The Wilde trials

At Wilde Academy, an elite New Hampshire boarding school, 12 graduating seniors have the opportunity to compete in the grueling Wilde Academy Wilderness Competition, or the Wilde Trials. Eighteen-year-old Chloe Gatti, the school's only scholarship student, intends to win the competition and use the $600,000 cash prize to pay for her younger sister's cancer treatments. Though Chloe expects hostility from her rich and ambitious peers, she is shocked when she's targeted by increasingly threatening blackmail and sabotage attempts. Further complicating matters, one of Chloe's rivals is her ex-boyfriend Hayes Stratford. As she scrambles to discover her blackmailer's identity, Chloe is forced into an uneasy alliance with Hayes, who entered the competition to uncover the secrets surrounding his brother's mysterious death during a past trial. Sparks fly as the duo's previously smothered attraction roars to life amid a tangled web of hidden motivations, shocking betrayals, and unchecked ambition. Via Chloe's lively first-person POV, Reed spins a fun, action-packed mystery wrapped in riddles and scavenger hunts, while lightly touching on themes of class privilege and academic pressure. Chloe is described as having "olive-toned skin"; Hayes cues as white. Ages 13--up. Agent: Amy Bishop-Wycisk, Trellis Literary. (Jan.)

A wilderness challenge with a big prize brings out bad behavior. Wilde Academy's so elite that a dozen students compete for the title of Champion rather than mere valedictorian. Partial scholarship student Chloe Gatti needs the $600,000 prize to help her family; her younger sister has cancer and mounting medical bills. Chloe is selected along with Hayes Stratford, her ex-boyfriend, some friends she lost in the breakup, and a few cartoonishly snobbish classmates. Someone is blackmailing and undermining Chloe from the start. The trials aren't terribly thrilling--think riddles and trivia--until the blackmailer moves on to dangerous levels of sabotage. Chloe also ends up back in the orbit of handsome, privileged Hayes, seeking the truth of the trials three years prior, when his beloved older brother died in what Hayes believes wasn't an accident. The duo, who are cued white, end up in a tentative alliance that's ripe with unresolved romantic feelings. Chloe is economically disadvantaged and described as being taller, curvier, and heavier than the other girls (although her size goes unremarked upon by the characters). The vagueness of the portrayal of her identity undermines the effectiveness of the representation. Other forms of diversity in the cast also lack complexity, and the characters' motivations are generally weak. The plot relies on heavy suspension of disbelief, head-scratching logical leaps, and lapses of common sense that are sure to frustrate readers. The predictable ending leans into theatrical indulgence. An interesting premise marred by plausibility issues.(Thriller. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.