It's been a few years since I read 'The Cheerleaders' and I enjoyed it so I was excited to be approved for this on NetGalley. I think this is a good sequel. It's well written and I was invested in how it was going to end. If you enjoyed "The Cheerleaders" I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Kara Thomas, Random House Children's and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Took me a little longer to get to this one because i wanted to reread the Cheerleaders just in case......Hadley is new to town and will be writing for the school newspaper. When she is asked to start cover the football team. Of course, like in the Cheerleaders someone dies, and someone has to uncover the truth. Hadley is determined to find that out even though she is being threatened to stay away. Will she be able to uncover whats going on? This book was a fast read if you're able to binge read.

The perfect book to bring you back to the nostalgic days of Friday nights. When football friends and first loves Robb mattered. I love this book so much and it was so sad when it was done.

Is it happening again?

The town of Sunnybrook has already had its share of tragic teen deaths, & now more than a decade later the high schoolers are once again afraid for their school team - only this time it’s not cheerleaders dying, it’s football players.

This is definitely one of the darker young adult books I’ve read, so be sure to check content warnings. I did really enjoy the links from Book One that I found in Book Two, & liked getting to see what some of the adults were up to all these years later, as well as what some of the teens from Book One are now doing as adults in Book Two. The town dynamic around the football team was fascinating, & the way that journalism was promoted throughout the story was inspiring.

Thank you to NetGalley & Delacorte Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was full of twists and turns. I would think that I had it figured out and then another red herring would show up. Another fantastic book from Kara Thomas!

Kara Thomas just has that writing you know, it keeps bringing me back to her books even when they are clearly written for a younger age demographic.

My main complaint is that I did not like the main character of this one. Obviously, she is a teen so her decisions at time weren't the best on purpose but she still was just not a strong lead.

I still did enjoy the plotline and the writing as well as the throwbacks and cameos we got from the previous book.

Thank you to the publisher for the copy.

Kara Thomas is a must read author for anybody that loves a good mystery, especially for those who loved Pretty Little Liars. This is a continuation from The Cheerleaders and while you should read that book, you don't have to. It has been years since I've read The Cheerleaders and I had to go back and familiarize myself with what happened, but again it is not needed to understand what is happening in The Champions. The Champions focuses on the football team and their hard work and determination to win their third state championship, but when football players start dropping left and right, people start questioning who might be after them. Hadley is new to the district and only knows what evrybody is willing to talk about in terms of the cheerleaders. Tasked with writing an article for the school newspaper about the football team, she soon starts receiving emails from an unknown source warning her that she should stay away from the football team. Hadley starts looking into the connections between the champions and the cheerleaders, searching for answers that nobody seems to want to know. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and the published for the free copy of The Champions by Kara Thomas in exchange for my honest review.

I was very excited to read a sequel to The Cheerleaders because at the time that I read it, I absolutely loved it and was so invested in the book. The Champions didn’t live up to the hype. I think the main issue was that there was no thriller aspect to it, but was more of a mystery and the mystery wasn’t that interesting. Not to mention that a murder didn’t even occur until 70% in the novel and by then all the football players have the same personalities that you really don’t care what would happen to them. That’s another issue with this book, is that the cast is very large and you can’t tell them apart aside from the major characters. And speaking of the main character, Hadley was the least interesting MC there could be, not to mention that she had a crush on one of the football players and when he went into a coma she had no real reaction to it (you’d think she would’ve been sorry about it). She was more interested in who was going to get editor in chief at her school newspaper than her crush being in the hospital. It was very odd. The chapters were also incredibly loooong.

The whole book just reinforced stereotypes of football players being awful people to young teens and how they can get away with anything because the whole town worships them. I was really hoping the novel would’ve gotten better at some point, but it never did.

This book can be read as a standalone novel so if you’ve read The Cheerleaders, you really don’t need to read this sequel, as it doesn’t add much to the first book’s plot, other than having cameos from some of their characters.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I had a little bit of trouble with the likability of the MC, but otherwise a very solid book. I love a good ya thriller.

