I love me a good YA mystery and I was really excited to read The Legacies by Jessica Goodman.
It’s a solid mystery, with the setting at a prep school.
This was a very addictive and quick read that I was able to finish in just a couple of hours.
This story is amazingly well-written and intriguingly told keeping me glued to the pages.
The story was filled with lies, secrets, backstabbing and blackmail filled with twisty secrets which really helped to make this book hard to put down.
Jessica Goodman masterfully guides the reader through an immersive world she artfully curates page by page.
And this is why I’ll read anything she creates, because she is damn good at it.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Razorbill for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I love a YA novel that is set at a rich prep school and this one is pretty good! Rick kids are vying to be inducted into a super secret club called the Legacy, but something happens the night of the induction ceremony and someone ends up dead. A great summer read.

A prep school thriller-YES!

The Legacy Club is a prestigious club that the wealthy students of NYC want to get into and some will stop at nothing to get nominated. Being a Legacy will open the door for college and beyond, so it really is something you want to be a part of. 5 of the nominees in this story are richy rich so they were the obvious choice from their school. However, one nominee is a big surprise to everyone.

I really liked this one! The chapters focus on a different person leading up to the Legacy Ball (Tori, Bernie, and Isobel). There is also a chapter about the aftermath of a death at the ball where everyone is getting interviewed by the police. We don't know who died and really what led up to the death but as we read we get the background of the three girls.

Every character is going through something and we navigate their personal issues as they are going through Legacy Week. I liked that we get to go inside this wealthy world of prep schools, scandals, and the secrets EVERYONE shares. I finished this one in a day because those twists made you keep reading!

Thanks, Netgalley for my ARC!

The cover and title made me incredibly excited.

This book was filled with twists and turns, and for me maybe a little too much?
I absolutely loved the idea, but was a bit disappointed about how it was executed.

I loved reading about reach peoples drama and getting a look into their world. The book is written from different POVs and there’s also jumping between different times. The book starts in the middle of a tragedy where something very bad has happened and then we are thrown back in time to 5 days before the tragedy hit. The author also switches between these two POV throughout the book which really keeps you hooked while reading.

It was a good book, but I was hoping for something more.
3.5 from me

This was DNF for me unfortunately. I got to 38%. While I normally like this author and storytelling and quality was similar to her other books, the setting of this book just wasn't for me.
The super rich spoiled high students that break all the rules/laws because they think they can and then their world comes crashing down because that's not real life, just is not my cup fo tea anymore. It's been done too many times.
The mystery was good but not enough to keep me going.
I really wish she'd picked a more fun setting like the summer camp in Counselors!

A bunch of rich kids do rich kid shit and then someone dies. This could have been cliche and awful, but Goodman manages to make it entertaining. It's not the best YA mystery I've ever read, but it's decent.

I’ve preciously loved Goodman’s books, so was so excited to dive into this book. And I was not disappointed! I absolutely love a good murder mystery with tons of twists, and I also LOVE a good prep school book. This was such a good combination and I cannot wait to get the physical copy of this!

I'm torn on this one. I loved the format where it alternates from the night of the Ball to each character's take for the few days leading up to the Ball. I also liked the story. Trying to figure out who died kept me hooked. But I wanted more. I felt like the characters all stayed surface level & unlikeable, which is strange considering one of them talks about unfairly losing her mother. I also felt like a was waiting for a big twist that never really came. But I also couldn't stop reading it. Like I said, torn.

Jessica Goodman!!! Getting early access to this title was a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing, because I am always chomping at the bit to read your newest release. However, it's also a curse, because as always, I finished the book in several hours and now know there is a long wait until your next! Please start writing your next book asap! I can't wait for more!!

The Legacies follows a group of Elite NYC teenagers who are being inducted into The Legacy Club. This is a moment may of them have been waiting for their whole lives. To some it feels like their birth right. To others, it's a guaranteed outcome of the benefit they reap from their parents successes and schmoozing.

The NetGalley synopsis nails the description for this book:

"Old money. New secrets. One killer party.

Scoring an invitation for membership to the exclusive Legacy Club in New York City is more than an honor. It gives you a lifetime of access to power and wealth beyond any prep school doors and guaranteed safety and security as Legacy Club members always look out for their own. That is, after you make it through a rigorous week of events and the extravagant gala, the Legacy Ball.

So it’s not surprising when Excelsior Prep seniors Bernie Kaplan, Isobel Rothcroft, and Skyler Hawkins are nominated as Legacies; their family pedigrees have assured their membership since birth—even if they're all keeping secrets that could destroy their reputations. But scholarship kid from Queens Tori Tasso? She’s a surprise nominee, someone no one saw coming. Tori’s never fit in this world of designer bags, penthouse apartments, and million-dollar donations. So what did she do to secure her place?

The night of the Legacy Ball is supposed to be the best night of these seniors’ lives, a night of haute couture, endless champagne, and plenty of hushed gossip."

