Loved loved loved! It was the perfect follow up to The Cheerleaders. The feel was the exact same reading through The Champions and I loved how the two flowed together. I always appreciate when characters from the first book are sprinkled into the second with perfect character development.

I loved the cheerleaders, so I was so excited to get my hands on this!

Hadley recently moved to Sunnybrook and works for the school newspaper. She’s gunning for editor in chief and is doing an article on the school’s beloved football team. She knows the town’s history, but there may be more to it than she thinks. Soon, she’s getting threatening messages from someone telling her to stay far away from the team. She doesn’t listen until someone ends up in a coma. Hadley has to put her journalism skills to good use and find out who’s behind the mayhem before history repeats itself.

Hadley was a great addition to the Sunnybrook world. Unfortunately, this one did move a little slow for me and I found myself not only a bit bored, but confused from time to time. However, after the muddled middle, it got exciting again at the end. I did love how Monica made an appearance and how the stories were connected.

Check the trigger warnings on this if you have them-it deals with some heavy stuff.

Overall, I did enjoy this and loved that it had the same feel of the Cheerleaders. This is a great YA mystery!

When they taught “show, don’t tell” in writing school, Kara was absent that day, maybe counting her money from the popular YA book THE CHEERLEADERS (this is a sequel.). In this book, Hadley, the main character gets essentially all her information from stories from other people. It gets a bit dull.

So, anyway, it’s eleven years after the events of the first book and Hadley is a new girl in town, a new student at the high school and her mom is the superintendent of schools. Sunnybrook is now all about their championship football team. Hadley is not a football fan but is assigned to cover the team for the school newspaper.

Then a player is poisoned at a party, Hadley starts getting emails telling her to stay away from the football team (please. Who gets emails anymore?). Then even more bad stuff happens. Is this related to what became of the cheerleaders? Who better than a high school newspaper reporter to uncover the truth, I ask you?

So, besides the issues listed above, the cast of characters got a bit confusing. I had trouble telling some of the football players apart, and also some of the people in the same family.

Oh, and as a Southerner should I be offended that though the book is set on Long Island all the kids playing college ball were going to Southern schools? It’s just us gauche idiots who like football? Well, that checks out, I guess.

“‘It’s so stupid. They humiliated me, they hurt me, and I still wanted them to LIKE me,’” oh, honey. Welcome to being a teenager.

This is not a book for older people to enjoy, but perhaps younger people will find something to like here. Athletics are prized over all….hopefully kids will see that’s no way to run a school. Or a college. Or a society.

4.5/5 stars. Rated up. *READ THE CHEERLEADERS FIRST*
A haunted/cursed town where bad things keep happening. Loved the amateur sleuth vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this ARC for my honest review.

I have not read The Cheerleaders but can't wait to now that I have read this.

This was well done for a YA thriller/mystery, and I only guessed a small piece of the mystery, which is pretty good!

I enjoyed the writing style, the characters, and the mystery aspects of this book.

Being back in Sunnybrook was so fun! This was a whole new storyline with new characters, and some familiar characters from the cheerleaders. I think readers who enjoyed the cheerleaders will enjoy reading the champions! This could also be read as a standalone because it does give backstory and gives some brief mentions to what happened in the cheerleaders. I thought it was fun that our main characters were solving the case within real time as things were happening. This is one of those young adult thrillers where you just can't stop reading. You'll be hooked by all the drama happening. I will say that much like the cheerleaders, there were a lot of characters in this one, so it's definitely one to pay close attention to. Also be cautious to some of the triggers going into this one.

Book:
THE CHAMPIONS by Kara Thomas
Thank you Netgalley, RHC, and GetUnderlined for the Arc (Aug 27)

Review:
4.5
I've loved every book that I've read by Kara Thomas, and this was no exception. THE CHAMPIONS follows Hadley, a writer for her school's newspaper. After a tragic accident occurs while at a party, Hadley begins investigating when she receives an anonymous email warning her about the football team. Together, with [Redacted] and the emailer, she leads the investigation as more tragedies ensue.
Though I don't remember much about THE CHEERLEADERS, I like how this sort of rounded out what happened with some of the characters from that book. It was nice to have that insight even if it was at the hands of a new tragedy, one that had me on the edge of my seat as I wondered who could do such a thing and why
I quite liked the mystery if this one. I was enthralled by it, and I tried to guess the whodunnit, but I never guessed the bigger picture or the actual whodunnit. And the ending, when the whodunnit was revealed, was something I never would have seen coming. I was like Hadley, barking up the tree, until BOOM the pieces came together rounding out the thrilling mystery. This book left me guessing, it left me shocked, and it left me ready for another YA thriller drom Kara.
THE CHAMPIONS is definitely a must-read if you enjoyed THE CHEERLEADERS and want to go back to Sunnybrook one more time.

I really liked The Cheerleaders when I read it years ago and I equally enjoyed this follow-up. This was a real page-turner that tackles some truly terrible subjects but Kara Thomas never makes it feel salacious or like trauma for trauma's sake.