I really wanted to like this more but I felt at times it was slow paced. I was upset because I even went a reread The Cheerleaders to prepare myself for this book. I did like that the how characters from the first book made appearances in this book. It was a nice touch. However, this book just ended up not being for me. I look forward to reading whatever Kara Thomas comes out with next.

This was a gripping mystery that blends elements of high school drama with a chilling suspenseful plot. It was a short, fast paced read filled with twists. I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it to others.

Yay for unexpected sequels! I loved The Cheerleaders and this is an interesting take on a sequel, with a decade long time jump. (The only other book I can think of recently that did this was the third book in the Housemaid series by Freida McFadden.

In any case, this was cleverly done, taking some secondary characters from the first book and putting them front and center with a new mystery to solve. In book one, cheerleaders are dying, and in this book it is members of the football team. I think book one was darker (as was 2010s YA in general) but The Champions had a fun YA mystery feel and a lot of twists and turns.

My link to my full post which recaps book one and goes over the timeline and the returning characters, is here and linked below

https://yaallday.com/the-champions-is-the-new-sequel-to-the-cheerleaders/

Intriguing mystery with the perfect amount of teenage snarkiness. Lots of twists with interesting and believable characters.

cool ideas, very predictable killer, interesting teen thriller but I wouldn't put this book as a priority read.

The Champions follows Hadley, newly arrived in Sunnybrook, as she works to uncover what's going on with the football team. When one player is poisoned at a party, and another is subsequently killed, Hadley wants answers. But she keeps getting warned to leave it be by a mysterious email account. Unwilling to let it go, will Hadley be able to uncover the dark secrets of the Sunnybrook football team? Or will she pay the price for trying to dig up what's been buried? I'm not much of a thriller reader but this book definitely gets you hooked; I enjoyed reading it.

A big thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for an ARC of The Champions by the ever-entertaining Kara Thomas. I really liked The Cheerleaders so when I saw that a sequel was coming out, I was ever so pleased. Set eleven years after the events of the first novel, Hadley who just wants to become editor of the school newspaper gets selected to write about the football team and their likelihood to win another championship. She previously had written an article about the dance team and all the commitment and hardship the girls put on their bodies, but by comparing it to the coveted football team there was serious backlash. Another who done it ensues when one of the football players gets put into a coma, bringing back old characters and a wowzah of a finale, Thomas has solidified her placement in the horror/mystery genre. Keep em coming girl!

So fun – I couldn't put it down!! No one writes thrillers like Kara Thomas. I would highly recommend rereading the Cheerleaders first so you really get the most out of this one.

This story takes place in the same town as book 1 but could be read as a standalone. Hadley is trying to get the editor of chief position but when she’s told to do a piece on the football team, all hell breaks loose. I really enjoyed Thomas’ writing style. It’s fast pacing with no fluff and straight to the point of things. I loved the storyline even though it’s usually the basic type, I still enjoyed it. I liked the high school thrill and mystery but would have loved to see multiple povs. There is a bit of current media pop refrences which is perfect for young readers.

This book is told form Hadley’s pov which is a high shcool student looking to make the post out of her high schoool. I liked her character and seeing her try to fight for her position. She doesn’t scare easily and I loved seeing her develop throughout the book. There are many side characters in this book which makes sense as this is a mystery and you have to figure it out. There is no romance in this book which I thought was well planned out because every mystery includes romance but there was a tiny bit of chemistry between the two.

The ending was well done and and overall I really enjoyed the story. I loved how the whole and was a bit shocked with what was happening to the football team. I recommend checking this book out especially if you liked the first one and want to keep going.

*this arc was sent to me by the publihser to give an honest review in return*

A solid companion to THE CHEERLEADERS. It feels like it's an easy rec for teens who love true crime & murder mystery titles. While not ground-breaking, it is a solid story with relatively fast pacing that is perfect for what its audience is usually looking for.