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Clique Bait

Ann Valett (Goodreads Author)

3.59 · Rating details · 1,601 ratings · 271 reviews

Pretty Little Liars meets Burn for Burn in this thrilling debut from Wattpad star Ann Valett.

Chloe Whittaker is out for revenge. Last year her best friend Monica’s life was unceremoniously ruined by the most popular students at their high school, so this year Chloe plans to take each and every one of them down. She traded her jeans and T-shirts for the latest designer clot ...more

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ebook, 368 pages

Published April 28th 2020 by HarperTeen

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· 1,601 ratings · 271 reviews

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May 04, 2020 Tijana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book's blurb describes it as Pretty Little Liars meets Burn for Burn.
I, on the other hand, feel like Gossip Girl on steroids is more spot on.

Clique Bait follows Chloe, a girl going for revenge on popular classmates who did something bad to her friend Monica.
Her friend Monica, who completely ditched her in order to become a part of the mentioned popular crew. A friend who stopped speaking to her and pretended she didn't exist, once she got in.
Totally a friend worth dedicating your ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Candace Robinson added it

So this one was a lot of fun! It had sort of a Gossip Girl type vibe mixed with some other things!

I really thought Chloe was an awesome character, and I could see why she would want to get revenge. But sometimes things may not always be what they seem. She blackmails this dude, Will, into helping her join the Level One crowd, and oh boy, I seriously liked him. He wasn't perfect but he was pretty dang close!

There are twists and turns and interesting reveals! The writing and dialogue were A+. Now ...more

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Jan 06, 2021 Trina (Between Chapters) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, 2021, mystery, young-adult, audiobooks

I wasn't vibing with this, but I had no big issues. If you want more of PLL or Mean Girls, and like complex, unlikeable characters then I think you might enjoy this. Audio version was very stiff and unenjoyable. ...more

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Feb 29, 2020 Vee rated it really liked it

I'm also a book blogger: Vee_Bookish

It's no secret that I was obsessed with Mean Girls as a teenager, me and my friend's hobby was to recite every single line from it as we watched it, we were dedicated. Clique Bait is a similar vein to Mean Girls, with a much darker edge to it.

Honestly, this book gave me a lot that I was missing from All Your Twisted Secrets, the backstabbing, the blackmail, the gossip. I raced through the book enjoying every moment, I think my only complaint was that I wanted ...more

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May 04, 2020 PinkAmy loves books, cats and naps rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Chloe plans to take down the popular kids after her best friend Monica is gone. She doesn’t plan on falling for one of the guys.

CLIQUE BAIT started off strong, with Chloe, clearly pained, wearing her heart on the outside. As the plot continued, the story lagged, Chloe became one of the mean kids, and characters became tropes.

The quality of Ann Valett’s writing is the strongest component of CLIQUE BAIT. I never got a feel for why Chloe and Monica were such close friends and the lure of popularit ...more

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Oct 04, 2020 Ariel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya

This book was just kinda okay for me. It reminded me a little bit of “These Vengeful Hearts” with the main character trying to get revenge for a loved one from a certain group of people.

I had really hoped this book would hit me harder than it did. It seemed to be pretty well paced which I was happy about, but about halfway through, I began to realize that I didn’t really care how this book ended. I wasn’t completely invested in the characters or their lives so I didn’t really care what happened ...more

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May 07, 2020 Claude's Bookzone rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dealing-with-grief, engaging-storyline, friendships, mystery, mean-girls, revenge, young-adult-book, content-warning-see-text, high-school, romance

CW: Dealing with grief, loss of loved one, guilt, bullying, drugging of a teenager, excessive drinking

A good high school revenge drama focused on the take-down of the school's elite students. Chloe wants to end the ‘Level Ones’ reign of terror because of the role they played in the loss of her friend Monica. She gains access to the inner sanctum by way of blackmail and forces one of the boys in the group to 'fake date' her. Slowly Chloe uncovers the truth of the dynamics within the group and has ...more

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Feb 13, 2020 Nemo (The Moonlight Library) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-read, audience-young-adult, genre-contemporary, it-s-a-love-story-ruuuuuun, first-world-problems, stand-alone, format-ebook, arc, publisher-5-harpercollins, revenge

