Busted by Gina Ciocca

Busted

by Gina Ciocca

When Kendall asks Marisa, the queen of sniffing out cheaters, to spy on her boyfriend TJ, Marisa soon discovers the girl TJ is falling for is Marisa herself, and the feeling is quickly becoming mutual.

When Marisa accidentally caught her best friend's boyfriend making out with another girl, her reputation for sniffing out cheaters spread all over school. Now Marisa finds herself the reluctant queen of busting two-timing boys. When ex-frenemy Kendall asks her to spy on her boyfriend TJ, she discovers the girl TJ might be falling for is Marisa herself. And worse yet? The feelings are quickly becoming mutual. When Marisa discovers secrets about Kendall and TJ, they may hold the answers to an academic cheating scandal.

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

4 of 5 stars

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Thank you to Sourcebooks for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

"Apparently I'd become a spy service and a chauffeur service, all wrapped up in one big, loser package."

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Marisa starts a whole new free career when she finds her best friend's boyfriend with a different girl. From there, things start escalating fast once an old friend/enemy comes back into Marisa's life and talks her into doing the same for her as well. This brings out a lot of old feelings for Marisa and with already struggling to get over her ex who never gave her a real reason for breaking up, she is curious about a lot of things.

Marisa's brother Nick was such a good sibling and even though he was annoying at times I really liked their friendships.

Mindy and Charlie are her best friends and they were both involved a lot even with going to different schools! Finally, a YA book that has normal and healthy friendships!



"You don't get it, Jordan. You never will... You don't worry that the grass is greener in every goddamn yard but your own. You put her first once in a while instead of always thinking about yourself all. The Fucking Time."

Jordan to me was the typical ex-boyfriend that gave mixed signals and just left without a reason. Honestly, I just found him annoying most of the time.

I loved Marisa's friendship with TJ and even though I wasn't really liking how it started, I liked how they really got along and it just felt right for a change. (yes some shady stuff happens at times, but that's real life when your spying.)



"He didn't get me into this mess. I did. I did this all by my own stupid self."


Overall I really liked this book. Not only was it a fun/quick read, but it also really felt like a real high school book for a change. I also really liked a majority of the characters for a change as well, even the shady ones that I know we technically weren't supposed to like. Marisa's spy service was really interesting to me and how it wasn't some huge thing but instead was kept simple by her. I also really liked how crafty she was. That's not something I remember reading in a ya book before, and I liked how it wasn't some big deal either, it was something she enjoyed doing and her friends/family liked it as well.

I am so glad I went outside of my comfort zone with this contemporary read. I can't wait to see what Ciocca writes next!

(can we just talk about Kendall though, girls got some serious problems when it comes to competitiveness. Just wow...)

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 January, 2018: Finished reading
  • 8 January, 2018: Reviewed