pretty dead queens didn’t grip me at first and was seemingly typical, but about halfway through lots of twists and I truly couldn’t guess who the killer was until right before the end. so 4/5 ⭐️ from me.

This was a fun ride. Even though the death didn’t happen until about 30% in, I felt the beginning was more compelling than the middle. I felt it went on a bit too long/too many red herrings. It was fairly easy to figure out both “twists,” but it was well written and I look forward to Donne’s next.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children's for this ARC. It took awhile for me to get into thos book and I almost gave up on it. I'm so glad that I kept reading it. The ending was unexpected and not one I saw coming. I will be looking for other books from this author.

This book is an absolute win. What a fun thriller. I was quickly invested in it left me wanting more pretty quickly. Absolute twist ending as well!

This is my favorite type of book it’s kind of a thriller combined with the mystery. I adore the specifically detailed characters and loved the plot as well.

I’m a big fan of YA thriller mysteries! And this book is definitely a good fix for my craving!

There so many alluring elements in this book attract your full focus and make you get lost in gripping mystery:

-Two murdered homecoming queens in the same town in 2 decades and bodies found by a grandmother and her granddaughter in 50 years time range at the exact same place and at the exact same stage: the drowned victim’s hair covering the pool water like a magnifying halo!

17 years old Cecelia who is kind of Bella Swan: moving from LA to small town, attracted the school’s popular kids’ full attention. She’s the granddaughter of most powerful woman of the town: the famous thriller author eccentric Maura Weston lives in a Victorian mansion, knows everything happens in the town, has written her first bestseller about her best friend Caroline Quinn’s murder: who was the angelic homecoming queen turning into a biggest symbol of the entire town.

And now new homecoming queen is also dead! Is there a copycat killer out there to show his tribute to the scandalous crime as the anniversary of Caroline Quinn’s murder is approaching?

Cecelia is still grieving her mom, struggling with the shock of finding dead body of her new friend . Best way to cope with drama is sharpening her investigating skills that runs in the family. Everybody keeps big secret in this small town and even the poor victim homecoming queen is not so innocent. There are so many people out there may benefit from her murder including her close circle friends that Cecelia lately became a part of it.

Cecelia puts herself in dangerous position, surrounded by her grandmother’s obnoxious thriller fans, her lying friend circle and a love triangle between school mascot/ her grandmother’s devoted intern Ben and football player, Bronte’s brother Gabriel. Interestingly both of the guys have a shady past with the poor victim.

Cecelia has to open the box of Pandora, revealing town’s dirty secrets to find the culprit which change the entire townies’ lives forever!

Overall: I like young girl detective/ Nancy Drew themes as they are portrayed at A good girl’s guide to murder and Agathas.

This book is fabulous example of this interesting theme. Even though I guessed the perpetrator a little bit earlier, I didn’t see the final twist coming which was extremely jaw dropping. Just because of that delicious revelation I gave extra half star and rounded 4.5 stars to 5!

This book started as slow burn mystery but especially last third was outstandingly fast pacing and exciting!

That semi open end made me hope this book may turn into series and there will be more books. I cannot say no to any book bringing back Cecelia Ellis’ detective adventures.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Crown Books for Young Readers for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of PRETTY DEAD QUEENS by Alexa Donne in exchange for my honest review.***

Oh Alexa Donne, I’d love to pick your devious brain to see how you create such delicious mysteries.

After her mom’s death Cecelia arrives to live with her estranged grandmother, a best selling mystery writer whose iconic classic is based on the real murder of a high school homecoming queen Caroline. History seems to be reliving itself at Cecelia’s new high school or does this sleepy town have deeper secrets.

I loved the way Donne connected past and present with descendants of the original high school students who experienced Caroline’s murder. Residents steeped in power and privilege know more than they’re saying.

Cecelia is a great narrator, in pain but making the best of her circumstances, open to new friendships and getting to know her difficulty grandmother. She felt like a real person rather than a teen character written by an adult.

Mystery and thriller lovers will love PRETTY DEAD QUEENS, a story at the top of this popular YA genre.

First off, I’ve read every single one of Alexa Donne’s books and I’ve loved all of them. She’s an auto-buy author for me and I was thrilled to get an ARC of this book. And … this one might just be my new favorite of hers.

Pretty Dead Queens is everything I wanted in a thriller. It was twisty, filled with drama, and so suspenseful. I will say, that I guessed the twists early on—which I’m quite proud of, I’m a huge thriller reader—but it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of this book. In fact, I may have enjoyed it more so because it was terrifically plotted, so many motives, so many red herrings, and was an utterly, beautifully executed thriller. The twists and ending were so satisfying … the ultimate murder turducken. The main character was easy to root for and I love how Alexa explored the MC’s grief in this book. Overall, wonderfully written. Such a page turner, I couldn’t put it down!

I absolutely loved this book and I look forward to reading Alexa’s next one!!

