BOOK REVIEW: The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

 The young adult book genre has come a long way from when I was a teenager.  The books were kind of hit or miss for me then. “The Outsiders” by SE Hinton was a good example but many of them were not so I started reading adult fiction early.

As an adult, I read both adult and young adult fiction a lot. 

The young adult genre has improved greatly with some good books written to appeal to readers of all ages.

One of those books is “The Cousins” by Karen M. McManus. In it, you meet Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story. 

They are cousins who barely know each other. Years ago, their very wealthy grandmother disowned their parents with a one-line letter: "You know what you did."

Years later, the cousins are surprised when each one of them receives a letter inviting them to work at their grandmother’s island resort for the summer. Their parents saw it as an opportunity to get back into their mother's good graces—and get their share of the Story money. The Storys were like the Kennedys except without all the politics.

I loved this book because it was an easy read that was filled with twists and turns. I could have finished in a day, but I paced myself and took two days.

The story was told from the viewpoints of the cousins and flashes back to the past from the point of Milly’s mother Allison. 

I wanted to know why the parents were disowned. The answer and the conclusion of the book were very surprising. 

Each of the cousins were unique with their own backstories. 

This experience helped their relationships with each other grow as they tried to figure out what happened so many years ago.

This book was a good bridge between two heavy books that I have been reading. I enjoyed it and I hope McManus will write more about the Story family in the future.