3.5 stars.

Reads super quick and is very engaging. While some parts had me wondering “why would anyone do this?” I genuinely enjoyed the mystery and the pacing.

A good YA thriller!

I rediscovered my love for YA thrillers since the start of the pandemic, and SEVEN DIRTY SECRETS by Natalie D. Richards has definitely earned a spot on my favorites shelf! The scavenger hunt element made this book simply unputdownable. Can't wait for Richards's next book!

Seven Dirty Sins is a compelling mystery that kept me tuned in the entire time. I very much enjoyed the scavenger hunt nature of the story line.

A mysterious scavenger hunt that keeps the reading wonder who did it! Cleo receives a scavenger hunt invitation that dredges up old memories. As Cleo follow clues, they lead to her dead boyfriend who drowned on a group rafting trip. The group of friends is reunited and together they try to solve the mystery of what happened during the trip and who is targeting them.

This was a good teen mystery/thriller! The twist was a little predictable but overall I enjoyed the book!

Will seven dirty secrets come spilling out?

Cleo's birthday trip goes horribly wrong, resulting in the death of her boyfriend Declan. One year later, she is tasked with solving a scavenger hunt with strange clues and riddles. With help from her best friend Hope, Cleo embarks on the hunt. With a deadline looming over them and escalating risk, a haunting realization comes to light. The faceless person behind the sick game knows what really happened on their trip- and their secrets aren't any safer than they are.
I flew through this novel, desperate to learn all the secrets and who was responsible for the scavenger hunt. I loved the twists and turns throughout the story and found myself holding my breath during many scenes. I had many theories, one of which panned out, but not in the way I thought. Natalie D. Richards is quickly becoming one of my favourite YA authors. I recommend this novel to anyone who loves a twisty, thrilling read!

TW: Domestic violence and drowning

3 stars for enjoyment

I know seven secrets:
One caused the fall. One did nothing. One saw it all.
One didn’t care. One used their head. One played the hero.
One was left for dead.

For her 18th bday, Cleo get a mysterious invitation to a scavenger hunt. Two of her best friends deny sending it, but she is still convinced they are behind it. Cleo takes hope on her hunt and light fun starts to get darker when the clues begin to feel familiar - they all seem to be about Cyrus, Cleo’s bf who died the previous year during a rafting group outing.

As if the clues weren’t enough, Cleo soon starts getting phone calls from someone who sounds like Cyrus asking “You ready?”

As the clock on the scavenger hunt ticks down, it becomes clear that someone knows what really happened to Cyrus. And that person will stop at nothing to make sure Cleo and her friends pay. Can they solve the hunt before someone else winds up dead?

Seven Dirty Secrets had a lot of potential and unfortunetely it didn't quite deliver what I was expecting. I really enjoyed the plot, Richards played very fair, and the solution didn't feel forced. What really let me down was the believability of the characters - the characters themselves were fairly developed, but they read younger than their age in maturity and much older in the freedom they had. Also, let's say I have never met a group of people as connected to serendipity.

Not sure if I am making sense, so TL;DR this is a fast paced YA thriller, if you don't take it too seriously, it is very enjoyable. I am sure many people will love it, even though it didn't quite do it for me.

Disclaimer: In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to SOURCEBOOKS Fire, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Seven Dirty Secrets.

"One caused the fall. One did nothing. One saw it all. One didn’t care. One used their head. One played the hero. One was left for dead."
It's been a year since Cleo's boyfriend drowned on her birthday rafting trip. Now it's her eighteenth birthday and she receives a mysterious present. Upon opening the present, Cleo finds the first of many clues to a scavenger hunt. As she unlocks more clues, she quickly realizes all of the places have something in common: They are all places that had something to do with her and Declan's relationship. Did he survive the rapids after all? Or did someone see what really happened that day?
I excitedly awaited this book and was not disappointed! Natalie D. Richards has given us another great YA thriller. I didn't want to stop reading and was so intrigued to see what was next to come. It was so much fun to solve the clues and join in on the scavenger hunt with Cleo. I had a few different theories as to who was behind it all and had guessed early on who it was, but suspected some others as well. I will definitely be recommending this book to those who enjoy YA thrillers!
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

A fairly standard YA mystery/thriller - it wasn't hard to take a guess at some of what would occur but it was a fun read regardless

3.5 stars, decent YA thriller, very engrossing.

