was very excited to read this one and was disappointed that it didn’t exactly go as the way i envisioned it would. i was honestly more interested in the characters relationship & dynamics with each other than the actual mystery—especially between jacob & eddie. mixed media written books are some of my favorites to read and i definitely enjoyed that aspect a lot.

Fast-paced YA Thriller! I enjoyed this one! It was a quick read, similar to Heard's other titles. There were some really good twists along the way as well that I did not see coming.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy of this book. I sadly had missed the window to download this before it got archived so I ended up reading a copy through my library.

While the story is very fast paced with the set up and issues regarding Jacob's incident, I found the pacing to be a bit confusing. Perspective changes in a mystery are always welcome but for the most part, Jacob's flashbacks took me out of the story even though they connect directly to what's going on overall. Casey as a main character to follow for the story was an interesting choice too because in order for the twists to be as surprising as they were supposed to be, it had to be in the perspective of someone that doesn't know a single thing and can just throw accusations around.

The reveal felt like a classic storyline, and the payoff for everything was actually fun. Personally, I've read stuff in the same vein a lot so it felt overdone for me but seems like a great selection for anyone just starting out in reading mystery, specifically whodunits with a bit of true crime.

I really enjoyed this twisty thriller! The core friend group are all likeable, and I like how you get to hear a few of their perspectives. They are quite a mismatched bunch which makes them more relatable to a wide group of kids. I enjoyed the representation and the explanations in how their varied backgrounds impacted their daily lives, and their friendships. The action started off quick and kept me engaged. I was guessing til the very end, which is my favorite. I liked the complexity of the story and not knowing until the end who dun it! This is a great, twisty read and a fun one for all.

This was such a fun, twisty, grounded thriller, as I've come to expect from Heard! Great character development and I loved the framing device of the YouTube channel. A total page-turner!

Mystery Explorers!

Eddie and Jacob, both 18, and Zoe and Casey, 17, have created a popular show about Los Angeles buildings that are sealed off or partly sealed off to the public. The show is called “We’ll Never Tell” and the teenagers keep their true identities secret as they investigate, search and record what they discover. One of these places is known as the Murder House where a couple died fifty years ago. After they’ve broken into the Murder House and are searching, Jacob is stabbed. The other three freak out and the mystery pulls the police into a twisted investigation that will change everything.

Likes/dislikes: The mystery is interesting. I enjoyed the variety of character personalities. I like how the mystery was revealed.
Language: R for 61 swears and 1 f-word.
Mature Content: PG-13 for implied sex with no details, detailed kissing.
Violence: PG-13 for bloody stabbing, breaking and entering, bloody deaths.
Ethnicity: Jacob is white, Eddie is Chinese American, Zoe is Philippine American and Casey is white.

This is my first book by this author and I do believe I may need to check her others out after reading this one. It was a ride!

I enjoyed the articles included as a part of the story, they lend just a little bit more depth and uniqueness to a story. The ambiance and sense of the group not belonging in the house was fantastic. The house definitely got my imagination and blood pumping. Especially how it appeared inside, frozen in time – if not for the blood stains and disuse, the Valentini’s could walk in at any moment. The interwoven stories of past and present meshed together really well.

That’s the thing with being the victim of a crime. It collapses an entire life down to its violent conclusion. It’s perverse and wrong that victims are remembered for a crime committed by someone else–in my mom’s case, a complete stranger.

My younger self resonated with Casey’s character the most and she was by far my favorite. Casey’s new friendship did feel a little too convenient but then again – stranger things have happened in the wake of a tragedy. Each of the group brings their own unique personality and while eclectic, it works. Most of my friend groups in high school and even now fall into the eclectic mix category. I thoroughly enjoyed all the representation in this book as well – it’s raw, emotional and real. I think that’s the best thing about this group of friends, they feel like real people.

But in reality, there’s no romance in a crime of passion. There’s just the ending of a life, small and quiet, and the broken people who get left behind.

