This one gets like 3.75 stars just because it felt really long (I mean it is really long, but I felt it). We start right where the first one leaves offThis one gets like 3.75 stars just because it felt really long (I mean it is really long, but I felt it). We start right where the first one leaves off. We got a lot of characters in the first one and their friendships continue to blossom and strengthen in this one. Tamsin is such a strong main character and I had a really good time following along on her journey. She really thinks of herself in one specific way and it's very heartwarming to see other people prove her wrong. One of my favorite characters was Neve (not sure about spelling). I loved how she came about knowing Tamsin in the first book and I loved the part she eventually played out in this one. She was such a spitfire and I loved it. I loved Tamsin's relationship with both Cabell and Nash and how imperfect they are. Like I said, this book was long. There was so much plot, that I honestly can't remember everything that happened even though I just finished it. But there were so many twists that I didn't see coming and I really did enjoy this long journey the characters took. I just wish it had maybe been split into 3 books. The ending was very exciting and such a rollercoaster of every emotion out there. While the synopsis of this book says it's the duology conclusion, there is a storyline for another book or a spin off (in my opinion) and I would love to read about that. I listened to the audiobook and I really enjoyed the narrator. The dialogue was done well and the narration was very pleasant to listen to. The narrator really brought the characters to life and made it easy for me to imagine what was going on. Thank you to PRHA, Netgalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers/Random House for advanced ebook and audiobook copies of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
This was a fun addition to this series. In this one, Maureen almost immediately finds a body washed up on the beach. It turns out to be that of a localThis was a fun addition to this series. In this one, Maureen almost immediately finds a body washed up on the beach. It turns out to be that of a local fishing charter captain Eddie Manuel. So his murder is the one we are trying to figure out throughout the whole book. Something fun about this series (and I think cozies in general) is that there was a lot of other stuff going on as well and we didn't fully focus on the murder. Maureen has dragged down a big trunk full of Penelope Josephine's stuff. She found a picture of a fishing tournament that had been held in Haven in 2000. Doing some digging, she found out that it only ran for one year, because a murder happened the last day of the tournament. But it's a slow time at the inn and Maureen thinks it will be a good idea to reinvent the tournament. We get a few new characters in this book as well as all the oldies. An archaeologist Kim, and 2 men who own and work for a birding magazine stay at the inn. Maureen becomes good friends with Kim. Their friendship is very sweet. The 2 men Ron and Harvey are working, Harvey owns the magazine and writes articles and Ron takes pictures. Harvey is a jerk, he is very rude to Maureen on a number of occasions, but Ron is pleasant. We get a few scenes with some ghosts, Lorna is always my favorite. She lives in Maureen's suites. We get to know Ted the cook better as well as the 4 older employees who live at the inn. They are all so sweet. The plot was fun, Maureen really worked hard to put on this fishing tournament in a short amount of time as well as open her inn's gift shop, and put on a birthday party for someone who helped her out in a previous book and has come back for a stay. There is no shortage of things going on and I was never bored. The murder was constantly brought up so we didn't forget about it, but so much other stuff went on too. It all flowed well together. Something I'm slowly getting accustomed to is the writing style of cozy mysteries in general. I don't really know what it is, it almost feels like even the dialogue is so incredibly formal and not at all how people would actually talk to each other I think. This is true with all the cozies I have read and something that still takes me a minute to get into. Overall, I'm really invested in this series, it's always a good time and I can't wait to read more! Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
I have to say while I enjoyed this, it has been my least favorite of the bunch. Still a high 4 star though but since I gave the others 4.5, I had to gI have to say while I enjoyed this, it has been my least favorite of the bunch. Still a high 4 star though but since I gave the others 4.5, I had to give this one a little less. I missed the Ellingham setting. This one takes place mostly in London where David is studying abroad. He invites Stevie and co for a "study" week. While there, they meet David's friend Izzy who wants Stevie to help her solve a mystery where her aunt's 2 friends were murdered. I did like the London setting and I think it was a good way to step away from the original trilogy but still keep the friend group together and have a new mystery to solve. I still love Janelle and Nate. David is still meh. Something happens within the last sentence of the book that may make me hate him, but I will not jump to conclusions. The murder itself is quite the mystery and again, I love the dual timeline of the kids investigating and the past (1990's this time) where it actually happens. I think this works so well with a murder mystery like this. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment!...more
This series is such a fun cozy mystery. In this one, there is a movie being shot in Penniman's fancy resort inn. The owner of the inn, Diantha's familThis series is such a fun cozy mystery. In this one, there is a movie being shot in Penniman's fancy resort inn. The owner of the inn, Diantha's family has owned it for generations. Her son Cooper is a child actor, Sam is an extreme sport junky and stepson Chip directs movies. The night before Diantha is about to get married to cooking show sensation Dominic at the inn, Riley is asked to help housekeep because the main character of the movie Jenira fires 2 of the maids. Riley is given a room at the inn so she can help in the morning as well. In the morning, Ruthie find Diantha's body in her room and of course, Riley is there as well. There were a lot of characters in this book, but since this is the third book, we are already familiar with a lot of them. All the characters at the inn and in the movie are new, but it was actually quite easy to remember who was who which doesn't always happen. I actually don't think there was a character I didn't like. None of them seemed unnecessary. Riley was curious and nosy as always, but I think that's kind of the typical heroine of cozy mysteries. I love her friendship with Caroline as well as all the people she works with at the ice cream shop. While a lot of this book did focus on the mystery of what happened to Diantha, there was a lot of just life, which I think is what makes it cozy. It was just a fun slice of Riley's life, murder and all. I kind of did guess the murderer, but it didn't really take anything away from the story and I was still happy to read the whole thing. The climax was really exciting and had me on the edge of my seat. Then we get a few chapters of kind of a wrap up and it just brings everything together and you get this sense of satisfaction. The only thing that I really could think of that wasn't my favorite was that there were 2 times during this book where Riley listed suspects and for pages and pages went on about every little thing about them and their potential motives. The first time it happened, I got a little bored with it but it was ok. I liked listing the suspects and stuff but it felt a little long. Then the second time, I just felt was not necessary. Riley gets some news at the very beginning of this book and makes a decision about it at the end, and I'm really hoping this will be the storyline for the next book because it would be so much fun! Even if I'm wrong, I already can't wait for the next book! Thank you to Netgalley and SMP for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