The book is told is a now and then format that keeps the reader guessing what happened practically to the last page. These are some really complicated and messed up characters. All of them are impacted by wealth and power in some way. Some have been fortunate that it's benefitted them and others have suffered at the hands of the pressure of wealth and power. If you like YA thrillers, I highly recommend reading this book! It's got so much deceit, mystery, scandal, and teenage angst. It has some really gritty and hard to read moments. I also want to warn this book explores drug use pretty heavily in case that is something that's not for you!

I will continue to read and love books by Jessica Goodman. I love the way she crafts her plot-lines and keeps her stories fresh and different.

"Legacies" is a mysterious teen drama with vibes reminiscent of "Gossip Girl" meets "Pretty Little Liars," rather than a thriller. However, there are many intriguing mysteries perfectly blended into the main whodunit and who died theme, including big secrets that the characters are hiding from each other, a missing mother, lots of betrayal, backstabbing, cheating, and corruption that will lure you to flip the pages a little faster.

The story moves back and forth between the night of the Legacies Ball and the POVs of Bernie and Isobel, two privileged and golden girls with tons of secrets, and Tori, a scholarship student and an outsider who finds herself chosen to be part of the six Legacy students. The Legacy Ball turns into a tragedy with the death of someone, but we don’t know the victim's identity. Was it a parent from the ball committee or a student who might have accidentally fallen or been pushed from the balcony? Is it a murder, suicide, or accident investigation?

The Legacy Club in New York City gives the chosen students a lifetime access to power and wealth beyond any prep school doors, providing the privilege to attend any Ivy League school they dream of, helping them not only climb but also directly fly up the ladders of corporate success like a rocket. Their high education and job safety at any industry they desire will be given by the tight-knitted connections of community members.

Bernie Kaplan is a strict, eyes-on-the-prize, mommy’s girl who is dating her childhood friend Skyler Hawkins, as their parents have planned their marriage for years. Isobel Rothcroft is an aspiring artist and party girl who always takes care of Bernie when she loses control (lately, she occasionally finds her head stuck into the toilet bowl). They are the popular girls of Excelsior Prep. When Tori Tasso, a scholarship kid from Queens that nobody knows, gets selected to the Legacy Club, the other five students start questioning who may have nominated her. But Tori gets her approval in an illegitimate way. She keeps a big secret, and she needs the prize money to pay her family's business debt, so she cannot deal with the drama between the other privileged club students.

Isobel hides something big about Skyler, and if she comes clean to Bernie, their friendship may be destroyed forever. Bernie cannot find her mother, who seems to have vanished into thin air.

Which one of them died that night? And, more importantly, which one of them is involved in a crime?

Overall, the writing style is intriguing and riveting, forcing you to keep your guesses until the end. Even though I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and I didn't care much about which one of them died, I couldn't stop reading. The execution is definitely satisfying. The ending is also well wrapped up, and all my questions are answered without any loopholes. I’m giving it four mysterious teen drama stars, and I'm looking forward to reading more works of Jessica Goodman in the near future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group/Razorbill for sharing this digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

i'm a little disappointed... i was expecting something better. i found it to be very much in surface, repetitive, and just not as engaging as i wanted it to be. jessica goodman's best novel remains her first one.

thank you to penguin teen for this arc!

I loved this book! The characters were likeable, even with their flaws. The storyline kept me guessing and surprised me at several points. This story will stick with me for awhile.

This is a difficult review to write for me.
Why?
Because the book was fantastic in some respects and not good in others. At least for my taste.
Let's start with what I liked:

The writing style is really good (!) and was fun to read.
I also liked that the author put a lot of emphasis on creating diverse characters that weren't just white, straight, and normative. I really, really liked that - and it’s super positive for me!
I also found the setting and the basic idea of the novel to be very entertaining and good.

Now let’s take a look at my biggest problem(s).
The book is advertised as a YA thriller ... Except it's not a thriller at all. It's a rich kids high society drama. And it serves that genre very well, but thriller? Sadly, no. There was just too little thrill and suspense.
Meaning, there was almost no suspense in the first 70% of the eBook. Instead, it was primarily about the lives of the characters and their family and a lot (!) somewhat pathetic teenage drama.
It wasn't until 70% that really exciting thriller elements came into the mix. These (by the way) were really good elements, but they appeared clearly (!) way too late for a »thriller« novel.

My next problem were the characters themselves. None of them were likeable. Aside from one minor character (Lee - who seemed like a nice, decent guy), they all were unsympathetic, self-righteous, and duplicitous. Unfortunately, because they were all so unlikeable, I didn't care who the murder victim was, who mysteriously remained unnamed at the beginning (and until almost the end). However, since the characters were all so ignorant and arrogant, anyone could have been the victim for me and I wouldn't have been sad or surprised that they were murdered. This, of course, dampened what little suspense there was in the first 70% of the book even more, as I just didn't care who was murdered.
But don't get me wrong. Just because the first 70% wasn't thrilling in the sense of a thriller doesn't mean that it wasn't very well executed in terms of a teen drama - it's just that teen drama wasn't what I was "promised" in the advertising
It's a kind of "me problem" with my false expectations with which I approached this novel. Or just misleading marketing.

