I thought this was a good follow up to The Cheerleaders. You didn't need to read The Cheerleaders to understand what was going on, which I appreciated!

This was a great sequel to the book The Cheerleaders. It takes place 11 years later and the murders have left a lasting impression on the town and especially the school. The football team are 2 time champs and they feel untouchable and can get away with any...or can they. With two murders and one attempted on the football team, the editor of the newspaper is digging into the mystery and finds out who committed these heinous crimes.

"I thought this was really well written and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. I think it will find readers at our library, so we will definitely be purchasing for the collection.

Gosh. I love how teens are getting access to such great thrillers! This has the addictive energy of 13 Reasons Why and the who dunit nature that kept me guessing.

You know how The Hunger Games is frequently used as an example of perfect pacing? I think The Champions will be too. Seriously, I think this is the best paced mystery/thriller I've ever read. In addition to the excellent pacing (I'll shut up about it now, but I need you to know it was great), the character work was also strong. I thought Hadley was a great character, but I'm more impressed by how believable (sadly) a lot of the side characters were, particularly the football players, dance team members, and school faculty and administration.

If you've read any of Kara Thomas' previous work, you'll guess that The Champions will also deal with serious topics. Although, I think The Cheerleaders is darker than this book, as in that book Monica had personally been affected by those things, and here, Hadley is an outsider. I'm going to put content warnings at the end of this review and I will be putting a spoiler tag on one of them because it's revealed so far into the book. However, if you can not handle reading about assault, skip this book.

If you've read The Cheerleaders there is some crossover in the topics handled and those topics are mentioned in this book. Hadley is new to town, so she discovers some of what happened in The Cheerleaders. I don't think you have to read The Cheerleaders before The Champions, there's some easter eggs with some characters that show up in this book too. There is one plot point that carries over a little bit, but I don't think there would be any confusion if you haven't read the first book. However, if you pick The Champions up before reading The Cheerleaders you will be spoiled for it.

CW: abuse of power, cheating (both in school and on people), poisoning ,seizure, hit-and-run, domestic violence, hazing, drinking, and gang rape

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Kara Thomas, but this one didn't do it for me. The Cheerleaders had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish but this one was a little harder to get into. It really picked up about 25% of the way through, but there were so many characters that it was difficult to keep everyone straight and connect with any of them. I also felt that the athletes' secret felt random and more of a shock factor than something that fit naturally with the rest of the plot. I think readers could read this as a standalone, but it certainly helped to have the background of "The Cheerleaders" to provide more context. It does touch on some heavier topics, making this a better fit for more mature high school readers. Thanks so much for the ARC!

4. One reason I like Kara Thomas,is that she consistently nails high school age characters. She definitely has again! This sequel to The Cheerleaders has plenty of Easter eggs for readers, and a twisty mystery for returning fans. Hadley has to unlayer her assumptions and be willing to lose it all to get to the truth. Raises good questions about what justice is for victims and their community—why isn’t justice achieved? There’s a lot here, all of which is relevant to current events. Well done, Kara Thomas!

Good pace and sense of urgency, believable characters, fast plot. I wish I'd read The Cheerleaders first to give me background, but it stood on its own!

4 stars! This was a good follow-up to “The Cheerleaders”. The plot kept me engaged for the whole novel, and I appreciated that this book delved into some serious topics, as well.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for the galley copy of the book!**

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

I just recently read The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas, so I pushed this to the top of my TBR since it is set in the same town. The Champions tells the story of a winning football team who the town loves, but secretly has a dark side. I liked the tenacity of Hadley, the main character. She is relatively new in town, has dreams of an exciting future in journalism, and uses those skills to uncover what is really going on with the football team. Overall, the book was fine and I enjoyed the story, but it wasn't groundbreaking. The story included some serious topics, but they were addressed in a pretty superficial way, which almost seems like an insult to teen readers who may be dealing with those things in their own lives.

i liked this book! it was pretty good and i liked the characters, but sometimes the writing or plot fell flat and felt like it was not developed before finishing? does that make sense?

The Champions is another amazing book by Kara Thomas. This book kept me guessing and believing the false leads through the entire book. I was rooting for the evil characters without even knowing it. I can't wait to a dd this to the library collection so that I can recommend it.

Looking back, I see that my reviews for her other books were...not overwhelmingly positive (I evidently disliked the cheerleaders so much I felt bad leaving a review - not something I normally struggle with), so I'm not completely sure how this one ended up in my pile. That said, no major problems and that cover is lit, so.