The Cousins~ Karen M. McManus

I have been an avid fan of Karen M. Mcmanus since her debut novel One of Us is Lying came out in 2017. Every single one of her releases since I have highly anticipated, The Cousins being no different. I recently decided to use a book voucher that I received for Christmas to purchase a few books on my wishlist and I just couldn’t resist McManus’ most recent release which came out last year.

The Cousins follows the Story family. The Story’s are envied by all, being the owners of the largest property on the East Coast Island, their wealth is endless. A family that to the outside could never be torn apart until the four Story siblings, Adam, Anders, Allison and Archer, receive a single lined letter from their mother Mildred. You know what you did. They never hear from her again. Now eighteen years have past and the elusive mother has sent a letter of invitation to her three grandchildren, who she has never met, to work at her hotel on the island for the summer. The three teenagers take the plunge and spend the summer learning about the infamous Story legacy. But are some secrets better left in the past?

The way in which McManus writes is phenomenal, I was gripped from the first few chapters and ended up reading the entirety of the book in practically one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down, constantly needing to know what was going to happen in the next chapter. This book is packed full of so many twists and turns, at first you think this might be a tad overwhelming trying to keep track of everything but McManus has a way of writing that it all just makes sense. I honestly had to pick my jaw off of the floor on multiple occasions because the plot just hadn’t gone in the direction I thought it would. Once again McManus managed to keep her cards close to her chase right til the end producing yet another book where I just couldn’t figure out the true culprit.

Overall, this book will sit proudly next to her other three on my shelf that I have given all 5 stars and The Cousins deserves nothing less than that as well. The Cousins by Karen M. McManus gets a 5⭐️ rating from me and I am eager to read her next book You’ll Be the Death of Me when it is published later in the year.

M🌸