That Kind of Girl by Natalie C. Anderson will keep you gripped till the very end, with an unexpected twist. Anderson’s writing is amazing.
The characters are well developed and the pace of the book kept me turning the pages. I could hardly wait to see what happened next.

Short and Sweet Review

That Kind of Girl follows Roxie someone who prides herself on being a sleuth and finding items for her classmates. When popular classmate Kirsten pays Roxie a lump sum to find someone Roxie agrees to meet with Kirsten to learn more information. When Roxie shows up to Kirstens house she finds her murdered and Roxie becomes the prime suspect. We also have Inez who is a maid and a sex worker and everywhere she looks she finds dried blood and she knows she should get rid of the evidence before someone ties her to the body. Roxie isn’t exactly sure who she’s looking for but all the evidence points to one place and Inez is trying her best to stay one step ahead to avoid capture.

This is a book I didn’t enjoy. We have Roxie who has a reputation for being able to find things hired by popular girl Kirsten. Kirsten wants Roxie to find a girl who could possibly have her phone, when Roxie goes to Kirsten’s house to learn more information she finds Kiersten murdered. Roxie ends up being a suspect because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and she also has a history with Kirsten. Inez is a maid and also a sex worker and at times I thought this book could be a New Adult just because of that fact and we also got her POV. The plot was okay but I thought it could have been better executed. My biggest problem with this book is that it was trying to come off as something complex but it just made things more confusing. Not only is Roxie trying to solve Kirsten’s murder but her great aunt also left her clues for a scavenger hunt and this was something I didn’t care for, I thought the murder and the Roxie trying to find Inez was enough. Inez also has some dark secrets she’s hiding. I didn’t care for either character, I didn’t connect with them and they sounded too similar to each other.

Overall, I really can’t say much about the book without spoiling it. I just know that this book wasn’t for me. The synopsis made it sound interesting but the book was the opposite and was one I had to push myself to finish.

Two teens, One murder....And both could be the killer. Sounds like fun doesn't it?
If you love YA mysteries with gritty vibes and twisty POVs, this book will devour your attention FAST. I could not put this book down once I picked it up. For anyone who is craving a mystery that will stick with you long after you close the book.

Two girls play a dangerous game of cat and mouse when a rich classmate is murdered and they become the main suspects... but who is the real killer? Roxie is a sixteen year old amateur sleuth and great at finding things for her rich classmates. When the queen bee of her school, Kristen, asks her to find the blonde girl who stole her phone, it's an easy case for Roxie.... but then when Roxie finds Kristen murdered and the police suspect Roxie... things are not looking good. On the outskirts of town there is Inez, a twenty year old part time maid and part time sex worker who keeps finding blood everywhere....and if someone finds the blood on hr things they could probably send her to jail. Roxie doesn't know who she is looking for while Inez doesn't know who she is hiding from... but Roxie has to clear her name and Inez needs to find a way to avoid the law and the men who hurt her. This book was odd to me, I didn't enjoy the pacing of the story or the way the story unfolded. I wasn't interested in either character and it just felt like a boring read to me. The premise was really promising however, in the end I just felt like it wasn't working for me.

Release Date: June 24, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Nancy Paulsen Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Roxanne is the girl you go to when you need something to disappear or be found. It's generally photos that shouldn't have been taken - will girls never learn? But when Kirsten needs Roxanne to find her phone from a girl she has never met, things quickly turn serious, and Roxie finds herself entangled in two murder cases.

The mystery in 'That Kind of Girl' is twofold - current and historical. Kirsten may have stumbled across a crime that needs to be paid for, but the death of Roxie's great aunt will add another dimension to the search for the truth.

A great read. Keeps you guessing, and the twists are unexpected yet believable. A step up for Young Adult writing; the author respects young people and their sense of justice.

I liked the premise of this book. I thought the twists were well done. I do think I missed a couple of subtle details and how they interacted with the overall picture, but it didn't impact the main parts of the book. I think if I had caught the details, I would have rated the book a little higher.

Overall, I thought this was a good book. I think the material had some dark moments for a YA book (see content warnings), and some of the situations were meant to invoke creepy feelings, which I think the book did well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group/Nancy Paulsen Books for the ARC!

That Kind of Girl by Natalie C. Anderson
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🚫

Amateur detective Roxie finds her classmate murdered, right after the classmate hired Roxie to find someone she says stole her phone. Even stranger is the victim has a paper clue in her hand that matches the treasure hunt Roxie's late great-aunt has sent her on to find her inheritance.

As Roxie digs deeper, she's not sure if she's finding answers or more questions.

What I liked:
This dual POV kept me guessing - as soon as I felt like I had put all the pieces together, we switched POV, and the new perspective changed things just enough to keep it interesting. I liked how we dont know who the real victim and perpetrator is until the very end - it made me keep questioning the main characters and their motives, which kept the suspense going.

What I didn't like:
This was supposed to be a YA novel, but it definitely felt too gritty to fit that age category. Also, the main characters are supposed to be high school or early 20s, but a decent amount of their actions and behavior felt like they were people in their 30s, so it felt off.

