#BookReview Girls With Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier & Wendy Katzman @Sourcebooks @katzndobs @sbkslandmark #GirlsWithBrightFutures #KatznDobs #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Girls With Bright Futures

Author: Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 2, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 416

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Three women. Three daughters. And a promise that they’ll each get what they deserve.

College admissions season at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Academy is marked by glowing acceptances from top-tier institutions, and students as impressive as their parents are ambitious. But when Stanford alerts the school it’s allotting only one spot to EBA for their incoming class, three mothers discover the competition is more cutthroat than they could have imagined.

Tech giant Alicia turns to her fortune and status to fight for her reluctant daughter’s place at the top. Kelly, a Stanford alum, leverages her PTA influence and insider knowledge to bulldoze the path for her high-strung daughter. And Maren makes three: single, broke, and ill-equipped to battle the elite school community aligning to bring her superstar daughter down.

That’s when, days before applications are due, one of the girls suffers a near-fatal accident, one that doesn’t appear to be an accident at all.

As the community spirals out of control, three women will have to decide what lines they’re willing to cross to secure their daughters’ futures…and keep buried the secrets that threaten to destroy far more than just college dreams.


Review:

Menacing, intricate, and shrewd!

Girls With Bright Futures is a sinister tale that introduces us to Marin Presley, a hardworking, single mother who, after struggling to put clothes on their back, is proud to have been able to have her daughter, now a senior, attend the prestigious, competitive Elliott Bay Academy. But when her daughter, Winnie, is the victim of a hit-and-run, and the one covetous spot left up for grabs at Stanford seems to have been the cause, secrets begin crawling out of the woodwork, and at least three families will be irrevocably changed forever.

The prose is tight and intense. The characters are driven, secretive, and aggressive. And the plot told from multiple perspectives unravels and intertwines effortlessly into a suspenseful tale of deception, manipulation, jealousy, secrets, power, privilege, revelations, gossip, innuendos, mayhem, and malicious behaviours.

Overall, Girls With Bright Futures is a tight, unpredictable, satisfying thrill ride by Dobmeier and Katzman that reminds us that a sense of entitlement and ruthless ambition can often be a dangerous combination and even though one might think this is an outrageously unbelievable plot, recent headlines, unfortunately, prove to differ, and for this mother of two college students, I’m happy to say my experience was definitely a little less dramatic.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

           

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman

Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman have been great friends for over 20 years. Their friendship has sustained them through the ups and downs of raising kids, juggling careers, and creating new family traditions. GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES, their debut novel, is a dark, suspenseful journey into the cutthroat world of college admissions that will release on February 2nd, 2021. Between the two of them, they have undergraduate degrees from Princeton University and the University of Michigan, a law degree from UC Berkeley, careers in marketing, non-profit leadership and biotechnology law, two husbands, and four kids (three of whom have survived the college admissions process without a single parent landing in jail).

Photo by Kristen Sycamore Photography.