What’s it about?
Robbie and Trevor Cresmont have a body count—the killer kind. Handsome and privileged, the Crestmont brothers have enough wealth to ensure they’ll never be found guilty of any wrongdoing, even if all of Happy Valley believes they’re behind the deaths of their ex-girlfriends. First there was soccer star Victoria Moreno, Robbie’s ex, who mysteriously drowned at the family lake house. Then, a year later, Trevor’s girlfriend died of a suspicious overdose.
But the Crestmonts aren’t the only ones with secrets. Lauren O’Brian might be the new girl at school, but she’s never been a good girl. With a dark past of her own, she’s desperate for a fresh start. Except when she starts a no-strings-attached relationship with Robbie, her chance is put in jeopardy. During what’s meant to be their last weekend together, Lauren stumbles across shocking evidence that just might implicate Robbie.
With danger closing in, Lauren doesn’t know who to trust. And after a third death rocks the town, she must decide whether to end things with Robbie or risk becoming another cautionary tale.
Summary from Netgalley
Why I Started This Book
I was looking for a new mystery read, and this one caught my eye!! The description, name, and cover were all amazing!!
My First Thoughts
This book has pretty good start!!! It jumped right into the action!!
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
This book was good!! I enjoyed it a lot!! I only have a couple of things I didn’t like!!
What I loved
This is a well written mystery! I was guessing until the end!! It was very twisty and well-paced! Trish Lundy can definitely write a mystery!!!
I LOVE the characters!! They are so amazing!! They were so mysterious, I loved the way they were written!! Also, the development through the story was really well done!!
Building off of what I said earlier, the characters are super mysterious! This made it feel like all the characters knew something I didn’t. I loved how this was slowly revealed throughout the story!! Another example of Trish Lundy’s talented writing!!
What I Disliked
In the description, they mention how this book is perfect for fans of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson. This is super true, but sometimes a little too much. At some points it felt like it was a little too close to their books. While this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it was just kind of annoying.
Book vs. Movie
There’s no movie for this book!
Should You Read It?
Yeah!! This book is a great YA mystery!!! It really is perfect for fans of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson!!
Conclusion
The One That Got Away With Murder is a twisty murder mystery that constantly had me intrigued!! I loved the characters and the plot!! Also, the writing made the story super interesting!! This is perfect for fans of murder mysteries!!!

The premise of The One That Got Away with Murder is fairly standard - girl moves to new town to escape an incident in her past, meets a new group of friends with secrets of their own, and gets embroiled in the mystery that is haunting her new town. In this case, Lauren O'Brian is running to escape a fire in her past and hooking up with Robbie Crestmont to escape her own feelings. The problem is that Robbie has secrets of his own; his former girlfriend died under mysterious circumstances and he's never been able to shake the suspicion that he murdered her, ESPECIALLY since his brother's girlfriend died mysteriously the following year. The novel follows Lauren's journey to figure out what happened to Vic and Jess (the murdered girls) and carve out a place for herself without putting herself in more danger.

I want to say at the outset that I *did* enjoy this novel, despite my critiques. Some of the critiques may be simply because this is a debut and Lundy's writing isn't as strong as it will be a few books from now.
Things I liked:
1. The protagonist wasn't overly sympathetic. Given that she's running from a trauma in her past, it would have been really easy to make her overly sympathetic or saccharine sweet and I like that she had some bite to her. I think this is a protagonist who will appeal to a teen audience in a very realistic way.
2. Not too much romance! I like that there is a romantic interest, but it doesn't take over the novel
3. The teen characters seemed to be realistically teenagers. They made choices that felt realistic to teenagers (source - I teach high school) and the relationships and interactions between the different characters felt true to life

Critiques:
1. This may be very nitpicky, but as a person who went to Penn State and spent multiple years in Happy Valley, the setting fell very flat for me. There were a few references to Happy Valley-specific places and events, but they didn't feel particularly real (to me, at least). Fun nod to the creamery, and to the (delicious) stickies at the State Diner, but I didn't get the sense that there was a real connection to the setting. This could have been set in any small town and it would have been exactly the same.
2. Maybe this is a me thing, but I did find the twist to be somewhat predictable. I figured out who the killer was fairly early on and nothing changed my opinion, but I also don't know that the twist was particularly well foreshadowed. Plot points were shocking, but they didn't feel particularly grounded.
3. The ending felt somewhat rushed. There is a resolution between characters where everything is just...fine? Despite some pretty heavy trauma and history, everything is just wrapped up neatly. Not as satisfying as I wanted.