This was a very good, twisty mystery story! The characters were great and the plot was fast paced. I loved Hadley and Peter, they brought the story to life. I was very well written and I enjoyed the plot quite a bit. The author did a wonderful job on this story, I’ll have to also read the other books she has written.

ALMOST as good as the cheerleaders
I again loved the characters and guessed part of the ending but it’s soo fun being back in sunnybrook and seeing the connection between the two stories (though I forgot a ton of what happened in the cheerleaders…)
what happened was so disgusting, I had to take breaks to stare at the wall while reading to process (in a good way)

The only reason I’m rating this 4 stars and holding back from a 5 is because I feel like the resolution wasn’t the best/expanded on enough, maybe it was a little rushed?

Regardless, another amazing kara thomas murder mystery/thriller that I absolutely flew through and loved

I read The Cheerleaders several years ago and was completely blown away by Thomas’s writing and the plot. To say I was ecstatic to return to Sunnybrook would be an understatement. This sequel did not disappoint!

I really enjoyed Hadley’s perspective - she’s a senior with journalist ambitions, so she is constantly asking questions, reflecting on new facts, and piecing together the whole story in a way that brings the reader along for the ride. The Champions has all the signature suspense, aura of danger, and mystique I loved in The Cheerleaders. Although some of the final twists were predictable, Thomas shines a lot on the importance and weight we give young men with “promising futures.” This story ultimately highlights the worth we place on certain individuals and the lengths we’ll go to turn a blind eye to their faults.

I really enjoy both Thomas’s YA and Adult works and think she does a great job tailoring her messaging to age appropriate levels. Her books consistently question themes of justice within our society. This story is a standalone, even though it is a follow-up to The Cheerleaders, and new readers will easily be able to dive into the world of Sunnybrook. I highly recommend checking out both novels!

Thank you to Netgalley, Delacorte Press, and Random House for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Champions marks Kara Thomas's return not only to YA but to Sunnybrook as well. A few years have passed since Monica solved the mystery in The Cheerleaders and we're following a new protagonist, Hadley. Hadley's a senior in high school who is determined to beat her rival and make the editor-in-chief of her school paper. To secure the position, she takes an assignment to write about the school's two-time state championship-winning football team. What starts as an easy assignment turns deadly when football players start dropping.

Even though The Champions follows a new protagonist, I was happy to return to Sunnybrook and all its twisted ways. I found the twists in The Champions more predictable than in Thomas's past works. However, I didn't mind in this case because the themes she explores are important and worth telling in a way that does them justice, which Thomas accomplished here. Hadley was a great lead--she had a great perspective as an outsider and her journalistic ambition fit Thomas's narrative style. The side characters were probably one of the strongest elements. They were all so believable and made this story feel real. The pacing was also well done and made for a compelling read. I read it in less than twenty-four hours because I couldn't put it down. My biggest disappointment is simply that I wanted more from the rivals' subplot.

Overall, readers who enjoyed Kara Thomas's past books, especially The Cheerleaders, will also like The Champions!

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for giving me an ARC. All thoughts are my own.

This is your typical sequel situation. The book is good. It's not as good as The Cheerleaders. It feels a little too theatrical and the odds of all of the events from the book happening in succession like this requires an ability to suspend reality a bit; however, this book is still a must read for fans of the first book. It's still a worthy sequel. I enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed Hadley's voice and her growth as a character throughout the book. My one major issue with the book is that it felt like things were kept to vague and unknown for a little too long. As I was reading, I found it difficult to read for long periods of time because I felt like it wasn't really getting anywhere. If not for that one major issue, this would have probably been a five star book.

The Champions by Kara Thomas is a gripping novel that will keep you hooked from start to finish with its fast-paced storyline. I suggest adding it to your list of must-reads!

Content Warning: underage drinking, death, mention of hazing, mention of rape

I never read The Cheerleaders but always wanted to and then I got the arc for The Champions and thought I could jump into the story without reading the first book and I think I caught up with everything pretty good.

Hadley is an outsider at Sunnybrook high school which has a winning and popular football team. She’s new to the town so she wasn’t there when the five cheerleaders died there in the past but of course she’s heard of it. She wants to go into the journalism and belongs to the school newspaper when she gets a chance to interview the football team but gets embroiled in something deeper.

This is a story about a school covering up the bad deeds of some of the popular boys in class and how things get unravelled and Hadley being in the middle of it all even if she is an “outsider”. She’s not best friends with any of the popular kids but they know her and talk to her so she’s not ignored at school.

I liked that the story moved fast and I didn’t get lost even though I didn’t read The Cheerleaders. It is the typical story of a cover-up in the athletics department of a popular school and kids getting hurt or killed because of this secret. I do think at times there were too many names for me to follow and I kept having to remind myself who was who.

My Thoughts:

This is a pretty solid, quick read! I was invested in finding out what the football team was covering up and it’s pretty bad but I’m glad in the end there was some justice.

the epic highs and lows of high school football.....

Oooh I remember really enjoying The Cheerleaders years ago so I was so excited to hear about this! As far as YA mysteries go this was pretty middle of the road. There are immediately a LOT of characters to keep track of, making it a full cast but also rather hard to keep characters straight.

