Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Review: How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao

Book Review and Content, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,
How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao

How We Fall Apart
Katie Zhao
Bloomsbury
Published August 3, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About How We Fall Apart

Students at an elite prep school are forced to confront their secrets when their ex-best friend turns up dead.

Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends–Krystal, Akil, and Alexander–are the prime suspects, thanks to “The Proctor,” someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app.

They all used to be Jamie’s closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow The Proctor knows them, too. The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too.

My Review

One of the things I feel like this book captured really well or conveyed really well is the high-pressure experience of being a student at an elite school. Nancy not only feels the pressure of her school program and being a scholarship student surrounded by rich kids from privileged families, but also feels intense pressure from her parents to do well and make all their sacrifices worth it.

At first I found it difficult to connect with Nancy because she’s bitter and aloof. As I started to see more and more of her life, I felt like it made a lot of sense that she acted the way she did. Her relationship with Jamie was complicated and pretty toxic, but it made sense that they stayed kind of bound up in each other. So that was another thing that I ultimately felt was strong about the story.

Some of the scene changes felt abrupt to me. It sometimes felt like the writing was a little rushed, so I read the beginnings of scenes sometimes more than once trying to figure out if I’d missed something. Or maybe there was a flashback or timeline change that happened quickly. Sometimes I struggled to follow those, but maybe that was just me.

I think all in all there are some really strong things about the story– and I really enjoyed the experience of reading a suspense story with an Asian cast. Hopefully HOW WE FALL APART does really well and paves the way for other books like this!

I think readers who enjoy suspense stories will like this one, especially early high school readers, like freshman and sophomores.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Major characters are Asian. Two female characters are in a romantic relationship.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex. Kissing between two girls.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of bullying. References to a girl found murdered. Description of a confrontation that leads to a head injury. A fire causes injuries.

Drug Content
A girl offers her friends a drink of juice and puts vodka in it without telling them. They realize what she’s done and drink the juice anyway.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of HOW WE FALL APART in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

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Girl on a Wire (Cirque American #1)
Gwenda Bond
Skyscape
Published October 1, 2014


Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Girl on a Wire

Sixteen-year-old Jules Maroni’s dream is to follow in her father’s footsteps as a high-wire walker. When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemies.

Jules ignores the drama and focuses on the wire, skyrocketing to fame as the girl in a red tutu who dances across the wire at death-defying heights. But when she discovers a peacock feather—an infamous object of bad luck—planted on her costume, Jules nearly loses her footing. She has no choice but to seek help from the unlikeliest of people: Remy Garcia, son of the Garcia clan matriarch and the best trapeze artist in the Cirque.

As more mysterious talismans believed to possess unlucky magic appear, Jules and Remy unite to find the culprit. And if they don’t figure out what’s going on soon, Jules may be the first Maroni to do the unthinkable: fall.

My Review

So I guess it’s been more than four years since I read the companion novel to this one, and when I reread my review, I said it would be smarter to read this one first so you didn’t get any spoilers. Fortunately for me, my reading brain is so porous that I have zero memory of anything that I read in GIRL IN THE SHADOWS that might have spoiled GIRL ON A WIRE for me. (In fact, I kind of want to go back and reread it to see what happens to Jules and Remy after this story ends.)

First of all, I loved the circus setting. It felt live and exciting and full of adrenaline and I had no trouble picturing the scenes or imagining the smells and sounds of the circus performances.

I thought the nod to the story of Romeo and Juliet was fun and sweet– Remy’s full name is apparently Romeo and Jules’s is Julieta, and they’re from families with a long history of rivalry and distrust. I enjoyed the mystery and suspense as they learned how to trust each other and work together to figure out who was trying to sabotage Jules and her family.

I thought the story was a really fun adventure to read and a nice escape from reality. I’m only sorry it took me so long to read it!

You can check out my review of the companion novel, GIRL IN THE SHADOWS here.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
Jules and her family are Italian Americans. Remy and his family are Latinx Americans.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used once.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Jules wonders about sex and how to know when she’s ready for that kind of intimacy in a relationship.

Spiritual Content
Jules’s grandmother reads Tarot cards and believes she can perform magic. She also believes that certain artifacts contain a kind of bad luck curse that will hurt anyone connected with them. One item contains good luck for whoever possesses it.

Violent Content
Two boys square off to fight. A performer is killed in an accident during a performance.

Drug Content
Jules (and other performers) drinks champagne to celebrate her success.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog.

Review: A Question of Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

A Question of Holmes (Charlotte Holmes #4)
Brittany Cavallaro
Katherine Tegen Books
Published March 5, 2019

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About A Question of Holmes

Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson think they’re finally in the clear. They’ve left Sherringford School—and the Moriartys—behind for a pre-college summer program at Oxford University. A chance to start from scratch and explore dating for the first time, while exploring a new city with all the freedom their program provides.

But when they arrive, Charlotte is immediately drawn into a new case: a series of accidents have been befalling the members of the community theater troupe in Oxford, and now, on the eve of their production of Hamlet, they’re starting all over again. What once seemed like a comedy of errors is now a race to prevent the next tragedy—before Charlotte or Jamie is the next victim.

