Category Archives: Reviews

Read This!: INTO THE DIM by Janet B. Taylor

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Into the Dim (Into the Dim, #1)Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor

Summary: When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing.

What an adventure! Hope is still reeling from the news of her mother’s death when she is sent to her aunt’s Scottish manor and finds out that her mother has been keeping a great big family secret from her for her whole life. And it’s a doozy – there’s a time travelling portal in the basement and her family has visited many eras, all while fighting against an evil group called the Timeslippers who care nothing for the impact of their actions on history. Hope has to travel back to 12th-century England to save her mom, and she’s aided by new friends and a handsome Timeslipper boy who may or may not be playing her false. Despite her photographic memory and wide ranging knowledge, Hope has to struggle against her own demons to fight for the people she loves. Fans of romance, adventure, and Scottish hunks will love this book!

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Read This!: THE MAYPOP KIDNAPPING by C.M. Surrisi

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The Maypop KidnappingThe Maypop Kidnapping by C.M. Surrisi

Summary: In the coastal village of Maiden Rock, Maine, Quinnie Boyd’s teacher has disappeared. Quinnie thinks it’s a kidnapping case, but her mom, the town sheriff, just thinks the teacher has left town. Still, Quinnie’s going to follow her instincts that something’s wrong.  Her investigation takes her through a damp and smelly marsh, a lobster pound, and more of Maine’s messiest places. She even gets help from her glamorous new neighbor, Mariella. As the girls hunt for clues around Maiden Rock, they encounter a cast of unlikely characters. And if Quinnie’s hunch is right, the search may lead them right into danger . . .

The characters in this mystery crackle and snap with life. At thirteen, Quinnie leads a pretty quiet life in the tiny town of Maiden Rock on the coast of Maine – a town so tiny that her crusader mother plays the parts of real estate agent, mayor, sheriff, AND postmaster. (And, in my absolute favorite detail, her office contains a separate desk for each role.) But things change when Quinnie’s beloved tutor disappears under suspicious circumstances, and no one else seems alarmed. Quinnie is determined to figure out what’s happening, and she’s aided by Ben, her childhood crush, and Ella, the daughter of a famous crime novelist staying in town. Maiden Rock is drawn in loving detail, from the diner run by Quinnie’s dad that serves as a central meeting place for the residents, to the slightly batty nuns at Our Lady of the Tides convent. There’s just enough scary stuff to keep readers on edge, but characters, setting, and details of the crime keep the book firmly in middle grade territory. The only problem is that now I really really want to vacation in this fictional town…guess rereading this terrific mystery will have to suffice!

THE MAYPOP KIDNAPPING is out now.

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Read This!: THE GIRL WHO FELL by Shannon M. Parker

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The Girl Who FellThe Girl Who Fell by Shannon M. Parker

Summary: Zephyr is focused. Focused on leading her team to the field hockey state championship and leaving her small town for her dream school, Boston College. But love has a way of changing things.  Enter the new boy in school: the hockey team’s starting goaltender, Alec. He’s cute, charming, and most important, Alec doesn’t judge Zephyr. He understands her fears and insecurities—he even shares them. Soon, their relationship becomes something bigger than Zephyr, something she can’t control, something she doesn’t want to control.  Zephyr swears it must be love. Because love is powerful, and overwhelming, and…terrifying?  But love shouldn’t make you abandon your dreams, or push your friends away. And love shouldn’t make you feel guilty—or worse, ashamed. 
So when Zephyr finally begins to see Alec for who he really is, she knows it’s time to take back control of her life. If she waits any longer, it may be too late.

This story begins with a snippet of the end – the dark place where Zephyr’s relationship with handsome, brooding hockey star Alec will lead. And then we go back and see how it all started. That disturbing prologue is a necessary and brilliant touch, as it primes readers to see the oh-so-small warning signs that the relationship is not the paradise it seems. And that, of course, is the point: an abusive relationship often looks like any other in the beginning, and Zephyr, a strong-willed field hockey player who dreams of attending Boston College, gets swept up in the romance. Her friends grow concerned when Zephyr’s relationship with Alec isolates her from them, and her own insecurities about her talents and her father’s abandonment of her push her to see Alec as the only one who understands. Alec’s manipulations pull her in ever more deeply, until he goes so far that Zephyr can’t explain his behavior away anymore. But Alec, of course, can’t let go, and his obsession crosses into physical abuse.

