Sophie Reads YA: Freeform

2019 New Release challenge

Review: Deadly Little Scandals (Debutantes #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

10:00

Deadly Little Scandals
Series: Debutantes #2
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Published November 5th 2019 by Freeform

Goodreads Synopsis
"Think of the White Gloves like the Junior League-by way of Skull and Bones?"

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group's ranks may have the answers she's looking for. Things are looking up... until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discover near the family's summer home--and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making.

No one is quite who they seem to be.
Goodreads

Review
As soon as this book dropped through my letterbox, I immediately started reading it. I had loved book 1, Little White Lies, and with the way that one had ended, I was glad I had only a month and a half to wait until I could find out more. Now that Sawyer is fully immersed in the Taft family, and is thinking of herself as a Taft, and that she belongs, she's found a bit of security. She's still hiding the fact that her father is in fact her uncle, and that cousin Lily is actually her sister. Lily is still struggling with the breakup with Walker and that her family seem to be imploding, and has fallen into a depression. When a mysterious society known as the White Gloves want the four girls - Sawyer, Lily, Campbell, and Sadie Grace - to rush for them, in the hopes of being made members when they go to college, Lily begs they all join, and they do, for her. Campbell is also struggling with the stigma of her father's arrest - that she played a part in - and will do just about anything, and Sadie Grace will always help her friends, especially when it takes her mind of her stepmother's fake pregnancy. Now, the White Gloves aren't your usual group. They're made up of the highest of societies debs, and it's not all dresses and parties. When the girls uncover a 20 year old mystery, literally finding a dead body in the lake, they find that their families - of course - are involved in the death, and cover up, and do whatever they can to find out the truth, when the stakes are honestly stacked up against them.

As I had hoped, the friendship between the four girls is better than ever, and their love for each other is so apparent in this book. They all are struggling with different things, but would do anything for each other, mainly made clear when Lily begs them to join the White Gloves. They are really like sisters in this book, which is ironic when some of them actually are, but it's as if their friendship is more important than blood, as they've all learnt that family isn't everything, and that all of them have skeletons in the family closets - some actual skeletons.

Again, the book is told in a mix, this time with three different parts. There's the present of the four girls, their own flashbacks to the start of the summer, and then flashbacks to when the body in the lake was alive, what happened to her, and who was involved. I liked the extra scenes this time, as we had more mysteries, and this helped to tie everything together. All three story lines were running side by side, with different parts and people popping up time and time again, which helped to sort out any plot holes there might've been.

Having such a good cast already, I liked the addition of others, including those in the White Gloves, and the introduction of Sawyer's mam, who had come back home and wanted to rejoin the family. Her and Olivia's dynamic was amazing, especially as we discovered more about them form their youth. Family, and found family is a big part to this book, and we can't see that any clearer in the Taft's.

The romance between Sawyer and Nick wasn't that good, but it didn't matter to the plot, if I'm honest. If there were anything I would take out, it's probably that, but like I said, it didn't bother me too much. Sadie Grace and Boone are the true couple in this series, and every time they were together, the hearts eye literally flew off the page.

This book was a lot darker than the first, with a different vibe, but I still loved it, and hope there is a third one.

Dates Read:
November 12-15, 2019

Rating
4 Stars

2019 Beat the Backlist challenge

Review: Little White Lies (Debutantes #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

10:00

Little White Lies
Series: Debutantes #1
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Published November 6th 2018 by Freeform

Goodreads Synopsis
"I'm not saying this is Sawyer's fault," the prim and proper one said delicately. "But."

Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother's "society" might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father's identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn't expect to find is friendship, but as she's drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn't the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother's glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer's search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.

Set in the world of debutante balls, grand estates and rolling green hills, Little White Lies combines a charming setting, a classic fish-out-of-water story, and the sort of layered mystery only author Jennifer Lynn Barnes can pull off.
Goodreads

Review
This book hadn't really been on my radar until the early reviews were coming in for book 2, and as soon as I read more about what the books were about, and the fact that they were by one of my favourite authors, I ordered the first one, and preordered book 2. In Little White Lies, Sawyer has lived alone with her mam from birth. She knew a little bit about her maternal family, but nothing about her dad's side, and her mam wouldn't talk about her previous life. Having been born into one of the high society families, and kicked out when she was pregnant, her mam left that lifestyle behind, and never allowed Sawyer any interaction with her family. However, Sawyer is soon left alone, and when her grandmother turns up with a plan that if Sawyer joins the family, becomes a debutante for the season and embraces her part in the Taft family, she can have access to a trust fund to help pay for college and anything else she could want. And what's even better, she'd be able to find out a bit about who her father actually is, as her mam fell pregnant during her own deb season.

Nothing goes to plan, as is expected. Sawyer discovers a kinship with her cousin Lily, who isn't all that she seems, and the others in the group, namely Campbell and Sadie-Grace, all have their own secrets. They all mesh together really well, and have a handful of mysteries to solve, that they do so together. I loved the camaraderie between the group, and definitely hope this is also explored more in book 2.

As with all of Jennifer's books, the plot is phenomenal. There is a mix of chapters, some set in the present, and some in the past, which are the best way this story could've been told, in my opinion. In the present chapters, we find out various things, little by little, that make you want more as we go back into the past and see just how the 4 girls find themselves in the situation they're currently in. Everything is done for the effect, and it is definitely worth it, and necessary. Nothing in the book, I felt, was done without a reason. I was blown away at parts, some of which were wholly unexpected and others that I had guessed at but not completely sure if I was right.

Sawyer was a fantastic main character. A mix of feisty and sassy, with a bit of vulnerability mixed in, she was perfect for the role. She acted as if nothing phased her, but it was clear that finding out more about her family, both sides of her family, was important to her, as was finally having real friends. And that's what Lily, Campbell, and Sadie-Grace were - real friends. Yeah, they acted as if they hated each other at times, but they would kill for one another - honestly, I don't think that's hyperbole there, they actually would. Like I said, them four being together and developing their friendship is something I hope to see more of in book 2, which I'm planning on reading as soon as it arrives.

Dates Read:
September 28-29, 2019

Rating
4 Stars