They All Had a Reason

Leathers, Michele. They All Had a Reason 
October 7, 2025 by Sourcebooks Fire

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Charlotte's nemesis is Bellany Silverfield, a popular, pretty girl who is also very mean. Ever since Charlotte's mother dated Bellany's father, the two have been at odds, even though Bellany's twin, Bridger, is Charlotte's best friend. At a party at the Silverfield house to celebrate the twin's 17th birthday, Charlotte overhears some compromising information about Bellany cheating on her boyfriend, Quentin, and Bellany locks her in the basement. Charlotte manages to get out, and tries to help Quentin look for Bellany, who has gone missing. Charlotte finds Bellany some ways from the house... bluedgeoned to death, with her phone at her feet. Shocked, Charlotte returns to the party as though nothing has happened. When the cops break up the festivities, she goes home. At the funeral, her best friend Vivy is ready to gossip, and Wade is flirting with Charlotte, but the shocker is that Bellany has signed her own funeral guest book and there's not a body in the coffin! Charlotte tries to get information from Bridger, but he doesn't know anything. Later, Wade and Charlotte go to the cemetery and try to ask the gravediggers if they can put a "family heirloom" in the coffin, but there is a scuffle and they find themselves pursued by one of the workers whom they call "Tattoo Face". The official line is that Bellany was cremated and half of the ashes went to her mother in Europe and half were buried, but Charlotte doesn't believe this. When she becomes a prime suspect when pictures of her car near the scene surface, Charlotte knows she must solve the mystery or end up in jail. She makes a list of suspects, tries to return to school, where she is ostracized, and makes a series of risky decisions when her mother is out of town. Will she be able to solve the mystery, or will she be arrested for murder? The ending is more surprising than you could imagine.
Strengths: Imagine you are seventeen and you want to write a murder mystery. This is the book you would write. The evil character is pretty and popular, so of course she is murdered. At the funeral, the teens are more concerned with smoking and conspiracy theories about the body. Even though Charlotte is eventually questioned about the murder, her mother is absent most of the book. There are midnight chase scenes in the cemetery. Not only that, but the ending was quite the surprise. This is sensational, and rather like a slasher film. Not too much blood and gore, but just enough, and very little swearing or drinking, which I appreciated. The flirting is mild; there might have been one kiss. The cover is fantastic. Middle grade readers who ask me for Karen McManus titles will adore this one.
Weaknesses: If we apply standard measures of novel writing to this, it falls short. The characters are flat and stereotypical. The dialogue is stilted. There are huge plot holes, as well as many things that seem unlikely, from Charlotte carrying a handkerchief at the funeral to Quentin's mother having poisoned his father but being back after serving jail time. There's a weird sub plot with Wade's stepbrother Coop. The whole book reminded me a bit of 1990s Christopher Pike stories like The Midnight Club that just felt... icky. This is bound to be super popular.
What I really think: While I prefer April Henry's work, or even Natasha Preston's more mild stories, I may end up buying this one. It might not be great, but it's exactly what my students want. Sigh. I'm not sure I can read They All Had A Secret, which is the sequel even though the blurb lists different characters.

**WARNING**

If you read the review for the next book, it will spoil some of the twists of the first book. 

Leathers, Michele. They All Had a Secret #2

January 20, 2026 by Sourcebooks Fire

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus 

Bellany is not living in Chehallis, Washington, working as a maid in a motel and living in a room there. She is also working as a waitress. Her plan is to get the grandson of the owner, Roy, to break up with his girlfriend and marry her, so that she can have access to money and renovate the motel. She has made up a sad story that she was in foster care and has no one concerned about her, when in reality we find that Bellany was psychologically abused by her mother, who expected her to do chores, while her twin, Bridger, did not. We hear from the perspectives of a lot of different people who are involved in the town, and at one point Bellany (who goes by the name Charity), puts ExLax in Roy's girlfriend Samanta's drink while she is waiting on their table. 

This had a bit of a Flowers in the Attic vibe, in that every single character was unpleasant, and the writing was just not as good as it could have been. This will make it popular with readers who like Natasha Preston and other teen suspense authors, but I don't think I will buy it. It doesn't have the murder mystery element that the first book did, and just had an odd feel to it, with Samantha wanting to marry Roy, and Bellany being evil right and left. I'll stick with buying multiple copies of April Henry's books for my middle school library.