Kiss of Death by Lauren Henderson | Book Review

Reading Group: Anyone who read Kiss in the Dark

Personal Rating:  5 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: Scarlett thought Dan McAndrew's murder was long behind her, but when she and her classmates arrive in Edinburgh for a weeklong field trip, she's startled to be joined by her old St. Tabby's cohorts--and enemies--who are visiting the area on a field trip as well. Even more startling, Callum, Dan's surviving twin, is in the area--and his cold treatment leaves Scarlett wondering what's changed, especially when a series of attacks makes her believe that someone's out to get her for her past mistakes. Would Callum ever hurt her, though? And what's Scarlett to make of her conflicting feelings for Callum, now that Jase isn't around? Even more upsetting, why is her most trusted confidante, Taylor, acting distant and dismissive?

Cover: I think that by now we all know that Lauren Henderson doesn't really make her covers relate a whole lot to her books as a whole.  Mostly they have to do with the title of the book, but they do all look very pretty.  I like the title of this book though because it was the title given to Scarlett in the first one and even though she isn't called "Kiss of Death Girl" once in the book, it kind of wraps everything up.

My Review: I think this book is my favorite one in the series because it's the most personal to Scarlett.  Someone is trying to kill her throughout the whole thing, and she's trying to figure out what to do with her relationship with Jase and why Taylor is acting weird.  And yet somehow all three of things are related.  The person trying to kill her is her aunt because she wants to be the heir of Wakefield Hall and she was the one who worked with Jase's dad to kill Scarlett's parents.  Jase is gone because he feels guilty for the actions his family has taken against Scarlett's.  While he's gone, Callum shows up, and Scarlett becomes confused for a little bit as to which boy she wants.  However, after kissing Callum and feeling nothing but regret, Scarlett knows that it's Jase she intends to be with if they can figure everything out, which they do when it becomes clear they both have awful people in their families.  Taylor is acting in a way that Scarlett finds distrustful because she secretly called her brother and had him come to Edenburg to spy on Scarlett and make sure no one hurts her.  He does save her from Aunt Gwen's final try at murder, but it results in Gwen's own death.  Now, Scarlett is the only Wakefield left aside from her grandmother and although it took a lot of tragedy, she is finally able to have the chance to become something close to a normal teenager.          

Click to stay connected:

Main Twitter: @juliann_guerra

Second Twitter: @writerjewels

Instagram: juliann_guerra

Second Instagram: writerjewels

Tumblr: juliann-guerra

Goodreads: Juliann Guerra

Wattpad: @writerjewels

Pinterest: Juliann Guerra

Spotify: juliann.guerra

Bloglovin: Juliann Guerra

Kiss in the Dark by Lauren Henderson | Book Review

Reading Group: Anyone who enjoyed Kisses and Lies 

Personal Rating:  5 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: With Dan McAndrews's murder finally behind her, Scarlett has high hopes for a fresh start at Wakefield Hall Collegiate, the elite English boarding school her grandmother runs. Unfortunately, those hopes are dashed when her nemesis, the infamous Plum Saybourne, is transferred to the school. Plum wastes no time turning Scarlett’s impressionable classmates against her.

Scarlett has dealt with Plum’s nasty schemes before, and she can handle her archenemy very nicely, thank you—until Plum sets her sights on Scarlett’s best friend, Taylor, and new boyfriend, Jase. Then Scarlett is more than willing to fight for what’s rightfully hers.

Things only get worse after Scarlett becomes entangled in a mysterious death on campus. Scarlett is compelled to investigate because she wants to protect someone close to her. She never imagines that she’ll uncover secrets related to her parents’ fatal accident so many years ago. . . .

Cover: Scarlett and Taylor find Jase's dad laying in the lake similarly to how the girl on the cover of this book is.  I think the cover of this book is representative of how Scarlett gets herself involved in mysteries that have to do more with her than she originally thinks.  

My Review:  The third novel in The Scarlett Wakefield Series begins with Scarlett thinking she can move on from her past and only worry about getting caught with her boyfriend.  However, when Jase's dad turns up dead in the lake and he's the one arrested for the murder, Scarlett finds herself once again trying to solve the case.  At the same time, Plum is now attending the same school as Scarlett and turning the knowledge focused students into fashion obsessed Plum bots.  Plum also learns a secret about Taylor that puts her whole family at risk.  

The theme of this book could probably be summed up as discovery.  Scarlett discovers that Taylor's family works undercover for the FBI and Plum is holding it over her head, Jase took the fall for his grandmother killing his father until Scarlett figured it out, and Jase's dad was the one who killed Scarlett's parents all those years ago.  She does all she can to fix the problems surrounding the people she cares about, but doing all that and being only 17-years-old is a lot for one girl.  

The book ends and it appears that everything is all wrapped up, but there's one more book in the series which means there are still more secrets for Scarlett to learn...       

Click to stay connected:

Main Twitter: @juliann_guerra

Second Twitter: @writerjewels

Instagram: juliann_guerra

Second Instagram: writerjewels

Tumblr: juliann-guerra

Goodreads: Juliann Guerra

Wattpad: @writerjewels

Pinterest: Juliann Guerra

Spotify: juliann.guerra

Bloglovin: Juliann Guerra

Kisses and Lies by Lauren Henderson | Book Review

Reading Group: Anyone who enjoyed Kiss Me Kill Me 

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: After discovering that someone saw what looked like Dan’s emergency EpiPen in A-lister Plum’s designer handbag, Scarlett and her tough American sidekick, Taylor, sneak into a posh London nightclub, where Plum has a private table. Scarlett is stunned to discover a piece of evidence that might implicate another girl in Plum’s exclusive circle, Lucy Raleigh. Which means Scarlett must cast a wider net in order to catch the right suspect.