Overall, I enjoyed the read, but I don't know that it was particularly memorable for me. Definitely a library book, rather than something that I need to own.

This is a unique story that really draws the reader in. Lauren is the new girl in school who has her own dark history she is trying to escape, and Robbie seems like the perfect escape. Sadly she quickly learns that Robbie has his own dark history and is tied the to murder of his ex-girlfriend Victoria. Even his younger brother, Trevor, is tied to a death with his own girlfriend dying of an overdose. With so much death and murder occurring around Lauren, when Trevor commits suicide and claims he killed Victoria not his brother the past is stirred up again. Lauren and Robbie try to clear Trevor’s name and instead get tangled up in a mystery that seems to lead back close to home. Can they figure out who is behind all the murders before they become a victim themselves.
This is a fast-paced book, and I quite enjoyed watching Lauren come to terms with all that happened back home before moving to Pennsylvania. I love how the author slowly reveals Lauren’s history throughout the entire book. It just truly adds to the current mystery she is helping to solve and allows the reader to get to know her and her history on a deeper level. The final reveal is very well written and is not super predictable which I also enjoy. Teens will be swept away reading this book and I can’t wait to recommend it to them soon.

What an AH-mazing debut novel. This was a face paced thriller, keeping me in the edge of my seat the entire time. I flew through this , needing to know who the killer was. Just figured out who the killer is? Nope, you're wrong. I had a few theories on who the killer was, but I was wrong. I will be definitely reading more Trish Lundy.

I've discovered that it's difficult for me to find something to pique my interest when reading a book. But lately, I've been enjoying murder mysteries, and this is just what I've been looking for. It's not just fast-paced, but it kept me in shock from start to finish. But the writing was fantastic, and the story was so engrossing that I was disappointed when it ended so quickly.

Thank you netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the ARC for this book

Fans of Karen McManus or other YA mystery novels will enjoy this novel. It was an engaging mystery at first with two girls dead and "too obvious" suspects, but it did drag a bit in the second half. I felt it became evident who the killer was as the story went on and I was right. Finally, the climax occurred so quickly and then everything was resolved/the story ended. For as long as it dragged in the beginning, it felt anticlimactic by the ending. Overall, it was an okay read. As a middle school teacher, though, I think my students would enjoy this story.

This one was a difficult read for me. The premise is promising, however the style in which it was told didn't quite work for me. THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY WITH MURDER is about the new girl in town, Lauren, who's trying to run away from her past and straight into the arms of the handsome, rich Robbie Crestmont. But Robbie has secrets of his own, and a body count of the deadly kind. When more bodies start dropping in town, Lauren is caught up in a dangerous liaison she never wanted and it becomes difficult to know who to trust.

Told in First Person POV, the narrative has an oddly robotic quality. Sentences often start with "I + verb" and there's little variation. It could be argued that it's representative of Lauren's detached world-view linked to her trauma from the life she escaped before the events of the book take place, but when the plot demands heightened tension and emotionality, Lauren's distant voice holds a reader at arm's length that prevents total investment. As a result, the setting feels vague and oddly white-roomish, where it was hard to feel like the world was fully lived in.

The events of the story unfolded quite slowly, which is surprising for the genre, and Lauren doesn't have the agency or the spunk that one might expect from a lead in such a story to wield in order to solve the mystery.

Rating: 2.5 stars

This should have been exactly the read for me. Questionable narrators and murder are kind of my things, yet here we are.

