Release Day & Review: Pretty Dead Girls by Monica Murphy
Pretty Dead Girls by Monica Murphy Release Date: January 2nd, 2018 Genre: Young Adult Romance
Beautiful. Perfect. Dead.
In the peaceful seaside town of Cape Bonita, wicked secrets and lies are hidden just beneath the surface. But all it takes is one tragedy for them to be exposed.
The most popular girls in school are turning up dead, and Penelope Malone is terrified she's next. All the victims so far have been linked to Penelope—and to a boy from her physics class. The one she's never really noticed before, with the rumored dark past and a brooding stare that cuts right through her.
There's something he isn't telling her. But there's something she's not telling him, either.
Everyone has secrets, and theirs might get them killed.
FIVE BOUNDLESS STARS
Pretty Dead Girls is a thrilling, young adult mystery. Penelope suddenly finds herself in the midst of a murder mystery. As members of the Larks start dropping like flies, everyone has their guesses of whose killing all of these pretty girls. Pretty Dead Girls was honestly great. The whole time I wasn’t sure who the killer was. At first, I thought it was one person, and then I thought, no that would be easy. Murphy had me on edge and guessing the whole time. It's a great YA Thriller that I feel anyone could jump into. It was thrilling and kept you guessing until the end. And just like Penelope, I was also drawn to Cass. He was a bit of a mystery, but so very likable. I too loved how you got a glimpse of the killer, but it doesn’t give much away. Just enough to keep you on edge. Overall, Five Boundless Stars
Excerpt:
“That car is still trailing us.”
Glancing in the side mirror, I see that the car is behind us. Cass chooses that moment to take a curve extra fast, making the tires squeal, and I gasp. “You’re scaring me,” I murmur. It feels like my heart just flew into my throat.
“Just wait. What I really want to do is going to scare you even more,” he says cryptically.
“What do you want to do?”
“You’ll have to trust me on this.”
“Okay.” I clamp my lips shut. I shouldn’t automatically agree, right? I’m still having trust issues, even though I’d never say that out loud. This entire day has been confusing. I don’t know who to believe anymore.
“No demanding we back out once we commit,” he says, his gaze never wavering from the road. “That’s a surefire way to get ourselves hurt.”
His words are ominous. Like a warning. “Fine. I’m all in.”
He eases up on the gas pedal, just the slightest bit. The car slows, the vehicle behind us drawing closer. So close I swear it looks like it’s going to eat the back bumper. “I don’t want you to freak out.”
“Oh my God, Cass.” Why is he slowing down? “Just tell me.”
“You have to promise me one thing first.” His gaze meets mine, lingering a moment too long. He should be watching the road, not staring at me. “Say you’ll promise.”
“I promise,” I readily agree, frowning. “But what am I promising?”
He’s staring straight ahead once more, his fingers sliding over the steering wheel, almost like a caress. “You can’t scream.”
What?
“I mean it. No screaming. No yelling. You must remain quiet. I need you to trust me, Pen.” He hesitates, his voice dropping lower. “Do you trust me?”
Do I? He’s already asked me once and I said yes, but the doubt still creeps in. He scares me a little. He also—God, I am so ridiculous thinking this, but—he turns me on. He does. There’s something about him. He has this edge that other boys don’t have. And when he touches me, kisses me…
I’d probably do just about anything he asks me to.
So how can I doubt him when we’ve already gone this far together?
“I won’t scream,” I tell him quietly. “And I won’t yell. I promise.”
“Okay.” He nods once, then hisses out a breath between his teeth. I chance a glance at him, the way his dark hair falls over his forehead, how he’s squinting his eyes. What he’s about to do, what’s about to happen, feels…dangerous. “Here it goes.”
With a flick of his wrist he turns the car’s headlights off. Like, completely off. The road goes dark. I suck in a breath, hold it until I feel like it’s choking me. He hits the gas pedal hard, the SUV roaring to life as he flies down the road. A dangerous, winding road where multiple car crashes occur every year. The windows are down, the wind blows through my hair, blasts against my face, and I close my eyes.
I’m scared, and I can’t make a sound. Not a peep. I hold onto the handle right above the window, gripping it with both hands as Cass takes the twisty road with ease. My gaze is trained on the side mirror and I watch for the car lights behind us.
They’re still there.
Read Today!
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2iELp0r iBooks: http://apple.co/2wzp1pV B&N: http://bit.ly/2hbMGe3 Kobo: http://bit.ly/2hbqWLF Google Play: http://bit.ly/2y7MQGv Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2j1OGDR
Check out the Playlist that inspired Pretty Dead Girls: https://open.spotify.com/user/1265567874/playlist/7z2HRSTHptOuWQW28AfeME
Ten Fun Facts about Pretty Dead Girls: 1. PRETTY DEAD GIRLS is a stand alone novel. 2. This is my first young adult thriller.
3. I didn't overly plot it (but I never overly plot any of my books), but I was terrified it would end up a big mess.
4. It didn't end up a big mess (well, I hope it didn't LOL).
5. I got the title from a non-fiction book description mentioning how the media and the world is fascinated with...Pretty Dead Girls.
6. The story was inspired by Scream Queens (the first season, specifically the first episode, was magical. Forever a Chad Radwell fan).
7. The story was really inspired by a true life killing of a cheerleader by a fellow female student back in the mid-80s.
8. That true story was turned into a movie (A Friend to Die For, formerly known as Death of a Cheerleader) in the 90s.
9. That movie was one of my favorite Lifetime movies EVER (Tori Spelling does a great job as a mean girl) and you can find it on YouTube.
10. This is my first hardcover book! And it's so pretty...
Meet Monica:
Monica Murphy is the New York Times, USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of the One Week Girlfriend series, the Billionaire Bachelors and The Rules series. Her books have been translated in almost a dozen languages and has sold over one million copies worldwide. She is both self-published and published by Random House/Bantam and Harper Collins/Avon. She writes new adult, young adult and contemporary romance.
She is a wife and a mother of three who lives in central California on fourteen acres in the middle of nowhere along with their one dog and too many cats. A self-confessed workaholic, when she's not writing, she's reading or hanging out with her husband and kids. She's a firm believer in happy endings, though she will admit to putting her characters through angst-filled moments before they finally get that hard won HEA.
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