From the acclaimed author of The Rosewood Hunt comes a thrilling new standalone mystery (with romance!), following a high school senior who’s forced to team up with her brooding ex to survive their elite school’s high stakes wilderness competition.
Chloe Gatti is about to graduate from an elite boarding school and attend her top-choice university—but none of it matters if she can’t save her sister from a rare diagnosis that requires access to specialty doctors her family can’t afford. But Chloe can get the money if she wins the Wilde Trials. Each year, a dozen seniors are chosen to compete in seven ultimate tests, and the champion takes home over half a million dollars.
Chloe will do whatever it takes to win. But her competition is fierce, including her brooding ex-boyfriend Hayes Stratford, whose brother was the only student to ever die in the trials. When someone starts sabotaging and blackmailing Chloe, she’s forced to strike a deal with Hayes—if he helps her find out who’s sabotaging her, she’ll help him uncover the mystery surrounding his brother’s death.
Putting their strained history on hold, Chloe and Hayes piece together the clues Hayes’s brother left behind, leading them to discover that something isn’t right about the Wilde Trials. As they near the truth and the end of the competition, with a lifechanging prize hanging over their heads and no idea who to trust, Chloe will have to decide what’s really worth fighting for, and if the cost of competing outweighs the potential consequences, even if that includes ending up like Hayes’s brother—dead.
A school mystery set - mostly - in a tumbledown, overgrown mansion? Sign me up! Chloe's exclusive boarding school hosts a cross between a survival course and a reality show each year, giving twenty students a chance to earn the title of Champion and more than half a million dollars. While most of Chloe's schoolmates are just in it for the notoriety, she really needs the money. But her competition includes all the people who hate her the most - so when someone starts blackmailing her, she has a long list of suspects.
Mackenzie has a knack for building fully contained worlds. The school depicted here is amazing, and the estate the Trials happen on is even better. The descriptions of the overgrown, gloomy building were so evocative. There were a lot of people to keep track of, with a complicated web of alliances and enmities between them. I often have trouble keeping track of characters in this kind of situation, but other readers won't have that difficulty.
The story itself was interesting, the trials were well thought out and fun, and I really enjoyed the read. I'll be looking forward to Mackenzie's next one! Highly recommend for fans of plotty, twisty YA mysteries.
Movie recommendation: The Hunger Games. While the Wilde Trials aren’t filmed, the sense of being trapped in a competition controlled by unseen forces echoes the brutal reality of the Games.
Book recommendation: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Like The Wilde Trials, this series follows a protagonist navigating an intricate puzzle of secrets, alliances, and high-stakes competition for a massive fortune. If you love unraveling layered mysteries, this series is a must-read.
The Wilde Trials publishes on the 13th of March, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
Sounds good, thanks for sharing your thoughts
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