review: capital girls by ella monroe

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The Capital Girls were four friends at a private school in Washington, DC, but as the first book in the series begins, one of the girls is already dead.  The back cover indicates there’s a mystery surrounding Taylor’s death, but the payoff is weak.  First off, the girls don’t even realize anything’s amiss until the book is more than half done.  At that point, Jackie (who the story centers on) learns the truth, but tells no one because she’s far more concerned about the related betrayal.  Instead of being about the mystery, Capital Girls is primarily about Jackie’s romantic entanglements and the difficulty of being in a high-profile relationship with the President’s son.  There are a few subplots to involve the others, but those don’t get much attention.  The other characters aren’t well developed, which makes their actions confusing at times.  Why do the girls other than Jackie accept newcomer Whitney?  Why is Whitney so willing to act as a spy for her gossip columnist mother?  More development was definitely in order. 

2/5

Review copy from Amazon Vine.