This review was originally posted on The Moonlight Library

Clique Bait by Ann Valett (an Australian author!) is a high school rich mean girls revenge and fake dating story set in an American high school, with a cynical lead vowing to get revenge on the mean kids clique that did something terrible to her ex-best friend. It's full of glitz and glamour, loads of backstabbing and bitches, allegedly some hot guys (I didn't see it, sorry!), so I can definitely see the appeal of that kind of novel. I wa This review was originally posted on The Moonlight Library

Clique Bait by Ann Valett (an Australian author!) is a high school rich mean girls revenge and fake dating story set in an American high school, with a cynical lead vowing to get revenge on the mean kids clique that did something terrible to her ex-best friend. It's full of glitz and glamour, loads of backstabbing and bitches, allegedly some hot guys (I didn't see it, sorry!), so I can definitely see the appeal of that kind of novel. I was originally drawn to it because it came up for review at the same time as The Upside of Falling, a fellow Wattpad novel that started on Episode, so I figured why not give both of these novels a go and see how their origins affect the end product.

This book was originally a Wattpad novel, and unfortunately it still feels like a Wattpad novel. The conflicts are bite sized. The scenes are bite sized. The chapters are short and punchy. And there's not much emotional depth to it. Overall it just feels a little clumsy. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it had been able to give more depth, motivation, background, and emotional intelligence to any of the other characters besides out lead, Chloe.

But that's really not what Wattpad fans are looking for.

I did love how the book was broken into sections depending on Chloe's plan including infiltrating and blackmailing the Clique. The little letters at the beginning of each chapter were a nice choice, too. It made me wonder what happened to Monica and why was it such a mystery: I didn't know if she had changed schools, was in a coma, or if she'd moved to Australia. I only knew that SOMETHING TERRIBLE had happened, but the Clique did such terrible things to each other and the people around them that I just couldn't guess what it was.

I really didn't see the appeal of hot mean guy with a heart of gold, William. I feel like William only liked Chloe due to some kind of guilt over Monica, and I feel like Chloe is only attracted to William because he's alleged hot and definitely rich, and doesn't have any deeper feelings than that. Again, I think this was a failing of this book originating on Wattpad, because young readers don't care about emotional depth or meaningful connections, they only care about sexual tension. And boy, Chloe had a lot of sexual tension. So much that she didn't even recognise it in herself for a looong time.

My biggest problem was that Chloe and Monica had been best friends for years, they attended the same school, and Chloe just expected people to not notice that. She thought she could reinvent herself and the Clique would just have no idea. Yet she was still friends with people from her old life, including inviting them to an exclusive party. She wore an accessory that had famously belonged to her ex-bestie and expected no one to notice. Chloe was supposed to be smart, and she was very good at manipulating, but a lot of what she achieved came down to sheer luck, or someone else's motivations, and I found that frustrating. She wasn't the smart good girl Valett kept telling us she was, and that annoyed me.

That being said, I kind of couldn't stop thinking about this book. I wanted more rich kid drama. I wanted more glitz and glam. I guess that's why the book was so popular! On the flip side, I did feel that this was, like REALLY adult. Like, these are high school kids and they're having sex scandals and underage drink spiking and night clubs and all kinds of stuff that just seemed really grown up. Maybe that was also part of the appeal, because young readers love to read about the misadventures of kids older than themselves.

Overall I did really enjoy reading this book, I just feel like it didn't move on much from its Wattpad days, and older, more experienced readers might have a hard time loving this. Younger kids will probably lap it up, though.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. ...more

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Apr 29, 2020 Stella rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reads

me done, but im underwelmed.😞
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this book bored the heck out of me, and i do get bored easily. how does a revenge book become this forgettable

this plot revolved around the main character, chloe, wanting to get revenge on the popular crowd that contributed to hurting her best friend, monica. anyway, she begins to start “fake dating” William ,and this was a mess. chloe was awful at getting revenge, like how did no one realize she was a snake. she was annoying. there was also Will me done, but im underwelmed.😞
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this book bored the heck out of me, and i do get bored easily. how does a revenge book become this forgettable

this plot revolved around the main character, chloe, wanting to get revenge on the popular crowd that contributed to hurting her best friend, monica. anyway, she begins to start “fake dating” William ,and this was a mess. chloe was awful at getting revenge, like how did no one realize she was a snake. she was annoying. there was also William falling for her which didn’t make sense since she wasn’t even a little bit likable. she also got one of her friends, jack, to help get dirt on this crowd so that adds to the chaos.

