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The Cousins Hardcover – December 1, 2020
Karen M. McManus (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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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.
Fans of the hit thriller that started it all can watch the secrets of the Bayview Four be revealed in the One of Us is Lying TV series now streaming on NBC's Peacock!
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDelacorte Press
- Publication dateDecember 1, 2020
- Grade level9 - 12
- Reading age14 - 17 years
- Dimensions5.94 x 1.12 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100525708006
- ISBN-13978-0525708001
- Lexile measureHL760L
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From the Publisher
THE COUSINS by Karen McManus

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One of Us Is Lying | One of Us Is Next | One of Us Is Lying TV Series Tie-In Edition | Karen M. McManus 2-Book Box Set | |
Read the fast-paced story of the Bayview Four! | Four teenager's lives unwind after being the only witnesses to their classmate's suspected murder. | The electrifying sequel to One of Us Is Lying. | A TV tie-in edition with a cover featuring your favorite characters from the Peacock series streaming now! | One of Us Is Lying & One of Us Is Next |
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Two Can Keep a Secret | You'll Be the Death of Me | |
Don’t miss Karen McManus's other pulse-pounding thrillers! | A small town begins to relive its dark past after a girl goes missing before homecoming. | Three friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly—and fatally—wrong. |
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Review
"The twists come fast and furious." —SLJ
"McManus (One of Us Is Lying) once again crafts a taut, multilayered mystery.... [She] weaves past and present to take readers on a well-paced, twisty ride that will hold readers rapt till the last page.” —Publishers Weekly
"Masterfully plotted and packed with her trademark twists, fans will be utterly hooked." —The Bookseller
“A slow-burn, uneasy beginning ultimately makes way for a frantically paced end peppered with twists that genre fans will happily take in stride. . . . Fans of McManus's previous offerings and of mysteries steeped in family dramatics will be eager for this." —Booklist
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Milly
I’m late for dinner again, but this time it’s not my fault. There’s a mansplainer in my way.
“Mildred? That’s a grandmother’s name. But not even a cool grandmother.” He says it like he thinks he’s being clever. Like in all my seventeen years, no one else has ever noticed that my name isn’t the fashionable kind of classic. It took a Wall Street investment banker with slicked-back hair and a pinkie ring to render that particular bit of social commentary.
I sip the dregs of my seltzer. “I was, in fact, named after my grandmother,” I say.
I’m at a steak house in midtown at six o’clock on a rainy April evening, doing my best to blend with the happy hour crowd. It’s a game my friends and I play sometimes; we go to restaurant bars so we don’t have to worry about getting carded at the door. We wear our simplest dresses and extra makeup. We order seltzer water with lime--“in a small glass, please, I’m not that thirsty”--and gulp it down until there’s almost nothing left. Then we wait to see if anyone offers to buy us a drink.
Somebody always does.
Pinkie Ring smiles, his teeth almost fluorescent in the dim light. He must take his whitening regimen very seriously. “I like it. Quite a contrast for such a beautiful young woman.” He edges closer, and I catch a headache-inducing whiff of strong cologne. “You have a very interesting look. Where are you from?”
Ugh. That’s marginally better than the What are you? question I get sometimes, but still gross. “New York,” I say pointedly. “You?”
“I mean originally,” he clarifies, and that’s it. I’m done.
“New York,” I repeat, and stand up from my stool. It’s just as well he didn’t talk to me until I was about to leave, because a cocktail before dinner wasn’t one of my better ideas. I catch my friend Chloe’s eye across the room and wave good-bye, but before I can extract myself, Pinkie Ring tips his glass toward mine. “Can I get you another of whatever that is?”
“No thank you. I’m meeting someone.”
He pulls back, brow furrowed. Very furrowed. In a behind-on-his-Botox sort of way. He also has creases lining his cheeks and crinkles around his eyes. He’s way too old to be hitting on me, even if I were the college student I occasionally pretend to be. “What are you wasting my time for, then?” he grunts, his gaze already roving over my shoulder.
Chloe likes the happy hour game because, she says, high school boys are immature. Which is true. But sometimes I think we might be better off not knowing how much worse they can get.