My Review

First, I want to say this: I’m not very good at sticking to a series, much less a series with more than three books (gasp!), but I listened to most of the books in the Charlotte Holmes series this year during the pandemic, and having something energetic and fun to look forward to at the end of the day really helped me get through some stressful and difficult days. I love this series for that, and I am really glad I listened to all four books.

That said, A QUESTION OF HOLMES wasn’t my favorite book in the series. I liked the idea, and the mystery itself– the theater group, the disastrous events, the fact that Jamie and Charlotte had to figure out how to work a case when their reputations were already known to the people involved.

I think I just wanted the story to tie together some of the big rivalries and larger elements from the earlier books, and there’s a hint of that, but it didn’t feel like enough to me, if that makes sense. I wanted more of that, and instead the book kind of reads like a standalone mystery featuring some familiar characters.

Despite all that, I love that the story continues in the epilogue and we get a glimpse of Charlotte and Jamie and who they might be going forward into adult life. I thought that was a really cool way to end the series, kind of a final gift to readers.

I’m still really glad I read this one and have no regrets about spending my one monthly audible credit on A QUESTION OF HOLMES. It was a lot of fun, and I think anyone looking for a good escape read should check out the series.

Here are my reviews of earlier books in the Charlotte Holmes Series:

#1 A Study in Charlotte

#2 The Last of August

#3 A Case for Jamie

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Charlotte is from London. Jamie is white American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. They sleep in the same bed.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. A girl is missing, possibly murdered. A woman dies in a suspicious manner.

Drug Content
Charlotte and Jamie drink or pretend to drink alcohol with a group of teens who get very drunk.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog.

Review: The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro

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The Case for Jamie (Charlotte Holmes #3)
Brittany Cavallaro
Katherine Tegen Books
March 6, 2018

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Case for Jamie

The hotly anticipated and explosive third book in the New York Times bestselling Charlotte Holmes series.

It’s been a year since the shocking death of August Moriarty, and Jamie and Charlotte haven’t spoken.

Jamie is going through the motions at Sherringford, trying to finish his senior year without incident, with a nice girlfriend he can’t seem to fall for.

Charlotte is on the run, from Lucien Moriarty and from her own mistakes. No one has seen her since that fateful night on the lawn in Sussex—and Charlotte wants it that way. She knows she isn’t safe to be around. She knows her Watson can’t forgive her.

Holmes and Watson may not be looking to reconcile, but when strange things start happening, it’s clear that someone wants the team back together. Someone who has been quietly observing them both. Making plans. Biding their time.

Someone who wants to see one of them suffer and the other one dead.

My Review

I feel like suddenly this year I’ve become such a series reader! THE CASE FOR JAMIE is another book I listened to through my insomnia (during election week), and it was such a great book to distract me from the things that were on my mind.

I liked that in this one, the chapters alternate between Charlotte and Jamie’s perspectives, where in the past the story has been mostly Jamie’s point-of-view. For much of the story the two are separated, so that also brought something different to this one, because instead of Jamie reporting on and analyzing and pining after Charlotte, he kind of works on his own stuff a bit. I was into it.

Another thing that I enjoyed was again getting to see the relationship between Jamie’s dad and Charlotte’s uncle, so a previous generation of Holmes and Watson besties. That was interesting and fun, too.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, I definitely recommend that you start with book one, A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE, because the stories do continue and build on one another. This one especially has lots of threads in it that relate to things that happened in the first two books.

I think fans of mysteries and star-crossed-ish romances will love the fast-paced adventure of this series and the complex relationship between Charlotte and Jamie.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Charlotte is from London. Jamie is white American.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. References to a conversation between boy and girl about whether they should have sex. One scene hints that two characters are about to have sex and then cuts to pick up afterward with no details about the exchange.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. In one scene, a man beats a boy. A boy beats a man. Several times guns are pointed at people. A couple times people are shot.

Drug Content
Charlotte is an opiate addict. She carries two pills with her and takes a picture of them each day to send to a contact for accountability. Jamie and his friends attend a party where teens are drinking alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog.

Review: The Hollow Inside by Brooke Lauren Davis

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

The Hollow Inside
Brooke Lauren Davis
Bloomsbury YA
Published May 25, 2021

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Hollow Inside

Phoenix and mom Nina have spent years on the road, using their charm and wits to swindle and steal to get by. Now they’ve made it to their ultimate destination, Mom’s hometown of Jasper Hollow. The plan: bring down Ellis Bowman, the man who ruined Nina’s life.

After Phoenix gets caught spying, she spins a convincing story that inadvertently gives her full access to the Bowman family. As she digs deeper into their secrets, she finds herself entrenched in the tale of a death and a disappearance that doesn’t entirely line up with what Mom has told her. Who, if anyone, is telling the whole truth?