the popular crowd having “depth.” there wasn’t enough to make it interesting. we find out francis is the worst, as he is abusive towards lola. zach is dating someone from outside of their clique, max. sophie is messing around with a teacher blah blah blah. this friend group was so bland like it was hard to even want to root for their downfall. they just seemed like they needed help.

chloe was the worst CHARACTER to read from. like her pov SUCKED. she wasn’t interesting nor complex nor had anything going for her. she was just a lonely girl that held her friend to a higher standard and didn’t want to confront that nobody is perfect. she was disgusting. disgusting.

it was really obvious monica was dead. we find out that, at a party, as a trick, she jumped into the shallow end and died. chloe had really been getting revenge for a friend that didn’t care for her and that’s what fell flat. it felt more like chloe was stuck in the past and wanted revenge when she couldn’t see that monica was flawed, and it was just… you can tell the clique was impacted by her death.

ending. weak as heck. the confession at the end with lola was so weak like how are we supposed to feel bad when she barely had any one-on-one scenes with chloe and was a jerk the ENTIRE book. she says revenge isn’t the answer and apologizes, sophie and francis have to get a lawyer. this is because the video footage that chloe had found was released with their secrets. jack released it. soph and francis left, sophie was having an affair with the teacher, zach disappeared, maddy apologized and has a yt platform which seemed to actually be decent, and lola just kept to herself.

my thing is I skipped over the entire plot because it was a whole lot of nothing. the “popular” clique was boring, and her relationship with William was boring, and there was just no fun in her plot. I feel like im repeating myself but there was very little of anything redeemable of this. there are better revenge stories than this book. ...more

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Sep 21, 2019 Paula Phillips rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Being a reviewer has its perks like getting advanced copies of books just like Clique Bait by Ann Valett which isn't released till April 2020. The upside of this book was that it doesn't end on a cliffhanger which means I don't have to wait a whole year for a sequel as I have in the past with situations like this. Just like Anna Todd was picked up for her story on Wattpad, Ann Valett has too for Clique Bait. This story starts off with Chloe planning to get revenge for her friend Monica who has d ...more

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Oct 28, 2020 Nadhira Satria rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary

I finished this book in less than 24 hours
I ATE THAT SHIT UP
UGH IM SUCH A TRASH FOR GOSSIP GIRL-ESQUE BOOKS AND I READ THIS LIKE I WAS ON CRACK
I didn’t think it would be good like i thought it would be trashy and dumb but it was trashy and good lmaooo
I honestly needed this contemporary trashy break from all the heavy fantasy books I’ve been reading.
It’s so fun and addicting and I just couldn’t stop reading it

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Mar 03, 2020 Marie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-releases, arcs

Trigger warnings: (view spoiler)

Diversity: POC side characters, queer side character.

Real Rating: 4,5 stars.
I had SO much fun with this one. It was such an entertaining read I wanted to devour it all. I liked the fake-dating romance and how it slowly developed, I liked the determined main character and yeah, I had a lot of fun with that one ...more

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May 25, 2019 Grace Collins rated it really liked it

This story was unique and very well-written. I thoroughly enjoyed it for its realistic depiction of relationships in High School and the harsh reality of dealing with things like revenge. With a little mystery trickled in there and an immense desire to know what happens in the next chapter, I couldn't put the story down. This is my review of the online version. I'll extend once I read the published copy!

UPDATE: read the published version. The story was as great as I remember. Changed to 4/5 star ...more

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Jan 28, 2020 Cora Tea Party Princess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Review to come!

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Mar 09, 2020 Taschima rated it liked it

Shelves: edelweiss-grind, e-arc-titles-done, stacking-the-e-reader

Not gonna lie, reading Foul Is Fair might have ruined me for other revenge stories. IT WAS THAT GOOD.

Anyways..

Well, I can see the appeal.

Click Bait is definitely compulsively readable. It is just so easy to fall into the story, I finished it in two days flat.

HOWEVER, there are still things that could have been further developed, and the plot twist was kind of weak.

One of the highlights of Clique Bait was the relationship between Chloe and William. It actually snuck up on me. At first they are on ...more

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May 08, 2020 Jaye Berry added it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, 2020, audiobook, ya

Well... this was... interesting... I noticed after finishing that this was originally a wattpad story and that explains so damn much. If I had known I would have just skipped.

