Six emancipated teens living together in a glamorous LA beach house: what could possibly go wrong? A lot, as readers learn in this second volume of Reyes' suspense-filled Emancipated series. For Paolo and John-Michael, it's dead bodies passing as hit-and-runs on a deserted mountain highway; for Grace, it's a father on death row scheduled for execution in only two weeks. Lucy, for her part, faces a dream-recovery hypnosis session and a terrifying decision, while Candace and Maya entertain romances and job offers a bit too good to be true. And is their uninvited houseguest a planted spy? Lies building upon more lies further intensify the relationships and hurtle toward a cliff-hanger of an ending that will have readers dying for the next installment of this disconcerting, but always compelling, trilogy.

Six legally emancipated, culturally and racially diverse teens share a luxury house in Venice Beach, but the once-tightknit group is drifting apart, and their only hope for coming together is breaking through the multiple lies, coverups, and conspiracies twisting through their lives. In this sequel to Emancipated (2015), Reyes presents a slew of characters with a thickly woven fabric of stories to keep straight, and each of these characters has at least some element of a horrific past. While there's enough story here for at least two books, Reyes is compact but artful with her writing, particularly with the dialogue, which naturally captures slang and diction from different cultures and manages not to seem forced or expository even when dealing with scenarios that may seem more befitting a vintage crime series than a modern teen novel. It's sometimes confusing, sometimes difficult, with a tangle of plot threads that even includes one literal cliffhanger and a daring escape from quicksand, but it's ultimately rewarding for its simply told complicated story. And though its tone and pace would be right at home with crime classics, the novel offers a more colorful world than can be found in most of those old books, drawing from the author's knowledge of Mexico City, Manchester, England, and Los Angeles, and reflecting different nationalities, cultures, and different races within them, each with inherent humanity, and largely unburdened by tokenism. The juxtaposition of rounded characters with outrageous situations gives readers just enough of a base to stand on before the story runs off with them. (Thriller. 14-18)

This second Emancipated novel continues the frothy yet compelling saga of six emancipated teens sharing a house in Venice Beach. The gorgeous housematesall hiding powerful secretsare familiar; the troubled guy, nice girl, star, rocker, nerd, and hustler. Just as the group begins to bond, one housemate's stunning secret becomes known and slowly binds the four females in a dangerous situation. Meanwhile, the two males are also uneasily yoked; while one is innocently involved in a freak accident, his shocking behavior afterward will assure guilt if discovered, so the two engineer a seemingly foolproof cover-up. The housemates alternately assist and suspect one another regarding their situations, but others are also watching; after a hitman attacks, the group reacts violently, forcing their harried escape to a friend's Napa home. Seeing Venice in the rearview mirror does not bring the expected relief, however, as another twist causes each to realize, a little too late, that their individual situations have been carefully orchestrated and they are heading toward circumstances far more frightening than those left behind.Alternating chapters first feature individual housemate's secrets and views, creating what seems like a character studies novel; then, as the story gradually involves more housemates, surprises, conspiracies, and deceptions continually appear with the novel quickly accelerating into a focused, searing "whodunit." Although highly dramatic with its premise and dubious events, the story is gripping and will involve its female readers in multiple, fast-paced guessing games before leaving them eagerly awaiting the next novel in the series.Lisa Hazlett.This is every teenager's fantasy; who would not want to live in Venice Beach without adults? Naturally, the setting is only a mirage, with the housemates' pasts and current bad choices making their lives nightmarish, and by continually keeping secrets instead of communicating, they unknowingly invite outside threats. The story is also mirage-like regarding believability, but its situations are incredibly exciting and gripping with most unexpected and shocking twists, and few will see the ending coming. 4Q, 4P.Twila A. Sweeney, Teen Reviewer.