Reviews

A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

steph01924's review against another edition

4.0

Solid mystery, strong female lead and nice supporting characters. I enjoy Victorian era protagonists who can kick ass (Amelia Peabody, anyone?) so this fell into that genre quite well. I look forward to seeing where it can go, as this is very much a 'beginning of a series' type book, though not in the 'leave you off in a horrible cliffhanger' type way. It's a standalone mystery, but the reoccurring characters have lots of room to grow as the series goes on.

bookfortbuilder's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

booknerd998's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

labwa_0712's review against another edition

2.0

I don’t know, it was kinda boring. I expected some kind of exciting story but nope.

spevensie's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

dmag331's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

sophia_she1's review against another edition

4.0

 meh
james was cute! 

michellehenriereads's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed the depiction of Victorian England, seeing both the glamorous side and unsavory. It’s particularly interesting to see the prejudice that developed to the Chinese immigrants. Overall it’s engaging, has a good pace and delightful characters. There were a few odd, stray comments that seemed out of place. I questioned the need to include that the gentleman, Henry Thorold, had a...

To read the full review go to www.talesuntangled.wordpress.com

justlily's review against another edition

5.0

This. Is. Awesome.

A biracial heroine who kicks SO MUCH ass? Yes.

Conversations about heritage and culture and what it means to be biracial and white presenting? YES.

INTERESTING CHARACTERS AND A REALLY GREAT STORY AND FEMALE SPIES? YES.

Come ON. This book is everything. These are the kind of female heroines we need. This. All of this. I can't even WORDS IN THIS REVIEW BUT THIS. The writing is awesome, the setting and suspense is built perfectly. I was definitely intrigued by the mystery in the storyline. And more than anything I was HERE FOR Mary coming to terms with her being biracial as that's something I had to do myself.

I've never backed a series or author this fast in my life. But Y.S. Lee is my new best friend.

cari1268's review against another edition

3.0

This was a meh read for me. It's hard to pick out what I didn't like about this book. Perhaps, it was the slightly forgettable characters or hard-to-swallow plot. The hardcore feminism preaching definitely grated on me. I'm as outraged as the next woman about the lack of opportunity for women during those days. However, the outcry started to feel like a lecture. And marriage was always cast in a bad light. Besides all of that, the characters sounded and acted too modern.

There were parts to the story that I really enjoyed. It was fun to see how everything fit together in the end and I imagine many younger teenagers will get in to this series. As for me, I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. If I see the second one at the library, I might pick it up to give the author another try.

2.5 Stars.