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For Your Own Good
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
"Just finished reading this wonderfully dark, twisty and compelling thriller set in a prestigious private school. I raced through it, desperate to know how it would end" --B.A. Paris A slick and chilling thriller, leading readers on a dark, sinuous journey through the halls of Belmont Academy--the type of place where you're never sure who to trust, or who to fear.--Megan Miranda "Dark, sly and delicious...totally original--and totally compelling."--JP Delaney "I'm a huge fan of Samantha Downing."--Sarah Pekkanen USA Today bestselling author Samantha Downing is back with her latest sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school--complete with interfering parents, overeager students, and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson... Teddy Crutcher has won Teacher of the Year at the esteemed Belmont Academy, home to the best and brightest. He says his wife couldn't be more proud--though no one has seen her in a while. Teddy really can't be bothered with the death of a school parent that's looking more and more like murder or the student digging a little too deep into Teddy's personal life. His main focus is on pushing these kids to their full academic potential. All he wants is for his colleagues--and the endlessly meddlesome parents--to stay out of his way. It's really too bad that sometimes excellence can come at such a high cost.
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CBee
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

Holy banana pants 😳😳😳 You were right, Scott - this was SO dark and twisted, and I LOVED it 🫢🫢🫢😂😂😂 @vivastory

BookLineNSinker I loved this one too!! 1mo
vivastory 😂 😂 I'm glad! What a fun & twisted ride 1mo
CBee @vivastory totally! I read it in two days which isn‘t my norm 😂😂 1mo
64 likes4 stack adds3 comments
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BarbaraBB
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

A compelling one for the Sunday. Strange things happen at the prestigious Belmont Academy. People die one after the other. Told from various pov‘s who all have their reasons to get rid of someone else this was quite the ride!

squirrelbrain Sounds good! 4mo
Jas16 Lovely photo 4mo
jlhammar Oooh, sounds like a fun one. Love the photo! 4mo
Megabooks Sounds like a good thriller! 4mo
70 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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Kappadeemom
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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This book is so good!! Twisty rich school murders are always a favorite

35 likes2 stack adds
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bthegood
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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#BookSpinBingo #FabulousFebruary thanks for hosting @TheAromaofBooks @Andrew65
Make a great day everyone -😊
It's not a mystery (you know who did it) but it is a tense thriller - the story is told from several POVs, but not where each one rehashes the same scene - each POV moves the story forward ⬇️

bthegood - the teacher who thinks its his job to teach everyone a lesson, the student and alum who suspect the teacher of foul play, the ex-teacher turned clergy who wants people to ask for forgiveness for their sins, and occasionally a character that does not live long. This moved quickly, each chapter is short and ends on a cliffhanger - so I had to keep going! (edited) 14mo
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 14mo
Andrew65 Well done 👏👏👏 14mo
28 likes3 comments
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bthegood
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Ready for #BookSpinBingo
Thanks for hosting @TheAromaofBooks

Headed to DC tonight until Sunday - will get some reading done - but hope to get a lot of sight seeing and visiting (nephew and niece live there) -

Make a great evening everyone ❄️

Bookwormjillk Dress warm! It‘s colder here than usual! 14mo
bthegood @Bookwormjillk will do thanks! 14mo
WJCintron Have fun and take care!! 😃🙌 14mo
bthegood @WJCintron thanks 😊 14mo
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 14mo
25 likes5 comments
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Addison_Reads
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

Perfect thriller! I read this on a cold, rainy day recently and it was just what I needed to pass the time.

I love a mystery/thriller set in an academic setting. Downing delivered an intriguing main character with a grudge who used very unique methods to punish people around him.

Fast-paced, fun and a bit unhinged. 😀

BarbaraBB Stacked! 14mo
vivastory Def. unhinged. I loved this one! 14mo
44 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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vivastory
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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#12booksof2022
(I'm going to post my final 3 in a row to finish off the year). I had previously read, & thoroughly enjoyed Downing's debut My Lovely Wife, so I was looking forward to this one. I was hooked from the beginning, with the dark humor that had me literally lol at several points & managed to surprise me several times. Alongside Karin Slaughter's Triptych, this was my fave thriller of the year.
@andrew65

vivastory Hon. October Mentions: Muriel Spark's The Prime of Ms Jean Brodie & Patricia Highsmith's short story collection Eleven. 1y
Andrew65 Stacked, this looks really good. 1y
ShelleyBooksie Yay! This one is on tbr bookshelf! Moving it.up. 1y
Jemgirl2014 Have you read “He Started It” by her? I think that‘s my favorite of the three she‘s written so far. 1y
60 likes1 stack add4 comments
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she.hearts.horror
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

💀💀💀 this was wild … And I like it.

