Non-Spoiler Review of For Your Own Good by Samantha Downing

Book: For Your Own Good
Author: Samantha Downing
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: July 20, 2021
Format: eBook
Pages: 373
Rating: 🐉🐉🐉🐉

Thoughts:

Samantha Downing has delivered another great thriller full of surprises and twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

For Your Own Good is set in a high-pressure private school environment with kids just trying to survive while maintaining a certain level of excellence demanded on them by their parents. Things start to go very wrong when one of the student’s parents ends up dead and then others begin to follow suit.

I love Samantha Downing’s writing style. I really enjoy darker thrillers and I feel that she is really able to give me what I am looking for in terms of darkness. I also appreciate that this novel touches on current issues like college admissions and the pressure on students and teachers to do exceed expectations.

I did find For Your Own Good to be a little bit slower in terms of pacing, but I didn’t mind because I felt like I really got to know the characters in this book. It is very hard to put down because you never know what is going to happen next, so it was a fairly quick read.

I really enjoyed the cast of characters and the level of character development especially in terms of Teddy. I am so torn on Teddy because I can see and understand his point of view but also see how he doesn’t have the best character to say the least. I enjoyed getting to go down the rabbit hole to find out what really makes him tick. I also loved Teddy’s snarky-ness at time when he wasn’t being so arrogant. Zack and Courtney are typical kids just trying to get into good colleges and away from their demanding parents. I definitely relate to that, and it brought back memories of my high school years. I loved Sonia Benjamin’s character because she really wants what is best for her students and goes above and beyond where she can. I relate to how caring she is, and I appreciated that she also had her own flaws that are made apparent pretty quickly.

I highly recommend this book to any Samantha Downing fans, fans of dark academia, and/or any thriller fans!

Readathon TBRs

Hello everyone! I am back with my TBRs for the Twitter Readathons @ReindeerReadathon and @Slavicathon. I did get a late start on them because I had 2 buddy reads I was working through but I am all caught up now and ready to start reading!

Reindeer Readathon:
I am not a major holiday person so I tend to shy away from Christmasy books but I am trying to break out of my comfort zone so I added a couple romance and cozy mystery books. I am a big horror fan so I had to include some Christmas horror in the mix. I am really looking forward to read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. I saw it last year on someone’s TBR for December and knew I had to get it for this year.

Slavicathon Readathon:

I have always enjoyed learning about fairy tales and folklore from other countries and cultures so when I saw this readathon announcement on Twitter I just knew I had to participate.

This readathon is set up with a Bingo board which is always fun for me so I am excited to get started. Slavicathon is a weekend event that starts on December 4th and goes through December 5th. I am a huge Baba Yaga fan so I am really looking forward to The House with the Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson. What type of fairy tales or folklore do you enjoy?

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Well, that about wraps up my TBR for December and the readathons. Be on the lookout tomorrow for a review of my first book of December!

Hello and Welcome to my Hoard of Books

Hello all you lovely readers out there! Usually, I start fresh with my resolutions and changes I want to start in January but I am breaking the mold this year and starting in December! It has been nice cleaning up my email subscriptions, getting rid of unvisited Facebook groups, etc. so of course I decided it is time to STICK WITH my blog so for whatever number I am on, here we go again. I hope you find some interesting little gems and maybe a new favorite book.

Are you ready for the upcoming holidays?!? I am not a huge holiday girl but I do love winter with it’s cooler temperatures and hopefully some magical snow. I decided to do the Reindeer Readathon (@ReindeerReadat1) hosted by @Breakeven Books and Slavicathon (@Slavicathon) hosted by @thewildSasha on Twitter. I am a sucker for fairy tales and retellings and who doesn’t love reindeer. Are you doing any readathons or reading events for the month of December? Feel free to tell me in the comments because I love finding new readathons.

I will share my TBR for both events in the coming days as I finish finalizing everything so I will leave you with my December TBR for now.

I am very excited and happy with this TBR so hopefully, fingers crossed, I can stick with it but I am such a mood reader lol. Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

I look forward to starting this journey with all of you and hope that you enjoy the holidays!