This is the third book I have read by this author and her plots are compelling and full of action and adventure. This book is about a spooky scavenger hunt that grabbed my attention from the beginning and kept the plot moving forward to the end. Overall, it's not too difficult to figure out the identity of the person behind the hunt, but the reasons do not become clear until the end.

“Seven Dirty Secrets”
By: Natalie D. Richards

Ominous Scavenger Hunt Leads to Murder Clues

Cleo’s 18th birthday—a turning of age landmark—should have been a happy time of celebration and a fun occasion of cake and balloons, but soon turns into a ominous scavenger hunt with mysterious clues sent by a blackmailer who seems to know what really caused the death of her boyfriend on a rafting trip the previous year.

The blackmailer knows Seven Dirty Secrets about those who went on the rafting trip: 1) One caused the fall; 2) One did nothing; 3) One saw it all; 4) One didn’t care; 5) One used their head; 6) One played the hero; and 7) One was left for dead.

There are plenty more than seven secrets to solve in Natalie D. Richards engrossing tale of betrayal, suspense and mystery, “Seven Dirty Secrets.” It's a fun game of sleuthing with fast-paced page-turning action that keeps you entertained and engaged from the first page to the last.

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The Book Maven’s Journal—Reviews for Word Connoisseurs

REVIEWER: J.Hunt
STAR RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Seven Dirty Secrets” Author: Natalie D. Richards Genre: | Mysteries & Thrillers | Teens & Young Adult Publication Date: 02 November 2021 Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Fire

With Sincerest Appreciation to NetGalley, Author Natalie D. Richards, and Publishers SOURCEBOOK Fire for Providing this Advance Reader’s Copy for Review.

𝚂𝚄𝙼𝙼𝙰𝚁𝚈
⚠︎︎ I know seven dirty secrets:
One caused the fall. One did nothing. One saw it all.
One didn't care. One used their head. One played the hero.
One was left for dead.
⚠︎︎ On her eighteenth birthday, Cleo receives a mysterious invitation to a scavenger hunt. She's sure her best friend Hope or her brother Connor is behind it, but no one confesses. And as Cleo and Hope embark on the hunt, the seemingly random locations and clues begin to feel familiar...and maybe her secrets aren’t dead and buried after all.
𝚁𝙴𝚅𝙸𝙴𝚆
⚠︎︎ SDS is thrilling, pulse-pounding, and artfully a love letter to Columbus, OH! Aptly episodic, the narrative style will keep readers turning the page as they race along with Cleo to solve this mystery and make sure what’s dead stays that way.
⚠︎︎ Most enjoyable for me are the flashbacks used to characterize not only Cleo, but her deceased ex-boyfriend. Cleo suffers in silence as Cyrus (Declan, in my arc) slowly escalates his violent behavior. I’m impressed to see YA taking on domestic/partner abuse in a way that humanizes the survivor and takes the power of narrative away from the abuser. Inadvertently or not, SDS creates a pathway for empathy and dialogue for abuse in teen relationships, all set against the backdrop of a “whodunit” and race against the clock.
𝚀𝚄𝙾𝚃𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴
⚠︎︎ “How can I make them understand that five minutes can change your whole world—that five minutes can drive you to kill someone.”
⚠︎ “I’m turning into her again, that girl who flinches at every touch. Who sees monsters in every shadow.”
⚠︎ “I am the girl he always wanted me to be. Powerless and weak.”
⚠︎︎ “I am painfully, terribly, blissfully alive.”

This was the second book I've read by Natalie D. Richards, and I know it will not be the last! This author writes great YA Mystery/Thrillers, that I would definitely recommend checking out!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I will likely buy a copy of Seven Dirty Secrets for my HS library simply because my students love Natalie D Richards. This particular novel, however, seemed formulaic. It starts quickly and creepily and then decelerates. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t terribly compelling. I will keep booktalking her other stuff, though!