I pluck the lime out of my drink and squeeze it. I’m not aiming for his eye, exactly, but I’m still a little disappointed when the juice spatters only his collar. “Sorry,” I say sweetly, dropping the lime into the glass and setting it on the bar. “Normally I wouldn’t bother. But it’s so dark in here. When you first came over, I thought you were my dad.”
As if. My dad is way better-looking, and also: not a creep. Pinkie Ring’s mouth drops open, but I scoot past him and out the door before he can reply.
The restaurant I’m going to is just across the street, and the hostess smiles when I come through the door. “Can I help you?”
“I’m meeting someone for dinner? Allison?”
Her gaze drops to the book in front of her and a small crease appears between her eyes. “I’m not seeing--”
“Story-Takahashi?” I try. My parents have an unusually amicable divorce, and Exhibit A is that Mom continues to use both last names. “Well, it’s still your name,” she’d said four years ago when the divorce was finalized. “And I’ve gotten used to it.”
The crease between the hostess’s eyes deepens. “I don’t see that either.”
“Just Story, then?” I try. “Like in a book?”
Her brow clears. “Oh! Yes, there you are. Right this way.”
She grabs two menus and winds her way between white-covered tables until we reach a corner booth. The wall beside it is mirrored, and the woman sitting on one side is sipping a glass of white wine while surreptitiously checking out her reflection, smoothing flyaways in her dark bun that only she can see.
I drop into the seat across from her as the hostess places oversized red menus in front of us. “So it’s Story tonight?” I ask.
My mother waits until the hostess leaves to answer. “I wasn’t in the mood to repeat myself,” she sighs, and I raise a brow. Mom usually makes a point of pushing back on anyone who acts like they can’t figure out how to spell or pronounce Dad’s Japanese last name.
“Why?” I ask, even though I know she won’t tell me. There are multiple levels of Milly criticism to get through first.
She puts her glass down, causing almost a dozen gold bangles to jingle on her wrist. My mother is vice president of public relations for a jewelry company, and wearing the season’s must-haves is one of the perks of her job. She eyes me up and down, taking in my heavier-than-usual makeup and navy sheath. “Where are you coming from that you’re so dressed up?”
The bar across the street. “A gallery thing with Chloe,” I lie. Chloe’s mother owns an art gallery uptown, and our friends spend a lot of time there. Allegedly.
Mom picks up her glass again. Sips, flicks her eyes toward the mirror, pats her hair. When it’s down it falls in dark waves, but, as she likes to tell me, pregnancy changed its texture from smooth to coarse. I’m pretty sure she’s never forgiven me for that. “I thought you were studying for finals.”
“I was. Before.”
Her knuckles turn white around the glass, and I wait for it. Milly, you cannot exit your junior year with less than a B average. You’re on the cusp of mediocrity, and your father and I have invested far too much for you to waste your opportunity like that.
If I were even a little musically inclined, I’d start a band called Cusp of Mediocrity in honor of Mom’s favorite warning. I’ve been hearing some version of that speech for three years. Prescott Academy churns out Ivy League students like some kind of blue-blood factory, and it’s the bane of my mother’s existence that I’m always ranked solidly in the bottom half of my class.
The lecture doesn’t come, though. Instead, Mom reaches out her free hand and pats mine. Stiffly, like she’s a marionette with a novice handler. “Well, you look very pretty.”
Instantly, I’m on the defensive. It’s strange enough that my mother wanted to meet me for dinner, but she never compliments me. Or touches me. All of this suddenly feels like a setup for something I’d rather not hear. “Are you sick?” I blurt out. “Is Dad?”
She blinks and withdraws her hand. “What? No! Why would you ask that?”
“Then why--” I break off as a smiling server appears beside the table, filling our water glasses from a silver pitcher.
“And how are you ladies this evening? Can I tell you about our specials?”
I study Mom covertly over the top of my menu as the server rattles them off. She’s definitely tense, still clutching her near-empty wineglass in a death grip, but I realize now that I was wrong to expect bad news. Her dark-blue eyes are bright, and the corners of her mouth are almost turned up. She’s anticipating something, not dreading it. I try to imagine what might make my mother happy besides me magically A-plussing my way to valedictorian at Prescott Academy.
Money. That’s all it could be. Mom’s life revolves around it--or more specifically, around not having enough of it. My parents both have good jobs, and my dad, despite being remarried, has always been generous with child support. His new wife, Surya, is the total opposite of a wicked stepmother in all possible ways, including finances. She’s never begrudged Mom the big checks he sends every month.
But good doesn’t cut it when you’re trying to keep up in Manhattan. And it’s not what my mother grew up with.
A job promotion, I decide. That must be it. Which is excellent news, except for the part where she’s going to remind me that she got it through hard work and oh, by the way, why can’t I work harder at literally everything.
“I’ll have the Caesar salad with chicken. No anchovies, dressing on the side,” Mom says, handing her menu to the server without really looking at him. “And another glass of the Langlois-Chateau, please.”
“Very good. And the young lady?”
“Bone-in rib eye, medium rare, and a jumbo baked potato,” I tell him. I might as well get a good meal out of whatever’s about to go down.
When he leaves, my mother drains her wineglass and I gulp my water. My bladder’s already full from the seltzer at the bar, and I’m about to excuse myself for the restroom when Mom says, “I got the most interesting letter today.”
There it is. “Oh?” I wait, but when she doesn’t continue, I prod, “From who?”
“Whom,” she corrects automatically. Her fingers trace the base of her glass as her lips curve up another half notch. “From your grandmother.”
I blink at her. “From Baba?” Why that merits this kind of buildup, I have no idea. Granted, my grandmother doesn’t contact Mom often, but it’s not unprecedented. Baba is the type of person who likes to forward articles she’s read to anyone she thinks might be interested, and she still does that with Mom postdivorce.
“No. Your other grandmother.”
“What?” Now I’m truly confused. “You got a letter from--Mildred?”
I don’t have a nickname for my mother’s mother. She’s not Grandma or Mimi or Nana or anything to me, because I’ve never met her.
“I did.” The server returns with Mom’s wine, and she takes a long, grateful sip. I sit in silence, unable to wrap my head around what she just told me. My maternal grandmother loomed large over my childhood, but as more of a fairy-tale figure than an actual person: the wealthy widow of Abraham Story, whose great-something-grandfather came over on the Mayflower. My ancestors are more interesting than any history book: the family made a fortune in whaling, lost most of it in railroad stocks, and eventually sank what was left into buying up real estate on a crappy little island off the coast of Massachusetts.
Gull Cove Island was a little-known haven for artists and hippies until Abraham Story turned it into what it is today: a place where rich and semifamous people spend ridiculous amounts of money pretending they’re getting back to nature.
My mother and her three brothers grew up on a giant beachfront estate named Catmint House, riding horses and attending black-tie parties like they were the princess and princes of Gull Cove Island. There’s a picture on our apartment mantel of Mom when she was eighteen, stepping out of a limousine on her way to the Summer Gala her parents threw every year at their resort. Her hair is piled high, and she’s wearing a white ball gown and a gorgeous diamond teardrop necklace. Mildred gave that necklace to my mother when she turned seventeen, and I used to think Mom would pass it along to me when I hit the same birthday.
Didn’t happen. Even though Mom never wears it herself.
My grandfather died when Mom was a senior in high school. Two years later, Mildred disowned all of her children. She cut them off both financially and personally, with no explanation except for a single-sentence letter sent two weeks before Christmas through her lawyer, a man named Donald Camden who’d known Mom and her brothers their entire lives:
You know what you did.
Mom has always insisted that she has no clue what Mildred meant. “The four of us had gotten . . . selfish, I suppose,” she’d tell me. “We were all in college then, starting our own lives. Mother was lonely with Father gone, and she begged us to visit all the time. But we didn’t want to go.” She calls her parents that, Mother and Father, like the heroine in a Victorian novel. “None of us came back for Thanksgiving that year. We’d all made other plans. She was furious, but . . .” Mom always got a pensive, faraway look on her face then. “That’s such a small thing. Hardly unforgivable.”
If Abraham Story hadn’t set up educational trusts for Mom and her brothers, they might not have graduated college. Once they did, though, they were on their own. At first, they regularly tried to reestablish contact with Mildred. They hounded Donald Camden, whose only response was the occasional email reiterating her decision. They sent invitations to their weddings, and announcements when their kids were born. They even took turns showing up on Gull Cove Island, where my grandmother still lives, but she would never see or speak to them. I used to imagine that one day she’d waltz into our apartment, dripping diamonds and furs, and announce that she’d come for me, her namesake. She’d whisk me to a toy store and let me buy whatever I wanted, then hand me a sack of money to bring home to my parents.
I’m pretty sure my mother had the same fantasy. Why else would you saddle a twenty-first-century girl with a name like Mildred? But my grandmother, with the help of Donald Camden, stonewalled her children at every turn. Eventually, they stopped trying.
Mom is looking at me expectantly, and I realize she’s waiting for an answer. “You got a letter from Mildred?” I ask.
She nods, then clears her throat before answering. “Well. To be more precise, you did.”
“I did?” My vocabulary has shrunk to almost nothing in the past five minutes.
“The envelope was addressed to me, but the letter was for you.”
A decade-old image pops into my head: me with my long-lost grandmother, filling a shopping cart to the rim with stuffed animals while dressed like we’re going to the opera. Tiaras and all. I push the thought aside and grope for more words. “Is she . . . Does she . . . Why?”
My mother reaches into her purse and pulls out an envelope, then pushes it across the table toward me. “Maybe you should just read it.”
I lift the flap and pull out a folded sheet of thick, cream-colored paper that smells faintly of lilac. The top is engraved with the initials MMS--Mildred Margaret Story. Our names are almost exactly the same, except mine has Takahashi at the end. The short paragraphs are typewritten, followed by a cramped, spidery signature.
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Product details
- Publisher : Delacorte Press (December 1, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0525708006
- ISBN-13 : 978-0525708001
- Reading age : 14 - 17 years
- Lexile measure : HL760L
- Grade level : 9 - 12
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.94 x 1.12 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #12,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her books include the One of Us Is Lying series, which has been turned into a television show on Peacock and Netflix, as well as the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, and Nothing More to Tell. Karen's critically acclaimed, award-winning work has been translated into more than 40 languages. To learn more, visit www.karenmcmanus.com or @writerkmc on Twitter and Instagram.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2020
Top reviews from the United States
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The first eighty pages were a mite sluggish until the first big twist was unleashed. You could see its contours emerging but when the situation finally became clear, it still had that satisfying sense of light bulbs sparking on. After that, the surprises were a little less clever; and at one point, after certain reveals, I actually started to hear, "Tan-tan, TAN!" chiming in my head.
For me, the backstory/situation of one of the principal characters (Jonah) was quite a bit more compelling than the rest. Perhaps it had a ring of truth, even pathos, whereas the rest of the secrets felt soapy. Where the cast of OOUIL aroused genuine sympathy, the twists in TC were more titillating than illuminating. And if I'm honest, there were a few times when I almost closed the book without opening it again for that reason. I did finish, though. And the story was certainly executed with skill. Just that I felt it fell slightly behind in the wow-these-characters! department.
Alright, so now we’re getting into my specific likes and dislikes for the novel (this is a fairly new thing I’m doing so I hope it helps potential readers who want something a bit more specific in reviews they read). You can read them below. I’ll keep spoilers out of it as no one wants to know a plot twist before they read a mystery like this one!
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞
📝 Despite the beachy setting, this book has some dark undertones. Normally a setting can set the tone for a story but with this one that’s not the case. What seems like an idyllic location to spend the summer is actually a mask for the crazy things that go down in the story. It’s as if the scenery itself is HIDING all the lies behind it. I loved this so much! I don’t always need to read about a gothic setting when it comes to dark family secrets and issues (although that type of setting always works and sets the tone) and that’s proven here.
📝 The way the story is presented through 3 POV’s works so well for this story. Usually, I prefer the POV’s stay at 2 because I get confused when too many characters are talking to me (LOL) but I think Jonah, Milly, and Aubrie’s POV was NEEDED to bring this one full circle.
📝 The twist at the end was EPIC. I love an EPIC TWIST especially when I don’t figure it out before it happens and that’s what we get here. I was SHOOK. It’s also what freaked me out to be honest because I didn’t see it coming and I could only IMAGINE that being real life **shudders*
📝 The book is compulsively readable. It’s so intriguing and you WANT to know the answers so bad that you continue reading despite the time. I love a book that can take over and this one did that! When my son gets a little older, I’m going to have him read these books because I KNOW he’ll find them to be awesome!
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞
📝 We know that there is something seriously wrong within the Story family (you can literally FEEL it though her writing) but things don’t really present themselves until the end. AS I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I am not a big fan of slow-moving mysteries or suspense and that’s what this book is. I did enjoy how the story unfolded but it was a tad slow getting there.
📝 The kids parents were all morons. I hate seeing the parents of children act so childish and horrible and you see a lot of that in this book. A LOT.
𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗧 𝗨𝗣
In McManus’s latest release, readers are going to uncover that not all families are perfect. The Cousins is one heck of a young adult thriller and reading it in one sitting won’t be difficult at all. If you’re like me then you won’t be able to stop! It’s compulsively readable, engaging, mysterious, and TWISTED. I very much recommend it!
𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2020
Alright, so now we’re getting into my specific likes and dislikes for the novel (this is a fairly new thing I’m doing so I hope it helps potential readers who want something a bit more specific in reviews they read). You can read them below. I’ll keep spoilers out of it as no one wants to know a plot twist before they read a mystery like this one!
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞
📝 Despite the beachy setting, this book has some dark undertones. Normally a setting can set the tone for a story but with this one that’s not the case. What seems like an idyllic location to spend the summer is actually a mask for the crazy things that go down in the story. It’s as if the scenery itself is HIDING all the lies behind it. I loved this so much! I don’t always need to read about a gothic setting when it comes to dark family secrets and issues (although that type of setting always works and sets the tone) and that’s proven here.
📝 The way the story is presented through 3 POV’s works so well for this story. Usually, I prefer the POV’s stay at 2 because I get confused when too many characters are talking to me (LOL) but I think Jonah, Milly, and Aubrie’s POV was NEEDED to bring this one full circle.
📝 The twist at the end was EPIC. I love an EPIC TWIST especially when I don’t figure it out before it happens and that’s what we get here. I was SHOOK. It’s also what freaked me out to be honest because I didn’t see it coming and I could only IMAGINE that being real life **shudders*
📝 The book is compulsively readable. It’s so intriguing and you WANT to know the answers so bad that you continue reading despite the time. I love a book that can take over and this one did that! When my son gets a little older, I’m going to have him read these books because I KNOW he’ll find them to be awesome!
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞
📝 We know that there is something seriously wrong within the Story family (you can literally FEEL it though her writing) but things don’t really present themselves until the end. AS I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I am not a big fan of slow-moving mysteries or suspense and that’s what this book is. I did enjoy how the story unfolded but it was a tad slow getting there.
📝 The kids parents were all morons. I hate seeing the parents of children act so childish and horrible and you see a lot of that in this book. A LOT.
𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗧 𝗨𝗣
In McManus’s latest release, readers are going to uncover that not all families are perfect. The Cousins is one heck of a young adult thriller and reading it in one sitting won’t be difficult at all. If you’re like me then you won’t be able to stop! It’s compulsively readable, engaging, mysterious, and TWISTED. I very much recommend it!
𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Top reviews from other countries

Everyone is jealous of the Story family. They are rich, beautiful and glamorous. Until it all falls apart, and all four children are suddenly disowned by their mother with a single sentence: you know what you did. They never hear from her again. Twenty-four years later, cousins Aubrey, Milly and Jonah story receive mysterious invitations to spend the summer at their grandmother’s resort. They have no choice but to follow their curiosity about the woman they’ve never met. The three are determined to discover the truth, but some secrets are left alone…
I really liked the setting of this book. The cousins’ grandmother’s resort is located on an island, and it really made me want to go on holiday more than I already do (thanks 2020!). I loved how it jumped between the present day and 1996, when the cousins’ parents were teenagers.
The characters were all very well written. I really liked Milly and Aubrey. Jonah was quite annoying, but I began to like him more and more as the book progressed. Their grandmother was very mysterious, and there was something really creepy about her lawyer, Donald. We don’t see much of the cousins’ parents in the present day, but I liked how we got to know them when they were teenagers in the parts set in 1996. All of the characters are interesting, and each has their own flaws, which make them all relatable.