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vivastory
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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This book is so twisted & full of laugh out loud black humor. I just devoured the first 200 pages.

BarbaraBB Good to know! 1y
58 likes4 stack adds1 comment
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BeeMagical
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Book 150📚 4.5⭐️

Ooooo okay dark academia👏🏻 This is how you do it👌🏻

Short chapters kept a great pace.

Teddy is teacher of the year. Slowly teachers keep winding up murdered. But don‘t worry, Teddy will take care of it, it‘s for their own good. 😶😐🥛☕️

38 likes1 stack add
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bookaholic1
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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#53
I enjoyed this one, even though it wasn't hard to figure out who.

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Hooked_on_books
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Teddy is a perfectly evil teacher with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and a vengeful streak a mile wide. He starts experimenting with dosing his colleagues with things in their coffee when, oops, someone dies. But was it his doing after all? Most of this was great and I had a lot of fun with it, though I found the ending a little flat. If you‘re someone who needs to like characters, you probably want to skip this one. 😂

48 likes1 stack add
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LeahBergen
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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A rainy Sunday afternoon with #JohnnyBergen and a (silly but compelling) thriller.

vivastory Johnny! 2y
AmyG Awww ❤️ 2y
Ruthiella Did you read it aloud to Johnny? He‘s seems very contemplative. 😆 2y
See All 17 Comments
sarahbarnes 😍😍 2y
Leftcoastzen So cute! 2y
Cathythoughts What a perfect picture 🤍🤍🤍 (edited) 2y
BarbaraBB Hi 👋🏽 Johnny 2y
batsy So adorable 😍 2y
DivineDiana Sweet Johnny. ❤️ 2y
LeahBergen @Ruthiella He doesn‘t like to hear about ANYTHING that‘s “for his own good”. 😉 2y
erzascarletbookgasm What‘s up Johnny? Looking a wee bit sad 💖 2y
LeahBergen @erzascarletbookgasm He‘s just tired out from being bad. 😉 2y
rubyslippersreads I ❤️ everything about this photo! 2y
UwannaPublishme Awww! Perfect pose! 🐶❤️ 2y
LeahBergen @rubyslippersreads @UwannaPublishme He‘ll be three soon and STILL isn‘t a very good book model. 😆 2y
Suet624 Three!! Wow! Time flies. 2y
72 likes17 comments
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Madison91
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Mehso-so

This was like a series of unfortunate events. However it was page turning. I read it so quickly but at the end I just thought, well… yeah?

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Madison91
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Really excited for Riley sager to be done by July!

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CherMoreBooks
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

This was really good! Dark academia vibes and certainly macabre. I wouldn‘t say there were any huge surprises for me but it is well written and I just wanted to keep reading. Solid psychological thriller! Beautiful photo by The Lit B*tch. #mystery #thriller #psychologicalthriller

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ItsAnotherJen
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

A 4 star rating from me! I kept putting off reading this because I really don't like this cover. 😅 It did keep me engaged from the get go, and I wanted to know how it all ended. The characters weren't exactly likeable, and there's a lot of dying happening, but it was a quick entertaining read.

ShelleyBooksie "there's a lot of dying happening." This is an excellent review and now my interest in piqued :) 2y
86 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Samary
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

I really liked this one, so much happening all at once and I think the author did a great job balancing it all. I also liked how it ended.

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ElleMNOpe
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Mehso-so

I loved the premise of this book & enjoyed the school setting. A cast full of unlikable characters who really aren't fully developed. I found this read to be fast-paced with short chapters, but a bit boring. There were interesting pieces and decent twists, but it just felt meh. There was also a lot of convenience built into the plot. I just wasn't wowed. A good lazy day read or good for a read where you don't want to have to think too hard.