There were several twists in the book that I wasn’t expecting and they were pretty big ones. The synopsis gives us a hint at one secret the characters in the book are hiding from others & it was interesting to see that play out in the book. It was a fast read with shorter action packed chapters and I blew through this book. A big thank you to TBR & Beyond Tours, Wendy Heard & Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown & Company for choosing me to participate in this tour. All opinions are my own. Rounded from 4.5 stars.

i've read both of wendy heard's other ya novels, and i've really enjoyed all of them, so i was really looking forward to this book. while it felt very different from heard's other books, i still ended up enjoying it a lot! while i found the ultimate culprit rather easy to determine, i really enjoyed the rest of the plot and other twists, so i didn't really mind.

I am a big Wendy fan and this book didn't disappoint! I loved the queer representation, the callbacks to a true Hollywood crime and the aspect of the secret YouTube show. I was honestly very surprised with how the mystery turned out! I did not see some of the twists coming either. There is also kind of a creepy supernatural factor that I really enjoyed. I will say, keep an eye on the dates and how that culminates. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! I received an advance review copy for free and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

Where did you first get the idea for this book?
I’ve been wanting to write a book like We’ll Never Tell for years. The idea of the four YouTubers
exploring abandoned and off-limits places around LA has made it into a few book ideas, and finally I
found their home here! I’ve always been fascinated with places like the infamous Hotel Cecil, which
has proven a sort of focal point for dark and spooky happenings. I’m interested in the idea that
something so evil can happen in a place that it leaves a psychic imprint, drawing more evil to it.
Haunted houses, spooky happenings—this book is my creepy little darling.

How do you balance a healthy level of fear and graphic situations for your audience?
I decide what kind of violence and/or scary stuff to put in based on the promises that I think I’ve
made the reader by nature of the premise. For example, if I were to write a book about a chef, but
then the chef never cooks anything, the reader might think that was a little disappointing. You don’t
pick up a book about a chef because you DON’T want to read any cooking scenes. If I’m writing a
book with a haunted murder house, I better give you some scary haunting and some murdering in
the house! So I never put anything in gratuitously. It’s all because I want to make sure I’m sending
the reader on the roller coaster ride they signed up for, no more, no less.

What surprised you most about writing this book?
How emotional it was! The premise doesn’t sound extremely heartwrenching, but it was! I was
talking about victims, survivors, the impact of horrible violence on families. And the relationship
between Jacob and Eddie really pulled at my heartstrings. When I got to the scene with Casey in the
parking lot, I was full on sobbing writing it.

When you write, do you know where the book is going before you start, or do you let the story
evolve without a strict outline?
I outline, but vaguely. I always know the main plot points, but I only scene plan a handful of scenes in
advance. And I never outline the ending. I get to the end of Act 2 and reassess to make sure I write
an ending that has all the themes tied up, a climax that has all the metaphorical guns going off, etc.

What is one thing you hope your readers take away from this book?
I’d love readers to reflect on true crime, on how victims are treated, on how we think about the
whole entire thing. And I’d love readers to just fall in love with the characters. I’d love readers to feel
the poignancy and preciousness of life and to look at their own loved ones with fresh eyes. And I’d
absolutely love it if it gave anyone a new view of LA.


Is there anything on the “cutting room floor” that you wished you could include?
I could have written 200 more pages of Eddie + Jacob and of the four of them just doing their
breaking and entering.

What happens when 4 friends sneak into the Murder House to film for their YouTube channel? They become a part of their own mystery.

This book has somewhat of a classic premise, but with more unique characters. All of the kids had their own unique thing going on, but were good friends.

I liked that parallels were drawn with the original victim in the house. Snippets were given along the way to bring those details out more. I definitely could see a sequel in this band of friends sneaking into somewhere new (maybe a bit more legal next time) to film again. Hollywood has a lot of creepy mysteries.

Thank you to Little Brown Books and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

4 Youtuber’s have a mysterious channel and no one knows who’s behind the Youtube channel. They are mostly trespassing while creating their videos and for the end of senior year they want to go out with a bang and do something special.

I really enjoyed my time reading this book and couldn’t get enough of the mystery aspect. I was however a bit confused about the change of P.O.V.S. because sometimes it wasn’t clear who was who.

Other than that I really loved this read. It’s fast-paced and quick to read.

I can highly recommend “We’ll never Tell” to everyone who likes a great mystery thriller.

An interesting premise, but I think the characters were all leaning a bit to hard into their archetypes, and it made it difficult to really immerse myself in.

I think this is my first Wendy Heard book and I am wondering why. I’ve found the last few YA books I’ve read have skewed really young and the characters acted immature, but that wasn’t the case with this one. Don’t get me wrong, they are high schoolers, but it doesn’t scream high school as you read.

This one hooked me from the start. I liked the premise of creating YouTube episodes. I’ve always been a fan of books about podcasts, but this works too. Breaking into locations to film and show what other people aren’t privy to. There are dual timelines, multiple POVs, newspaper articles and letters to help tell the complete story. In addition to the present and past mysteries, I liked the friendship and relationships in the book. The close knit group of friends tested their friendships as they worked through the mystery.

I had lots of theories as I read this one and none of my wacky theories panned out until the start of the unraveling. I really fell for the red herrings in this one. And to see this is based upon the infamous murder house. It’s an interesting premise about whether a location is cursed. And of the most memorable quotes for me was the second to last paragraph in the book, but I am all about staying away from spoilers and wasn’t sure if it told too much.

3.5 stars

We’ll Never Tell is a book about 4 seniors, who run a YouTube channel where they break into locked places at night to show their audience a behind-the-scenes view of these locations. When one of them suggests that their finale should take place at their local murder house, they begin to plan the perfect crime. Once they break it, however, things begin going wrong almost immediately, and one of them is left bleeding out on the floor while the other three are forced to flee. If they want to figure out what happened, they’ll need to unravel the secrets that the house holds.

This book is a great choice for fans of YA mystery/thriller novels. Wendy Heard has definitely embedded herself into this genre, with all of her books being written for audiences who are looking for something that they won’t be able to put down.

The plot follows several timelines. We get glimpses into the original 1972 murder-suicide via things like letters and newspaper articles, and some chapters from a “two weeks ago” perspective are also sprinkled into the main narration. The story mostly follows the main character, Casey, as she attempts to figure out what exactly happened on that fateful night. Her research takes her down some crazy rabbit holes involving many deaths and a possible death curse.

My main complaint with this story was the fact that I felt like too many things were happening at once. There are two cases that Casey is attempting to solve throughout the book (the one from 1972 and the one from the present), and her exploration into both of these cases introduce a lot of side stories involving things like family drama, exploration of sexualities/relationships, and PTSD. Because the author attempted to cover such a vast amount of topics, I felt like none of them really got the depth that they deserved. I also felt like this meant that I didn’t have a solid hold on who these characters were. The ending of the book wrapped everything up in a way that felt too clean and insubstantial.

Many YA thrillers tend to be around 300-350 pages long, and this one is no different. While the shorter lengths allow for the pacing to be fast and thrilling, I think this could have benefitted from either being longer, or by removing some of the many twists/turns along the way. Regardless, reading this novel did satisfy the mystery/thriller itch.

WE’LL NEVER TELL combines 2 things that I absolutely love — murder mysteries and spooky places. The story revolves around 4 teens who anonymously run a YouTube show aptly named We’ll Never Tell, where they tour various places where crimes and other spooky things have occurred. Their latest venture takes them to a place known locally as Murder House, the site where a young couple was murdered several decades ago. Things don’t exactly go as planned when they encounter something they certainly weren’t prepared for. ⁣
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An exciting mystery with plenty of twists and turns, this book had me guessing until the very end. I’m a huge fan of true crime and I loved that this story was based on true crime, albeit fictional true crime. Untrue true crime. Or at least true to the folks of this fictional version of Hollywood. I also really loved the touches of supernatural that were thrown in, they really made the story a bit more chilling and certainly more fun. ⁣
⁣
All told, a fun and fast-paced page turner from start to finish. This is my first book by Wendy Heard, but it most certainly won’t be my last. 4 stars.

