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A review by danileighta
The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams
4.0
This is a fun new series for me. Each of the members of the Society are vibrant and distinct, and the women really love each other. That close friend group is always fun to read about. They even fight well, which can be the most important part of a good friendship. The series also centers around books, food, strong female-identified characters, and mysteries, a perfect combination in my opinion.
My favorite part of the series is Nora's bibliotherapy. She is the Queen of Reader Advisory and her assertion that books can change lives is something I intimately know to be true. Hester's scone skills are really special and clever, as well, but I'll let readers find out more about her Comfort Scones by reading the series.
I do have some gripes. I wish this author was more skilled at including non-white and other diverse characters. It feels a bit heavy-handed at times and, although most non-white characters receive descriptors about their skin color or hair or culture, no white characters are ever described this way... Also, the audiobook reader does an uncomfortable job when narrating folks who are described as non-white. A Japanese character, for example, is read in a strange formal and halting way. The same is true for Indigenous characters later in the series. Variety in character voices is necessary, but to make all non-white characters sound "different" in some way is not okay.
So, overall, I really like the series and I'm holding out hope that the author will get better at the above-mentioned gripes.
My favorite part of the series is Nora's bibliotherapy. She is the Queen of Reader Advisory and her assertion that books can change lives is something I intimately know to be true. Hester's scone skills are really special and clever, as well, but I'll let readers find out more about her Comfort Scones by reading the series.
I do have some gripes. I wish this author was more skilled at including non-white and other diverse characters. It feels a bit heavy-handed at times and, although most non-white characters receive descriptors about their skin color or hair or culture, no white characters are ever described this way... Also, the audiobook reader does an uncomfortable job when narrating folks who are described as non-white. A Japanese character, for example, is read in a strange formal and halting way. The same is true for Indigenous characters later in the series. Variety in character voices is necessary, but to make all non-white characters sound "different" in some way is not okay.
So, overall, I really like the series and I'm holding out hope that the author will get better at the above-mentioned gripes.