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MidnightBookGirl
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

This was a delightfully wicked thriller! All the characters are fairly terrible, but I loved it, These private schools can be positively poisonous! 😉

#Readin22 #TBR

58 likes1 stack add
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MotherOfCats
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Taking a break from some BOTM reads with this one. I‘ve seen some mixed reviews, so we‘ll see 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Booknerd2
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

What an insane book!! So many crazy, evil people. It was hard find anyone to root for! That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was like a train wreck, couldn‘t look away! 😳👀

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AmandaBlaze
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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You don't want to get on the bad side of this teacher. The plot is twisty like a river and the villain(s) not always easy to identify.

Finally catching up on January reviews.

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ClairesReads
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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A riotous prep school murder mystery which was everything I wanted it to be. Lies, schemes, wrongful imprisonment, amateur sleuthing, all mixed in with privilege, adolescent angst, and the drama of private education. Outrageous at times but in a compelling way. What a ride.

StayCurious Whereabouts do you live that you have such beautiful flowers? Here in Ottawa Canada we‘re at -32 Celsius ❄️☃️ 2y
ClairesReads @StayCurious goodness that‘s cold! I‘m In Auckland, New Zealand and our weather is not quite opposite to you (we‘re high 20s) 2y
43 likes2 comments
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janeycanuck
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

For a Samantha Downing, this was a letdown but that‘s only because her two previous books were standouts for me. This one was more about character than plot, which is what I love Downing for. I didn‘t love sitting with such an awful character for so long and in lesser hands, this would have been a disaster. She pulled it off, though.

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BittersweetBooks
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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The guilt. So much guilt. Sonia feels guilty about what she‘s done, what she hasn‘t done, whom she has helped, and whom she hasn‘t. She feels guilty about the hours she works and the hours she doesn‘t🌿🥛☠️

Read4life Love the pic. Beautiful 💙 2y
BittersweetBooks @Read4life thank you!! We got a foot of snow yesterday, and my window views were too good not to capture. 2y
16 likes1 stack add2 comments
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MysticFaerie
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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3.5⭐/5

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Breanne1
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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I had so much fun reading this book! So far this was the best thriller I‘ve read over the holiday break. Definitely a book I‘ll be recommending to others.

BookwormAHN It was one of my favorites this year as well 💙 2y
18 likes1 comment
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tracey38
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

As always lately, I am behind. Please bare with me. This was a great dark academia where a teacher thinks he is doing the right thing by "teaching" people a lesson, even if it escalates to murder. But this story shows that you can't "judge a book by its cover".

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AshleyKorinE
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
Pickpick

Teddy Crutcher is teacher of the year at a most prestigious academy and he wants all the attention on him! Then people start dying, someone gets falsely accused and he needs to figure out how to fix a mess and keep the attention. I loved this book! It was such a fun read and I got into the mystery even though you know from the start whats going on. The characters are to compelling to put it down! For mysteries this is my favorite of 2021!

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Nessavamusic
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

This was a very entertaining thriller taking place in academia. The teacher of the year has very interesting opinions of what is best for his school and students. 4⭐️ A free space for my #bookspinbingo

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Nessavamusic
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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1. Listening to tagged, reading With You Forever by Chloe Liese & The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
2. Goodreads & Litsy
3. Heard it in a love song by Tracey Garvis Graves after seeing it mentioned in a magazine.
#weekendreads

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DarkMina
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Mehso-so

162 of 2021. This story is about a string of murders at Belmont Academy. Told from different POVs, this was a decent read. Nothing surprising or outstanding. Just good. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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rsteve388
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Pickpick

Holy shit this book was so good. I am glad to be ending the month with a full 5 Star Review. This book had so many twists that I didn't see most of them coming. What a wild ride. I loved the different characters that really added to the whole.story and made you wonder... Well what if he didn't do it.. complete 5 Stars from me. Great story.

15 +1 for participation = 16pts for me for #TeamSlaughter.
I'll have a full total point post tomorrow

IamIamIam 👀👍 2y
28 likes1 stack add1 comment
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rsteve388
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing

One more day till opening swaps! for #HHS and #AHR

AmyG Yay! 2y
17 likes1 comment
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BookishTrish
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Mehso-so

If you‘re like me and looking for your next You fix you could do worse than this sometimes predictable thriller about a murderous teacher. Think You-lite. It‘s not as good as Downing‘s other thrillers (My Lovely Wife is fantastic) so it felt like a bit of a letdown to me.

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atl_scfl
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
Pickpick

At Belmont Academy, everyone is dying and everyone else has a motive. Told from several POVs (mostly from Teacher of the Year / Head Sociopath) Teddy Crucher, the story was very easy to follow and was definitely an adventure. Not a lot of twists and turns; just an overall enjoyable read, especially being able to see if from several different angles.

