The Cousins

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This summer, the teenagers are determined to discover the truth at the heart of their family. But some secrets are better left alone. The Cousins started off decent, and proceeded to decline rapidly. I was really interested in the concept of estranged grandchildren being invited to their mysterious grandmother’s island, with possible murders to come. Except nothing of considerable note happens until beyond the halfway mark. By then, I was dozing off while reading due to the failings of the first half. As always, McManus uses a roving perspective, moving between the distinct voices of Milly, Aubrey and Jonah with ease. As the cousins get to know each other, they also begin to learn more about the history of the island they’re now living on, and by extension their grandmother. Gull Cove Island is a little-known east coast getaway that features local residents and wealthy vacationers alike. There’s layers of mystery and decades-old unanswered questions for the Story cousins to unravel, especially when they find their own parents at the center of it. Karen's books are always adept at multi-POV, but I really gelled with the characters in this one. I think b/c this one focuses on family trauma and the "sins of the father" being carried out on the children, there was a lot to latch onto (since I enjoy that stuff). The cousins are Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah, whose parents were disowned by their mega-rich mom 24 years ago and no one knows why. After two decades of radio silence, Grandma Milicent reaches out finally to her grandchildren and invites them to work at her resort for the summer so she can get to know them.

Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah have never met their grandmother, the immensely wealthy Mildred Story. Ever since she disowned all four of her children more than 20 years ago, she’s rebuffed any effort their parents have made through the years to reconcile or meet her grandchildren. Even their parents—all siblings—barely speak to each other.The teenager cousins who are sent to the resort which the grandmother they never met owns, barely know each other. Let me introduce them: Milly: cool, cunning, sharp witted, posh one,Allison’s daughter. Aubrey ( here we go, we have another A lettered character) insecure, sweet, peace maker, successful swimmer.: Adam’s daughter who hates her father’s guts but we don’t know the reason at the beginning. These children are now adults and three of them have children of their own; Aubrey, Jonah and Milly. The cousins hardly know one another, having only met a handful of times. And then there's the unnecessary romance. The same thing happened in You'll Be the Death of Me, and it ruined the whole book for me because I'm dramatic like that, but also because I just don't like romance in mystery because I feel like it takes away from the story. I can't get much into the people in the romance because it's a spoiler but it also felt really weird considering what they were beforehand... Also, there was no point in Allison's POV. It didn't give me any information, and when it did, I already knew about it because the present timeline had already covered that so we were basically just getting another confirmation. The Cousins follows 3 teenagers, who's parents were cut off by their mother over 20 years ago after receiving a letter that just says "you know what you've done" although apparently, none of them actually do know what they've done. Cut to present day, and the cousins are all invited to stay at their estranged grandmothers island resort over the summer as she's apparently had a change of heart and would like to get to know them. Upon arrival, the cousins try to uncover what exactly their parents did to get them cut off and why their grandmother wants to meet them after all this time.

In this book, Aubrey, Milly and Jonah Story are from the same family, but they don’t interact with one another much because of family drama and their parents estrangement from their elusive grandmother Mildred. But when the trio is invited to stay with Mildred at her island resort for the summer, their parents are all able to agree that not going is not an option. Everybody has secrets,” she says, taking a sip of her drink. “That's nondebatable. The only question is whether you're keeping your own, or someone else's.”The Goodreads plot summary of the The Cousins tells you everything you need to know going into this novel. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story, the titular cousins, are each keeping secrets. Their parents have been keeping secrets for decades. And their grandmother Mildred—who disinherited her own children with a simple letter cryptically stating “you know what you did”—may have the most secrets of all. The twists in the novel surrounding the Story family secrets are much deeper in comparison to those uncovered in other literature penned by McManus. There were continuous bombs being dropped as Milly, Aubrey and Jonah learn everything, from why they’re present at their grandmother’s home to why their parents’ relationships with her are so strained. The minute I thought I was over one twist, another one popped up for me to process. What the author excels at most is creating protagonists you can’t help but love and end up rooting for. I loved Milly, Aubrey and Jonah so dearly I wanted all good things for them. 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:

The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything. The Cousins But I know better. In the seconds before my grandmother regained her composure, one of my tangled thoughts separated from the rest with total, piercing clarity. She had absolutely no idea that we were coming. Probably not as good as “One of Us is Lying” or “Two Can Keep A Secret” but it was still nice to read. =) I really liked the Cousins even though their parents were mostly horrible. There’s a romance between Jonah and Milly. Now if you’ve read the book you’ll know they’re not actually related. However, when they meet and sparks fly, we don’t actually know that they are not related yet. The implied incest there just made me squirm. If you have to say “well technically it’s not incest” then you need to rework some things.

Hi friends! Today I’m posting my The Cousins Book Review. I am a huge fan of Karen M. McManus and her thrillers, so I was super excited when Penguin Random House sent me this book for review. Let’s get into it!Karen McManus’s books are on my automatic buy list and I don’t see myself taking her books off there anytime soon. This was enjoyable, though the plot was a little crazy, and again, as I said in my You'll Be the Death of Me review, I do not like mysteries with romance (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is an exception- I actually liked those characters.) and the one in this book just felt off and not needed. For instance we have three cousins whose characters are all very similar to those in “One of Us is Lying”. We have Milly who’s basically Bronwyn, we have Jonah who’s like Nate and we have Aubrey who’s the equivalent of Addy. Their characters reminded me a lot of those three and at times it felt like only the names were changed and they were put into a different environment. Which isn’t exactly bad but it isn’t something new either and it made it very easy for me to see where the plot would head. So in the end I saw some of the twists coming from miles away because I only had to remember ��One of Us is Lying” and already knew what would happen next. It’s hard to describe this but I hope you get what I mean?! All three teens think that this sounds like a terrible way to spend the summer, but they aren't really given an option. The teens do not want to go. However, their parents encourage them to accept the invitation. The cousins think that their parents hope to be re-inherited. Milly‘s mother bribes her by offering her a family heirloom. The only reason Aubrey is now anxious to go is because she has just learned that her father has had an affair with her swim coach, who is now pregnant with his child. Jonah complains about going because he has gotten a scholarship to attend a competitive science camp.

I’m going to start this review off by saying that I had some high hopes for this book and they were not met. The main issue I had was with the characters. I was not as invested in their story as I should have been. Milly, Aubrey and Jonah were each unique, with their own insecurities and hang-ups. I liked how their relationships evolved over the course of the story, as they began to work together to get to the bottom of why their parents got disowned. This is my new favorite of Karen McManus's YA thrillers! It hit many sweet spots for me: beach town, family secrets, rich assholes, and a few more that are spoilers. It's kind of unfortunate for everyone else this won't be out until winter, because it's a perfect summer jam! As the summer progresses, other strange things happen. Their grandmother leaves the island. Her lawyer, Donald, tries to get the cousins to leave by offering them another job. They stay. Milly discovers that Jonah is not their cousin. Milly and Aubrey keep his secret. They learn that Matt, Mildred's assistant's son, drowned on the same beach that Adam wrote about in a book he published. Additionally, a girl named Kayla, who knew their parents, died in a car accident around the same time that Mildred disinherited their parents. It seems as if Dr. Baxter knows a secret. The trio wonders if there is a connection between the deaths and Mildred’s action toward her children. Once introductions were made, it was full speed ahead into a plot filled with twists, turns and jaw-dropping moments. It seemed that every time there was a head-spinning revelation, another was waiting right around the corner. There wasn’t a single event that didn’t push the roller coaster forward; not one conversation failed to add another layer to the mystery.But one day each of the grandchildren gets a letter from Mildred inviting them to spend the summer working at the island resort she owns in New England. While each is mildly intrigued, no one particularly wants to spend their summer working for a woman they don’t know, one who has never cared about them.