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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Reminded me of The Westing Game. So many strange characters and clues. A fun story though overly long.
Grade 5 and up.
Grade 5 and up.
1.5 stars. I only read this for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge—“read a middle grade mystery.” I wish I had done a nostalgic reread of Nancy Drew instead. Mysteries are not one of my preferred genres and when you add in smugglers and a ghost it’s simply not my cup of tea. I think plenty of middle graders would enjoy this book, but this middle-aged woman is just glad to check it off my list and move on.
Kate Milford has quickly become one of my favorite middle-grade authors. She has such a way with story-telling and I just loved this one. Great read.
Wow! This was an almost perfect mystery. I loved it. There was one hole that didn't get patched. Maybe two, slightly, but even still, I was surprised how much I liked it. I'm not usually one for mystery. But I flew through this and kind of want more...
This was a lot of fun, perfect cozy Christmas/winter read.
Didn't care for the audiobook much but interesting story. Doing really agree with the Westing Game comparison.
dnf at 22%
Too slow. 22% in and nothing happened yet.
Too slow. 22% in and nothing happened yet.
Can’t recommend this enough. My daughter is 8, and I did this as a bedtime read aloud. We were both sucked in; it was hard to put down after one chapter, and sometimes she would read ahead after I turned out the light. Luckily she didn’t protest the next night when I wanted to go back to where I left off so I didn’t miss anything. Amazing book.
Man this book really ticked a lot of juvenile fic boxes for me. It felt super cozy and wholesome but still with enough intrigue to keep you glued to it. The mysteries and dangers feel credible for the story’s scale and don’t feel like overkill (even though there are a Lot of side plots).
I do have a couple gripes, one being that the dialogue feels pretty homogeneous - for such a varied group of characters, most of them sound exactly the same. Also while the author clearly worked hard for all plot twists to add up as much as possible, I figured out the major one like 1/4 of the way into the book and the reveal felt like no duh by the time it started unfolding. 3.5/5
I do have a couple gripes, one being that the dialogue feels pretty homogeneous - for such a varied group of characters, most of them sound exactly the same. Also while the author clearly worked hard for all plot twists to add up as much as possible, I figured out the major one like 1/4 of the way into the book and the reveal felt like no duh by the time it started unfolding. 3.5/5