Two Sides to Every Murder by Danielle Valentine

e-Audio, 08:16:38
Narrated by:  Valerie Rose Lohman & Alex Finke
Release Date: June 25, 2024
Published by: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Read from: June 1-8, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: PRH App (I received a copy of this e-audio from the publisher’s audio app in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Violence, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Animal death
For Readers Interested In: Summer Camps, Thriller, Family Diversity, YA 

      From the author of How to Survive Your Murder comes a propulsive thriller about two teens who return to the site of the famous murder case that sealed their fates.
     Most people’s births aren’t immortalized in a police report—but Olivia was born during the infamous Camp Lost Lake murders. Seventeen years later, Olivia’s life looks pretty perfect . . . until she discovers the man she calls dad is not her biological father. Now she wants answers about her bloodline, and the only place she knows to look is Camp Lost Lake.
     Most people don’t spend their formative years on the run with an alleged murderer—but Reagan did. In the court of public opinion, her mom was found guilty of the deaths at Camp Lost Lake, and both of them have been in hiding ever since. But Reagan believes in her mother’s innocence and is determined to clear her name.
     Luckily for Olivia and Reagan, Camp Lost Lake is finally reopening, providing the perfect opportunity to find answers. But someone else is dead set on keeping the past hidden, even if it means committing murder.

*MY THOUGHTS*

This was one of my most anticipated of the year and it completely delivered! It had everything I usually would want in a book, it was a thriller, set at a summer camp, and it mentioned secrets. Put all of that together and it definitely had me waiting to read it in the day time.

Ok so the thing I didn’t care for on this was the plot. It was completely predictable. Now I am an adult and this is a YA book, but still. I knew exactly what each of the plot twists was going to be and that annoyed me. Did I still enjoy it? Yes. But I think I wanted more. Something that challenged me. I think what saved this was the writing style.

This was my first book by Danielle Valentine, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was predictable, but why wasn’t I put off by it? Why was I still sucked in? That part had everything to do with Valentine. She had the power to suck me in to the book and I didn’t come up until I was finished. And even now after I’ve finished it I still don’t know if it was the writing style or the fact that everything was so outta pocket lol Everything that happens in this book was predictable, but every time something new came up my jaw continued to drop open. It was like I thought of it, but it was so weird that I just knew that it wasn’t really what was going to happen. And then it did lol

The characters aren’t very defined, but are they usually defined or detailed in thrillers? But also, if it was so easy to determine whodunit without knowing anything about the characters, she could have given us more. But it was still something that I think she could have given us a bit more of. But it could have been because there were too many of them. I mean there was a whole camp of kids, the person whodunit, the victims, etc. That’s too many people to get a backstory lol

With that being said….. WTF WAS THAT ENDING?! Can we stop ending things like this? I immediately went and started like flipping pages to see if I could find more of the book. Because what the hell was this?! Why would y’all do this to me? lol These bomb shell, cliff hanger, open ending books are driving me crazy! What happens? Do you know how indecisive I am? I’m never going to come to a decision on what I think happened at the end. It’s always going to be done just there. And my brain just doesn’t work like that lol Ugh it was so weird.

I don’t think that this one had much more than an entertainment factor. Do I think this sets the standards for thrillers? No. But it most definitely set me up to read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and it set me up to only read this during the day lol If y’all read it, let me know if you guess it too!

Overall, I give this