Back at school, groundskeeper Jase is hoping to take Scarlett’s mind off her troubles with some heart-stopping kisses. Scarlett can’t help but feel guilty for indulging in romantic rendezvous when she should be hunting down Dan’s killer. However, once Scarlett finds out how Lucy is connected to Dan, she knows she must drop everything and travel to the McAndrew estate in Scotland to hunt for more clues. But when she arrives, Scarlett becomes the target of a dangerous hunt herself.

Cover: Just like KMKM the cover of this novel doesn't really have anything to do with the actual story, but they are pretty.

My Review: This story picks up right where the first book left off and it answers the big question: Who had a reason to kill Dan McAndrew?  The answer was his own sister, who didn't agree that the family estate should be given to the oldest male heir of the household, especially when he didn't even appreciate it, to begin with.  So she poisoned one of her brothers and attempted to shoot the other.  And while Scarlett is in Scotland trying to figure this all out, she's also hiding from the problems she left behind at Wakefield Hall.  She felt like she was leaning on Taylor too much, so she didn't tell her when she contacted the McAndrew family, and even though it had a negative effect on their relationship, Taylor shows up just in time to help Scarlett save Calum McAndrew.  Scarlett's relationship with Jase seems to be going in the direction they both want it to, but when they get caught by Jase's dad it is evident he does not approve, but they can't figure out why.  Before Scarlett went to Scotland, she contacted a girl from St. Tabby's to get information.  However, before giving up the information, Nadia made Scarlett and Taylor delete a video of her from Plum's phone.  The plan ended up backfiring because Nadia had an even worse video of Plum that ended up getting her expelled from school.  Now Plum, Scarlett's arch nemesis and someone who knows about Dan McAndrew's death, is attending Wakefield Hall and Scarlett doesn't know what is going to happen.   

Click to stay connected:

Main Twitter: @juliann_guerra

Second Twitter: @writerjewels

Instagram: juliann_guerra

Second Instagram: writerjewels

Tumblr: juliann-guerra

Goodreads: Juliann Guerra

Wattpad: @writerjewels

Pinterest: Juliann Guerra

Spotify: juliann.guerra

Bloglovin: Juliann Guerra

Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson | Book Review

Reading Group:  I'm a little stumped as to what to say here because this isn't the first time I've read this book or even this series.  The first time I read it was a long time ago...I was in fifth grade or something crazy like that, and although the book wasn't "inappropriate" for a fifth grader, I don't think I would ever recommend it to someone that young.  So I'm going to go with 7/8th grade+ for this series. 

Personal Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Synopses: When 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield transfers from St. Tabby’s to Wakefield Hall Collegiate, she is relieved that no one knows her dark, haunting secret. A few months ago, Scarlett was invited to an elite party with a guest list full of the hottest names in British society, including Dan McAndrew. Before the party, Scarlett had only imagined what it would be like to have her first kiss with Dan, but on the penthouse terrace, Dan leaned in close and she no longer had to wonder. Their kiss was beautiful and perfect and magical, and then . . . Dan McAndrew took his last breath as she held him in her arms. No one knows how or why Dan died, and everyone at St. Tabby’s believes Scarlett had something to do with it. But now that she’s safely hidden away at Wakefield Hall, Scarlett would rather forget that it ever happened. Only she can’t. Especially when she receives an anonymous note that will set her on the path to clearing her name and finding out what really happened to the first and last boy she kissed.

Cover: The cover of this book has a girl kissing a boy on the cheek.  You could say this is Scarlett and Dan, but she never kissed him or any other boy on the cheek so I guess the cover is just to show a kiss.

My Review: As I said, this isn't the first time I've read this book, but it's one I think about pretty often.  It was just one of those books that stuck with me.  Scarlett ditches her friends when the popular kids invite her to a party, and when she goes, she gets the chance to kiss her crush...her first kiss, his last.  He has an allergic reaction and dies right in front of her.  Scarlett then gets sent to her Grandmother's school and hopes she can put the horrific event behind her, but when she gets a note saying Dan's death wasn't her fault, Scarlett goes back to the scene of the crime to find answers.  She discovers the chips placed on the bar in front of Dan were covered in the peanut oil that killed him.  Scarlett eating the chips and transferring the oil to Dan was not part of the plan to kill him, he was just supposed to eat them on his own.  But why would someone want to kill Dan?  What could that person gain?
I like mystery books because I like to try to guess what happens before the truth is revealed.  And even though I've read this series before I don't remember a lot of details and I'm interested in rediscovering them.  This is also the first time in a long time I've read a traditional series where you have to read the next book to get some answers.  Usually, I read Christina Lauren or Jaimie McGuire who write series, but really they're a bunch of stand alone novels that overlap, which obviously I love, but I'm excited to read this type of series.

Click to stay connected:

Main Twitter: @juliann_guerra

Second Twitter: @writerjewels

Instagram: juliann_guerra

Second Instagram: writerjewels

Tumblr: juliann-guerra

Goodreads: Juliann Guerra

Wattpad: @writerjewels

Pinterest: Juliann Guerra

Spotify: juliann.guerra

Bloglovin: Juliann Guerra