Clique Bait is about a girl named Chloe who is out for revenge. After the popular kids at school ruined her best friend Monica's life, Chloe makes a plan to join their ranks and then expose their secrets. To get in she blackmails a boy named William into fake dating her but then real feelings start happening.

I mean I was en Well... this was... interesting... I noticed after finishing that this was originally a wattpad story and that explains so damn much. If I had known I would have just skipped.

Clique Bait is about a girl named Chloe who is out for revenge. After the popular kids at school ruined her best friend Monica's life, Chloe makes a plan to join their ranks and then expose their secrets. To get in she blackmails a boy named William into fake dating her but then real feelings start happening.

I mean I was entertained enough?? I just really needed some mindless trash to pass the time while I played Animal Crossing and this was hella mindless trash. This is very similar to Burn for Burn (which it even mentions on the goodreads summary), honestly probably too similar in a way because it just felt like reading that but not as spicy. This also had Mean Girls vibes but not actually fun or meaningful at all.

I like my revenge stories to involve much more murder (because this had zero and was just petty dumb sex secret shit) and less literally outing gay boys and thinking you really did something. Disgusting and Chloe can choke.

This is a mystery, wat? It's obvious what happened from the very beginning and when it had such a big reveal it didn't live up to the hype. Nothing lived up to the hype the book was giving itself. Chloe is planning some big epic revenge on these popular kids and it's just very small and then the ending happens SO fast and literally nothing mattered at all. Everything wraps up in half a chapter and then it ends like oh, okay I guess.

All of the characters and the romance is so tropey and cliché and it was such a joke. I think everyone in this book lives in some weird ass fantasy land because that is not how anything works. The romance was hilariously bad too because it was so fast and they had no chemistry at all. Chloe had more chemistry with the random friend she talked to once in the book.

So I mean if you need some good old dumb high school trash and characters acting like they are all on crack as they drink alcohol like it is water, this is the book for you. ...more

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Sep 11, 2020 Yasmin Sultana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I hardly write reviews. But for this book I felt that I would be betraying if I don't write the review of this book.( I should say the thing I hate mostly in my life is Betrayal) When I first started to read the book, I didn't think that I would like this book so much. For me reading books are like a escape and that's why I choose rom-coms as they aren't real, they are just fictional. But this is a book that is different from all the rom-com books I had read earlier. Most of the rom-coms are pre ...more

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Jan 07, 2021 Silly Goose rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: stupid-ending, solid-ending, underrated-books, mystery-recs

Clique Bait: ★★★★
*Taylor Swift Readathon Part 4: Red*

Before I review this book, can we all appreciate the unbelievably GENIUS title this book has?
*Immense applause*

Okay, so, I heard about this book right? And obviously being the anti-school-hierarchy gal I am, I was like, yep, that's the one. It showed up on my front door step--and I immediately went to smell the pages--and low and behold, on the spine of this book was the dreaded logo for none other than...

WATTPAD.

I have an enormous fear of Wa ...more

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May 01, 2020 Tay Marley rated it it was amazing

I absolutely loved this book ! I couldn’t put it down. I genuinely couldn’t see how it was going to turn out. The plot was unique and I thought it had an amazing mix of TV drama such as Gossip Girls and real life issues that teens face at high school today. Peer pressure. Bullying. Impossible to meet standards. Anxiety. It was fantastic. !

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May 19, 2020 Kirra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Clique Bait was the first book on my list that I really wanted to read this month. Lately, I've definitely felt the struggle getting into my current reads and I really needed an engrossing book that wasn't too serious. I saw this book and I thought it sounded fun like Heathers or Jawbreaker. I was also wondering just what the hell these popular students did to Chloe's best friend that made her want to carry out such an extreme takedown.

Straight away you're introduced to Chloe and in her diary en ...more

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May 12, 2020 Amanda rated it liked it · review of another edition

You can also read my review here: https://devouringbooks2017.wordpress....

3.5 Stars

As soon as I heard of Clique Bait I knew that I was going to enjoy reading it. I love picking up a book like this every now and then and tend to pick them up when I’m on a verge of a reading slump because they’re always entertaining and easy reads. I expected this to be full of rich girl drama and I was even more excited that it was set at an elite private school. Clique Bait was a quick, entertaining read that al You can also read my review here: https://devouringbooks2017.wordpress....