We have two brothers, rich and handsome, who basically are untouchable - despite both boys' girlfriends ending up dead. Robbie's ex drowned at the family's lake house and Trevor's supposedly overdosed.

Enter Lauren, transferring across the country to finish her senior year at a new school. Clearly has some stuff of her own going on that we find out in pieces. She starts hooking up with Robbie, not knowing any of the stuff about him or his brother at first. But she gradually finds out more info from her fellow teammates when she joins the soccer team - of which Robbie's ex was the star before she died. When she spends a weekend with Robbie at the lake house, she finds evidence that Robbie really could be guilty.

All of this, the cover, and the title were enough to get my attention. Combined with the promise that it was 'perfect for fans of Karen McManus', I wanted to love it SO much.

The first half of the book really pulled me in, but as I went along, it started to fall apart. Lauren's story was slowly revealed - a bit too slowly for me - and it really interrupted the flow of the story. I don't mind main characters who have their own demons; that usually makes a story more interesting.

My issue is that it took far too long to find out exactly what was going on with her and what she was running from. Chapters alternated between the past and present, but I don't feel like that pacing was well-done at all. It honestly kind of made me lose interest in her backstory, and forget about it half the time. So as more was introduced, it felt kind of disjointed and clunky.

The writing itself is good, how the story unfolds is moreso my issue, if that makes sense? And the ending wrapped up way too neatly for me. There were some decent twists, but I did have a good idea who the killer was before it was revealed. That doesn't impact my overall opinion, because it happens more often than not at this point, just because I have read so many YA thrillers in the last few years.

I don't know that I would go as far as not recommending it at all, because others might still like this one. It just wasn't for me.

This book is perfect for fans of holly jackson. It is a twisty roller coaster that will keep your attention until the last page and leave you wanting more.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. For a debut author, Lundy made a smart choice with the plot, which grabbed me right away. Unfortunately, the execution and ending didn't fulfill the promising premise. Too many other books I've read were similar and done better. Simply put, I'd rather reread Holly Jackson or Karen McManus than settle for a substitute. There is a ln absence of moral thinking in some of the writing.

In this thrilling book, the story takes you on a wild ride filled with suspense and surprises. The main character faces a lot of challenges, and you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat, eager to see what happens next.

The plot is like a puzzle, with unexpected twists and turns that keep you guessing. The author does a great job of keeping the pace exciting, making you want to keep reading to find out how everything unfolds.

The characters in the book are interesting and go through some big changes. The places described in the story feel real and add to the excitement. Whether it's a busy city or a quiet, remote area, the setting plays a big role in making the story come alive.

Each chapter leaves you wanting more, making it a real page-turner.

The book explores themes like trust, redemption, and the search for justice. The characters face tough decisions, making you think about what's right and wrong.

Overall, this thriller is a great example of suspenseful storytelling. It's a perfect read for anyone who loves a good mystery that keeps you hooked until the very end. Whether you're a thriller fan or new to the genre, this book promises an exciting adventure into a world of mystery and suspense.

I just reviewed The One That Got Away with Murder by Trish Lundy. #NetGalley

A fun YA murder mystery in the vein of Karen McManus.

I loved Lauren's character and her struggles, and the way Trish Lundy wove in her personal arc with the story! I also really loved the lakeside atmosphere. I'm afraid the mystery itself--including the end--was a bit of a miss for me, but I still enjoyed the read.

I think huge fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson would enjoy the read.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat. It is very well written. The author grabbed me in the first line and held my attention throughout. From start to finish, this is one of the best books that I have read this year.

If you're into young adult stories with plenty of teenage angst, this book is for you! The drama abounds in this story of a teenage girl who thought she was out running issues in her past only to run into more issues in her new town. This story has a well-developed plot for most of the book; however, the end had a few parts that I had questions about regarding its cohesiveness with the rest of the story. The characters were as expected: some teenagers were bratty, some over dramatic, and some were surprisingly level-headed. The story felt like a modern-day whodunit, which I enjoyed.