This was my first time reading this author and I am looking forward to reading more of her thrillers. this mystery had a lot of twists and turns and had me guessing until the end.

I loved the Ivies, so I was super excited to see a new book from this author. However I loved the Ivies way more. This plot interested me a lot less, it focused a lot on the history of the town, solving an old murder to solve a new one. Out of two twists, the first was a little too obvious and disappointing. The second was actually really good and the highlight of the book. The setting is a small town and there's LGBT+ side characters. If you like YA thrillers, I'd recommend. I'd just recommend the Ivies first.

Theres very little I can say about this book that won't give a lot away. But it's a fun (ish) small town murder mystery with lots of suspects, pretty little liars and sordid goings on. You may guess a twist (or two) but not them all.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Pretty Dead Queens

Author: Alexa Donne

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Filipino American Lesbian character, Lesbian character, Filipino American character, Indigenous character, Bisexual characters, Achillean romance between two side characters

Recommended For...: young adult readers, mystery, thriller, prom, unsolved murders

Publication Date: October 7, 2022

Genre: YA Mystery Thriller

Age Relevance: 15+ (death, cancer, grief, animal death, animal gore, language, drugs, gore, classism, racism, homophobia, murder, child abuse, sexual content, sexual assault of a minor, violence)

Explanation of Above: There is death and murder shown in the book and mentioned. There are mentions of cancer and grief is shown in the book. There is two animal deaths (rabbit and dog) and animal gore (rabbit) mentioned in the book. There is some cursing in the book. Drugs are mentioned briefly in the book. There is some violence with knives and gore with blood. There is classism, racism, and homophobia shown and mentioned in the book. Child abuse is mentioned and sexual assault of a minor is vaguely mentioned in the book (there is an adult character in the book who is having a relationship with a child under 18 but nothing explicit is shown). There is also some sexual content mentioned and one fade to black sex scene.

Publisher: Crown

Pages: 336

Synopsis: After the death of her mom (screw cancer), seventeen-year-old Cecelia Ellis goes to live with her estranged grandmother, a celebrated author whose Victorian mansion is as creepy as the murder mysteries she writes. On the surface, life is utterly ordinary in the California coastal town . . . until the homecoming queen is murdered. And she’s not Seaview’s first pretty dead queen.

With a copycat killer on the loose, Cecelia throws herself into the investigation, determined to crack the case like the heroines in her grandmother’s books. But the more Cecelia digs into the town’s secrets, the more she worries that her own mystery might not have a storybook ending.

Review: For the most part I really loved this book! The book was a great thriller mystery novel about past murders and a current killer. There’s a lot of twist and turns and it’ll keep you guessing on the whodunit for the longest time. It definitely has a Karen McManus feel to it and one of my newer favorite mystery books. I loved all of the funny pop culture moments as well. The character development was well done and the world building was great. I loved the writing and I had 2/3 overall guesses come true, which surprised me as I’m usually able to accurately guess the end of mystery books.

The only issue I had with the book is that I feel like the planting evidence on a Filipino character should have been called out a bit more for what it was and condemned more. I also feel like the book had some confusing moments that could be cleared up a little bit.

Verdict: I loved this one!

In this homage to Murder, She Wrote, Donne adds her spin on the teen murder investigation genre (is that a thing?). This is a decent thriller with several plot twists along the way. But my enjoyment lies with the relationships among the members of the "Scooby Gang." This is where the story fell short for me. I didn't think these relationships were fleshed out enough to make me really believe that they would risk life and limb to help Cecelia solve a murder. Hand to readers looking for a fast-paced " summer " read.

DNF. Not a fan of the main character at all. Not a fan of the writing style either. I found this to be cliched and predictable while I was reading, and couldn’t find it in me to care how it was going to end.

3.5/5 stars. To be released 2022.

This was a fun read, although slightly predicable. The plot is super fast paced as our main character, Cecelia, dives into solving the murder of a classmate that is easily familiar to one that happened fifty years ago. Her grandmother just happens to be a world famous author who based her first novel on the first murder. As she dives into town history, she discovers more than one secret Fans of Karen McManus will enjoy this murder mystery whodunit!

One line summary: Murder Turducken.
Just like with The Ivies, I can’t help but feel Donne’s writing fits this genre SO well. Pretty Dead Queens is a YA mystery following our main character Cecelia who goes to live with her grandmother in a coastal town in Northern California after her mom passes away from cancer. Her grandmother is a famous mystery writer whose first book was about a real life prom queen from their town that was killed in the 70’s. When history seems to repeat itself and another queen ends up dead, Cecelia’s the one to find the body and takes it upon herself to solve the murder.
This was one of my most anticipated books for 2022, and am so grateful I was able to get an early read. I loved that throughout this book, there were SO many possibilities for who could’ve been the murderer, and the build up to the final scenes felt pretty epic and satisfying.
Criticism-wise, I do think it was a little slow in parts while introducing possibly too many characters. Since this is really solving 2 murders from decades apart, it’s just natural that there would be 2 sets of characters from both eras, but I do think it slowed the pace down a little for me personally. I also want to note that this is probably going to be listed as a “thriller” but I think I’d set my expectations going into it more so as a “mystery” for the pacing. However, the last quarter I’d say was just complete perfection in my eyes and a complete page-turner.
4.5

TLDR:
This book is a fun, fast read with a touch of romance. Had me guessing until the VERY end. And a very satisfying end it was!

