This was one of my most anticipated releases this year, and I'm actually very disappointed to say it didn't live up to my expectations. While still a good read, the pacing was quite odd and the resolution was lacking. Something I adored about the original Truly Devious quartet was the way everything resolved. Each detail felt meaningful and purposeful, and even Stevie's personal issues were somewhat settled. This mystery did not feel resolved the same way. Stevie reveals the killer and that's it. All these details are sorted into the puzzle, and then it just felt like the puzzle was dumped on the floor. The reader has no idea what consequences this murderer will face, or even the consequences of Stevie's actions. Stevie makes several decisions at the end of the book that could have lasting repercussions, but nothing is said about them because the book just ends. It just didn't feel finished the way Johnson's other books have.

Many thanks to HarpersCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Let's be honest here: this and The Box in the Woods are utterly unnecessary to the original trilogy, but hey, good for Maureen Johnson for getting the coins she deserves. At least this is entertaining.

Out of every mystery in this entire series so far, I like this one the most. Back in 1995, nine close friends spent a night playing hide-and-seek in an old English manor during a stormy night. The morning after, they discovered that two of them had been murdered brutally in the woodshed of the manor. It was ruled a burglary gone wrong, but one of them had seen something inexplainable that night.

It was a delight to return to the world I came to love so much. Nate was just as amazing as in the previous books. Janelle and Vi are so adorable together. Stevie was a little bit annoying at times, but I enjoy her wittiness. And David, I still hope that he had remained disappeared in Book 2.

The way Maureen Johnson solved the mystery is reasonable. While nothing too crazy happened unlike The Box in the Woods, it is perfectly logical while remaining unpredictable. Johnson was able to mix up the formula for each book, and I really appreciate that.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. Still not my favorite YA mystery ever but I hope that Johnson comes out with more because I can't have enough of this friend group.

The Truly Devious series is one of my favorites. I was so excited to read Nine Liars. It also did not disappoint. Maureen Johnson is masterful at her characters. She knows how to write them so well. It makes reading her stories so much fun. I can identify with Stevie and her anxiety too. I read a lot in the YA murder-mystery genre and Nine Liars is exactly what this audience asks for. The twists and turns of this story are great. And, that ending! I can’t wait for the next book because there has to be one right?!

Having read the entire Truly Devious series, I can honestly say I was extremely disappointed in this next book in the series. First off, it had wayy too much sex reference for a YA novel-and not decent ones either! I’m no prude, but I certainly wouldn’t want a teen to believe having sex amongst ALL YOUR FRIENDS/ sharing partners is OK and normal. Also, sex was mentioned a heck of a lot compared of the previous books! Why?!
Now, nothing happened for the first 60% of the book. Literally. It was detailed descriptions of London-things I could read off a tour guide. This is not what I signed up for.
By the last few chapters of the book, when it finally got interesting, I was so bored I did the even care anymore! And the ending was super anticlimatic-and dont even get me started on David and Stevie. 😒

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

In this Truly Devious mystery Stevie and her friends head off to London to visit David, explore academics, and solve a double ax-murder from the 90s. I ended up giving this book 4 stars because it was a quick read and I enjoyed it (I will continue to read this series as long as it continues as I love the friend group and have always been a sucker for amateur teen sleuths), but it did have some issues.
First off, I loved the original Truly Devious trilogy. The way it tied the past and present together and developed the characters in both timelines kept me reading to find out more. This book had our same lovable Ellingham group, but I kept getting the 9 Liars confused with one another. The mystery itself felt rushed to me as it is supposed to be a standalone like Box in the Woods. Most of the book focused on friendship drama of both our current day group and the 90s group, but not the mystery and when it was revealed I did not find the motive for the murder convincing. Overall, it was enjoyable the pacing just felt a little off.

Stevie - I adore you. I have been following this series for years and stevie has been one of my favourite heroines since then. She reminds me alot of my teenage self, so interested in mysteries,!wanting to solve said mysteries and making everyone else addicted to those mysteries. I love the way Maureen writes, if anything, it captures it all perfectly. The teenage angst, the love you have for your hobby. And this was exactly that. 5/5 stars!