I really wanted to love this book as much as I did the first one. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half went in a way I wasn't expectinI really wanted to love this book as much as I did the first one. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half went in a way I wasn't expecting and I can't say I loved it. I still overall enjoyed it, but it was just a little unbelievable. Well, a lot unbelievable. I liked the first 2 because the cold case and missing person were something someone running a true crime podcast would really look into try to solve. Even the first half of this book was believable. It went a little crazy in the second half and lost a little of my, not interest because I was still hooked, but it lost a little of something else. I absolutely loved the comradery of the characters in this book. I mean, it was for the totally crazy cause, but I love loyal characters and friend groups. Everything in the second half of this book was so thought through and when you were sure it was going to go right and all bases were covered, it kept going the tiniest bit wrong and it really did have me on the edge of my seat. There were times when my heart was beating so fast! I love the narrator of the audiobook and thought she did a great job really selling the action packed parts. While there was not a definite "conclusion," there was enough to lean towards what ended up happening. While it was satisfying, it kind of made me squirm thinking about the difference between right and wrong and the grey area in between. While I liked the first book the most, this was definitely a super solid mystery/thriller series that I will be recommending for a long time!...more
4.5 stars A great standalone in the world of Stevie Bell. It did bring us out of the story of the Ellinghams, but that was well wrapped up in The Hand 4.5 stars A great standalone in the world of Stevie Bell. It did bring us out of the story of the Ellinghams, but that was well wrapped up in The Hand on the Wall. It was nice to be out of that storyline, but I did kind of miss it at the same time. In this book, Stevie is on summer vacation between years at Ellingham. She gets contacted by a summer camp where an unsolved mystery happened in the '70's. The Box in the Woods murders. As in the trilogy, we get the timeline of the '70's characters as well as the present. We do spend a little bit of the beginning of the book getting to know the characters/backstory for anyone who hasn't read the previous books as this is marketed as a standalone, so I was impatiently waiting for all the action through these parts. I loved coming back to these characters. Nate is seriously the best. I love the friendship he has with Stevie, the fact that he is an author, his sense of humor. Just everything. Stevie's friendship with Janelle is also fantastic. David has always been just ok for me but it's fine. The story itself was really fun, there were camp aspects that really made me feel like I was in summer camp with Stevie and co. We meet a lot of characters from the town who were alive when the murders happened, but it wasn't hard to remember who was who and who related to who in the past timeline....more
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed Havenfall a little bit more than this one, but it was still Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed Havenfall a little bit more than this one, but it was still a solid sequel. We pick up right where we left off, and since I just finished the first one, it was great to just jump right back into the story. I enjoyed the characters a little more, Maddie really felt like she grew from the first book. I liked the development of some of the other characters too (but I won't name them because spoilers). The character I didn't love this time around was Brekken. I liked him in the first one, but it really seemed like he was a different person in this one. I really enjoyed the family aspect in this book, but I won't go into any more detail than that. The plot was kind of all over the place. It felt like there was enough to continue into a third book, but it all got crunched into this one. I wish some of the major things that happened were drawn out more, but every single one felt rushed. We find out about the selling of the soul-silver in the first book and that is really just so unique to me, I loved reading about how passionate Maddie was about fixing it and how it really connected everything in the book. There were some things that weren't resolved at the end, there is one character who goes off to do something important and then we never find out what happened for example. In the first book, I loved the setting of Havenfall. That was a high point of the book for me. In this book, while we get to explore some of the other worlds, we don't get to explore them a lot. The scenes in those other worlds are rushed. I would have loved to explore them more. There is an extra chapter at the end told from a different character's POV which I actually loved. If there happens to be another book in this series, or a spin off, I would want it to be exactly like that chapter, following that plot line. It did answer one of the questions to the unresolved plot points in the actual book, but it really only answered the what and not the how, so we are still left guessing about what exactly happened with this person....more
This was unfortunately a disappointment compared to Ready Player One. It felt like the same story with different movie/pop culture references. There wThis was unfortunately a disappointment compared to Ready Player One. It felt like the same story with different movie/pop culture references. There was a lot of almost info dumping about certain aspects of the game and the different worlds and how it all works and that kind of lost me at times. Some of the actual "getting the shard" parts were fun, but others were too long like the Prince one. I totally lost interest in that one. And those were really the only parts that were kind of fun. Everything in between was kind of flat. I didn't really like Wade in this one. He seemed very selfish and then wondered why Samantha didn't want to be with him. I did like how Samantha was so involved in everything with the money she got from winning the contest. I think she was my favorite character. I felt like Lo (spelling? I listened to the audiobook) was not needed. It seemed like she was going to be an important character throughout the book, but she wasn't. H and Shoto were good, but not around much. The ending was just weird and I feel like it almost didn't go along with the rest of the book, especially coming from a different narrator. I just really wish this book had had more of a unique plot line instead of basically a copy and paste of the first one that seemed more drawn out....more
Loading...
