Book Review: Prep School Confidential

Author: Kara Taylor

Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books
Series: Prep School Confidential # 1

In this breathtaking debut that reads like Gossip Girl crossed with Twin Peaks, a Queen Bee at a blue-blooded New England prep school stumbles into a murder mystery.

Anne Dowling practically runs her exclusive academy on New York’s Upper East Side—that is, until she accidentally burns part of it down and gets sent to a prestigious boarding school outside of Boston. Determined to make it back to New York, Anne couldn't care less about making friends at the preppy Wheatley School. That is, until her roommate Isabella’s body is found in the woods behind the school.

When everyone else is oddly silent, Anne becomes determined to uncover the truth no matter how many rules she has to break to do it. With the help of Isabella’s twin brother Anthony, and a cute classmate named Brent, Anne discovers that Isabella wasn’t quite the innocent nerdy girl she pretended to be. But someone will do anything to stop Anne’s snooping in this fast-paced, unputdownable read—even if it means framing her for Isabella’s murder.

Any girl at St. Bernadette’s Prep should know three things: Skirts need to be one inch above the knee only if a teacher is looking, a dab of nasal spray will make any zit less red, and the lock on Headmaster Bailey’s office door can be picked with a credit card.

Trouble is like a dog that wants to rip your throat out: If you stare it down, you have a better chance of saving your ass.

Because as charming or pretty as I am, it’s like Bailey said. Trouble always seems to find me.

“I have a better idea,” Brent says. “As long as you’re comfortable with breaking a couple of Massachusetts laws.”

Anne Dowling is the Queen Bee at St. Bernadette’s Prep, well that is until she almost burns down the school. After her little incident with the school bad boy, Anne is sent off to Wheatley School in Massachusetts, a boarding school where she will be given another chance. Anne thinks that this may be a new start for her, but after being there only one week, Anne’s roommate turns up murdered and Anne has to figure out why it happened and who did it. Remembering her father’s words, “Trouble seems to find you wherever you are, Anne,” she sets out on a little sleuthing adventure of her own with the help of two guys that she finds herself attracted to. What could go wrong with this scenario, right? Everything you can possibly imagine.

Anne was the perfect character to guide me through this murder mystery. She was a bit cocky at times and definitely packed a punch when it came to her attitude, but she was everything that I expected her to be. She is not your typical or average spoiled little rich girl, in fact she never even remotely came across as a rotten princess like some of the other prep school girls. Anne had a style and personality that was all her own. She was daring and bold and I don’t know that the story would have been the same without her.

The love triangle, if that’s what you want to call it, was not like most. I was really happy with this one and I will say that the end of the book will leave readers in a bit of a cliffhanger about Anne’s love life. I liked both Brent and Anthony, but I must say that I liked Brent more. He seemed to be more involved in helping solve the mystery of Isabella’s murder. Brent was more down to Earth, whereas I think there are things about Anthony that have not been revealed to readers yet.

The murder mystery kept me on edge. If people say that they saw it coming, then I cannot admit to being one of them. At one point in the novel I thought it could be one of about four or five people. Taylor does an amazing job of writing chapter cliffhangers, and I was hanging off the edge of my seat. I could not stop reading. I read this book yesterday in one sitting. I would recommend this book to anyone!

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Griffin in exchange for my honest review***