Review: Don’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan | Blog Tour + Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the DON’T GET CAUGHT blog tour! I recently read this book, and I really enjoyed it. Keep on reading for my thoughts on this book as well as a giveaway for a copy of your own!

Don’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan

Genre: YA Contemporary, Humor, Mystery

Publication: April 1st 2016 by Sourcebooks

Series: n/a

Length: 340 pages

Format: eARC from publisher

Goodreads

10:00 tonight at the water tower. Tell no one. -Chaos Club

When Max receives a mysterious invite from the untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, he has to ask: why him? After all, he’s Mr. 2.5 GPA, Mr. No Social Life. He’s Just Max. And his favorite heist movies have taught him this situation calls for Rule #4: Be suspicious. But it’s also his one shot to leave Just Max in the dust…

Yeah, not so much. Max and four fellow students-who also received invites-are standing on the newly defaced water tower when campus security “catches” them. Definitely a setup. And this time, Max has had enough. It’s time for Rule #7: Always get payback.

Let the prank war begin.

Thank you to Sourcebooksand Hannah from The Irish Banana Review for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to start reading this book for a couple reasons. First, that cover! It’s minimalistic, yet intriguing—something I’m really into. And second, that amazingly interesting synopsis—prank wars are something that aren’t really focused upon in young adult literature, and I was super interested to dive right in.

DON’T GET CAUGHT follows the story of Max Cobb, an average kid who gathers a group of kids in order to bring down the Chaos Club, the school’s ultimate prankster group. This concept was really interesting because it definitely gave me THE BREAKFAST CLUB (one of my favorite movies) vibes.

The pacing was quite decent. It was a bit slow in the beginning but it definitely sped up towards the middle/end. And let me warn you, there’s an amazing plot twist at the very end. The plot unfolds quite easily and smoothly, and it was definitely intriguing to read about the groups’ pranks and the planning between the kids.

One of my favorite aspects of this book was the writing. Told in first person view of Max, the inner dialogue is filled with dirty jokes, funny lines, and all around lyrical words. In addition, there are little “Heist Rules” interspersed within the novel, which correlate to some plot aspect that’s going on; the little pieces of writing really make this book unique and just so exciting to read.

“Have the two of you been thinking up cow puns the entire time?”

“You are udderly correct.”

The characters were simply just fun to read about. You have Max’s whole gang, and they all work together to pull off the pranks to try to bring down the Chaos Club. They each have their own separate personalities and reasons for working together and it was interesting to see how all of these misfits, per se, interacted with each other.

Max was an amazing main character, in terms of thought process and inner dialogue. He has witty thoughts and it was entertaining to read about how he slowly transcended into the leadership role of the novel. His relations with all the other members of his team were all unique, especially towards the end.

“That whole thing let me with a bad taste in my mouth.”

“That’s what she said,” I say.

In terms of romance, there was not a lot. There were a few sparks between Max and another person on his team, but generally, this book did not need any romance to fuel the plot. The plot just went, and Dinan did a fantastic job in making friendships and lack of romance to work.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was funny and super amusing to read, and it was also entertaining and left me feeling even more intrigued. If you enjoyed THE BREAKFAST CLUB or like reading funny books, this is the one for you!

*quotes are from the advance reader’s copy and are subject to change in finished copy

LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | The Book Depository

Kurt Dinan is a high school English teacher living in Cincinnati. His debut novel, DON’T GET CAUGHT, will be released in April of 2016. He is represented by Kerry Sparks of LGR.

LINKS: Website | Twitter

The fun doesn’t end here! FOLLOW THE REST OF THE TOUR!

Tour Schedule:

Week 1:

3/28: No BS Book Reviews – Q&A

3/29: The Petite Book Blogger – Review

3/30: The Cover Contessa – Top 10

3/31: Lekeisha the Booknerd – Review

4/1: Live to Read – Guest Post

 

Week 2:

4/4: Miranda’s Book Blog – Review

4/5: YA Indlugences – Guest Post

4/6: Arctic Books – Review

4/7: Resch Reads & Reviews – Playlist

4/8: The Irish Banana Review – Review

 

3 Finished Copies of DON’T GET CAUGHT (US Only)

Have you read this book yet? If not, are you planning to? Let me know your thoughts!