3.5 Stars

As soon as I heard of Clique Bait I knew that I was going to enjoy reading it. I love picking up a book like this every now and then and tend to pick them up when I’m on a verge of a reading slump because they’re always entertaining and easy reads. I expected this to be full of rich girl drama and I was even more excited that it was set at an elite private school. Clique Bait was a quick, entertaining read that also dove into how harmful bullying can truly be. I tore through this book pretty quickly and really enjoyed it.

I found all of the characters to be a bit superficial, which you tend to expect in books like this, but I had expected Chloe to have a bit more substance to her. All of her decisions seemed to be run by her need for revenge and not much else. I would have liked some flashbacks to her friendship with Monica so that I could at least understand why revenge was so important to her. The popular girls were sufficiently nasty, but not quite as bad as I expected them to be. I feel like a bit more character development could have done wonders for this book.

I didn’t really read too much of the blurb before diving into this book, so I was really thrilled with the revenge plot. It felt a bit like Mean Girls, where a girl infiltrates the popular clique in order to bring them down. While it definitely had some Mean Girls vibes, there were also many differences between this book and that movie. I didn’t know that there would be a fake romance as a part of the plot and I discovered that I really enjoy the whole idea of a fake romance. The bullying wasn’t as extreme as I had expected it to be, but you could definitely catch onto the hierarchy and admiration people had for the popular clique. The ending of the book wasn’t as powerful as I had expected it to be. I think it the story built up to it well, but then it just felt like it didn’t live up to what I had expected.

Overall I think it was an entertaining read that touched on some important topics, but it wasn’t great. I just expected a little more than what I got. I did enjoy the revenge plot and the fake romance, but it just felt like it was lacking a bit of substance. I did enjoy it though and read it really fast, so I will definitely be paying attention to what Ann Valet writes next. ...more

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May 27, 2020 I'm All Booked Up YA rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

Chloe Whitticker wants one thing: revenge. Last year, a group of rich and popular students destroyed the life of Monica Pennington, Chloe’s best friend. Now, Chloe won’t stop to make them pay for ruining Monica’s life.

At this elite private school outside of Los Angeles, most students have money, but some have everything handed to them. They’re known to Chloe as Level 1. They’re evil and will crush anyone who stands in their way.

There is Lola: the Queen Bee, Sophie: the enforcer, Maddy: the ditz, ...more

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May 03, 2020 Karen Barber rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-kindle-copy

A revenge story has to be believable for us to really get behind it. Chloe is determined to get revenge on what she terms the Level One students in her high school. We know it’s linked to her ex-best friend Monica but we are told very little else. Not knowing this for much of the story makes it quite hard to understand why Chloe is so determined to go all out for this.
Following Chloe we see her set up her way in - using politician’s son Will Bishop to act as her boyfriend so she won’t expose his ...more

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Feb 20, 2021 Tiyasa Tikadar rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've read the published version rather than the wattpad one and I must admit, this book is mind-blowing! Each and every person, from whom Chloe wants to take revenge, intrigued me in the best way possible. This is a MUST READ!!!

Ps: The ending is different from the Wattpad version but it's lovely in my pov ;) ...more

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Apr 18, 2020 Lauren ✨ (TheBookishTwins) rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary, edelweiss, highly-anticipated-2020

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you kindly to HarperTeen for my review copy.

Means Girls meets Get Even , Clique Bait follows Chloe's path for revenge against the most popular students at her rich prep school after her best friends life, Monica, was destroyed. She's traded in her thrift fashion for designer labels, deep cleansed her social media, and carefully devised a plan to infiltrate the group, collect their dirty secrets, and release them ...more

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Feb 25, 2020 hayaat ♥ marked it as to-read

i read this forever ago on wattpad, and i really liked it!! so i'm v excited to see this version (and hopefully like it as much) ...more

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May 11, 2020 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really enjoy this book. Everything about it was so good.

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May 08, 2020 Austin rated it it was ok · review of another edition

this was so predictable and stupid that it transcended itself and became High Art. getting one more star than it deserves because I respect the hustle

it is, however, UNHINGED that Chloe is written Like That and I'm supposed to believe she's straight??? ma'am. ...more

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Sep 18, 2020 Kate rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This felt like an amped up Mean Girls. The main character, Chloe, decides to extract revenge for her friend Monica, and by doing this, she needs to infiltrate the popular kid clique. It was an engaging read, but nothing special.

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