A debut YA thriller about how far teenagers are willing to go to maintain high academic standards
THE IVIES
by Alexa Donne
Crown/PRH, Summer 2021
At Claflin Academy, college admissions are killer… Even at a famed boarding school, only a select few are accepted into each Ivy League college. Olivia, Avery, Emma, Sierra, and Margot are the five girls at Claflin Academy destined to attend the top Ivy Leagues. Bound together by more than just perfect test scores, they’ve also assured their entry into the Ivy of their choice by destroying anyone who gets in their way. But what’s a little backstabbing among friends?
Harvard has always been Avery’s chosen university, but that doesn’t stop Emma from secretly applying. When she gets in, a showdown seems inevitable. So when Emma turns up dead, Olivia immediately suspects Avery is behind the murder. But the cops have their sights set on Olivia — the scholarship kid, the only Ivy who isn’t rich or powerful. To prove her innocence, Olivia will need to figure out who killed Emma before it’s too late. Because Olivia’s got a secret too: she also got into Harvard. And if Avery’s the killer, then Olivia’s next…
Alexa Donne is the author of BRIGHTLY BURNING and its forthcoming sequel, THE STARS WE STEAL (HMH Teen/Feb 2020). She lives in Los Angeles, where she wears many hats, including fan convention organizing, teen mentoring, college admissions essay consulting, YouTube-ing and podcast.

Evan Smoak lives by his own code. Once he was known as Orphan X. Trained as an off-the-books government assassin and spoken about only in whispers, Evan Smoak was one of the most talented – and most feared – men in the Program. But he broke free and reinvented himself as The Nowhere Man, a figure shrouded in mystery, known for helping the truly desperate.
All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret… Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family―until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken. A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. But as she sets a plan in motion, another revelation surfaces. Derek’s lover might know what happened to their son. And so might Derek.
Munich 1950. Karl Wieners, previously a writer, returns to his hometown Munich – a city where smugglers are successful in doing their business, where old Nazis sees new chances coming up, and where the lost finally lose all their hopes. Karl‘s last hope is a career as a journalist. If only he found out where the Nazis had hidden the works of art they had accumulated in the “Führerbau” (Hitler’s palace) during the war – this would be the very sensation he needs! He begins his research, together with his niece, Magda, who is also his secret love. They find out that the paintings, worth millions of dollars, are supposed to be sold secretly to an unknown buyer. During their investigations, however, Karl and Magda are not only disturbing the activities of inspector Ludwig Gruber, who is at his wits’ end in finding a murderer. They also get into the focus of some dubious people doing their business on the black market, and find themselves being trapped in a dangerous net of deception that seems not to let them go.