The parts set in 1996 were my favourite, but I think this was because I wanted to find out why Mildred had cut her children off. In the present day, the author dropped a few clues here and there regarding what happened, and I was able to make a good guess quite early on. When it was revealed towards the end, it all made sense. As much as I enjoyed the twist, I thought it was a bit silly. There’s no way a secret could have been kept quiet for 24 years without someone working it out. I won’t say too much on that as I don’t want to give anything away.
I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed Karen M. McManus’ other books. Sure, parts of it are a bit silly, but it’s very well written. I really enjoyed escaping into this book over the past few days.
8/10.

This sounded quite different from her other works but I was excited to get stuck in. We have three cousins - Milly, Aubrey and Jonah, they haven't ever met their grandmother and haven't really met each other either. 24 years ago, their parents were sent away from their home with a note saying 'you know what you did'. All four of the Storey's deny knowing what that note means, and have just come to terms with life away from their mother and their legacy. But there is definitely something going on, as the once close siblings are now quite isolated and their children have grown up not really knowing the rest of their family or much information about their parent's past. So it comes as a shock when the 3 cousins receive a letter from their grandmother inviting them to her resort for the summer. Is she trying to finally connect with her grandchildren or is there something more sinister going on? The three reluctantly agree to go, keen to discover what really happened all those years ago.
The story is narrated by alternative perspectives, Milly, Aubrey and Jonah. Each have agreed to attend for the summer for very different reasons, Milly and Aubrey soon become good friends, but Jonah just seems moody and unwelcoming. Straight away you see some cracks in the group dynamic but you also see that there is potential for more there.
The grandmother at the resort if very mysterious, she disappears almost as soon as the cousins arrive and very few people actually interact with her, of course this sets off alarm bells in the readers head and I must admit, part of the big twist and revelation at the end seemed quite obvious to me from fairly early on.
This book was a bot slower than McManus' other works and I will admit that I didn't enjoy it as much, but regardless of that, it was still a good read and I finished it in 2 fairly short sittings. The story has enough drama and intrigue to keep you interested and wanting to know more, but I didn't feel like I connected or cared about the characters as much as her other books. In fact, my favourite character was probably Archer and he starts off very much as a side character, though he becomes more involved.
I was interested enough to see how the whole mystery panned out and that was enough to keep me hooked.
This has in no way put me off McManus' works and I will still read everything that she releases as they are compelling little stories in their own right and I really like her style

This book tells the story of three cousins who don't really know each other: Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah. Each of them is the child of one of the Story siblings--Adam, Allison, Archer, and Anders--and these siblings were mysteriously disinherited by their mother, Mildred when they were 18-ish. None of the A siblings knows why this happened--but they received a note the following day saying that 'they know what they did'. And this book starts when Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah are invited to Mildred's island. There, they're determined to find out what exactly went on when their parents last set foot on the island.
I'll admit, I was expecting there to be more of a present-day mystery and more present-day danger going on--instead, the book is very much just about what happened to the A siblings. And we have even got a few chapters told from Alison's POV which take place twenty years ago (the rest of it is told from the cousins' perspectives in the present day). But I was just waiting for there to be some sort of present day thrilling event that puts the cousins in danger--and it doesn't really happen until the end. The climax itself is great--we do get the sense that Aubrey is in great danger, and it delivers some HUGE twists. I didn't see those twists coming, so that made this read a 4 star rather than 3.5, which I had been veering toward until that point.
Having said that, while we don't get much sense of Aubrey, Jonah, and Milly being in danger for most of the book--which I found odd given it's a thriller--there is a huge twist with Jonah pretty early on. Again, I didn't see that coming. While it's not a point of danger for any of the cousins, it does create a lot of tension and intrigue.
As always, characterisation is solid--though I did get Anders, Archer, and Adam mixed up quite a bit because their names all begin with A.
All in all, I'd recommend this book. My first finished read of 2021.


I was hooked. The story focuses on three cousins Milly, Jonah and Aubrey and how their family have many hidden secrets spanning years back whilst also including there own secrets now. Took me a while to understand it all and figure it out alongside the other three characters above but we got there. AND BOY I DID NOT EXPECT THAT OUTCOME! Wow.
Karen sure knows how to get her readers gripped! It's a real page turner and I loved it. Loved the island it was set on and the main three cousins working together. A well deserved four stars. Highly recommend.