I wish the stakes were a little higher--main character Hadley slowly uncovers the mystery's truth but it feels like it's all through conversations, and the thrilling, detective, risk-taking behavior I like to see in murder mysteries was very much lacking. However I'm always here for righting the wrongs of corrupt football teams!

Kara Thomas is one of my favorite YA mystery authors and The Cheerleaders is one of my favorite books by her so i was very excited to get back into this world and it did not disappoint!

I thought the mystery was laid out great and there were some heavy topics that broke my heart, made me mad, made me disgusted but i loved the way that it was talked about especially in a somewhat realistic manner.

I really loved this book, i finished it so fast and i loved seeing characters from the previous books and where they were.

4.5/5

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Champions is a follow-up...sort of....to the book The Cheerleaders. Taking place in the same high school with some of the same characters, this time the focus is on the championship winning football team. When football players start being targeted and one of them is killed, what is going on in this town?

To be fair I read The Cheerleaders when it first came out and honestly remember nothing about it-not that it wasn't memorable, I read to be entertained not to remember. Having said that, you honestly don't need to have read The Cheerleaders to enjoy and understand the events in The Champions. I thought this had solid pacing and really great character development. This is definitely one of Kara Thomas' better books. If you're looking for a solid YA read, then I'd highly recommend it.

If you enjoyed "Cheerleaders," you won't want to miss the sequel, which offers a gripping return to "Sunnybrook" after the tragic deaths of five cheerleaders. This time, with new characters leading the way, the author takes us on another dark journey that delves into the sinister side of college football. The story explores how people cross ethical lines to eliminate obstacles, revealing the immense power within the football community and the shocking consequences of putting that power in the wrong hands.

Eleven years after the cheerleaders' deaths, Hadley moves to Sunnybrook when her mother becomes the superintendent at Sunnybrook College. Trying to escape from her addict husband who was imprisoned for embezzling drugs, Hadley, after long therapy sessions and spending a lot of time in isolation, slowly comes out of her shell with the help of creative writing. Her arch-nemesis, Peter, who took away her scholarship opportunity with a piece about the school's dancers, motivates her to become the editor-in-chief and defeat him.

The Tigers football team, Sunnybrook’s heroes, are worshipped by every student and directed by a family of football players. When Hadley is assigned to write a piece about the team and gets invited to a party by the popular player Logan, she never expects things to spiral out of control, resulting in Logan's coma from alcohol poisoning. This is just one of the attacks against the football players.

An anonymous source begins sending Hadley cryptic messages, guiding her to uncover the dirty secrets of the football team. As she digs deeper, she unexpectedly finds allies in her nemesis Peter and her stepsister Monica (main character from "Cheerleaders" making her cameo). However, she soon realizes the massive football community is determined to keep their secrets buried. With two casualties already, has Hadley put herself on the list of victims by opening Pandora’s box?

Overall, this is a riveting page-turner with a heart-pounding pace that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I enjoyed it as much as the first book and highly recommend adding it to your reading list!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for sharing this unputdownable thriller’s digital review copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Very grateful as always to NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and Delacorte Press for an ARC of the book. The review below is my own personal opinion.

First and foremost: if you’re a Kara Thomas fan, or loved “The Cheerleaders”, put this book on your TBR!

I have been a Kara Thomas fan since I read “The Cheerleaders”. I spent that next weekend reading all her other YA novels, devouring each one like I couldn’t get enough. She is such an incredible storyteller, and it’s hard to put any of her books down. So of course, when I heard she was returning to Sunnybrook in her latest novel, I was immediately chomping at the bit to read it.

“The Champions” is a spiritual successor to Thomas’ “The Cheerleaders”., and I think it really holds up well against the first book. We are brought back to Sunnybrook years later, to focus on another subsection of the city: the football team. And I think there was no better way to bring the world of Sunnybrook back. With a mixture of old characters, new characters, and some now grown characters, it feels like it is its own story while serving as a nice look into the futures of sone familiar faces from the previous novel.

We meet Hadley, the daughter of the superintendent, who was not around during the events of “The Cheerleaders”, only knowing of it by mentions. She is a journalist to be, working for the school paper. With the task of having to write an article on the two time championship winning football team, Hadley begins to dip into their world. Until she is sent a mysterious email warning her to stay away from the team, and a party she’s invited to that weekend. But when she attends the party, which ends with a football player in a coma, Hadley, along with her friend and fellow journalist Peter Cardino, are pulled deeper into the history of Sunnybrook football. And some secrets just can’t stay buried. Not in a town as infamous as Sunnybrook. Or a team as beloved as the championship winning Tigers.

I think Kara Thomas did such a great job exploring new parts of Sunnybrook while also keeping true to things she laid in place in the first book. She brings in old characters with fresh perspective, showing that they’ve all grown and changed since the events that transpired. And with the depth on these new characters as well, it felt like returning to a familiar place. I think “The Champions” can also serve as a stand alone, but I would suggest reading “The Cheerleaders” first, only because you’ll enjoy the little Easter eggs that Kara Thomas has dropped through the novel.