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Truly Devious
- A Mystery
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
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The Vanishing Stair
- Truly Devious Series, Book 2
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Truly Devious case - an unsolved kidnapping and triple murder that rocked Ellingham Academy in 1936 - has consumed Stevie for years. It’s the very reason she came to the academy. But then her classmate was murdered, and her parents quickly pull her out of school. For her safety, they say. She must move past this obsession with crime. Stevie’s willing to do anything to get back to Ellingham, be back with her friends, and solve the Truly Devious case. Even if it means making a deal with the despicable Senator Edward King.
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great story
- By wanda tengg on 2021-08-21
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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The Hand on the Wall
- Truly Devious, Book 3
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie's greatest triumph.... She knows who Truly Devious is. She's solved it. The greatest case of the century.
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Great End to Series
- By Anonymous User on 2020-09-16
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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The Box in the Woods
- Truly Devious, Book 4
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer. But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls - the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display.
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Awesome!!
- By Cassandra Burrows on 2021-06-28
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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Never Lie
- Written by: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end. In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed.
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Soooo good!
- By Anonymous User on 2023-01-23
Written by: Freida McFadden
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Nine Liars
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general. Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case.
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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Five Survive
- Written by: Holly Jackson
- Narrated by: Emma Galvin
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend—the older brother—his perfect girlfriend—a secret crush—a classmate—and a killer. When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead. With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them?
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good story, unlikable characters, overall not bad
- By Isabelle Wong on 2023-01-20
Written by: Holly Jackson
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The Vanishing Stair
- Truly Devious Series, Book 2
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Truly Devious case - an unsolved kidnapping and triple murder that rocked Ellingham Academy in 1936 - has consumed Stevie for years. It’s the very reason she came to the academy. But then her classmate was murdered, and her parents quickly pull her out of school. For her safety, they say. She must move past this obsession with crime. Stevie’s willing to do anything to get back to Ellingham, be back with her friends, and solve the Truly Devious case. Even if it means making a deal with the despicable Senator Edward King.
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great story
- By wanda tengg on 2021-08-21
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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The Hand on the Wall
- Truly Devious, Book 3
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie's greatest triumph.... She knows who Truly Devious is. She's solved it. The greatest case of the century.
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Great End to Series
- By Anonymous User on 2020-09-16
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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The Box in the Woods
- Truly Devious, Book 4
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer. But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls - the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display.
-
-
Awesome!!
- By Cassandra Burrows on 2021-06-28
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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Never Lie
- Written by: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Leslie Howard
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end. In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed.
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Soooo good!
- By Anonymous User on 2023-01-23
Written by: Freida McFadden
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Nine Liars
- Written by: Maureen Johnson
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general. Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case.
Written by: Maureen Johnson
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Five Survive
- Written by: Holly Jackson
- Narrated by: Emma Galvin
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend—the older brother—his perfect girlfriend—a secret crush—a classmate—and a killer. When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead. With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them?
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good story, unlikable characters, overall not bad
- By Isabelle Wong on 2023-01-20
Written by: Holly Jackson
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Good Girl, Bad Blood
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Pip is not a detective anymore. With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her. But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the sixth-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh.
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A decent sequel.
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As Good as Dead
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Pip is about to head to college, but she is still haunted by the way her last investigation ended. She’s used to online death threats in the wake of her viral true-crime podcast, but she can’t help noticing an anonymous person who keeps asking her: Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?
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Great finale!
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It’s ok
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Poor narration detracts from plot
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Very good book, hated the narration. Bought physical copy instead.
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Publisher's Summary
New York Times best-selling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.
Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early 20th century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. "A place", he said, "where learning is a game."
Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym "Truly, Devious". It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.
True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.
The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018
Junior Library Guild Selection
2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination
2019 ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018
2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner
Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018
Lincoln Award Nominee
2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee
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What listeners say about Truly Devious
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Genevieve Paquette
- 2021-04-09
ok
Picked this up on Audible, listened a second time today. As an adult reading this, it doesn't really hold up to a second read. The concept is great, the mystery is compelling, but...
