The Counselors

This book was not what I was expecting. Well written and characters are well done. Easy read for a quick enjoyable plot.

I'm 67 and I thought this book would be a good one to read even if it is for YA's. I'm not a very good person at reviewing books but, this book is about three young girls who meet at a camp in Vermont when they are 8 years old and become close friends. I went to a camp for the blind with my twin brother and another girl from our town. We be came real good friends until we were in our 20's. She had left town to become a nanny. So I really enjoyed this book for that reason. Well Ava is described as White and rich. Imogen is half White and Asian, also rich, whereas Goldie is someone said white and Africa American. The other girls, Ava is from New York and Imogen is from New Jersey whereas Goldie is from Roxwood just down from this camp. She's a regular girl, a "townie". Not rich like all the other kids who come to the camp. Camp Alpine Lake is for the uber rich, which caters to the rich. Called a sleepaway camp, somewhere to send your children for 8 weeks in the summer. So for 10 years the 3 girls have been coming to this camp. Stu and Mellie are the owners and Christina works in the kitchen there and at the high school.Goldie's parents work at the camp too. Her father as the nurse and her mother works in the workshop. Ava has always considered her friends, Goldie and Imogen as her first loves and will love them forever. Every year though since her father ran off to Florida with his mistress and had twin girls with her. Ava meets and falls in love with a boy at camp or a girl. She breaks up with them after the 8 weeks. Goldie after the last summer falls for Heller the "Golden Boy" from school the Hockey star, before that she was a shadow at school, a nobody but becomes his girlfriend, gets invited to all the parties and is seen as one of the elite. She keeps trying to tell her friends about Heller but things happen in their life's that she ends up not being able to tell Ava or Imogen when they FaceTime or do 3 way calls. She's afraid of what Ava will say. Since Ava hates having a lasting relationship with a guy since her dad left her. Goldie's afraid Ava will think she has betrayed her. Will things happen to each of them. Two spoilers here, there's an accident News Year's Eve which Goldie ends up a pariah at school. Then when they all go to Camp Alpine Lake the next summer there's death at the camp. The rest I will let you read. I really really wish and hope the author writes a sequel like Goldie's parents and Christina somehow gets an award for catching Heller's killer or gets someone of the money back from bank accounts from overseas. Oops a spoiler.

The story starts with Goldie a girl from a town that hates her for causing a car accident (but in reality it was her bfs fault) summer comes and Goldie is ready to camp so she can forget about all the hate and enjoy summer with her best friends, one night the dead body of her ex bf is discovered at the camps lake, I have mixed feeling about this book, the plot twist wasn’t that shocking but I wasn’t expecting it since they were such good people, an amazing leaders, always making everyone feel welcome and loved but as you can see everyone go to lengths to protect who they love or should I say what they love? I hated ava at the beginning cause she seem just so self centered and manipulative but at the end I didn’t know what to feel about her, without anything else to say I think this book wasn’t bad but it was that good either.

The Counselors by Jessica Goodman is everything I hoped it would be! It’s the perfect young adult mystery that takes place at a summer camp in the summer (my favorite season!). While her books are what I would consider to be a “slow burn” she’s able to pack a lot into it with only 330 pages. I did have a feeling as to “who-dun-it” and why (which isn’t revealed until the end) but I enjoyed the story despite that. Normally that puts me off, but it doesn’t seem to phase me when Jessica Goodman is writing it!If you enjoy young adult mysteries, then I not only recommend tis book but her backlist as well. I like how she takes mundane things and turns them into stories with good plots, fantastic characters, and nostalgic settings!𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙:• Young Adult Mysteries• Summer Camp• Summer Mysteries𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