Monday, July 16, 2018

Debut Review: All These Beautiful Strangers

Author: Elizabeth Klehfoth
Publication Date: July 10, 2018
Publisher: William Morrow

A young woman haunted by a family tragedy is caught up in a dangerous web of lies and deception involving a secret society in this highly charged, addictive psychological thriller that combines the dishy gamesmanship of Gossip Girl with the murky atmosphere of The Secret History.

One summer day, Grace Fairchild, the beautiful young wife of real estate mogul Alistair Calloway, vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year old daughter, Charlie, and a slew of unanswered questions.

Years later, seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie quickly becomes friends with Knollwood’s "it" crowd.

Charlie has also been tapped by the A’s—the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that will jeopardize her friendships, her reputation, even her place at Knollwood.

As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and her own life.




This thrilling mystery and coming-of-age story moves back and forth in time, straddling between 2007 and 2017. The majority of the story follows Charlotte “Charlie” Calloway as she strives to solve her mother’s sudden disappearance ten years earlier. Charlie’s life is in full swing as she is a junior at a prestigious school known as Knollwood Prep. She is soon invited to join an illicit, secret society known as the A’s. She is a spoiled, rich, entitled teenager who has a jaded view of the world. She was perfect to guide me through this debut novel.

Boarding school. Secret society. Ten-year unsolved mystery. You really cannot go wrong with this mix. The mystery is introduced quickly and will keep readers hooked until the big unveiling. I thought I had a few things figured out, but Klehfoth truly is a talent in writing mystery. Klehfoth writes unlikeable characters and gives them an air of mystery that readers will find thrilling and hard to part with. There is suspense, action, and such intensity beyond your wildest imagination. This book is meant to hook readers from page one.

We held each other’s secrets. It was a bond that could make us, just as surely as it was a bond that could destroy us all.

But now, all that connected us was the ghost of my mother. Strangely, that was all that separated us, too.

Together, we took a breath, and together, we extinguished the flames.

Do you know those books where you just read the first couple of pages and you know that you will hate to eventually part with it? That was this book for me. There is something in this debut novel for everyone to read and love. There is suspense, spoiled, rich, and posh characters, a mystery that I thought was so well-written, a prestigious, alluring setting of a boarding school and a secret society that seems very Pretty Little Liarsmeets Gossip Girl.This one is perfect for a warm summer day. I am so excited to see more from Elizabeth Klehfoth!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at William Morrow in exchange for my honest review***

No comments:

Post a Comment