This was a great debut novel and so fast paced that it kept me on the edge of my seat and I couldn’t put it down. I loved that Lauren was a flawed character with trauma of her own so she empathized with Robbie and knew what it was like to be accused of a crime you didn’t commit. But she didn’t let that stop her from being suspicious and trying to find out who was actually responsible. Lauren was trying so hard to move past what happened before and start over to no avail. The twist at the end was great and I didn’t see it coming and I love that this kept me guessing until the very end. This was a fast great read and I can’t wait to read the next one.

Thanks to Macmillan Children’s Group and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

The book was not very engaging. It was hard to keep reading this book. I would not suggest it because it does not grab a reader's attention.

A fun, binge worthy YA Mystery!

• The plot? Intriguing, well written, and so easy to get hooked on.
• The characters? Complex with backstories that have you hooked!
• The plot twists? They keep you on the edge of your seat!
• The mysteries? You get TWO of them between Lauren’s troubled past & how Robbie and Trevor Crestmont were involved in the untimely end of their girlfriends.

Lauren’s the troubled “new girl in town”. Her and her mom moved so that she could have a fresh start after getting into trouble.

Trouble seems to follow Lauren into the new town. She starts hooking up with Robbie before finding out that he & his brother, Trevor, both have ex-girlfriends who died under suspicious circumstances. Does the town think they did it? Obviously 😂 Do Robbie and Trevor full heartedly say they’re innocent? Of course they do!

Lauren doesn’t know who or what to believe, so she decides investigating the murders herself is the only way to go. This leads to drama (so much drama omg), drugs, romance, parties, and the complexities that are high school students.

The twists & turns were fascinating and the plot twist was truly surprising!

Release Date: April 16, 2024

ARC courtesy of NetGalley

This was my first time reading a Trish Lundy book and I was hooked from beginning to end. The story kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The characters were greatly written, and I loved Lauren. I highly recommend this book to my fellow thriller enjoyers out there. I am very excited to see what else this author writes next.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, MacMillin Children’s Publishing Group, and Trish Lundy for providing me with the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Engaging from the start, this book captivated me with its suspense and authentic portrayal of characters who make genuine mistakes and decisions reflective of their teenage mindsets. The writing was skillful, and the narrative came together seamlessly. While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt the motive could have been developed further for a five-star rating; that was the only aspect I found somewhat lacking.

Lauren, having left California to escape a regrettable past, believes she can start anew. However, she soon finds herself entangled in a perilous situation as she, along with several high school students, attempts to unravel a murder mystery. The suspects all have motives, but each one presents an alibi, leaving Lauren inching closer to danger. Only when it's too late does she discover the identity of the killer. Will she survive? Will anyone come to her rescue?

Gave me Pretty Little Liars vibes! I recommend reading this book snuggled up with a blanket and a cup of tea. It's a quick and enjoyable read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

There is just something you can get from a ya thriller that you can’t get from anything else… omg this was so much fun to read!

Picking up and leaving her scandalous past behind, Lauren and her mother move to Happy Valley. Lauren can play out her senior year in a new high school, where nobody knows about her past.

Coincidentally, Lauren finds herself at the center of more trouble in Happy Valley. A no strings attached relationship with Robbie brings her into the spotlight when she learns about his AND his brother Trevor’s own pasts involving the deaths of their ex girlfriends…

When I tell you I ATE this UP, I mean it. I read it in one sitting. Every minute of this book was awesome. The premise is a bit farfetched in a realistic setting, but that’s what made it great. So much happens. It doesn’t go in the typical directions that ya tends to go. There weren’t stupid decisions made by Lauren at every turn. She does what she needs to do… This book doesn’t shy away from drug use, either. I mean that may not have been every many people’s high school experience, but it was very typical of my high school peers. Teenagers are crazy!

This was so fun to read. It’s quick, it’s thrilling, and I highly recommend it!