This is a mystery in which it s starts off as an innocent birthday scavenger hunt and becomes something a bit more sinister. It is an easy read and moves at a fast pace. I feel like some bits can be repetitive but that is often cause by a new character needing to be caught up on the situation. The ending of this book was a bit lackluster in my personal opinion.

I need to state that I rate and review books based on how my students wound enjoy them. This is a solid, twisting, bendy thrill ride of a novel. What starts as a seemingly innocent birthday scavenger hunt turns into a race against the clock. Secrets are revealed in an Agatha Christie style, where we are able to piece together the mystery of what happened to Declan that birthday in West Virginia. The characters are your typical teen characters, and the vibe is totally I Know What You Did Last Summer. It was fast paced enough that students will remain engaged, and they will not see the twist coming!

I think this is a solid middle lane mystery. The problem I have with this book is the problem I always have with Richards' books. They're compulsively readable and fast-paced, but the endings always leave me disappointed. This is good for what it is and what I've come to expect from this author, but it wasn't my favourite. I will say though, compared to the other books I've read by this author, the premise of this one (a sort of treasure hunt for secrets) is the most intriguing to me. Like I said, this book is a very fast read and good if you're craving a simply murder mystery in the vein of mass market paperback adult mysteries (but for YA obviously).

This book has a lot of fun and clever elements and could have been an excellent YA mystery, but in the end I just cannot get on board with a jaunty blackmail treasure hunt that stems from a domestic violence victim killing their abuser in self defense.

In case the last statement didn’t make it obvious, before reading you should be aware that there are very, very serious depictions of domestic abuse in this book involving a very young female protagonist.

While I admire the author’s honest if brutal to read attempts to shed light on a situation like this, pairing it with a fun, treasure hunt style mystery felt like something close to irresponsible and definitely in poor taste. It’s tough as a reader to go back and forth between flashbacks to scary, violent abusive scenes and a series of events in the present where two girls are following a trail of gift-wrapped clues around town to solve a puzzle.

And it’s a shame because so much of this book, particularly with regard to structure and the hunt for clues was so well done. The mystery is fun to follow in that sense, and the author employs some uniquely creepy and amusing locations along the way, like an abandoned department store (mannequins and crumbling escalators! So fun, so creepy!)

There are loads of ways in which this same fun plot could have been applied to a much more low-stakes backstory, removing the ick factor and sense of irresponsibility by simply changing the motive of the protagonist.

While I applaud depictions of abuse victims fighting back and winning in fiction and especially in YA, that cannot be matched with a good time, adventure-y mystery.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

I really enjoyed the book. I hadn't read anything by this author before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's an easy read.

Not a huge fan of the cover art though.

This is a story about scavenging for secrets.

I liked aspects of this- the scavenger hunt & escape room like settings were really fun! I also appreciated the thoughtful examination of trauma recovery as a nonlinear process. Unfortunately, I think I did myself a disservice by doing the audio of this one- the narrator was great, but had a mature/adult voice & that kept taking me out of the concept.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Sourcebooks Fire for the eArc!

4.5 stars
Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie Richards is a YA thriller, set after a rafting trip goes wrong. Seven friends go away on a rafting trip, but only six come back alive. When a year later, Cleo receives a shady scavenger hunt on her birthday, it seems as though someone knows more than they have led on and may know more about that trip than Cleo wishes they knew. Declan, the one who drowned on the trip, was Cleo’s boyfriend after all. How will this scavenger hunt end and what really happened on that rafting trip?

Wow, I absolutely loved this book. It had me hooked right off of the bat. Once I started, I could not put it down, until the thrilling ending. I absolutely did not see the ending coming. This book was action packed throughout and I really enjoyed that final twist of the book. The characters in this book were well-developed and I felt myself very attached to Cleo and her brother Connor. I also loved the romance between Connor and Hope.

I also just loved the premise of the mystery scavenger as a means to piece together the story. I couldn’t wait until Cleo and Hope found the next clue to piece together the scavenger hunt. Was it Declan doing the scavenger hunt? No one really did see him die that day and no body was found? It was a very good YA mystery.

I recommend this YA thriller novel for anyone looking for a fast-paced, quick, easy read.