I didn't read The Mockingbirds, and The Rivals is its sequel. However, most new readers to the series will glean enough from the opening of The Rivals to know what happened and will be able to follow the characters. That said, I felt that there was too much backstory in the first 50 pages. I wanted to put it down several times. There simply wasn't much conflict or suspense to keep me reading until about page 65. That's when a rival for the mc's affection arrived and so did the first real inkling of conflict. I enjoyed the author's delicate weaving of emotion in the love triangle: how the mc, Alex, struggles with memories from her assault in the first book while she attempts to move forward in her romantic relationship. As for the exterior plot, the Mockingbirds, I learned, are a vigilante group of students that Alex leads who fight for justice in a school where the administration turns its back on campus crime. Great premise!

In this novel, Alex is approached to defend a new student who doesn't want to be implicated in a prescription drug ring. The drug being pushed is an ADHD drug, and the elite students of the prep school take it to perform better academically. Therein lies my main problem with the plot. If the school ignores student problems & supposedly pushes its students to excel in academic competitions, where is the conflict? Cheating and ethics are vaguely mentioned when the Mockingbirds accept the students case and begin their investigation, but I felt more time was needed on this debate. Maybe the story reflects real life where cheating is often portrayed in shades of gray as well? Tension and emotional conflicts escalate as Alex uncovers layers of deceit and questions her loyalties to her friends and the Mockingbirds. There is a lot of intrigue going on, and I found some portions of the ending were unexpected.

Thanks for the arc, Little,Brown!