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

✨ The Vibes ✨
A fast-paced YA noir

📖 Read if…
✨ Nancy Drew was your favorite series as a kid
✨ You like a book with short chapters
✨ You’re looking for a YA book with a bit of grit

In my mind, summer is THE season to read YA thrillers. They are tense and twisty and the shorter length makes them perfect to devour in one sitting by the pool. That Kind of Girl is one of the newest entrants in the genre and I think it’s a solid choice if you are also looking to plan out your pool reading.

That Kind of Girl starts with a bang and doesn’t let it up from there. It follows two young women — Inez, who is trying to wash blood out of her clothes, and Roxie, a teen sleuth who’s gained a reputation for helping fellow students in tricky situations. To say anything else about the mystery or how they are linked would be a massive spoiler, but I found the way their perspectives were intertwined to be really suspenseful and I was engaged with the story throughout. The story also had a bit of grit to it that I haven’t seen in other YA thrillers which was a nice change of pace.

That being said, I do think the story could have been even better if the author leaned more into some of the POVs, particularly Inez. There is a lot going on throughout the story, but I feel like some of the twists and emotional beats could have been strengthened if we saw more from some characters. Conversely, I think less of Roxie’s backstory would have improved the story as it felt shoehorned in and didn’t necessarily advance the overall plot or her character.

Even with some small quibbles, I really enjoyed reading That Kind of Girl and think mystery/thriller fans should add it to their summer reading list ASAP!

That Kind of Girl hits shelves June 24th. Thanks to Nancy Paulsen Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Nancy Paulson books for providing me with this arc.

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me. I couldn't relate to the characters, the writing style or humor of the novel. Due to my lack of engagement, I did not finish this book.

I really liked this murder mystery. Roxie and Inez are such great characters and I got really into the book. I was definitely on the edge of my seat at times and thought the book was overall very entertaining. I sometimes have an issue getting into YA books, but I didn’t at all with this one. There were some more mature themes so I think that helped a bit.

Told from dual perspectives, both characters are racing to find answers in what is essentially a treasure hunt (a hidden fortune is also thrown in the mix, as will happen). They are also battling demons from the past, and Roxie’s backstory is particularly compelling (religious cults usually are).

Roxanne “Roxie” Hunt had a bad history, which has led to more than a few issues with authority. So, her high school career at an exclusive prep school perhaps isn’t the most socially productive. However, she’s got a side hustle finding things for people. Often, this involves trips into the dark web to remove scandalous or shocking photographic evidence of indiscretions. But in the case of Kirsten Montgomery-Wiggins, it appears to be something else altogether. Her telephone has somehow wound up in the possession of a sex worker has something valuable on it. Roxie needs more information to get going, but Kirsten is reluctant to share, which leads to a bit of an argument. All perfectly normal, but that terribly loud, public conclusion will take on whole new meaning when Roxie visits Kirsten’s family house that evening to get more details and a downpayment and instead finds her client’s dead body.

Roxie is not a suspect. Well, she doesn’t believe she is. After all, she found the body and spotted a silver Porche speeding away from the scene of the crime. However, the security footage has been wiped, there are no obvious suspects, and after that little tete-a-tete overheard by the high school band, she has certainly become a person of interest for the murder.

And this could not come at a worse time. Her Uncle Lenny’s restaurant is in dire straits, her wealthy great Aunt Regina has passed away leaving all her wealth to charity … except for a two-million-dollar necklace she’s hidden away and built a treasure hunting game around. Roxie should be on hand for her uncle—after all, he’s the man who’s basically taken care of her since she was eleven, helping her escape the bad situation that took her mother’s life—but now she’s trying to do two jobs at the same time: find the necklace and figure out who killed Kirsten Montgomery-Wiggins to escape the noose herself. And at least the second part of this is all tied with Inez, a cleaning woman by day and a sex worker by night … who is off the radar. Is she in danger as well, or is she a part of the killing? The more Roxie investigates matters, the more trouble she finds herself in. Natalie C. Anderson pens a potent page-turner of a YA thriller with That Kind of Girl.

Crime fiction and YA should not fit together this well, and yet they do. That Kind of Girl takes elements of crime novels from the pulp era as well as the current bestsellers, and manages to fit them into a high school student’s world, making the work of doing so look easy.

Natalie C. Anderson writes tense suspense and human relationships, bringing her characters to life and then putting them through gripping scenarios and honestly clever puzzles. The book presents the clues to the treasure hunt via poetry, four stanzas at a time, one stanza being a clue to the hunt itself and the rest being tied to a much larger mystery, inviting readers to have some fun trying to figure out how this interpretation of the rather gruesome fairy tale, “The Robber Bridegroom,” applies to the overarching story.

The chapters are divided between two perspectives, Roxie’s first-person account of her activities, and a third person limited narrative focused on Inez’s activities. The former are much more intimate and involved, inviting us into Roxie’s worldview and private life (including a handful of flashback chapters to the incident surrounding the death of her mother for added context), while the Inez sections provide some shadows, secrets, and context without giving the whole game away. The book is rife with clues for its storylines, so regular readers of mystery will keep up, but it’s also clever about withholding answers until the dramatically appropriate times. A delight to find a thriller this smart. Its revelations actually thrill.