1. WE'LL NEVER TELL is the kind of YA thriller that keeps me coming back to the genre!

2. The tension ratchets up slowly from page one until I was flipping pages so quickly I had to go back to make sure I didn’t miss something.

3. Wendy Heard (I can't believe this is my first book by her!) had me bouncing back and forth with theories about what was going on the entire time to the big reveal, which I love when an author can do.

4. In addition to the thriller aspect, WE'LL NEVER TELL also tenderly examines grief and the impact of trauma, specifically the loss of a parent, on a child and those around her.

5. The book also explores generational trauma and the idea of whether we are destined to repeat the past mistakes of our ancestors.

6. Bonus reason: I absolutely loved the connection to old Hollywood (even though “old” in this case is, like, 3 years before I was born, lol) and the inclusion of news clippings and letters!

RATING: 5 stars!

**Disclosure: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour.

When I read the description/synopsis of this book, I knew I had to do a review of it. It just sounded like it was going to be so good! I wasn't wrong.

First, I love that main characters have a YouTube channel that is basically urban exploration with a twist - they break into various places that are abandoned, condemned, or just closed up at the moment for a behind-the-scenes look. I'm a fan of channels like that on YouTube myself, so that was cool.

Another thing I was in love with was the constant twists and turns. Just when I thought I'd figured out who might have attacked Jacob, I was wrong - and it turns out I never did guess the right person! There are also other twists, turns, and revelations that kept me on my toes and the edge of my seat.

Most of the story is told from Casey's point of view, although some of it is told from Jacob's point of view. You also get some newspaper/gossip rag articles and personal correspondence of Rosalinda Valentini's. The newspaper/gossip rag articles are interesting and while Rosalinda's correspondence might seem unnecessary at first, trust me, they're there for a good reason.

I also like that there is queer representation, but that while it does figure into the story, it doesn't do so in any way you might expect and it doesn't overshadow the main storyline.

I gave this book 5 stars because the plot twists were amazing, the story was extremely well written, and honestly, I read this book in two sittings. It's a great book and I highly recommend it!

Its been a long time since I participated in blog tours and decided on a whim to restart it. This YA book about four teens was an engaging read from start to end. What I liked majorly about it was the premise. These days YA whodunnits are centred around kids in detention, pranks and anonymous blackmailers but this one was different in that it revolved around the teenagers behind a viral Youtube channel who film content in places that are hard to get into – for the thrill of it and “satisfying people’s curiosity”.

Zoe is the programmer who can hack into security systems to gain access, Eddie supplies the filming cameras and directs the shots while Jacob edits them and Casey – the narrator of the story, is the researcher and voice-over script writer. It all seems so cool, a bit unrealistic for someone like me but I get it.

The 4 misfits decide to shoot in an abandoned villa where a famous Hollywood couple were murdered, for their latest (last) video but things get out of control and one of them gets hurt seriously. The rest of the story is Casey trying to figure out who did this and why.

The plot also focuses on the murder from the past told in the form of news articles, letters etc. Among the characters, I loved Casey’s grandma and JJ, Jacob’s dad – both the adults that are more commonly mentioned in the plot.

The author is very good at maintaining the eeriness and suspense throughout the book which is really important to keep the reader engaged. Also I liked that the queer characters were the “main” couple of the story as its usually straight couples who rule the plot and queers are mere side characters.

I was able to predict how all the plots would be tied up but still this was an engaging and enjoyable read.

I rated it 4/5 stars!

It kept me entertained and engaged the whole time! I think this won’t be my last by this author, I loved her style and I don’t read a lot of whodunnits so this was a great change.