The Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly Published by Entangled Teen on 9/1/15
Genres: Mystery & Detective, Young Adult
Pages: 320
Source: NetGalley
My content rating: Mature YA (Characters have sex, though it's not described, Some violence)
My rating:
Gramps always said that when the crickets were quiet, something bad was coming. And the crickets have been as silent as the dead. It started with the murdered deer in the playground with the unmistakable purple of a foxglove in its mouth. But in the dying boondock town of Emerald Cove, life goes on.
I work at Gramps's diner, and the cakes―the entitled rich kids who vacation here―make our lives hell. My best friend, Alex Pace, is the one person who gets me. Only Alex has changed. He's almost like a stranger now. I can't figure it out...or why I'm having distinctly more-than-friend feelings for him. Ones I shouldn't be having.
Then one of the cakes disappears.
When she turns up murdered, a foxglove in her mouth, a rumor goes around that Alex was the last person seen with her—and everyone but me believes it. Well, everyone except my worst enemy, Jenika Shaw. When Alex goes missing, it's up to us to prove his innocence and uncover the true killer. But the truth will shatter everything I've ever known about myself — and Alex.
The Foxglove Killings is a suspenseful YA mystery set in a small town filled with unforgettable characters. Nova lives in a small tourist town with a huge divide between the rich visitors and the townies. Tensions have always been high between the vacationing kids (the cakes) and the kids who live in the town full-time, but they get even higher when one of the cakes ends up dead. Suddenly, fingers are getting pointed in every direction and people seem ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Everyone wonders who the killer is – and who will be next to die.
What I loved:
- Tourist town dynamics. One of the biggest draws of this book was the explosive rivalry between the cakes and the kids who lived in the town all year long. Unfortunately, the tension wasn’t just based on stereotypes – a lot of the townie families really didn’t have it together and they lived up to the white trash title that the cakes saddled them with. Even Nova herself didn’t love a lot of the people in her town – except Alex. As the book went on, you learned more and more about Alex and Nova’s histories and families – the issues that held them back and made them want to escape their small town – and I definitely felt for them. The characters in the book were complex and compelling, though – even Nova’s feelings about them all shifted as the book went on. I loved getting to know these people in this town – the good, the bad and the ugly!
- Alex and Nova. Speaking of well-drawn characters, I was completely drawn into the relationship between Alex and Nova and the connection between them. At the same time, I wasn’t sure where the relationship was going – I wasn’t even sure that there was going to be a romance between them at all, even though we knew from the start that Nova had feelings for Alex (and I was hoping for one). As the book went on and you learned more about the complexities of the relationship between these two I was drawn in either way – I was shipping them hard, but I could have seen it playing out in so many different ways and I was actually okay with that. I won’t spoil what does eventually happen, but I’ll just say that I was a fan of these two – both as friends and as romantic interests.
- The ending. Obviously, I can’t say how this book ended, but I will say that the conclusion to the mystery completely shocked me and the way everything played out in the end was both exciting and surprising!!
The negatives:
- Misleading blurb? The blurb implies that you’ll learn something shocking about Nova that also involves Alex. I kept waiting for that revelation, but it never really came. Don’t get me wrong – I was incredibly surprised by how it all played out, but I feel like the blurb is slightly misleading. Oh, and Jenika and Nova don’t team up until about 70% into the book – so again, I kept waiting for something to happen that was very slow in coming. That’s what I get for reading the blurb right before I read the book! (I actually usually don’t.)
- Misleading clues? There was one aspect to what happened that I was a little surprised by because it didn’t really end up tying into the rest of the story. I don’t want to get too much more specific than that, but I’ll just say that some of the “clues” about what was happening turned out to be pretty much unrelated and I didn’t quite believe the explanations that were eventually given for them. It just didn’t make total sense to me and wasn’t cleared up sufficiently (for me).
This was a really enjoyable mystery – it had me hooked from the beginning with its compelling characters, and Kelly definitely kept me guessing!. I give this book 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
About the Author
Tara Kelly adores variety in her life. She’s an author one-girl-band, graphic designer, editor, and photographer. She lives in Sin City with her beloved guitars, sound design master husband, and a fluffy cat named Maestro.
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11 responses to “The Foxglove Killings by Tara Kelly – Review & Giveaway”
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I love a good mystery. I am going to look into this one. I mean at four stars I can’t go wrong, right?! I’m a little concerned about the misleading clues but hopefully it’s good enough to ignore.
I felt like the clues were misleading because they ended up having nothing to do with the central mystery. Seemed a little sneaky to me. But I still loved the book!
The misleading clues sounds super annoying but I love me a good mystery. Especially one with a great ending – Great review!!
Yes, the ending really stood out for me.
This looks amazing! Great review.
Hope you get a chance to read it!
I love mysteries! I can’t say that I ever read a young adult mystery though, but it sounds like it’s worth checking out!
I’m not normally a mystery reader, but I’ve read a few YA ones that I’ve really enjoyed.
Ooh, this sounds interesting. Like it can be dark and full of mystery as well. Who actually is behind the foxglove killings? And the ideas of the cakes and the locals going against each other is pretty interesting. I would like to see the conflict between the two unfold. I don’t know why but I have the Romeo and Juliet family battles going on in my head and am thinking that the difference between the two kinds is like that.
It is a little like that – but the love interests aren’t on opposite sides, so to speak.
I started this book a while back, but then other bookish commitments got in the way of me finishing it. And that stinks, because I was loving this story. I am glad that I saw your review for this because it reminded me that this is not a book that I want to forget about!