout the novel. I can't explain in much more detail without spoiling too many details but know that the novel explores the concept of power and control in multiple facets: relationships, the environment, our identity, and the like.

As a final non-spoilery note, I think the author offers an interesting commentary on the power of social media. That we control what image we put out into society. What we want to be seen and what we want to be kept private. About photography and consent in a day when cameras are practically glued to our hands. Just because you can take a picture of someone or something doesn't mean you should. Just because you have power doesn't mean you should use it, right?

She's Too Pretty to Burn earns 5 stars from me. I'll definitely be checking out Wendy Heard's other works and look forward to what she writes in the future.

This review will be posted on Goodreads and my blog on March 9, 2021 leading up to the official release of the novel.

I wanted to read this book the second I read about it, so when NetGalley gave me access to the ARC I was so excited.

It did not disappoint. So creepy, and so fascinating. I read it in less than a day. I haven’t read The Picture of Dorian Gray, but I do know the basic premise and I think this “reimagining” did a wonderful job.

Firstly, I want to say thank you to NetGalley and McMillan Children’s Publishing Group for approving me to read an advanced copy of She’s Too Pretty To Burn. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful cover, and I love the fire images and the colors splashed onto it. I enjoyed this book immensely. I actually read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down; I was drawn in from the first page and I had to know what happened.

I really liked the story and the destructive elements that were drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is one of my favorite books. I liked the characters and how human they are, especially Mick who has mild destructive tendencies even if she doesn’t realize it. She’s so shy, but a chance meeting with Veronica changes everything for her, and thrusts her into something she is clearly not comfortable with, and learns to speak up for herself.

I loved how the point of view changes between Mick and Veronica, so you get a clear picture of what’s happening, especially when the characters are confused and separated. And finally, I loved how it’s set in the San Diego art scene, how beautifully it’s written; you can picture yourself there while everything is happening. Wendy Heard paints a beautiful picture with her words, and it’s like you’re there as a bystander witnessing everything. Especially when things start to go wrong during some intense art installations.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It’s beautiful, poignant, intense, destructive, and passionate. I really enjoyed watching Mick grow into a better version of herself after meeting Veronica, and learning what family truly means. I loved the themes of social media, and how one post can change everything and catapult you into a world you might not be ready for. And I loved the thriller aspect, that’s the part that kept me wanting to read more; needing to know what was going to happen next. Overall, I loved this book and I think everyone should read it.

I immediately read this book upon being approved for an ARC, as that cover and the title are too perfect not to dive in. She's Too Pretty to Burn is a gripping, moody story about a not-so-typical teen romance between Veronica and Mick. The writing is taut, not a word out of place, and the plotting is well done. To be entirely transparent, I'm not a connoisseur of LGBTQ+ material, as much of it feels gratuitous-- created for the sake of being edgy or 'with the times', or to make some political statement. Heard's story is none of these things. It feels authentic, never making a big deal of their sexual preferences. Sure, it's mentioned, but it's not <i>the story</i>, and these characters are more than to what gender they're romantically drawn. I also love that it's about how a 'good girl goes bad', but again, it's never heavy-handed or moralistic. Only after the fact do you realize, wait, this isn't what I expected of her/him, and that's the case with every character. In the words of Shakespeare, "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

“I think hating parties is a sign of a healthy aversion to people.”
I flew through this book! I found Veronica and Mick’s relationship to be very engrossing even though both of them were insanely annoying. Basically, Veronica is a photographer and Mick has a phobia of having her picture taken? Like it’s at the point where her mother asks her to do a modelling job in order to pay rent but she refuses. And it’s a shoot showing off a HOUSE. But Veronica decides that Mick is the perfect model and lowkey coerces her into it. So that aspect of their relationship is pretty toxic, but Mick also seems overly stubborn.
Though it is pretty exciting to find out who the killer is, it isn’t really that surprising. The clues are all there, it just depends when you catch on to it. Also, the motivation of the villain isn’t fleshed out that well, and they just start seeming like a psycho eventually.
Overall, way too much of the plot depended on miscommunication and lies between characters, which doesn’t leave a lot of surprise for the reader since we have the dual pov between Veronica and Mick. The reader knows everything and it gets boring watching the characters chase down dead ends. Though the characters are interesting, their actions are extremely jarring and make them borderline unlikable.

I found this story to be confusing based on the blurb. While I was expecting a dual POV I believed it would be Veronica/Nico, not Veronica/Micky. It was dark and twisted, but not heavy on the thriller aspect. The characters are unlikable in the way that teenagers are. The ending was wild and left me wanting more. This would be a book I wouldn’t necessarily recommend, but one id like to discuss with other readers.

5/5⭐️
oh.my.god.

Summer is coming to an end and Veronica is finding herself largely uninspired in her photography until she meets Mick at a party and inspiration strikes, she becomes immediately infatuated with her. Mick, who is very much uncomfortable with being photographed finds herself having to decide between her discomfort and Victoria's success as a photographer. Meanwhile Mick is dealing with a rocky home life and Victoria is growing more and more unfamiliar with her best friend of two years. Together they find themselves having to navigate through a series of tragedies that greatly impact both of their lives and despite having just met find that the only people they can truly depend on are each other.

