BLOG TOUR: You’ll Be the Death of Me

Before I get started I just want to thank TheWriteReads and Penguin for providing me with an early copy of this book and for including me on the blog tour. Karen M. McManus is one of my favourite authors so I was thrilled to be included!

Title: You’ll Be the Death of Me

Author: Karen M. McManus

Published: 30th November 2021

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 336

From Goodreads:

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.

Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out–he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up…. again.

So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say…

Until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school–and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.

It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something.

Now they’re all wondering–could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?

My Review:

I love Karen M. McManus. I first read one of her books just over 3 yeard ago on my first holiday abroad with my partner and loved it. I devoured the book in 2 days and whenever I put it down I was relaying all the drama and suspense to my partner. And this was no different with this book.

At the beginning, it did take me a while to get into the book – it felt a little slow compared to McManus’ usual stuff but at the same time I knew that it was just building the background. Once it got into the thick of it, I was hooked. Reading in any spare moment I had to see what was going to happen next.

I liked the 3 main characters; they each bought something to the group and each had their own personal problems going out. The background of each character was done really well. I felt like I knew all of them on a deep level but don’t feel that at any point I was overloaded with details about them. There also wasn’t too many background characters – don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of characters who were part of the story but not the main part, but not enough that I found myself asking ‘Who was this person again?’

The suspense was built really effectively – I found myself trying to solve the mystery alongside Ivy, Cal and Mateo. At one point I was convinced I’d solved it but that was turned on it’s head when it was all revealed. And let me tell you – I would never have guessed it right! But I loved how everything was all linked together once it was revealed.

The ending was left really open so maybe there is potential for a sequel here like the One of Us is Lying series? I hope so! I would definitely read it to find out how Ivy plans on going ‘scorched earth’.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book; it was engaging, suspenseful, and kept me wanting more. What’s there not to like?!