Blog Tour & Review/ Giveaway: The Rumor Game

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE RUMOR GAME by Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra Blog Tour
hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: THE RUMOR GAME

Author: Dhonielle Clayton & Sona
Charaipotra

Pub. Date: March 1, 2022

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 480

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks(audiobook), Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

All it takes is one spark to start a blaze.

At Foxham Prep, a posh private school for the children of DC’s elite, a single rumor has the power to ruin a life.

Nobody knows that better than Bryn. She used to have it all—the perfect boyfriend, a bright future in politics, and even popularity, thanks to her best friend, cheer captain Cora. Then one mistake sparked a scandal that burned it all to the ground.

Now it’s the start of a new school year and the spotlight has shifted: It’s geeky Georgie, newly hot after a summer makeover, whose name is on everyone’s lips. When a rumor ignites, Georgie rockets up the school’s social hierarchy, pitting her and Cora against each other. It grants her Foxham stardom . . . but it also makes her a target.

As the rumors grow and morph, blazing like wildfire through the school’s social media, all three girls’ lives begin to unravel. But one person close to the drama has the power to stop the gossip in its tracks. The question is—do they even want to?

From Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra, authors of the Tiny Pretty Things duology (now a Netflix series), comes the edge-of-your-seat social thriller everyone will be talking about.

Review:

“A juicy, elegant, absolutely flawless thriller with a twist. It’s the diverse Gossip Girl we’ve been waiting for!”―Tiffany D. Jackson, New York Times best-selling author of Grown and White Smoke

When I was in high school we didn’t have any social media (so you know that I am not the target market for this book) but all rumors start the same way by word of mouth. Thankfully people quickly forgot and we moved along except for the person who was affected by the rumor. Fast forward to the days of social media and I am sure those rumors don’t get forgotten as quickly. I am so happy I grew up in a time before social media. I don’t think I could handle being a teen now.

I might have been lucky back then not to be a target of a rumor because I basically tried to fly under the radar throughout my school days. I do know that my son was a target of a rumor. It was a few years ago and my son came home from hockey practice saying that someone was going around saying he had a concussion. Fellow teammates were asking if he was okay and he was like ya why? They told them what they heard and even the coaches asked if he was okay. Why a stupid rumor like that was going around is beyond me. Maybe it was a jealous teammate and they figured if they spread that then he would sit out games, I don’t know.

Anyways back to my review.

The Rumor Game is told from three points of view, Bryn, Cora, and Georgie. Each of them is telling their story in their points of view and how this rumor got started and has affected them. There is also a few side characters that add to the story as well.

I should mention right away that there are several trigger warnings in the book such as self-harm, bullying, abuse, assault, just to name a few.

We might think that private schools are the best for our kids but in reality, they have the same problems as public schools do for racism, bullying, making fun of people, being perfect, and being on top of that social ladder.

The Rumor Game takes place at Foxham Prep which is an elite private school in Washington, DC.

One of the main characters is Bryn and she was the Queen Bee so to speak. Bryn had it all. But just as quickly as she got it she lost it.  She just wants everyone to forget her and move along. But can everyone forget what she did?

Her best friend was Cora and she is the new Queen Bee of the school. When you look at Cora you can see she has it all but behind close doors its a whole other situation.

Georgie is the new girl at school. She lives next door and spent the summer away at camp to lose weight because her Indian parents wanted the perfect daughter. She was once a wallflower but now wants to be seen although I think after this she would prefer to be invisible again.

Who started the rumor and why? As the girls tell the story you begin to discover who it is and why they did it.

The internet has made it possible for anyone to hide behind a screen and be mean. You can make up a fake name and write horrible things to people that you know very well you wouldn’t have the balls to say to their face. Just remember what you post is out there forever and once you say it you can’t take it back.

I liked how the book was fast-paced (even though it was a chunky book at almost 500 pages) and you wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. This was one time I was happy that I was reading an eArc of a book. I also have to say that I loved how the author’s incorporated social media posts, comments, articles, emails etc to add to the storyline.

I highly recommend this book. You won’t be disappointed.

I often worry that when you have two authors writing a book if the storyline will mesh and I can say that this did not disappoint. I have to admit at times I forgot that it was two authors writing this. Everything blended in smoothly.

 

About Dhonielle Clayton:

Dhonielle Clayton is the New York Times best-selling author of the
Belles series, The Mirror: Shattered Midnight, and the coauthor of Blackout
and the Tiny Pretty Things duology, now a Netflix original series. She
hails from the Washington, DC, suburbs on the Maryland side. She taught
secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and
middle school librarian. She is COO of the non-profit We Need Diverse
Books, and president of Cake Creative, an IP story kitchen dedicated to diverse
representation. She’s an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic
and mischief. Up next: The Marvellers, her middle grade fantasy debut.
You can find her on social media @brownbookworm.

 

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

About Sona Charaipotra:

Sona Charaipotra is the author of Symptoms of a Heartbreak and How
Maya Got Fierce, and coauthor of the Tiny Pretty Things duology, now a
Netflix original series. She earned her master’s in screenwriting from NYU and
an MFA in creative writing from the New School. A working journalist, Sona has
held editorial roles at People, TeenPeople, ABCNews.com, MSN, and
most recently, the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog (RIP), and contributed to
publications from the New York Times to TeenVogue. She is a
former We Need Diverse Books board member, and co-founder of CAKE Literary, a
boutique book packager focused on high-concept diverse titles. Find her on the
web talking about books, Bollywood movies, and chai.

 

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| BookBub

 

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of THE RUMOR GAME, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway