From the author of The Cheerleaders comes another dark YA thriller set in the same town of Sunnybrook. When a mysterious accident befalls a member of the all-star high school football team, the town's deadly history stands to repeat itself—and the price of discovering the truth is higher than anyone could imagine.
It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls' killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school's championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes--something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past.
Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team's latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poisoned at a party, and almost immediately after, Hadley starts getting strange emails warning her to stay far away from the football team.
It's becoming clear Sunnybrook's golden boys have secrets, and after a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley’s beginning to suspect that someone wants the team to pay for their sins. Or does this new target on the football team have something to do with what happened to the cheerleaders all those years ago?
As an outsider in Sunnybrook, Hadley feels like she's the only one who can see the present clearly, but it looks like she’s going to have to dig up the darkness of the past to get to the bottom of what’s happening now. Luckily, there are still some Sunnybrook High grads who never left--people who were around eleven years ago--and if she can just convince them to talk, she might be able stop a killer before another Tiger dies.
Hadley is forced to write an article about the high school football team and how they are on track to be three time champions, which has never been accomplished. Hadley is desperate to be editor-in-chief of the school paper so she’ll do whatever she has to do. She wants to attend Columbia University and this will look really good on her application. But then she starts getting mysterious emails warning her away from the football team and she’s not sure what to make of it.
Everything starts out fine. She ends up talking to Logan who’s on the team and one thing leads to another and they’re attending a party together but it ends in disaster. Logan ends up in a coma due to something in his drink. Her mysterious penpal indicates that Hadley might have been the intended target of the tainted drink and things suddenly get very real.
Soon the mystery begins and Hadley starts digging into the past and uncovers dark secrets that someone tried to keep buried. We do see (familiar) faces from The Cheerleaders, but I can honestly say I only caught onto Monica as she was the heroine that time around! But again, this isn’t one of those books where you need to read the first one to understand or enjoy one! You’ll just be quicker to recognize cameos!
The mystery itself got pretty dark. It was insane thinking these were high school students committing these heinous crimes and how they were kept out of public light. It sadly seems like something that could actually happen because people get a little intense when it comes to athletes and such.
Joining Hadley in her quest to uncover the truth is Peter, who was initially her academic rival. But oddly enough, you don’t really get any vibe that there’s a love connection happening. Honestly, Hadley going on a date with Logan was the only bit of possible romance you get in this one. I was totally fine with this! Romance in thrillers isn’t necessary for me. Sure it’s nice here and there but I’m usually like: there’s a mystery to solve, kiss later! Lol.
In the end with the whodunit reveal I was bit surprised. I had made one guess to a part of the mystery and I was wrong but my guess had merit elsewhere! The twists and turns got pretty chaotic as there were a lot of possible suspects popping up so I wasn’t all that deterred by being wrong!
The Champions was a pretty dark and almost sinister thriller mystery! I feel like it’s the same kind of tone from The Cheerleaders as we did get a shortened refresher about those events. I’m always up for a chilling read though but this almost makes you want to never go out again! Like all thrillers do! If you’re wanting to read something spine-tingling creepy this Spooky Season be sure to add this one or any of Kara Thomas’ books to your list!
Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars
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