A huge thank you to @netgalley for another great ARC opportunity #netgalley #thatkindofgirl #bookreview #booktropes #nataliecanderson

Upon reading other reviews, I can see that I am not the only person confused about a) the age of these characters and b) the age level of the book. The characters are all high school students and one is a sex worker. The characters all seem about 30 years old, but that's like all the 2010s YA I read back in the day, so I really didn't mind.

Content Warning: There are depictions of SA and the story revolves around that.

That said, I did enjoy this book, which to me had the vibe of a very gritty Inheritance Games, as there is not only a murder but a very fun and clever scavenger hunt element.

I enjoyed this mystery/suspense book, but am hesitant to agree with the designation of YA, as the characters and plot all felt "adult" to me. Aside from that, I was definitely hooked on the puzzle/mystery throughout the book, and how everything was going to be "tied up neatly" by the end of the book. It has well-developed characters and a plot that leaves you guessing, which is always a good combination for a thriller/mystery book.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

I really wasn’t a fan of this book. The main characters voices seemed way too similar, I think in part due to the author’s kinda choppy writing style. It was a lot of short sentences, telegram style, so it really didn’t flow that well.

There’s a lot going on in the book and it does bring up some important topics however I feel they could have been tackled much better than what they were. They didn’t seem woven into the plot as well as they could have been, rather just placed randomly.

As for the characters, I felt nothing for them. Unfortunately I can’t say much more about what I disliked without giving away spoilers, but I will say if you’re younger and like mysteries, you may like this. The book feels very YA to me, yet the one character is a sex worker, so just be aware of what you’re getting into…

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for the E-ARC; the above review is my honest opinion left of my own volition.

I recommend checking your trigger warnings as there is rape and substance abuse.

Roxie has a knack for finding things and Kirsten has something “stole” from her. So, Kristen reaches out to Roxie for help and of course things immediately go seriously wrong before they can even get started. Roxie's great aunt has left some cryptic poems for her to find a piece of her jewelry worth two million dollars. That would set Roxie up for life. But, Roxie is left alone to unravel the mysteries alone when Kristen is found dead in her mansion. Roxie has to unravel a cold case from generations prior, Kristen’s case, and how these two separate incidences are linked to her great aunt’s scavenger hunt.

Inez is good at cleaning things and is doing whatever she can to pay the rent. That Kind of Girl follows Roxie and Inez through a murder investigation they both find themselves tied up in.

This was overall a dark book but captivating. There's a very twisty cat and mouse feel to the story. The pace of the book was good. I sometimes I felt that the book wasn’t sure what it wanted to be in the sense that the characters and setting is YA but the age of one and being a sex worker makes it confusing if it’s actually YA. There are several heavy topics that are talked about in this book and while they are important some felt forced.

I don’t love dual POV’s because sometimes they don’t coordinate or intertwine well. For me, I felt at times in this book they didn’t intersect well.

Over all not a bad read. It just wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t feel the end results were all that surprising.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | Listed as a YA thriller, but it definitely has more mature themes.

That Kind of Girl walks the line between YA and adult fiction, offering a gritty, emotionally complex mystery that doesn’t shy away from hard truths. Sixteen-year-old Roxie, our whip-smart amateur sleuth, is the unofficial detective for her high school - known for her uncanny ability to track down lost things and solve small-time mysteries. But when her latest case involves a classmate’s suspicious death and a scavenger hunt left behind by her enigmatic great aunt, things get a lot more serious, fast.

The story kicks off when Kirsten, a popular girl with secrets of her own, swallows her pride and asks Roxie for help. But before Roxie can even get started, Kirsten turns up dead - and Roxie, along with Inez (a maid, sex worker, and the girl Kirsten wanted her to find), ends up in the police’s crosshairs.

Told in a dual POV, the novel follows Roxie and Inez as they navigate a tense, twisty web of old money, buried secrets, and a treasure hunt tied to a two-million-dollar necklace. There’s a dark undercurrent running through the plot- a cat-and-mouse game set against a backdrop of generational wealth, inequality, and justice long denied.

The mystery kept me turning pages, and the riddle element added a clever layer, but was sometimes too repetitive. Roxie’s sleuthing skills shine, but it’s Inez who really stole my heart - I would’ve loved even more chapters from her. Both girls have emotionally charged, compelling backstories, and their perspectives offer a strong contrast.

The ending delivers a satisfying twist that ties everything together while still honoring the messy complexities of the story. It’s not all tied up in a neat little bow - and that’s what makes it good read.

📚 Final thoughts: If you like your YA thrillers with a darker edge, morally gray characters, and a dash of buried treasure, That Kind of Girl is absolutely worth the read.

Roxie Hunt is good at finding things. So good that her classmates often hire her to find things for them: like that picture they need taken off the internet or a missing puppy. Inez is good at cleaning things and is doing whatever she can to pay the rent. That Kind of Girl follows Roxie and Inez through a murder investigation they both find themselves tied up in.

This book had both a smoky noir feel and a kind of goofy teen movie inner monologue at the same time and I liked that. The plot just didn’t plot for me in ways I don’t think I can explain without massive spoilers (as is the way with mysteries). There are a lot of threads going all at once and they were all engaging, but a lot of it ultimately felt unnecessarily convoluted. The end results were all unsurprising to me and the only questions I had reading were generally left unanswered and revolved around the morality of the situation.

This book feels a little confused about what it wants to be, in general. The characters and setting make this feel like the YA novel it is, but one of them not being within the YA age demographic and also a sex worker makes that confusing. There are several heavy topics and general causes championed in this story but for the most part few of them have any real hold on what the story being told is actually saying or about. Roxie’s entire backstory seems irrelevant and out of place. Nina’s protests feel like generic plot devices that Anderson then took as a chance to educate via infodump rather than centering a novel on the issue. They’re important topics, but some of them felt very shoehorned in or like they could have been replaced without a second thought.

This kind of leads into the characters who are all very vibrant and different and may be part of the issue. They all have very different causes they all want to talk about at one point or another and they don’t really intersect meaningfully on the page. It’s realistic and I did love these characters and their quirks, but they didn’t help with the general confusion the book struggled with. Both POV characters got on my nerves at times, though. Roxie with her general lack of knowledge surrounding her family and community (and lack of curiosity towards them) leading to false dead ends in her case. Inez’s inability to say the word ‘fucking’ and replacing it with ‘pucking’ (which she used a frankly absurd amount in her scant chapters) was beyond frustrating to me.

At the end of the day, I just feel like this could have used some more time cooking. I enjoy the concept and the general vibe of the narration. The characters were vibrant and fun. There’s discussions of important topics. That Kind of Girl does some things so well, it just falls flat where I felt it mattered most.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for this eARC given in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

DNF at 10%

Interesting premise, but I couldn't get into it.

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

DNF

I unfortunately could not connect with the writing at all. Something about it bothered me from the first page. I can see how this would work for others.

A treasure hunt from a recently passed Aunt sparks motivation for Roxie. At the end of this treasure hunt is a Diamond necklace worth 2 million and a mystery of at least one dead body.

I really loved the characters- the sassy, no nonsense of Roxie was fun and exciting to see what happens next. Roxie was intelligent, a private investigator for her high school. The little bit of point of view of Inez was not strong- it took too long for the connection to the story to appear so felt random and didn't add anything initially. So maybe if she actually had some involvement in the plot early on would have helped.

For the most part, Inez chapters felt like a stop to the plot. Like she would take you on this journey of her past in reflection. It felt skippable and pulled me from the story and should have been left out completely. Instead, I would have loved more development on Roxanne’s past and even past reflections of her family’s long forgotten once marriage to the powerful and rich. The plot left me wanting more background, so if it had been just a bit longer would have been great. This was a pretty fun story and idea, specifically with the treasure hunt.

This was so fun! I love exploring thrillers and such more often and this was such a fun and quick read for me!

This book, about a teenage sleuth who finds things for her wealthier classmates and suddenly ends up embroiled in the mystery of a classmate's death, is extremely reminiscent of Veronica Mars. Roxie, the main character of the novel, also has the feisty personality of Ms. Mars minus the snark. Plus, her touching relationship with the uncle who took her in is a reminder of Veronica and her father's relationship. That is where the similarities end, however. The gist of the plot is completely original. If you enjoy a book where seemingly disparate stories link up in surprising ways or one that involves intriguing puzzles needing to be solved, you should enjoy this one.

As a YA reader I frequently will mention when the book would be still be enjoyed by a more mature audience that doesn’t typically enjoy the genre. This book is not meets that criteria but it goes beyond. It absolutely reads like an adult thriller. So much so that I had to check the listing. It does have your typical teenager engaging in more adult activities but usually it’s used as a device because the character acts with little impulse control and is then able to make decisions of a young adult that wouldn’t be made other wise if their brain was fully formed.

That is not the case in this book. While one of our FMCs, Roxie, in this dual POV work is indeed a teen, she doesn’t act like one at all and the other FMC, Inez, who’s POV we get is indeed an adult. That’s being said, the reason for Roxie not acting her age is well supported by what has happened in her life and skillfully laid out by author Natalie C Anderson.

I will say that it does get a bit convoluted at times as there are multiple mysteries going on at the same time that intersect as well. It is also very predictable in who the culprit is however the part that keeps you hooked is the “why” and how everything unfolds.

This was a very quick read for me as I simply was engaged enough to keep pushing through as I needed to k so what happened at the end! I did much more enjoy the murder mystery aspect of it but I think the scavenger hunt will be a hit for many readers who like to figure out things along side of the characters. It was a nice touch to have pieces of a poem to help solve the clues. It’s like it’s two books in one and I wish it was two separate books as I would have enjoyed both individually.

This book comes out June 24th 2025 so get it on your TBR as it’ll be a great addition to your summer reading no matter what age you are. My one “warning” (that is too strong of a word but it’s what I got right now) is for young readers. While there is nothing inherently inappropriate in the prose, it does read very adult and has very adult themes in general in addition to both mentions and descriptive scenes of sexual assault.


I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary eARC from Penguin Young Readers through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again