I have had a hard time getting into the Truly Devious series, as much as I kno they are beloved by many.

I thought I would give it another go with this one, but ths story just gets lost in the mix for me.

Where do I even begin? I’ve been reading and following along this series since the release of truly devious. I knew what I was getting myself into. Dark academia mixed in with a loveable and crazy cast of characters. Our main protagonist stevie is nothing short of happiness personified. She’s always a joy to read about and follow - I absolutely adored her arc in this and of course as always, the master of mysteries was a pleasure to follow along as she navigated through another mystery. It was the most fun I’ve had in a while - 5/5 stars!

I loved all of the Truly Devious series and this book was no exception. I was slightly disappointed we didn’t spend more time at the Academy, but after she solved the case that took place there I shouldn’t have really expected a ton more time there. As always the side characters were well fleshed out and enjoyable. Something about David has bugged me from the beginning and I can’t identify it but he’s just such an unlikable character for me so that kind of took away from the book in my opinion. Overall, liked it a lot!!

This is an interesting combination of gothic story, murder mystery, and progressive characters. I read this as a stand alone although it is part of a series. I had no trouble following the story line and the characters. The opening was a little difficult to grasp, but it became easier to keep track of all of the characters as the story unfolds. Mystery, mayhem, teenage shenanigans, and unsolved cases are the theme of this tale. Use of personal pronouns and non-binary characters are present.

Thank you HarperCollins for the advanced copy of this so I didn’t have to wait for it to be released 🥹🥹

The Truly Devious series is my favorite YA mystery series and this addition to the series was right on par with the rest, although I do think Box in the Woods was the best of the series so far and will be VERY hard to beat.

The mystery was great and very well done, Maureen knows how to write a mystery.

The only things that didn’t work for me were David (per usual— go away??), the lack of Nate in this book, Stevie seemed a bit off her game for most of the book (understandably so & she redeemed herself), and I preferred the setting at Ellingham and the camp from the other books.

I do love how it left off with hopefully another Stevie Bell mystery to come!

4.25 stars

Ok, I love the Truly Devious, so my expectations for this book were high when I first read it. I think the mystery was very interesting and I was invested in it. As for the Stevie and friends in London plot, I can’t say the same. I love Stevie, but she didn’t feel like herself in this book. At least we got to see more Stevie and David content. Overall, I think this was a good read, but I’m more looking forward to the next book than looking back on this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this book.

Many thanks to HarperCollins Children’s Books and NetGalley for the ARC! I was beyond excited to get to read the fifth installment of the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson!

This was a solid 4.5 star read for me! I have loved reading about Stevie Bell and her friends throughout the years. What I loved most about this book was Johnson’s growth of all the characters. I felt like there were more mature themes in this book which was extremely fitting as the characters are growing up. I also really enjoyed the mystery. It kept my guessing until the very end and holy cliffhanger!!

Stevie and the gang are in a transitional period. Janelle, Vi, and Nate are looking at colleges. Stevie should be too but she cannot manage to do anything about college applications or even apply herself in regular school. She feels a little lost in regards to her future, and she's really missing David, who's living in London and going to school there.

So when David invites the group to come study abroad in London for a week, it rejuvenates Stevie. It's a way to look like she's putting in effort at school while also spending time with David. Plus she gets to go to London.

It starts off great - Stevie and David being couply and touristy, her best friends with her, a week pretty much unsupervised (other than her headmaster who has pretty much said she can call at any minute and expects the kids to be following their itinerary any time they speak to her)

Until the group meets David's classmate Izzy who tells them about, you guessed it, an unsolved murder.

The murder took place in 1995, and as you're reading the lead-in of Stevie's story this go round, there are chapters about the murder circumstances as well. A group of 9 friends went to a country mansion after graduation to celebrate, and basically not everybody made it home. Izzy's aunt Angela was one of the friends in the group, and has let it spill to her niece while on painkillers that she thinks the murders were intentional, caused by one of the 9.