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The book starts with our main character, Cecelia Ellis, moving in with her famous author grandmother in a small town in northern California after the death of her mother. The death of Cecelia's mother is present throughout the book but in a quiet understated way. Shortly after her arrival in this small town, the day before homecoming, one of the girls in her friend group is murdered-- found dead by Cecelia drowned in the pool. This death matches a death in one of Cecelia's grandmother's books, which was itself a fictitious re-telling of a murder that happened in that town when the grandmother was a student in high school herself.

So the investigation begins-- was this murder a copy of the murder in the book? or a copy of the OG real-life murder? Are we dealing with a copy-cat killer, a crazy super-fan, or a serial killer come out of hibernation?

Each time a suspect is crossed off the list, some new information emerges that throws them back into the mix.

And so the book follows Cecelia as she escapes grief for her mother by throwing herself into investigating the recent murder and revisiting the murder from 50 years ago.

At times, the middle of the book is almost unwieldy with its messy web of small-town lies and secrets. The ensemble cast is tightly woven, like a soap opera, everyone has a secret, and everyone's relationships with the other cast members are complicated and in need of exploration (and I mean 'Soap Opera' in a good way.). And while being a lot, the characters are all distinct, rounded, and easy enough to keep track of.

There is a touch of romance that gives Cecelia some respite and leads to some juicy scenes that had me laughing or gasping. But overall the story is not about romance.

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I put off reading this book for a while because Alexa has been pretty open about the fact this book was influenced by her grieving the death of her own mother.

So while I was looking forward to this book, I thought it might take a few spoons-- that I would cry or need time to 'recover' the way I did after reading The FireKeeper's Daughter-- a book I also enjoyed but that ruined me. I am relieved to say, this was NOT the case, and while death is everywhere in this book (the deaths of the murder victims past and present, of the MC's Mother, which happens just before the beginning of the book, and of others), this book is not depressing in a weep-yourself-to-sleep way, but more just dark, in a fun way. So IF you've been putting off this book for the same reason I did- fear not! and dive right in.

This book was easily 3.5 ⭐'s for me! It gives Nancy Drew vibes to the max (the CW show not your mom's Carolyn Keene version).

Cecelia Ellis finds herself like a fish out of water in the small town of Seaview where she is the estranged granddaughter of a famous crime writer and, more recently, an orphan after her mom dies. Cecelia turns into a sort of instant celebrity because of the popularity of her grandmother's novels, but she really just wants to fly under the radar and leave Seaview and its bad memories behind.

Seaview is a town stuck in the past. The murder of the Homecoming Queen 50 years ago still lingers over the town because it was turned into a best selling crime novel written by Maura Weston. Cecelia is thrown headfirst into a similar situation when another (almost) Homecoming Queen is killed the night before she is supposed to receive her crown. Cecelia joins a popular group of friends and tries to solve the murder, then there are lots of things happening all at the same time.

I think that the author did a really good job of pacing the novel. The action was pretty consistent throughout the book with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader invested. Donne dropped clues throughout the novel, but there were definitely plenty of potential suspects to choose from. I think that the ending of the novel was spectacular, because as soon as you think you have it all figured out then something else happens!

My only critique would be that the writing at the ending of the book felt different than the rest of the story. The last 10% of the book felt like the author was dumping a lot of the PG-13 content in with no real reason for it to be there in my opinion. It wasn't super off-putting, but I definitely picked up on the differences when I was reading. The rest of the novel didn't flow in that way so it was extremely noticeable.

For fans of Pretty Little Liars and anything Karen McManus, "Pretty Dead Queens" will be a welcome read. Thrill, drama, suspense - Alexa Donne has knocked it out of the park.

Holy motives! Holy suspects! Holy twists and turns! Just when you think you can trust a character, BOOM! Just when you think you have it figured out, BOOM! I have whiplash from reading this book.

Cecelias mother dies and she goes to live with her estranged grandmother, a famous mystery writer, in her moms coastal hometown. As Cecilia starts to get used to her new way of living and meeting friends, she finds the body of a dead prom queen. She soon finds out that this is history repeating herself from the same thing happening in the 1970s. Not only that, her grandmothers first book was based on it. Cecilia sets out to solve who the killer is. Is it a copycat killer? Is it someone she considers a friend? There’s so many red herrings and plot twists you will be on the edge of your seat and up all night to find out.

This was a super great read and one I recommend to everyone.