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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
lighthearted
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This was such a wonderful book! The characters were cute, fun, and engaging, the mystery was well written and suspenseful, and the author has perfectly captured the awkwardness of middle school. I loved the town of Pumpkin Falls and its residents too! I'm crossing my fingers for a sequel!
3.5 stars. Read for my middle grades bookclub. It was a lovely December book. The setting is definitely the star of the show for me...think Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls. I want to live in Pumpkin Falls. I wish that there was more of a mystery and that the characters had more dimension. It was nice, but not very memorable.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
This book was my first by the author, Heather Vogel Frederick and I was immediately invested in Truly and her family's story. The fact that they run a bookstore was a perfect addition. Truly grabs the reader and bring them into the struggles of starting at a new school in a new state, which resonated with me as I was about the same age when I moved to NH. The mystery being linked to books and literary examples brought awareness to new to me information and was fun to try to solve throughout reading the story!
2.5 ⭐️
While I loved the family dynamic & exploration of a family getting back to normal after the dad’s return from Afghanistan, this book missed the mark a bit. It’s billed as a mystery, but the mystery is essentially a scavenger hunt of love letters. Truly & her friends keep looking for more letters while trying to figure out who the writer & recipient are. It’s hardly the exciting mystery touting in the description & doesn’t even really seem to be the main point of the book.
I still liked the themes of family, starting over, making friends vs blending in, but I have a hard time thinking the mystery would be appealing or exciting enough to middle grade readers. There’s a lot of repetition throughout, particularly with Truly comparing everyone to birds (she’s obsessed with birds) & the words stupid & moron more times than I can count.
It was still a heartwarming read, but didn’t fit the expectation of a mystery, excitement, etc.
While I loved the family dynamic & exploration of a family getting back to normal after the dad’s return from Afghanistan, this book missed the mark a bit. It’s billed as a mystery, but the mystery is essentially a scavenger hunt of love letters. Truly & her friends keep looking for more letters while trying to figure out who the writer & recipient are. It’s hardly the exciting mystery touting in the description & doesn’t even really seem to be the main point of the book.
I still liked the themes of family, starting over, making friends vs blending in, but I have a hard time thinking the mystery would be appealing or exciting enough to middle grade readers. There’s a lot of repetition throughout, particularly with Truly comparing everyone to birds (she’s obsessed with birds) & the words stupid & moron more times than I can count.
It was still a heartwarming read, but didn’t fit the expectation of a mystery, excitement, etc.
I enjoyed Absolutely Truly. I was looking for an easy read novel to finished off 2019 and this book delivered. This book definitely qualifies as a cozy mystery. I listened to it on audio and felt the narrator told the story well!
Absolutely Truly was a great combination of mystery and middle grade friendship story. When Truly Lovejoy comes to live in Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire, she is upset that her life is changing so drastically. A military kid, she thought she was settled for good in Texas, living near and going to school with her cousin and best friend. Then her father loses a hand in Afghanistan, and all their plans change. They return to her father's hometown to run her grandparents bookstore. This means new friends, new school, new routines, and at first Truly doesn't think she'll like living in this tiny, freezing cold town. She quickly makes friends - and enemies - and helps out in the family business. It's there that she finds an old letter in the back of a signed first-edition of Charlotte's Web. It leads to another clue, and she enlists her new friends to help her solve the puzzle. Full of quirky but believable characters, this is a warm, fuzzy hug of a book. Even though I had a lot figured out before the last page turn, it was highly enjoyable. Give this to mystery lovers.
I really enjoyed this book. I liked how Truly likened everyone she met and knew to a bird and it had the underlying theme of birds throughout the book. It really helped me picture them as she described them.
I loved the family story.
The mystery aspect was less mystery, more treasure hunt and not really what I expected because of the word "danger" on the back cover. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think my daughters will too. Also, I really related to a lot of it because of having been a military child myself.
I loved the family story.
The mystery aspect was less mystery, more treasure hunt and not really what I expected because of the word "danger" on the back cover. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think my daughters will too. Also, I really related to a lot of it because of having been a military child myself.
I have found that even though I am an adult now, I almost enjoy middle grade/intermediary literature more now than I did when I was a kid. It’s a neat experience to be able to “go back in time” and read a middle-schooler’s perspective. It was a cute story with bits of humor, hardship, and lots of whodunit.
I was able to make connections with the main character, Truly, at various points of the book. For example, I was always one of the tallest girls in my class (I was at a shoe size of 11 by the time I was in eighth grade). Because of my height, my grandfather frequently asked me if I was on the basketball team (which I wasn’t). I enjoyed being able to view the perspective of a character who experienced some of the same struggles I did in my youth.
Mystery/thriller is one of my favorite genres to read. The book sounded right up my alley, especially with the primary setting being a bookstore. I’m so used to mysteries being intense and sometimes scary; however, this storyline was absolutely adorable, and I loved reading a book that was on the “innocent” side.
Even though this wasn’t one of my favorite books of all time, I am so glad I read it. I would recommend it to others, especially anyone who enjoys middle grade literature, a cute storyline, and/or the mystery genre.
I was able to make connections with the main character, Truly, at various points of the book. For example, I was always one of the tallest girls in my class (I was at a shoe size of 11 by the time I was in eighth grade). Because of my height, my grandfather frequently asked me if I was on the basketball team (which I wasn’t). I enjoyed being able to view the perspective of a character who experienced some of the same struggles I did in my youth.
Mystery/thriller is one of my favorite genres to read. The book sounded right up my alley, especially with the primary setting being a bookstore. I’m so used to mysteries being intense and sometimes scary; however, this storyline was absolutely adorable, and I loved reading a book that was on the “innocent” side.
Even though this wasn’t one of my favorite books of all time, I am so glad I read it. I would recommend it to others, especially anyone who enjoys middle grade literature, a cute storyline, and/or the mystery genre.
This was a super cute mystery! I loved all the different aspects, with the mystery letters, the stolen copy of Charlotte's Web , Truly's move to Pumpkin Falls, her issues with her family and feeling like she is invisible, her new friends, Cotillion and winter festival, and the bookstore. I would absolutely love to spend time at Lovejoy's Books, and honestly, Pumpkin Falls doesn't seem like a place that would be that bad to live (although I guess if you had just found your dream home in Texas, you wouldn't exactly want to move up to the small New Hampshire town). It's also fitting that I finished this book, filled with Shakespearean tidbits, on the Ides of March, and right after I read Romeo and Juliet . Great read, and I'm looking forward to the next book, as well as others by Heather Vogel Frederick!