What's the story with the Story's?
What the back says... The Storys are the envy of their neighbours: owners of the largest property on their East Coast island, they are rich, beautiful, and close. Until it all falls apart. The four children are suddenly dropped by their mother with a single sentence:
You know what you did.
They never hear from her again.
Years later, when 18-year-old cousins Aubrey, Milly and Jonah Story receive a mysterious invitation to spend the summer at their grandmother's resort, they have no choice but to follow their curiosity and meet the woman who's been such an enigma their entire lives.
This entire family is built on secrets, right? It's the Story legacy.
This summer, the teenagers are determined to discover the truth at the heart of their family. But some secrets are better left alone.
Another amazing blog tour, and another fantastic book to write about!
I loved this book, it had me hooked from the first page and as we reached the climatic ending I had that nervous, excited feeling about what they had figured out and if they'd finally solved the family riddle.
The plot centres on the Story cousins, Milly, the daughter of Allison Story, Aubrey, the daughter of Adam Story and Jonah, the son of Anders Story. Twenty-four years ago the four Story siblings (Allison, Adam, Anders and Archer) were disowned and written out of the family will, notified by letter, ending with the words 'You know what you did'. Now, over two decades later the young cousins, who had barely spent any time together let alone with any one else for the family, are invited to the holiday island resort mostly owned by their wealthy Grandmother. Although not entirely happy about the idea of going, can the three cousins finally uncover the family secret as well as sharing some of their own?
As I said, I really enjoyed this book, the three main characters were well written, each one with their own quirks and personality traits - I found myself rooting for all three. The plot was also very clever, I hadn't quite figured out where the story was going to go. The sub plot, centring on the four Story siblings also helped decipher exactly who the family are and what they are capable of. Although the sub plot and the small nuggets of information were definitely leading somewhere, the actual resolution to the family secret was not what I was expecting.
The Cousins is an A* read for those that enjoy Young Adult fiction. This is the first book I have read by Karen McManus and I'm very much looking forward to reading her others. Thank you again to Dave and TheWriteReads for including me in another Ultimate Blog Tour.
I received this as an e-book in return for an honest review as part of The Write Reads Blog Tour.