People who are not fans of realism in their YA will not like this story, as they probably have not liked the other installments. Stevie can be frustrating because she's realistic. She has insecurities about her relationship, WHICH MAKE SENSE because they're two teenagers living across the world from each other, and she confronts David about them. Her worries about the situation are compounded when David seems to spend a lot of time with Izzy.

But, it might be because Izzy's aunt goes missing after the gang chatted with her about the 1995 deaths. And now Izzy wants Stevie to help find her aunt and potentially also figure out what happened in 1995 too.

Stevie has insecurities about sex (mainly the lack of having had it), insecurities about her outfits, about her talents, basically about everything. She's seeing the people around her get ready for college, or in David's case, already be in college, and she just can't seem to pin down what kind of person she is and what she wants. It's interesting, because it's not the plot of this book like some contemporaries, it's just part of Stevie's story, and that means it doesn't have a conclusion with a pretty bow on it at the end like it would if it was the bulk of the story. It's hard to read just being a person who is very attached to Stevie, and people who claim to not like YA probably would think it was hard to read because it shows an unsure character who makes somewhat bad decisions sometimes. Personally I think it's the kind of thing that will resonate with kids, shit, it resonates with me as a full grown adult. Seeing people have goals, ambitions, and dreams can be really othering when you just aren't wired to have that.

There's almost a parallel between the murder story and Stevie's story. The group of 9 friends were graduating college and about to begin their separate lives for the first time in years, with the week at the country mansion being their last hurrah. Stevie's group is going to be graduating high school, but they also will be splitting up assumedly.

Stevie also is very moony over David, which her friends are simultaneously annoyed by and think is cute. It seems a little out of character, at first, for her to be basing so much of her well-being around a boy, but you have to remember she is going through a life crisis and also she hasn't seen him in months and he lives across the actual world. She deserves a little grace when it comes to being boy-crazy

Janelle is dealing with picking a college - she and Vi want to go to school in the same vicinity as one another even though they may not want to go to the same school. She seems more on board about choosing than Vi by the end of the book, which is a little curious. Nate is being weird, as usual, and has finally been doing a lot of writing, and it's in this book that he tells Stevie that he's asexual, which was a really really sweet moment. Nate also seems to be very low on money which alarms Stevie. David is acting carefree as usual, but he's dealing with issues with his father as usual and he also just feels like he isn't quite as special as anyone else in the group. Basically, everybody has something going on that fleshes them out in the story as usual and just makes you care about the characters so much.

I can't say I guessed the ending to the mystery - I did not really have a guess, but Stevie solved the hell out of it, and I was very glad to see she did her signature Holmes-esque reveal in front of a crowd. I am growing to bank on these moments in the books so I hope it continues as long as the series does.

The very ending of this book, which is tied to a part that happens a little earlier, is one of the worst things that has ever happened to me!!!! I read the last few paragraphs out loud to my fiance and he was literally like "oh my god I feel so bad for you" lmao SOS, it's definitely something I can not talk about until ya'll read this, but I swear to god if we do not get a sixth book you will have to call the swat team, the fbi, the cia, the united states marshals, the navy seals, the fire squad, and our lord and savior jesus christ to hold me back from completely going feral and ruining this nation

Oh my gosh I absolutely loved this book! It had me on the edge of my seat, and I finished it in one day!

Oh no!!!!!!! Maureen Johnson, you suck!!! I mean, not really. But that ending?!?!?!? Uuuuggggghhhhh!!! It sucks so hard to know that I have to wait at least another year for a resolution!!! I am not going to make it. It’s just that simple. My death from loss-of-fictional-closure will be on your head, my dear!

Oh. And the book was freaking AWESOME. Yeah. 💜💜💜💜💜📚

Update 5 minutes later: I guess the good news is that there HAS to be a 6th Stevie Bell book!!! 😀🥹😅

“May we always land the punchline, play the fool, embrace disaster, and love absurdly.”

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

Stevie Bell and the murder-solving gang are back!! In London!! The absolute joy I felt just being back in the world of this series, at Ellingham, and with the gang…I’m not sure how I’ll feel when they finally graduate. Devastated, probably.

