Chasing Truth by Julie Cross

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Title: Chasing Truth
Author: Julie Cross
Series: Eleanor Ames #1
Published by: Entangled: Teen
Release Date: September 27, 2016
Format: eARC
Pages: 400
Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Contemporary
Source: NetGalley
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

At Holden Prep, the rich and powerful rule the school—and they’ll do just about anything to keep their dirty little secrets hidden.

When former con artist Eleanor Ames’s homecoming date commits suicide, she’s positive there’s something more going on. The more questions she asks, though, the more she crosses paths with Miles Beckett. He’s sexy, mysterious, arrogant…and he’s asking all the same questions.

Eleanor might not trust him—she doesn’t even like him—but they can’t keep their hands off of each other. Fighting the infuriating attraction is almost as hard as ignoring the fact that Miles isn’t telling her the truth…and that there’s a good chance he thinks she’s the killer.

My Review:

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4 stars — So I think I requested this book from NetGalley because it was touted as being for fans of Veronica Mars, and since I am a fan this intrigued me.  And I can wholeheartedly say that it really did remind me of that beloved TV series!  I mean, Ellie gets her smarts in a completely different way, but she is sassy, somewhat damaged, resourceful just like Veronica.  And then there’s the whole trying to solve the mystery of a friend’s death thing.  Yup, definitely shades of VM season 1.  So if you enjoy that show, I would definitely give this book a shot.

What’s really great is that it was also a TINY bit outside my wheelhouse in that I don’t read a lot of mystery type novels, but there was definitely a mystery to solve in this book!  And you know what?  It was super fun to come up with theories as the story went along!  I will say that I called one of the bad guys from pretty early on, and didn’t waver too much from that position — yay me!  Not sure if that was good hinting on the author’s part, or if I’m just SMRT.  But I had a lot of fun with it, and in general I thought the mystery was laid out well and there were no big plot holes or anything like that (which is where I tend to get frustrated with mystery books).

As for my favourite part of all books I read, the characters in this book were generally super solid.  Ellie was a great heroine to read from, as I said she was both sassy and vulnerable and it made it easy to love her and feel for how she grew up and how she sees herself now.  I was a little disappointed that she didn’t guess certain things about Miles.  I mean, I totally guessed things about Miles, though I can happily say that what I guessed wasn’t completely correct, so I was nicely surprised with who he was.  But for a con artist and people reader like Ellie, I really thought she would have at least made a guess about him at some point.

Miles was an interesting foil for Ellie, with his need for strict rule following.  I liked that even though we never got anything from his POV, I feel like I knew who he was.  And their chemistry was awesome, both in their friendship/partners type way and in a romantic type way.  I enjoyed where their relationship went, and felt like it was true to both of them.

And this book was actually pretty packed with secondary characters, from Ellie’s sister Harper and Harper’s boyfriend Aiden (both of whom I adored, and can’t help but want to see their backstory — prequel novella anyone?).  To Miles’s parents (even if they only made a brief appearance) and Uncle Clyde.  To the memory of Simon.  To even Justice, Dominic, Bret (I know he’s bad), and Jacob.  Will be interesting to see how all these characters come into play in the next novels.

All in all I’m totally sold on the series, and will definitely be looking forward to Ellie’s next adventure.