The Rivals by Daisy Whitney

Whitney, D. The Rivals.  New York: Little, Brown & Company, 2012. ISBN# 978-0316090575. 352 pgs. $13.03 (from amazon.com)

My Review & Recommendation:  

The Rivals is the sequel to The Mockingbirds.  Alex, a student at a fairly uptight boarding school, suffered as a victim to a very serious incident last year.  She was raped.  But, this year she has decided to become the leader of The Mockingbirds.  The Mockingbirds are a secret organization run by the students - they fight for justice when perhaps parents, teachers or administrators don't understand.  Alex faces a serious challenge this time. And, thats not to say that former students who went to The Mockingbirds never had serious problems.  But what will happen if Alex has to help someone who doesn't even know they need help? What if they don't want help? What if her fellow Mockingbirds or friends or boyfriend are in on a scandal?  In this story Alex will fight to protect the student body from maybe even themselves.  She will have to dig deep and discover even more potentially unwanted truth - and this is truth that maybe she doesn't want to know.  It will not be an easy case of black and white, wrong and right - instead Alex will have to consider the situations, the gray areas that have not been strictly defined.  She will have to define them for herself and in doing so she will discover herself.  Daisy Whitney's books are some of my favorites - her characters are real and have real issues to solve.  I would recommended this book for teens and young adults - this mystery is perfect for teens who love to see a story full of twists and turns with a little romance and drama embedded too.

Click to read my blog post on The Mockingbirds (the book prior to The Rivals). 

Can't get enough?  Check out another blog post on The Rivals to read another perspective on this book!

Take a peek at a preview of The Rivals (pdf file)

Buy the Ebook version of The Rivals or The Mockingbirds