3.75 rounded up

This follow up to The Cheerleaders is twisted and a bit dark. It's a return to Sunnybrook, this time with Hadley as the main character investigating what is going on with the football team after one player is poisoned. While I enjoyed the mystery of it, this reads like what someone thinks a typical high school is like with jocks getting away with everything from cheating to sexual assault. It was also really repetitive, with Hadley repeating what one person told her to another multiple times. I liked the appearance of characters from The Cheerleaders; it was interesting to see how their lives looked years after the first book. The conclusion was a little lackluster, but the story was overall interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This book was quite enyojable. From one event, there are so many especulations and theories, and it leads to so many secrets and revelations. I really liked the main character, and to re-visit the town of Sunnybrook. Congratulations to Kara, and thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for this book!

“The Champions” by Kara Thomas was a good read. I liked the true crime feel of the book, trying to figure out what was going on in the town of Stoneybrook. The book didn’t take long to finish and didn’t drag anything out. I would definitely recommend to a friend to read.

3.5⭐️ I really enjoyed this book! I loved seeing characters from the cheerleaders in this book play an important role. fast-paced, and kept me guessing who was behind everything. very grateful that I was able to receive an arc of this book!

In this book, we revisit the town of Sunnybrook eleven years after the death of five cheerleaders. The town is still healing and football is still the thing that rules the school and the town. Hadley, an aspiring journalist, is given the task of covering the football team's upcoming season for the school newspaper. After the sudden poisoning of a fellow student and star football player, Hadley begins to receive ominous messages from an anonymous source warning her to leave the story alone. As Hadley investigates the poisoning and the deaths that follow, she will have to dig deep into the town's history and her courage. This is a riveting tale of school politics and teen angst that will keep you on your toes and leave you wanting more.

Hadley and her family have just moved to Sunnybrook, infamous for the deaths of five cheerleaders years ago. The killer was eventually brought to justice, and Sunnybrook has finally been able to move on. However, now the town’s focus has shifted to the football team, who won the state championships two years in a row.

When an accident befalls a member of the football team, shortly after Hadley is assigned to cover the team for the newspaper. She starts getting strange emails warning her to stay away from the football team. When a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley begins to wonder what dark secrets the team is hiding. In order to get to the bottom of it, Hadley has to delve into Sunnybrook’s dark past.

Thanks to Delacorte and NetGalley for an advanced copy of The Champions by Kara Thomas to review! It has honestly been a while since I read The Cheerleaders, but I didn’t have too much trouble jumping into this sequel. Though I wouldn’t recommend reading this one first, as there are definitely spoilers for the first book in this one. And you might miss the importance of some of the side characters without the background context.

While I don’t think this book was as well executed as the first book, it’s still got a great mystery at the core. In true Kara Thomas style, there are twists and turns thrown in throughout, making you guess what you know. This one does get a bit dark, so be warned if rape/sexual assault is a trigger for you because there is a pretty in-depth description of it in this book.

The cast of characters, while maybe not the most likable at times, are interesting to read about and really help drive the overall mystery forward. This book isn’t as tense as The Cheerleaders, but there are still moments of panic. As usual, Thomas utlizes cliffhangers to keep up the pace and keep you reading. Especially in the second half of the book.

Though this isn’t Thomas’s best book, if you enjoy mystery/thrillers in general, you’ll still enjoy this one! Especially if you loved the first book.

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!