My Review

So much happens in this book. Every time I felt like I knew what was going to happen, new things surfaced and I had to recalculate my predictions. I wasn’t sure at first that I’d like Phoenix. She seemed like a really hard person at the beginning, but it wasn’t long before I started to see how much she was fighting to keep her world together and how much she wanted to be a good person.

I liked the way THE HOLLOW INSIDE is set in this small town with these larger-than-life personalities: the bestselling author and town hero; the fire and brimstone preacher who just might have a soft heart underneath his judgmental, controlling exterior; the snarky, outsider daughter and her loveable, sweet brother. It was easy to picture them in the little town sprawling out from a roundabout with a huge tree at its center.

You’ve probably already guessed that this is a pretty dark, angsty story. And it is! It’s suspenseful and twisty. Phoenix finds herself caught in a tug-of-war between uncovering the truth and delivering revenge. For the most part, I got completely swept up in the drama and emotions of the story.

In one part, though, a character does something drastic really publicly and says he has to do it because he has to silence someone. I was kind of confused because, like, that scene happened in public? I couldn’t see how his decision would actually do anything but create a bigger mess, so I didn’t understand why he did what he did. I guess it was really supposed to be a desperate move and maybe he was supposed to be pushed so far he wasn’t thinking clearly. I’m not sure. I liked the rest of the story well enough that I really just rolled with that scene and moved on to what came next.

On the whole, there were a lot of things I liked in THE HOLLOW INSIDE. I think readers who enjoy dark books like SADIE or THE PROJECT by Courtney Summers will like this story.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Phoenix is a lesbian. Another character is also a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing and making out between two girls.

Flashbacks imply that a man and a sixteen year old girl have a sexual relationship. A later scene implies that he may have had other similar encounters and in fact be a sexual predator? That question doesn’t really get pursued in the story.

Spiritual Content
The story features a small town with a strong connection to a Christian church. Some scenes reference church services and prayer. Phoenix herself doesn’t share in their faith.

Violent Content
It’s implied that a man hit a woman, but it happens off-scene. Phoenix hits a man and knocks him unconscious after getting caught robbing his house.

Some homophobic comments about a girl in town who was caught kissing another girl.

A car accident kills a teenage boy who was perhaps crossing the street. Another car accident kills a man when his car goes off road and down the mountainside. A sign falls, nearly injuring someone. An object smashes through a window, spraying a family with glass. A man with a severe allergy is stung by bees multiple times.

A person with a gun confronts a crowd. Someone in the crowd is shot.

Drug Content
One minor character has a drinking problem and is drunk in multiple scenes. Phoenix and her friends drink wine at a dinner party.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of THE HOLLOW INSIDE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Roger Tarkington and the Magic Calendar: Surviving Middle School by I. M. Maynard

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , ,

Roger Tarkington and the Magic Calendar: Surviving Middle School
I. M. Maynard
Taft Publishing
Published February 1, 2021

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indiebound | Goodreads

About Roger Tarkington and the Magic Calendar: Surviving Middle School

Fresh off achieving middle school greatness, 11-year-old Roger Tarkington sets his sights on something bigger than himself. He plans to use his magic calendar to help the powerless at Jefferson Middle School and turn the tables on the school’s powerful bullies.

Just call Roger a modern-day Robin Hood!

But Roger’s very first attempt could be his last, as he uncovers a secret at the school so big that even his magic calendar may not be able to fix things!

Is Roger’s plan to right the wrongs at Jefferson Middle School foolproof or foolhardy? Are some middle school wrongs impossible to be righted?

My Review

More goofy antics, time traveling adventures, and grand schemes begin immediately in this second book in the Roger Tarkington and the Magic Calendar series. This time, we get to know Roger’s best friend, E3, a bit better, as she works with him to solve a mystery about cheating on homework among the football players. She’s a smart girl, piecing together things that Roger sometimes overlooks, and pretty much keeping laser-focused on solving the case.

The story also forces Roger to recognize his dependency on the calendar and find ways to achieve his goals without solely using the calendar, which I thought was really cool. A couple of the people who he has “protected” end up being able to help him, too.

To be honest, though, I was a little disappointed with the Robin Hood theme. I kind of felt like Roger didn’t really GET Robin Hood. Robin Hood was about justice and protecting people who didn’t have the ability to protect themselves. Roger seemed to want to protect people he thought were cool from people he thought were annoying. He also has snarky nicknames for so many people, and I guess that got a little bit old after a while. It made him seem like a jerk sometimes.

He does learn some lessons about truth and justice, and his own misjudgments, though. I liked the way the mystery unraveled and the way Roger couldn’t solve everything on his own. All in all, this was a fun, goofy story that will appeal to fans of the first book in the series.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Most characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Roger holds hands with a girl.

Spiritual Content
A calendar gives Roger the ability to time travel to the date or event he’s touching on the calendar.

Violent Content
Some instances of bullying, including trapping someone in a locker.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog. I received a free copy of ROGER TARKINGTON AND THE MAGIC CALENDAR: SURVIVING MIDDLE SCHOOL in exchange for my honest review.