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alecia3dixie
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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This book was pretty good. I wouldn't really say it was thrilling, you pretty much knew what was going to happen before it did. But even with that, I still really enjoyed this book. It kept me interested which was surprising since none of the characters were likable. It was a fun read! 4/5 stars

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BirdLaVie
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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What sheer entertainment! I loved getting in touch with my inner vengeful, sinister side through this nonstop academic thriller. It was the perfect read for late-September into October. I‘m left with the musing: what punishment would I see fit for that irritating behavior? What a dark, guilty-pleasure daydream ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

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Linsy
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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I'm not sure how much sympathy I had for the main baddie in this book, but I quickly became addicted to his pov and just had to see what he would do next! Would highly recommend!! ☠️🧪 #sympathyforthedevil #littensdressedinblood

MidnightBookGirl I do want to read this! 2y
82 likes1 stack add1 comment
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BookishTrish
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Lofty plans that should see me through to the end of the year

JackOBotts Peeping that Lisa Frank! 🌈 🦄 I just picked up some of that fun nail line! 3y
TiredLibrarian Loved Billy Summers. 3y
TrishB I want to start Realm Breaker at a point when I have some clear reading time! 3y
68 likes3 comments
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BookwormAHN
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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This is a fun disturbing book about a narcissistic sociopathic teacher, Teddy who likes to play with poison at his snotty elitist high school.
#LittensDressedInBlood #HeDidIt @MidnightBookGirl

TiredLibrarian Ooh - I love snobby elitist school settings! 3y
Linsy Loved this one! 3y
79 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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Rachiiebookdragon
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
Pickpick

A bonkers book! Enjoyable though 😊 4.25/5 Read for the #LiterallyDeadBookClub - August Pick

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Bookboss
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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I have heard that detectives do not care for television programs and books about their profession because of the inaccuracies: DNA test results within minutes, police officials breaking the law without consequence, etc. As an English teacher, I felt the same about this book with an English teacher as the main character. I was able to overlook the discrepancies and go along with the compelling, if preposterous plot. Very entertaining.

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ICantImReading
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Well, this book is just pure wicked FUN! With insight into multiple characters at Belmont Academy (with varying levels of danger to their self-delusions), it feels so original and fresh. The short chapters and multiple twists make it almost impossible to put down! Beware of all the casualties... it‘s really a shame it‘s so hard to teach some people a lesson! 😆 #authenticbooks

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AudiobookingWithLeah
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Overall Rating 4½⭐|Narration 😁=Very Good
What started out sort of slow quickly morphed into something I couldn‘t stop listening to not until I got to the very shockingly twisted end. If you‘re wondering how all the pictures in my graphic can be a part of one story...then you should definitely give this book a chance. Teddy Crutcher is truly diabolical and one of those characters you won‘t soon forget, he‘s a tad reminiscent of Joe (C. Kepnes).

Jemgirl2014 I love that collage! 3y
AudiobookingWithLeah @Jemgirl2014 thank you, I'm pretty happy with it. 3y
21 likes2 comments
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Booknerd222
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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22 likes1 stack add
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Booknerd222
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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Jemgirl2014
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
Pickpick

I'm sorry (not sorry) but I loved this one! Not sure why it has such low Litsy reviews. Yes, it drags but the characterization of Teddy is sheer brilliance. Also, in the wake of the university cheating scandals, I've found a lot of this book's content to be very relevant.The pressure to be perfect is a constant theme here. Loved the audio version. The narrator does a fantastic job! So versatile. Makes all of the characters come to life. A+

kspenmoll Happy happy birthday!!!🎂🎉🎈 3y
Jemgirl2014 @kspenmoll Oh wow! I just saw this while scrolling through this book's profile. Thank you! ❤ 3y
18 likes2 comments
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ICantImReading
For Your Own Good | Samantha Downing
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“Entitlement has a particular stench.” I‘m starting my newest #authenticbooks pick next!! The self-care items related to this book included a luscious matcha honey hand cream, green tea and cucumber bath milk, rose tonic syrup (with a recipe for a gin and tonic), a juniper and cedar candle, and, as always, a curated playlist to listen to while reading. Love that this box supports so many small businesses, and their customer service is fantastic!