That Kind of Girl is unafraid to delve into darker places, as well. It is written for a YA audience, but it trusts its audience to consider some material of a more mature bent. This is not candy-coated storytelling, but brutally honest in its emotions and implications. As a trigger warning note, some of the subplots involve cult brainwashing and sexual traumas. While the book does not treat either of these topics with kid gloves, it also does not indulge in gratuitous indulgences either.

Roxie is kind of like a less noble Veronica Mars, someone who is accustomed to doing dirty work while seeing the uglier side of her fellow students. She still manages to do the right thing, but she also has an angle and a hustle. This is not to say she has no sympathetic bones—she certainly does—but she’s not some kind of white knight blindly doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. She’s not on the side of the angels. She does jobs for people and she’s got serious issues she’s avoiding dealing with.

That Kind of Girl may well be the kick off to a new series, and I hope it is. The author has built an intriguing world peopled with have nots and have lots, with sex workers and down on their luck detectives, with families who yearn and those that will probably never learn. This is solid storytelling of the kind that could serve readers for a baker’s dozen or more entries.

Thank you NetGallery for the eARC! 2.5 ⭐️

Spoilers ahead:

Simply put, this book was okay. The biggest issues were that it felt unoriginal and overly complex at the same time. Finding out that it was the brother (and his friends/law group) that caused harm to Inez that caused this whole spiral was not at all shocking. The same goes for Birdie and that reveal. I also found it icky how the Great Aunt chose to reveal said past murder through a puzzle game. And there weren't any huge repercussions behind that (tampering with evidence and whatnot). There also felt like a lack of conclusion to the Pastor's influence on Roxie's life. There were times in which I did not understand the importance of her past trauma as a central part of the narrative. There is more I could say, but really this book doesn't equate the effort to say more.

If you are looking for a simple YA thriller read, check it out. But otherwise I wouldn't recommend.

This book was not for me, but could see how it would be for other people! A little slow and didn’t like the way it was written

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc!

Before I start, I want to say that reading this book felt like listening to Ethel Cain, it was so insane, I loved it.

Let's get into it. The characters? So uniquely crafted. Their backstories were so heartbreaking and I loved how we gradually got to know more about both of them.

The mystery? How everything weaved together at the end, slowly but surely, I ate it UP.

The relationships between every character? So fun to read about.

The theme of wanting to hurt powerful men who hurt you? I support women's wrongs. (Although, they did nothing wrong).

Also, the switch in POV from first person for Roxie and third for Inez was really interesting.

Overall, insane, amazing book that I didn't want to put down.

Thank you NetGalley! This is a first for me by this author. It started out great . I thought the subject matter was a lot for it being a Young Adult book. The back and forth between the characters wasn’t clear and made it confusing as to who was narrating at times

Thank you Netgalley and Nancy Paulson Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“That Kind of Girl” by Natalie C. Anderson is a bold, gritty, and twist-laden YA thriller that flirts with the boundaries of its genre. It delivers a gripping murder mystery wrapped in a tangled web of social commentary, trauma, and survival—told through the dual perspectives of two unforgettable girls: Roxie and Inez. Before going into the review, I do recommend this book for older YA readers as one of the main characters, Inez, is a 19 year old sex worker, so readers should be aware of this before reading.

Roxie, a sharp sixteen-year-old amateur sleuth known for her uncanny ability to find lost things, is drawn into a dangerous case when her classmate Kirsten hires her to locate a missing girl and a phone. But things spiral quickly when Kirsten turns up dead—and Roxie becomes the prime suspect. The missing girl? Inez: a part-time maid and sex worker just trying to survive. Their paths collide in a fast-paced game of cat and mouse, where both girls are being hunted by the truth and the forces that wish to bury it.

Anderson pulls no punches. Though technically labeled YA, this book reads more like an adult thriller, exploring heavy themes such as exploitation, privilege, domestic violence, and class disparity. Inez’s storyline, in particular, feels raw and mature, offering a sharp contrast to Roxie’s more traditional sleuthing journey. While I did find a lot of this book’s content (mainly with Inez’s perspective) more fitting for an adult audience, others will appreciate its unflinching portrayal of teenage girls grappling with adult-sized problems.

Structurally, the dual POV adds depth and energy to the story. Roxie’s character shines through her cleverness and resilience, bolstered by a touching relationship with her uncle. The inclusion of a scavenger-hunt-style riddle tied to a mysterious $2 million necklace (and a possibly illegal will from Roxie’s eccentric great-aunt) adds a fun, puzzling element to the otherwise intense storyline.

That said, the book sometimes suffers under the weight of its many subplots: cult backstories, missing persons, hidden wealth, domestic abuse, and decades-old secrets all jostle for space. Some twists are predictable, and certain threads—like the enigmatic Pastor—feel confusing until clarified much later.

But what anchors “That Kind of Girl” is its emotional heart. It’s a story about two girls caught in circumstances far beyond their control who refuse to go down without a fight. The ending brings closure, justice, and even hope—especially for Inez—making the journey feel worthwhile.

Overall, “That Kind of Girl” challenges expectations of YA fiction. It's not a flawless mystery, but it’s a bold and timely story with strong character work and a satisfyingly dark edge. This story is ideal for readers who like their thrillers smart, layered, and just a bit messy.