Overall, it's a shame because I loved Jessica Godmann's »The Counselors« so much - that was a really excellent thriller. The Legacies is also superbly written/crafted, the characters are well fleshed out (even if I didn't like them) and the setting is great.
Unfortunately, the plot itself and the focus on (too much unnecessary) teen drama and the lack of thrilling elements didn't do it for me personally.
But, if someone is looking for a teen drama in high society with light thriller influences, they will love this book. However, if you are looking for a breathtaking thriller, this book is not a good choice.

Let’s put it like this:
5 stars if you want a high society teen drama.
3 stars if you’re looking for a on the edge thriller.

The Legacies is a twisty YA thriller that strikes an addictive balance between glitz and darkness. Think The Inheritance Games meets Gossip Girl with a dash of Euphoria. Goodman introduces us to the Legacy Club, a secret society for New York's richest elite. Every year, prospective members are tapped for an initiation week culminating in the glamorous Legacy Ball. Most new members are shoe-ins, children of existing Legacies and powerful families. But this year, the nomination of scholarship-student Tori Tasso threatens to expose the dangerous secrets protected by the Club's elite, and not everyone will make it out alive...

Within pages, we're up to our neck in mysteries—a murder, a missing parent, a looming law suit, and a scandal kept secret by tenuous trust between 'friends'. The book stays fast paced throughout, alternating between three POVs and enticing snippets from the aftermath of the disastrous Legacy Ball. (And, DAMN, the reveal about the murder was so satisfying. But I will say no more...) Also, I gotta give points for the inclusion of a POV character in a sweet, drama-free (yay for healthy communication!) wlw relationship.

To summarise! I'd recommend checking this one out if:
- You want a book with the vibes of The Inheritance Games, Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars
- You agree that 'rich people doing shady shit get exactly what they deserve' is a genre (and a very entertaining one)
- You're a sucker for messy characters and scandalous secrets
- You're looking for a quick, fast-paced read

*Thanks to NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for a review.*

3.5 this book was gripping from the very first page until the last page. All though i was able to correctly guess some of the twists throughout this book, the biggest one caught me off guard and surprised me.


thank you netgalley for letting me receive an arc of this book!!

Great atmosphere, love Jessica Goodman! Very Gossip Girl vibes, but I did want the ending to be a bit more in depth.

I received an ARC copy of this book through NetGalley. It was a mystery version of gossip girl and I loved it! I loved how each chapter was from a different character’s perspective and how the mystery wasn’t too drawn out or obscure. I really enjoyed the book and will be picking up other books by this author in the future.

I liked the legacies and enjoyed the way it was written to show what happened to lead up to the murder, although i did find it quite predictable and the plot twists were a bit underwhelming but overall i enjoyed reading it and will continue to read this authors books in the future.

The legacy ball had never ended in a murder -- obviously.

thank you NetGalley for the arc!

I was really into the idea of this book, but I wasn't in love with the execution.

The Legacies is a book that's kind of a Gossip Girl-Pretty Little Liars hybrid. It's about an elite New York City club made up by the richest of the rich and three of the main characters in this book are legacies -- people who were nominated for membership into the group because their parents are already members -- and the fourth is a scholarship student who doesn't fit in. But, amidst all of the riches and excess, there are deadly secrets floating through the Legacy Club.

The book alternates between points of view and each of the characters has some kind of secrets or baggage that sets them apart from the others, but in my opinion, a lot of the things that made them distinct were not that interesting. Tori being an outsider to the Legacy Club's usual crowd was what made up a large majority of her personality and although it makes sense for her to be hyper-focused on the fact that she's not rich like the rest of them, it did get a little tiring for it to come up constantly.

The book starts with a flash forward to the night of the Legacy Club Ball and sets up a murder that seemed to take place at the event, leading readers to wonder who it could have been, who did it, and exactly what happened. There are chapters from this scene scattered throughout the book that definitely make the book interesting and kept me reading and wondering what the big twist was going to be, but the chapters set in the present that were leading up to the event fell really flat for me. The book went from having this intrigue and mystery to having very little going on and I felt like there should have been more mystery or more buildup in those chapters.

Overall, this book was okay and it was a quick, fun read, but it could have been better.

This was a pretty quick and entertaining read. My favorite part is probably the formatting of this book. I am a sucker for a dual timeline that switches back and forth between 'before' a tragic event and 'after' because it's always interesting to see what led up to such an outcome. While I feel like the majority of the story was underwhelming with it's lackluster plot twists and the dragging between povs, there was just something about it because I could not put this book down. The main characters were developed really well but there were some characters that I wish we could've gotten to know more about.

Overall, this was a fun and solid read. I love how in the end, this story was able to surprise me. I was so sure that I knew which of the characters would be the one to "kick the bucket" and was so wrong.

*Thanks Penguin Teen for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review*