Review of These Vengeful Hearts

My Review of These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin, a book that is perfect for readers looking for Books Like Pretty Little Liars!

These Vengeful Hearts by Katherine Laurin  (2020)

A girl infiltrates a secret sorority of REVENGE to get even for her sister’s accident.

At Heller High, a secret society called Red Court deals out both social ruin and favors.. Teh group is led by a mysterious the Queen of Hearts.

Ember is determined to hold the organization accountable by taking it down from the inside. But will the cost of revenge be more than she’s willing to sacrifice?

Review of These Vengeful Hearts

This was supposed to be a revenge book in which Ember infiltrates a secret club at school that she blames for something that happened to her sister April. But for me the set-up was flimsy and the ending disappointing.

The things that the club did were often pretty awful and for no good reason except that someone wanted to screw someone else over – it wasn’t a vengeance club that was righting wrongs, more like a Mean Girls MLM (multilevel marketing scheme) that helped people screw over a rival or someone they hated in exchange for a favor later on. The book tries to spin this as “oh, if you ask the club for a favor you OWE us” but this never really worked for me.

What happened to April was sort of sketchily explained for most of the book. She’s not really a big part of the book and for me the motivation was never really convincingly set up, leaving Ember doing a bunch of crappy things to people for a reason that didn’t feel very emotionally grounded. April seemed kind of blasé about the whole thing imo.

The romance was not the best – Ember was “drawn” to Chase and then warned away from him. Rinse and repeat. 

Though this book wasn’t for me, it might be for you.

Or check out my list of Books Like Pretty Little Liars!