This book seriously blew me away. The romance hooked me from the beginning, I was rooting for Veronica and Mick. The two of them are so well written and realistic it was unbelievable. They felt like true teenagers, trying their best but also letting their own needs get in the way of doing what's right most of the time. I found myself on the edge of my seat almost from the beginning ready to find out what was going to go down next. At no point, while reading did I feel bored or disinterested, the writing was engaging and the plot wasn't slow by any means. The author did such a good job with balancing the plot and romance, neither felt especially lacking and they both lent themselves well to the other.

I don't typically feel super connected to characters in books but Mick really stuck out to me as a memorable and relatable character, despite us leading largely different lives. Her hesitance to reach out and trust people to help her get where she needs to go in life along with her tendency to convince herself she has everything under control really resonated with me. I think in addition to that her reluctance to branch out at the start of the book and that creating distance with her best (and only) friend is a very relatable experience. I do wish there had been some more focus on Mick and Liz's relationship, I think that while friends do drift apart it would have been nice for them to have had some kind of talk at any point during the book, as it felt very unresolved.

Overall, this book was truly mind-boggling. If you're a fan of ya contemporary but are looking for just a little bit more action in your books I think this is definitely the book for you.

Young adult suspense fiction is so rare! Pair it with empowering LGBT themes and dope as hell sapphic characters, you've got a winner.

She’s Too Pretty to Burn is exciting and thrilling. A story filled with young passion and so many fires. I’m left with an eery feeling as I write this.

I was incredibly excited when I saw that my wish had been granted for this book. The beautiful cover and the fact that this is a YA sapphic thriller(!!!) really got my hopes up. I really believed I was going to love this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

This book has a very interesting premise. The prologue was gripping. However, I quickly began to lose interest as the story progressed. I kept getting the two main characters, Veronica and Mick, confused. I often forgot whose point-of-view I was reading from and mixed up their backstories. They just weren’t memorable, and I never felt any attachment to them. In addition, their relationship was very insta-lovey, and I didn’t like how quickly it developed. I just didn’t think they had much chemistry.

About the writing: it was okay—pretty basic, and I personally like writing styles that are a little more flowery and descriptive.

The first third of this story flew by, but it didn’t feel like anything actually happened. It failed to keep my attention, and by the halfway mark, when the mystery finally kicked in, I simply did not care. In addition, this story would have benefited if the major events were a little more...intense? I wanted action that left my heart-pounding, a story that kept me guessing, but it didn’t deliver.

Perhaps others may find this book to be more enjoyable, but I personally wasn’t a fan.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC.

Wow, What a book.
Mick meets Veronica at a party and the adventure begins. Veronica is a photographer and she takes a pictures of Mick that ends up going viral on Instagram. Mick is a camera shy swimmer who has a complicated relationship with her mother. Veronica's friend Nico is a bit of an extreme artist with his own agenda. Soon Veronica and Mick are on a wild ride that they are not sure how it will all end when things continue to get out of control.
Overall, I thought this book was wonderful. It was a fast and easy read that had me hanging on until the very end.
Thank you NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

I really enjoyed this YA book. it was very fast paced and kept me guessing until the very end!! It had a lot going on. But just enough to keep me wondering. I would highly recommend this read. Now i am excited to read more by this author!

Wow! After reading the last third of the book by holding my e-reader with my shaky hands, puffing, sweating, jumping up and down from my seat, I feel like I ran a marathon!

This is impressive dedication and realistic, present time reflection of Picture of Dorian Gray! It’s about the beauty, ecstatic, art, passion, forbidden love, secrets, longing for divine beauty and seeing and admiring it through the lenses of your camera.

Passion triangle around Veronica-Nico and Mick is definitely the great retelling, a new reflection of Basil-Henry-Dorian’s dysfunctional relationship patterns.

Veronica and Nico are best friends, but their passion for art, photography always comes first. Nico is controlling, manipulative just like Henry who liked to affect people’s opinions ( especially Dorian) with his impressive argumentative skills.

But Veronica is already looking for something different, bored with his husband-wife kind of routine relationship with Nico. One day her path crosses with shiny, adorable Mick. Just like Basil’s adoration to the beauty of Dorian, she gets enchanted by her magical beauty and their whirlwind, sexy, adventurous love story begins. But... they’re doomed with the tragedies. One fire... two murders... three drowning bodies.

Expect to get surprised, because there are so many foreseeable twists will blow your mind!
I’m not giving any more clues not to ruin those surprises! A very fast pacing, heart throbbing and jaw dropping adventure is waiting for you. Buckle up! Get ready!

It’s not a retelling of a legendary classic. The references and reflections of original text is such a fabulous truth and we may sense how it inspired the author’s riveting, exciting writing.

Overall: I enjoyed a lot. One of the most surprising reads of the year. Go blind and enjoy it!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co / Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

Thank out to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Holy shit holy shit holy shit. What a BOOK. I was honestly worried I was losing my taste for thrillers because I haven’t read any good ones lately, but this changed my mind. Really strong 4.5, but I gotta give it 5 because no decimals, unfortunately. This book was fantastic. The only reason it’s not a full 5 is because it felt a little bit insta-love which bugged me a little, but not enough to be a big issue. These characters??? Fantastic! The plot??? Fantastic! A sapphic modern Dorian Grey-inspired thriller??? BRILLIANT AS HELL. I was so deeply connected to Mick’s story and relationship with her mom and her development, as well as Veronica and her, well, whole existence, really. This story had me hooked from the beginning all the way to the end. I’m thankful to the book gods for granting my ARC wish, this book absolutely blew me away.

Two girls' lives are changed forever as they tackle secrets and dangers around the corner. It kind of reminds me of One of Us is Lying and I love how good it was!