Last summer during one of the crazy sales that Book Outlet put on, I came across the Scarlett Wakefield series by Lauren Henderson, and I was instantly intrigued. I had previously read Flirting in Italian by her, and I thought it was a cute read, that had a much deeper plotline than I was originally expecting, and I had been wanting to give some more of her books a try. Since with the crazy sale going on, the whole series (which includes four books), would cost less than ten dollars, I decided to go ahead and order all of them, not knowing much about it, other than they were kind of a mystery series.
I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me over a year to get around to finishing this series, as I have a bad habit of buying a ton of books all at once, and then taking forever to finish them all, but once I did get around to reading them, I fell completely in love with the series as a whole, and it left me with a major book hangover at the end.
The Scarlett Wakefield series includes four books: Kiss me Kill me, Kisses and Lies, Kiss in the Dark, and Kiss of Death.
I had read up on the series a little bit before I started it, and had heard it described as a "more modern day Nancy Drew with a British twist", and this definitely inspired me to want to read it, as I loved the Nancy Drew books growing up, and still love them to this day, and I have also loved other books that were similar to them with the mystery setting.
These books follow the main character, Scarlett Wakefield, a quirky, unpopular girl, who's a gymnast, and an orphan, and resides in the city with a friend of her grandmother's. She's definitely not the type of girl who tries to be the center of attention, and is instead perfectly content to hang out with her two best friends, and remain in the background. Her life changes dramatically in one night however, when she is invited by a group of popular kids to a party one is throwing, and ends up kissing a popular guy (Dan McAndrews) who winds up dead moments after. Suspicion is of course placed on her, and she ends up being asked to leave her high school, and the her current guardian's residence, and ends up back living in the kind of finishing school her grandmother runs for "young ladies." Suspicion in the whole situation surrounding Dan's death causes Scarlett to start investigating on her own, both to clear her name, and to give his death the resolution it deserves.
I loved the overall feel of this series, and I especially loved the friendship between Scarlett, and another girl she meets at the finishing school, Taylor. The two of them tackle many obstacles on their quest for justice, and yet their friendship remains strong throughout the series. In a way this series really reminded me of Veronica Mars, which is one of my all time favorite TV shows. Scarlett, like Veronica was, aims to take matters into her own hands, until she finds the truth she is looking for. I also loved how ever after the original mystery is solved fairly soon into the series, Lauren Henderson weaves other mysteries seamlessly into the story that keeps the reader wanting to come back for more. In fact, the last two books of the series were my absolute favorites. Without giving away spoilers, they involve suspicion in details surrounding Scarlett's family, and that of her new boyfriend Jase, and his family. Lauren Henderson is really great at keeping the reader guessing, and it was quite easy to fall in love with this series as a whole.
I'd recommend picking it up to anyone who loves Young Adult mysteries, and if you're like me and still love picking up Nancy Drew books, or watching Veronica Mars, than I would highly suggest giving these books a try.
To keep up with the tradition of my blog, I'm going to include my favorite quote, but since I figured it would be a bit much to include a quote from each book, I am going to include my favorite quote overall which comes from the third book Kiss in the Dark:
"Accidents illustrate that you have no control over your life, because from one moment to the next it could be taken away from you."
I feel that this quote really beautifully describes this series as a whole, and it stuck with me a long time after reading it.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to getting to talk about more amazing books soon :)
This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. The picture was taken by me, and belongs to me.
I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me over a year to get around to finishing this series, as I have a bad habit of buying a ton of books all at once, and then taking forever to finish them all, but once I did get around to reading them, I fell completely in love with the series as a whole, and it left me with a major book hangover at the end.
I had read up on the series a little bit before I started it, and had heard it described as a "more modern day Nancy Drew with a British twist", and this definitely inspired me to want to read it, as I loved the Nancy Drew books growing up, and still love them to this day, and I have also loved other books that were similar to them with the mystery setting.
These books follow the main character, Scarlett Wakefield, a quirky, unpopular girl, who's a gymnast, and an orphan, and resides in the city with a friend of her grandmother's. She's definitely not the type of girl who tries to be the center of attention, and is instead perfectly content to hang out with her two best friends, and remain in the background. Her life changes dramatically in one night however, when she is invited by a group of popular kids to a party one is throwing, and ends up kissing a popular guy (Dan McAndrews) who winds up dead moments after. Suspicion is of course placed on her, and she ends up being asked to leave her high school, and the her current guardian's residence, and ends up back living in the kind of finishing school her grandmother runs for "young ladies." Suspicion in the whole situation surrounding Dan's death causes Scarlett to start investigating on her own, both to clear her name, and to give his death the resolution it deserves.
I loved the overall feel of this series, and I especially loved the friendship between Scarlett, and another girl she meets at the finishing school, Taylor. The two of them tackle many obstacles on their quest for justice, and yet their friendship remains strong throughout the series. In a way this series really reminded me of Veronica Mars, which is one of my all time favorite TV shows. Scarlett, like Veronica was, aims to take matters into her own hands, until she finds the truth she is looking for. I also loved how ever after the original mystery is solved fairly soon into the series, Lauren Henderson weaves other mysteries seamlessly into the story that keeps the reader wanting to come back for more. In fact, the last two books of the series were my absolute favorites. Without giving away spoilers, they involve suspicion in details surrounding Scarlett's family, and that of her new boyfriend Jase, and his family. Lauren Henderson is really great at keeping the reader guessing, and it was quite easy to fall in love with this series as a whole.
I'd recommend picking it up to anyone who loves Young Adult mysteries, and if you're like me and still love picking up Nancy Drew books, or watching Veronica Mars, than I would highly suggest giving these books a try.
To keep up with the tradition of my blog, I'm going to include my favorite quote, but since I figured it would be a bit much to include a quote from each book, I am going to include my favorite quote overall which comes from the third book Kiss in the Dark:
"Accidents illustrate that you have no control over your life, because from one moment to the next it could be taken away from you."
I feel that this quote really beautifully describes this series as a whole, and it stuck with me a long time after reading it.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to getting to talk about more amazing books soon :)
This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. The picture was taken by me, and belongs to me.
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