Sneaking Out by Chuck Vance Review

Thank you to I am a Reader for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Luke Chase a national hero, and sneaking out to the woods with his best friend to meet the new hot British girl at St Benedict's is not something he would normally do. Little did he know someone would end up dead right next to their rendezvous spot and best friend and roommate Oscar would go down for it. Using his past Luke applies he survival skills to find the real killer before its too late.

Luke and Oscar are best friends who couldn't be less alike, Luke being an average student in grades but never once breaking the rules while Oscar is one strike of expulsion. I find a dynamic like this with in friends to be rather common, as they say opposites attract.This I found to be quite relatable making this a good start to this book. Pippa moved from England to the US and has a cool girl persona that sent a wide range of mixed signals to Luke, I found Pippa's situation of moving away from everything you love to start again to be very relatable as well although I didn't move for the same reasons she did, so there being a second fairly relatable theme in this book.  The characters were all very realistic with a wide variety of people that you would except to find in a private school in North America.
The storyline - fantastic, I loved how Vance was able to get Luke to use his history in order to try and save his best friend. Although there wasn't much character development within Luke's character, there was development within the mystery itself, which in my opinion is what counts in a YA mystery novel. Luke used his history to follow the clues he discovered well, but kept underestimating himself. I understand the need to underestimate yourself believing that what ever has happened is just luck because if you didn't maybe you'd have to admit something about yourself. Mr Tadeckis saw that in Luke and although crazy, was definitely my favourite character. (But I think I relate well to crazy, but don't let me go too much into it.)
One issue I did have with this book is that since the teachers are such as big part of this book (being set in a school and all) they need to be slightly more distinguishable, I often got mixed up when Luke was talking to different teachers and I would have to stop and wrack my brain to remember why Luke went to that specific teacher and talked about those specific things. However, this may have simply been how I personally read the book.
Overall the mystery developed well and I am very excited for whenever the next book my be written.
8.5/10
xo

Book Published 6th March 2018