Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor

Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor
Series: Prep School Confidential, #1
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: July 30, 2013

In this breathtaking debut that reads like Gossip Girl crossed with Twin Peaks, a Queen Bee at a blue-blooded New England prep school stumbles into a murder mystery.

Anne Dowling practically runs her exclusive academy on New York’s Upper East Side—that is, until she accidentally burns part of it down and gets sent to a prestigious boarding school outside of Boston. Determined to make it back to New York, Anne couldn't care less about making friends at the preppy Wheatley School. That is, until her roommate Isabella’s body is found in the woods behind the school.

When everyone else is oddly silent, Anne becomes determined to uncover the truth no matter how many rules she has to break to do it. With the help of Isabella’s twin brother Anthony, and a cute classmate named Brent, Anne discovers that Isabella wasn’t quite the innocent nerdy girl she pretended to be. But someone will do anything to stop Anne’s snooping in this fast-paced, unputdownable read—even if it means framing her for Isabella’s murder.

The best way to describe Prep School Confidential would be intense. It was intense from beginning to end. But sadly, intense doesn't mean that I loved it. I liked it's extremely action driven plot, but I found the characters to be a tad lacking.

Anne herself was alright, if a tad complicated. She was really very smart, and I liked that she was as tempestuous as me. What really bothered me was the lack of development of the secondary characters. I would have liked to have known more about all of them, and for them to have had a few more appearances throughout the story. I feel like the mystery is ruled a little too much by Anne. We're limited through her vision, because all we get are her opinions. Plus she has a bit of a tendency to jump at every twig, if you catch my drift.

The mystery itself was well done, though. There were so many clues, but they all pointed to different people, which kept the story interesting and entertaining. Towards the end it became obvious, though.

My biggest problem was probably that Isabella (the murdered gal) didn't get to live longer in the story. She seemed like a nice type, which is why it was so disappointing to find out what she was really like. You'll never guess, believe me. This school has more secrets than a cat.

All in all, Prep School Confidential was a charming, if underdeveloped beginning to what I hope will be an awesome series. Gotta love open endings, y'all.