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New Release Review and Giveaway! THE COUSINS by Karen McManus

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE COUSINS by Karen McManus Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

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November 16-December 11
RockStar Book Tours

Title: THE COUSINS
Author: 
Karen McManus
Pub. Date:
 December 1, 2020
Publisher: 
Delacorte Press
Formats:
 Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Pages:
 336

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes your next obsession. You’ll never feel the same about family again.

Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised . . . and curious.

Their parents are all clear on one point–not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious–and dark–their family’s past is.

The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything.

The Cousins cover

Find it: GoodreadsAmazon, KindleAudible,  B&N (Signed Edition)iBooks, KoboTBD, Bookshop.org

Review:

Twisty-turny goodness–read this one in a single day, *and* it was a workday to boot! I didn’t manage to fit in a walk too, but hopefully my dog will forgive me for my lapse one day…

(If he doesn’t, it was probably worth it anyway. But don’t tell him that, ‘kay?)

Now that that’s out of the way, I’m left with the dilemma of how to review this without giving anything away, which is definitely tricky. I guess I can say that there are secrets galore here, and family drama, a dual timeline (it’s mostly in the present time with “the cousins” but some chapters are 24 years earlier, from the POV of the lone girl in the family), and waaaaay too many people whose names start with the letter A. Thank goodness for the mini family tree at the beginning; I had to refer to it more times than I’d like to admit, reminding myself of who was whose kid. (I’ve got it now. But it was tricky for a while there…)

I haven’t read Karen M. McManus before–I picked up this one at the very enthusiastic urging of my coworker–but I gather that her books are usually more mystery/thrillerish than this one ends up being, and I was fine with that. There are absolutely mysteries here, but overall it’s more of a thriller lite situation–main characters are only in danger in one climactic scene (apologies to the many characters who die–but we don’t get to know them well, so… 🙂 ). There’s a sweet romance as well, and though the tagline is “Family first, always” it’s the chosen/found families here that end up winning the day, as they 100% should.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go add Ms McManus’s backlist to my TBR…

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Karen McManus author photo

About the author:

Karen M. McManus is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying, Two Can Keep a Secret, and One of Us Is Next. Her fourth novel, The Cousins, will publish in December 2020. Her work has been translated into more than 40 languages worldwide. Karen lives in Massachusetts and holds a master’s degree in Journalism from Northeastern University, which she mostly uses to draft fake news stories for her novels.

You can find Karen at @writerkmc on Twitter and Instagram.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

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2 Comments

  1. Rita Wray Rita Wray

    Thank you for the review. Sounds like a good read.

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