Review: Don’t Say a Word by Amber Lynn Natusch

Starting right where Dare You to Lie left off, Kylene Danners and her best friend Garrett Higgins are lucky to be alive. All Kylene wanted was to make the football players who took pictures of her pay, while simultaneously trying to get her dad out of prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Too bad Kylene stumbled upon something much bigger.

Agent Cedric Dawson is back in town for an FBI Investigation into missing girls, who are officially labeled as runaways. Kylene’s takedown of Donovan, the former Jasperville High defensive lineman, led to much bigger secrets coming out about the town of Jasperville and the corrupt people who live there. Someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes and Kylene is determined to figure out who and why. For some reason, every bad thing happening goes back to the mysterious Advocatus Diaboli, known as the AD.

When Kylene gets a call from a girl who is part of the prostitution ring run by the AD, Dawson has no choice to involve Kylene in the investigation. “Jane” has information on what’s happening to other girls like her, but won’t go to the cops. That leaves Kylene and Dawson as her only hopes to be saved, before she ends up like the AD’s other victims. But because Dawson needs a cover, he enrolls at Jasperville High School with Kylene and pretends to be her ex-boyfriend from Columbus, Ohio.

With the investigation leading down a dark path and high school drama being crazier than ever, Kylene is in over head. Luckily she has her friends Garrett, AJ and Tabby to keep her sane. But even her friends might not be able to stop Kylene risking her life once again.

Don’t Say a Word surprised us a lot. First, because it’s even better than Dare You to Lie. While we raved over the first book in the series, the second just knocked it out of the park.

First of all, there’s even more suspense and thrills. Kylene’s life is nonstop, so she has to think on her feet if she wants to solve anything and save herself. The plot dove a lot deeper into the world of Jasperville and the potential suspects for all of the crimes. We love how twisted it got because Natusch successfully surprised us multiple times.

The best aspect was seeing Kylene really turn into a detective. It wasn’t just a high school scandal anymore. She has moved up to partnering with an FBI agent and being the main reason he has clues in the first place. Plus, we enjoyed watching her relationship with Dawson turn into something. While they are fake dating, we could tell how much chemistry they have. They both get As for their witty banter.

Kylene also has another love interest, her ex-boyfriend AJ. AJ is a sweet guy and he’s protective of Kylene, we just think he’s not the guy for her right now. In the end, we feel he can only hold her back. While there is no resolution to the love triangle, just know we’re team Dawson!

As for Kylene’s best friends, Garrett and Tabby were perfect yet again. Everyone needs a silly, creative and stubborn bestie like Tabby. She’s the perfect mix of comic relief and toughness. Garrett is a great guy best friend because he’s the one person Kylene can come to with anything, without judgement. He may tell it like it is, but he will do anything for his friends.

Kylene needs the support with the danger she faces near the end of the story. We won’t say too much, just that we still don’t have the identity of the AD. We did get to meet one of his more prominent henchmen, who comes face to face with Kylene one night. After what Kylene does, no one in Jasperville will see her the same way again.

Since Don’t Say a Word ended with a cliffhanger, excuse us while we start reading Come Out and Play.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