The Cousins

Product Information

Content Warnings:Alcohol abuse/addiction, Alcohol use (including underage drinking), Arson, Cheating/adultery, Child abuse (emotional/psychological), Death of a loved one, Drugging, Emesis, Gambling addiction (mentioned), Incest (inferred), Miscarriage, Murder, Parental neglect, Pregnancy 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: Summary: The Storys are the envy of their neighbors: affluent, gorgeous, and close-knit, they possess the largest piece of land on their East Coast island. till everything breaks out. The mother of the four kids abruptly leaves them with just one sentence: Everybody has secrets,” she says, taking a sip of her drink. “That's non-debatable. The only question is whether you're keeping your own, or someone else's.”

Jonah is the son of Anders, the charismatic and cold-hearted second son--his most recent newsmaking turn is running a financial scheme that bankrupted people. Jonah's a bit much, really, but even though he has a major chip on his shoulder, that doesn't stop him from liking his cousins rather a lot, really... but will those warm, fuzzy feelings stop him from doing what he came to the island to do? So, there were a lot of plot twists in this book. Many of them I didn't guess- most of them, actually. It just felt like they came out of nowhere at times. And some of them you could probably miss if you were skimming or just not paying attention, which honestly probably would've happened to me if I was skimming, which I wasn't *cheers*In the midst of all of this, Milly solves the mystery of who invited them to the island. It was their Uncle Archer who has been living and working on the island disguised as a bartender named Chaz. He has not seen Mildred. However, he thinks that Dr. Baxter recognized him. He is right. Dr. Baxter sends him a letter saying that he needs to tell him something that he should have told him years ago. However, Dr. Baxter dies before he can do so. Although I’m new to Karen M.McManus’ novels, I’m no stranger to the buzz surrounding her work so I jumped at the chance to read her latest book as part of The Write Reads blog tour. La verdad es que en Lazos de sangre desde el primer momento parece que vamos a ser testigos de algo macabro, de un misterio que lleva décadas desenvolviéndose frente a los ojos de los lugareños de la isla Gull Cove y honestamente, creo que no termina de ser tan increíble como parece en un principio. Sí, está bien. Sí, tiene giros que me dejaron completamente descuadrado. Y sin embargo, y lamentándolo mucho, me esperaba algo más. I loved the intriguing pace, riveting story telling and well developed characterization: I loved all of the cousins: Both of them are flawed, lost, dealing more burdens they can handle but they didn’t irritate me much like their parents!

I will always recommend Karen M. Mcmanus’s books to anyone who is looking for a combination of YA contemporary mixed with murder mystery. All three teens think that this sounds like a terrible way to spend the summer, but they aren't really given an option. Characters :- None of the characters were appealing at all , I wasn't rooting for anyone . I just didn't care whether they live or die. Aubrey ( only okaish and sensible character) , Milly ( buy me a drink and please give her some sense) , Jonah ( haha , which one?). What irritated me the most was that I had to remember the name of there parents and they were so damn confusing like why you have to name them with A.

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. Finally it ends with another explosive twist! You clap! You congratulate to the author for her evil genius mind ( I can literally sense her evil laughs making fun of my dumbness even though I guessed some of the revelations before hitting the ending chapter!) 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?! SN: You switch perspectives in this book, like you have in other books, but this time there are so many different characters and routes you could have taken. How did you decide, ultimately, to allow these specific characters to tell the story of this family? 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.