This story is honestly painful, and painfully honest. It’s riveting stuff – I read the last third of the book with my heart in my throat, pulling for Zephyr to get out of the pit of abuse. Zephyr is no weakling, and this book is a powerful statement about the many forces in our society that limit girls’ choices. (An early scene in which Zephyr chooses not to eat even though she’s starving, because Alec isn’t hungry, made my stomach clench with its verisimilitude.) It’s easy to see, through this story, how anyone, no matter how strong-willed, could end up drawn into an abusive relationship. Alec is all the more frightening because of how fully realized he is as a character; he believes that he is working for Zephyr’s good when he’s “teaching her a lesson”.

An important book that will launch many discussions about abuse, consent, and female empowerment. Don’t miss it.

THE GIRL WHO FELL is out now.

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Read This!: A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE by Brittany Cavallaro

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A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes, #1)A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Summary:  The last thing sixteen-year-old Jamie Watson–writer and great-great-grandson of the John Watson–wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s enigmatic, fiercely independent great-great-granddaughter, who’s inherited not just his genius but also his vices, volatile temperament, and expertly hidden vulnerability. Charlotte has been the object of his fascination for as long as he can remember–but from the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else.  Then a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Holmes stories, and Jamie and Charlotte become the prime suspects. Convinced they’re being framed, they must race against the police to conduct their own investigation. As danger mounts, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe and the only people they can trust are each other.

 

This is going to sound hyperbolic, but 5 stars aren’t really enough to explain how much I loved this book. I’ve never been a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes – I mean, he was okay and all – but this book just grabbed me and held me spellbound all the way through.

Before I opened this book, all I knew about it was that it was about Holmes and Watson’s great-great-something-grandchildren, and I assumed that it would be something like “Young Sherlock Holmes” where a pair of lads at a boarding school solve a mystery while rescuing an intriguing girl named Charlotte. (Guess that says something about what previous Sherlock Holmes adaptations have taught me to expect…)

This book is not anything like that. No swooning heroines here.

The first thing you need to know about A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE is that, in the world of the book, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson were 100% real. (Arthur Conan Doyle was Watson’s literary agent.) Now, with the aid of some well-meaning family meddling, their descendants Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson are students at the same Connecticut boarding school. And where a Holmes and Watson go, mystery is sure to follow.

Moody and mercurial are defining Holmes characteristics – HOW has the great detective not been reimagined before as a teenage girl? It’s beyond right. The characters here are fantastic – I want to hang out with them the way I want to hang out with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Charlotte is brilliant, flawed, and utterly, agonizingly human, and Jamie is a wry, appealing, gold-hearted narrator (who, by the way, is also no slouch in the brains department). Together they are incandescent. Sure, there is sexual tension, but it’s so, so much more than that. One of my favorite quotes:
“I wanted the two of us to be complicated together, to be difficult and engrossing and blindingly brilliant. Sex was a commonplace kind of complicated. And nothing about Charlotte Holmes was commonplace.”

Just read it. You won’t regret it.

A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE is out now.
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Read This!: THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF CHARLIE PRICE by Jennifer Maschari

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The Remarkable Journey of Charlie PriceThe Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price by Jennifer Maschari

Summary: Ever since twelve-year-old Charlie Price’s mom died, he feels like his world has been split into two parts. Before included stargazing and Mathletes and Saturday scavenger hunts with his family. After means a dad who’s completely checked out, comically bad dinners, and grief group that’s anything but helpful. It seems like losing Mom meant losing everything else he loved, too.  Just when Charlie thinks things can’t get any worse, his sister, Imogen, starts acting erratically—missing school and making up lies about their mother. But everything changes when one day he follows her down a secret passageway in the middle of her bedroom and sees for himself.  Imogen has found a parallel world where Mom is alive!  There’s hot cocoa and Scrabble and scavenger hunts again and everything is perfect . . . at first. But something doesn’t feel right. Whenever Charlie returns to the real world, things are different, and not in a good way. And Imogen wants to spend more and more time on the other side. It’s almost as if she wants to leave the real world for good. If Charlie doesn’t uncover the truth, he could lose himself, the true memory of their mother, and Imogen . . . forever.

This book is heartfelt and earnest, and I sobbed through the last 30 pages. Charlie is a 12 year old boy who loves math and his friends and his family, and he and his sister are both reeling from the death of their mother. When his sister finds a portal to a world where their mother is still alive, at first it seems like a miracle. But as Charlie soon learns, there is no joy without loss, no way to enjoy the good things in life without also accepting the bad. Charlie and his friends are a brave and loyal group, and readers will enjoy getting to know them.

THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF CHARLIE PRICE is out now.

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