Due for release in January 2023, I was thrilled to get a copy of this via NetGalley. The cover and blurb had me tingling in anticipation…and now I’ve finished, I can’t wait to recommend this to others.
Ichaso strikes the right note here. At the outset, I was sucked in by Maren’s quest to find out what happened to her friend. She is gutsy, a little reckless, but it soon become obvious that someone was toying with her and that this game could be a lot more serious than she imagined.
What Maren learns is that Polly had become part of a secret society in their exclusive boarding school. Maren digs until she finds a way in…and then we started a curious cat and mouse game.
From the moment the Society is mentioned, Ichaso ramps up the tension. There’s a love triangle (of sorts) but it’s never clear who can be trusted, and Maren herself falls prey to this. Some of the challenges seemed rather childish…but it was evidently part of a much bigger plan. As we learn about the scope of the Society we start to see how serious this could be.
Once underway, this was a hard story to put down. It exploited the fears of the characters very well, and was written in a way that always left me with a niggling suspicion.
For a book about secret societies, deadly rituals and with potentially life-threatening scenarios this was great fun!