First off, we meet the crew back at Ellingham Academy, a prestigious school that accepts students based on their talents/abilities, and enters them in a two-year program for their last years of schooling. No tuition. The only catch is that there was a big unsolved murder that happened there in the 1900s. No problem.

Stevie is now in her second and last year at Ellingham, and during her first year she solved the now-solved unsolved murder case. Then she showed up again in the summer at a camp and solved yet another murder after it’s time. And now, the gang take a short trip to England to meet with David and solve…yet another murder from the 1900s.

Plot. I think I might have liked these flashbacks more than all the other books in this series. It follows a theater group from Cambridge on their last week before graduation. A huge party, a huge murder. But what made it so interesting to follow was how closely-knit the Nine were, and how deeply they cared for each other. Reading their segments, and later their witness statements, really brought out how much love they all shared for one another. And even in present day, we meet them again, older, but still just as loving as they had been when they were younger. This was so much fun to read about, I actually dreaded the murder part because the Nine were just so fun to read about when they were all together.

Present day scenes dragged a bit until about the halfway mark. The one thing I used to really love about David and Stevie is that despite the fact that they’re quite young, they never fell into the typical YA love ups and downs. Until this book. I’m sure it was mainly to cause a little drama to stir Stevie back into the game, but I honestly really didn’t enjoy watching them communicate absolutely nothing and never resolve any of their feelings.

The murder mystery part has a very satisfying and conclusive ending. I loved how everything was wrapped up. Stevie and David on the other hand…I really didn’t enjoy their unnecessary drama. I think if this book had ended one chapter early, it would have been perfect. Some unresolved feelings, yes, but the plot itself would have been secured and an additional book to the series would have still been in the picture. The cliffhanger was trying to force us to want a new book. I do want another book, just not one that now has to clean up the mess that last page made.

Overall, I really did love this book! I adore this series and the gang themselves. If they went to college together and continued solving crimes until they were 30, I’d probably still be here reading about them.

This book is #5 in the Truly Devious series but follows a new case. All of the main group are back in this one and I really enjoyed getting to see more interactions with them. The first 40% of this book was kinda slow to me because it was a lot of set up before something big finally happened in the present day. The end of the book was also a little rushed, but let me anticipating another immediately! I did thoroughly enjoy this book even though it started slow and ended quick. The middle was just the right amount of suspense mixed in with general teen drama.

I highly recommend to any fans of this series!

I am giving this book 3.5 stars. Was it well written? Yes. Did it draw me in? Not really. I was planning on reading the rest of the series if I liked this one, but I think I am going to pass.

**3.5 stars**

Can we finally be done with David?

“Nine Liars” takes us to London 1995 where a group of friends spend their final moments of university together before life pulls them apart but what starts as a night of fun ends in murder and when Stevie visits her boyfriend across the pond she is pulled into the twisted mess of secrets and scandal to try and solve it all before red eye takes her home.

The weakest part of this series has always been Stevie and David’s “romance” and this book just highlighted just how terrible he is and how he weighs her down every step of the way and honestly if it wasn’t for those moments I would have liked this book a lot more. Box in the woods shined because it gave us more time with Janelle and Nate and I was excited to have a I back but again all of those friendships were sidelined for one of the worst characters I’ve ever had to suffer through and this book was more than enough nails in his coffin.

The case itself was cool and I wish more time (again thanks for nothing David) was spent on the parallels between our core group and that of The Nine as both were dealing with the complicated emotions of growing up and starting their lives outside of school and how that can affect each person and ultimately the whole.

I think the nods to history and the Tudor’s was fascinating and helped pull off some fun gotcha moments with this feeling a bit like ‘If We Were Villains’ showing the lengths people will go to cover for their friends and the frustration and admiration that a strong bond like that can have over time.

A fun read with a satisfying payoff reveal for the case itself, it will be interesting to see what comes next and just how far this series will go since we’ve moved into stand alone vs multi book stories.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**