A review by amber_hastings
City Spies by James Ponti

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? No

3.5

A thrilling and fast-paced story with exceptional opening chapters. While the mystery at the heart of this story wasn't as interesting as I'd have hoped, the book sets the series up nicely, introducing a strong and lovable cast of characters who'll have to work together on future mysteries. I particularly liked that there is an adult character, Mother, with a personal mystery of his own, which lends a more mature tone to the story. A few things irked me beside the mystery itself and they included the switch to include one of the villains' perspectives very late in the story (how convenient!) and the overall lack of development for the main character, who ends the story slightly braver and more confident but ultimately quite unchanged emotionally from where she started. But otherwise I enjoyed reading this and will be reading book 2.