I would like this trilogy a lot better if it weren’t for the extremely problematic romance subplot between Stevie, the protagonist, and David, the undercover rich bad boy with a terrible attitude and a massive chip on his shoulder. No, seriously, I would hesitate to recommend this to an actual youth/teenager because of how unhealthy the relationship was. It’s just getting started in this installment, and it gets much worse, but it’s bad enough. A relationship based on lies, obfuscations and suspicion, built on a foundation of shared trauma. They don’t even /like/ each other. It was unnecessary and it added nothing of value to the plot.
It ruins what would otherwise be a pretty good YA/teen mystery.
The other thing is, the characters are largely one-dimensional. It's like they've each been allowed to have two or maybe three traits, and that's it. Stevie likes true crime, doesn't care about her appearance and has an anxiety disorder. Janelle is queer, cheerful and good at building things. Nate is a curmudgeon with touch-aversion and crippling writers block. It's not the wooorst, but it's not great, and it makes it hard to really get invested.
I will say, though, the 1930s plot is pretty great, and it's the reason why I finished the trilogy.
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- Laura
- 2019-08-20
Truly terrible narration
I enjoyed the book in a general sense but feel that I would have preferred reading it instead of listening to it. I found the narration to be awful. So bad that I almost gave up. The male voices are beyond ridiculous. I was listening to it in the car with my husband and 14 year old daughter on a long road trip and non of us could let a single sentence of male dialogue go by without a solid guffaw and attempt (to great amusement) to imitate it.
The story appears to be clever and well told (at least initially) however I felt very let down by the ending. I agree with previous reviews that it's appropriate to carry elements of a mystery through a series but that there needs to be some resolution within individual books. It feels jarring and a bit of a cheap trick. So much so that I am not inclined to read the next ones.
There were some ridiculous and improbable elements that bothered me. How Stevie manages to ignore the message left on her wall by 'Devious', chalking it up to lack of sleep, heightened anxiety or what have you. As well as how she, for far too long, seems not even to consider the idea that the death of her fellow student was a murder and not an accident. (especially when paired with the message on her wall). These elements seemed out of keeping for the intelligent and intuitive teenager that is painted as a bit of a genius of crime.
All in all, the writing is better than average for the genre with creative detail, but the plot and pacing need some work. And please, oh please, a different narrator!!
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- Laura
- 2019-04-08
I enjoyed it, but I’m pissed about the ending
This book was truly addicting. I loved it. Right up until the end when the author literally says “to be continued.”
It kinda pissed me off. There was no resolution, just open ended questions leading the reader to believe that one person is probably the murderer (but let’s be honest that person likely didn’t do it).
147 people found this helpful
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- April Anderton
- 2018-08-30
Mystery Books Need Endings
Beginning, middle, end. Key elements to a story. Even a bad story.
The writing in this book is enjoyable, the characters are interesting, the pacing is great. Until it's not. The book is a mystery and everything leads up to the climax perfectly. The ending is so close, it seems it's going to wrap up nicely... and then it ends before there is ANY resolution. I understand that it's a series. I even get that a cliffhanger is a nice way to end a book in a series. When you string a reader along in a mystery, however, you'd better deliver the killer by the end of the book. The series can go on, more murders with the same characters, but RESOLVE THE ORIGINAL INCIDENT FIRST! Dragging things out for three books may work in other genres, but mystery readers generally expect ENDINGS to every volume.
136 people found this helpful
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- Henry63
- 2018-03-22
Bad Ending
Enjoyed the story but the Ending! Leads you to and then down the Rabbit Hole with no ending in site (unless you buy book 2). Hate books like this that employ this marketing tool.
77 people found this helpful
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- Douglas
- 2018-09-22
No conclusion, ends with "to be continued".
Neither mystery is solved by the end of the story. In fact that author introduces yet another mystery into the mix. If your looking for a conclusion to the wonderfully begun mystery at the start of the book, you'll be disappointed.
Stevie is obnoxious. I suppose this is because she's "gifted" but I just find her grating and not endearing int eh least. The fact that she looks down on her parents is also irritating. Yes I know the stereotype is for teenager to not think much of her parents but Stevie acts like a bratty three-year-old at times.
44 people found this helpful
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- Gwendolyn Robinson
- 2019-04-08
Truly Devious
Very engrossing. Keeps you guessing as to what’s going to happen next however the ending is a let down. You never find out what happens.
32 people found this helpful
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- gwyndolin
- 2018-02-09
Thoroughly Enjoyable Story with Caveats
What did you love best about Truly Devious?
WARNING TO ANY PROSPECTIVE READERS: Although I loved this book, it ends on a really obnoxious cliffhanger and almost nothing gets resolved.
But it's saying something that, despite that, I still really enjoyed it. I should've known going in after reading quite a few of Johnson's books that it wouldn't give me closure (pretty sure Suite Scarlett is NEVER going to have a third book) but after how disappointingly boring I found her book "The Name of the Star", especially for its cop-out explanation to the 'mystery' being GHOSTS ARE REAL instead of... a real mystery, I really enjoyed this story.
It's still not grounded in anything close to the reality you and I know, but that works for it. Eccentric millionaires and long-past murder mysteries that interweive with the present are far-fetched, but Johnson makes it believable enough to work. It is really obnoxious that basically nothing is solved by the end... but I guess that's one way to make us look out for book 2.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Truly Devious?
I loved the characters. Stevie was a pretty enjoyable protagonist - just weird and antisocial enough to avoid being bland but not too much that she was actually unlikable. As usual, Johnson handles the little love interest subplot very well. I thought Janelle could have used more development, but maybe she will get it in following books.
How could the performance have been better?
This may be the first time I found an audible narrator so distracting I almost couldn't go on with the story. Her annunciation is just so... off. She over pronounces the "t's" and ends of words. Weirdly, her voices she does for boys sound perfectly natural, but her usual narration for anything but dialogue (i.e. most of the book) is so grating and unnatural. It's almost like she's trying to do an impression of a vampire or something? It was just SO distracting! Plus, you can tell Johnson is a pretty funny writer, even in this book (I know she is from her other ones) but this narrator just can't seem to deliver her writing in any comedic way. Her timing is so off.
I really hope for the second book they get a new narrator.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I had EXTREME frustration at the ending, but the last hour or so made my heart race a little bit. For a YA book, that's pretty damn good.
Edit: As of 2021 I've listened to all the Truly Devious books, and I no longer feel negatively toward the narrator. I'm actually not sure in retrospect why I disliked her so much, she's fine.
32 people found this helpful
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- stephanie
- 2019-09-14
damn school trope got me
read upon recommendation. Thought it might be a harriet the spy type thing but the author just HAD to put in a "magical" school trope. The school wasnt magic but its still a special school with houses and students with special talents. So whatever this book had going for it was seriously ruined because of this overused trope. I did not think the ending was THAT bad. Not so much mystery and case solving. Too much focus on school imo.
30 people found this helpful
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- Reademandweep
- 2019-12-05
Clickbait! Don’t waste a credit to these con artists!
I have thousands, maybe tens of thousands of books in both my home and audible libraries. As a child, I lived in the public library or the bookstore. I grew up to write and never lost my love of words and literature.
NEVER have I purchased a book that pretends to be a complete novel but is in fact only some chapters of a complete novel. This is false advertising, and a dishonest. sneaky way to take people’s money.
Shame on you Maureen Johnson.
21 people found this helpful
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Story

- Kristin Krahenbuhl
- 2018-03-15
Different narrator next time
Overall I liked this story but the narrator drove me NUTS! The are quite a few different male characters and she had the same voice for all of them.
19 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story

- Kim
- 2019-12-06
cliff hanger..cant hold on much looonnngger
do not care for writing a story and cutting it in the middle just so you can get 2 books out of it. did not even end in a logical place. trying too hard to be a screen play for some CW show
5 people found this helpful