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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Tuesday Mooney is a loner. She keeps to herself, only really socialising with her ex colleague Dex, and only begrudgingly. When billionaire Vincent Pryce dies at one of Tuesday's work fundraisers, a chain of events begins that sets her on a totally new path. Vincent has left behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, open to anyone and everyone, for a chance to win a share of his wealth. Tuesday loves solving puzzles, and with the help of a ragtag crew she follows the trail, testing their knowledge, morals and mettle along the way.
This was a NetGalley book that I stumbled on and thought sounded really interesting. I generally enjoy puzzle solving, treasure hunt sorts of books, so I thought I'd give this a try. It proved to be a good call, this was a fun and enjoyable read, with various literary and musical references thrown in.
I really liked Tuesday, she made a great protagonist. Yes she's a loner, but she's a loner by choice, not because she is socially awkward or unable to make friends. She's a strong character, and a capable one. She's very good at her job, and generally has her life together. She also doesn't seem to feel any pressure to find a boyfriend, she's happy as she is. It was great to read about a character like this and for all of these aspects of her character to be perfectly normal and widely accepted.
Dex, Dorry and Archie made a great selection of supporting characters too. I liked all of them, especially Dorry. I thought the bond between her and Tuesday came across reslly well, without the author having to explicitly explain it.
The plot for me was interesting, and I liked the idea. There wasn't quite as many puzzles as I was hoping for, but by the time I realised this I was invested in Tuesday and some of the other story aspects. It wasn't a big issue, but it would have been nice to have more. I suppose in some ways the mystery of the Arches' family is one long big puzzle. It was a refreshing take on the treasure hunt story arc, and I actually enjoyed it not being too heavy or having too much educational information laced through.
There was some heavier stuff in the book, although I can't say too much without giving some key details away. It's nothing too graphic, and it fits in well with the rest of the book. There's a lot of focus on death and what happens afterwards (both to those who die and those left behind), but it's all written in such a way that it doesn't become all bleak and gloomy.
The only negative thing I did notice was that Tuesday uses some odd turns of phrase every so often (e.g. 'to confront Archie senseless), which for me did impact the flow of the writing as I had to try and decipher what she actually meant. They could be colloquial phrases that I just didn't get with not being from Boston, or they could be changed during the editing process, so might well not be an issue for other readers. I just found it a little strange.
Overall I enjoyed reading this one, and will be very likely to read more by Kate Racculia.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for an arc in exchange for an honest review
This was a NetGalley book that I stumbled on and thought sounded really interesting. I generally enjoy puzzle solving, treasure hunt sorts of books, so I thought I'd give this a try. It proved to be a good call, this was a fun and enjoyable read, with various literary and musical references thrown in.
I really liked Tuesday, she made a great protagonist. Yes she's a loner, but she's a loner by choice, not because she is socially awkward or unable to make friends. She's a strong character, and a capable one. She's very good at her job, and generally has her life together. She also doesn't seem to feel any pressure to find a boyfriend, she's happy as she is. It was great to read about a character like this and for all of these aspects of her character to be perfectly normal and widely accepted.
Dex, Dorry and Archie made a great selection of supporting characters too. I liked all of them, especially Dorry. I thought the bond between her and Tuesday came across reslly well, without the author having to explicitly explain it.
The plot for me was interesting, and I liked the idea. There wasn't quite as many puzzles as I was hoping for, but by the time I realised this I was invested in Tuesday and some of the other story aspects. It wasn't a big issue, but it would have been nice to have more. I suppose in some ways the mystery of the Arches' family is one long big puzzle. It was a refreshing take on the treasure hunt story arc, and I actually enjoyed it not being too heavy or having too much educational information laced through.
There was some heavier stuff in the book, although I can't say too much without giving some key details away. It's nothing too graphic, and it fits in well with the rest of the book. There's a lot of focus on death and what happens afterwards (both to those who die and those left behind), but it's all written in such a way that it doesn't become all bleak and gloomy.
The only negative thing I did notice was that Tuesday uses some odd turns of phrase every so often (e.g. 'to confront Archie senseless), which for me did impact the flow of the writing as I had to try and decipher what she actually meant. They could be colloquial phrases that I just didn't get with not being from Boston, or they could be changed during the editing process, so might well not be an issue for other readers. I just found it a little strange.
Overall I enjoyed reading this one, and will be very likely to read more by Kate Racculia.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for an arc in exchange for an honest review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I loved the premise of this book. I enjoyed the character development even though I could not connect to some of the characters. The scavenger hunt itself started out great, but ended up not being as interesting as I thought it would be. I found the ending a bit disappointing. I felt like Nathaniel Arches as a character was very one-dimensional and found it hard to believe he would just try to murder Tuesday. At times I felt like the switching between the characters' thoughts wasn't consistent. We didn't hear from Dex for a while after Vincent Pryce's death which was kind of a big deal because it was the first time all the characters were together. After the true identity of Archie was revealed, I wish we had a bit more insight into his mind like we did with the other characters. Also, Tuesday didn't really talk to ghosts in plural. She talked to a single ghost. We never really find out if Abby was murdered or who did it. I get that this is realistic because you don't always get closure, but Abby's subplot could have been so much better.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
A strong 3.5 stars. It felt a little self indulgent and stalled the plot with too much character exposition. Definitely needed to be cut down. Listened to audio book and thought narrator was great.
This is a gothic adventure caper with a prickly heroine and a set of secondary characters that just win you over. It’s also quite hard to describe without giving away spoilers and it doesn’t really sit in any one genre particularly easily. It’s a mystery, it’s an adventure, it’s a thriller. It’s got ghosts in one of its titles, but it isn’t really a paranormal or fantasy novel. It is clever and incredibly readable and I just loved it. I’ve never read Kate Racculia before, but I’ve just bought one of her earlier books because I liked this so much.
I was super excited when I won this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway, particularly because of how much I loved the author’s previous book, Bellwether Rhapsody. It shared some of the more enjoyable aspects of her previous work - quirky characters (one even borrowed from the other book), pop culture references, witty dialogue, mystery, and a general spookiness. The set-up to the book was fun - an eccentric billionaire sets up a game for the city of Boston to play to win some of his fortune after his death. I thought the pay off for that set-up was a bit disappointing and the villain was basically a Lifetime movie caricature. Overall, a fun read if you don’t overthink some of the more contrived elements.
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated