Kiss Me Kill Me, by Lauren Henderson

While a discouraging number of C-grade Gossip Girl rip-offs cross our desks here at Wordcandy HQ, once in a while we encounter a story about rich teenagers behaving badly that stands out from the pack.

Such was the case with Lauren Henderson’s Kiss Me Kill Me, a smart, entertaining mystery/Mean Girls hybrid featuring 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield, the newest student at an exclusive English boarding school. Unlike the rest of her peers, Scarlett isn’t freaking out over dating or clothes or college admissions. Instead, she’s desperately hoping no one will discover her darkest secret: that the last (and only) boy she kissed suffocated in her arms, the apparent victim of a freak allergy attack. Scarlett still doesn’t understand what happened, but she’s determined to find out.

As the first book in a series, Kiss Me Kill Me leaves a distressing number of loose ends at the end of the novel. This is usually the kind of thing that drives us nuts, but we actually discovered this series at the perfect time (for once). The sequel, entitled Kisses and Lies, is due out this week, and we’re happy to assure our readers that it ends things on a very satisfying note. We’ll be featuring our review of Kisses and Lies on the main site later in the week, so please swing over there to check it out when it’s posted!