Book Review: Rialto by Kate Milford

Let's start with a story.

When I was a kid, I lived in the corner house on a crossroads of an old neighborhood. Diagonally from me, behind the house, one street west, was a Mom & Pop grocery store. One street east and two and a half blocks north was my Grandma's house. If I walked into the middle of the street and looked due east I could see my elementary school, the same school my Dad and his brother and sisters attended when they were kids. But the most important location was three streets east and two and a half blocks south.

The library.

When I was a kid, I remember my Dad started having part of the summer off and he'd plan day trips to the library. We'd have breakfast, get our bags ready for our books and set off. I remember we would choose a different route sometimes, skip a turn and go longer down a street, things like that, but we would always end up walking through a street that felt like tunnel of trees and it would be one more left and the library was on our right. We'd get water at the fountain and my Dad would leave us in the kid's section, saying to choose some good books, come find him when we were ready and then we would go home for lunch. It would be somewhere between three or four hours to sit in the library, searching the shelves and choosing the best spot to settle in and read. I'd pull books off the shelves, trying to find something, changing my mind every trip about what I wanted to read. I'd read everything by Mary Downing Hahn, Betty Ren Wright, Lynn Reid Banks, James Howe, Bruce Coville. Wandering around, I remembering finding a biography on Louisa May Alcott that I'd never seen before and I'd found several shelves consisting of every Oz book by Baum that the library had collected for decades.

Some books were new, others were so old they creaked when they opened and laid splayed out without my having to hold the book, the smell of old paper lingering for hours after I put the book away, the pages so yellowed they were almost brown. I made it a point to try anything I found but back in the 90s, it wasn't easy for me to find the right book I was really looking for, something with the right balance of real world situations and a little bit magic and mystery. I was too anxious to try asking at the public library for help finding a book and my school librarian had too many kids to focus on. Eventually I moved on, finding great mysteries to read, science fiction and fantasy and horror while reading the assigned books for school. But, ever since then, I have wandered into the middle grade section of various bookstores, still looking for that right book, that book that childhood me was searching for so long to find. That's what I was doing, maybe a dozen years ago now, when a particular title caught my eye.

The Boneshaker by Kate Milford.

I picked it up, a paperback, and noticed The Broken Lands, a hardcover, right next to it. I stared at the artwork, my eyes moving this way and that, seeing things here and there that would make sense once you'd read the book but I didn't know that then. All I knew is that the artwork called to me, the synopsis hooked my attention. I took them home and started to read and it was then that I felt that I'd done it. I'd found a book that I would have ADORED when I was a kid. My whole personality would have been that book. I would have carried it around everywhere, reading it so many times, memorizing passages just from the act of reading it time and time again. I've bought and read every Kate Milford book since. I'm planning to read them to my kids when they're older. Because some of that need to find brilliant middle grade books is to make sure my kids don't have trouble finding books that appeal to them. These are the books I wish I'd found, so now I have them to hand to my kids when they want to try them and I can't wait to give them Kate Milford's books. Milford writes kids that feel real, that have trials to overcome and a world that they have to look at just a little bit differently to solve the mystery. The kids are treated with respect, never looked down on, or dismissed. The adults in these books pay attention to the kids, they listen, they try to learn. All together, each book has been lovely, and brilliant, and astounding. I LOVE Kate Milford books so when I saw that there was a new book, Rialto, ready to be published, my heart leapt into my throat. I had to read this book, end of story, and you want to know the best part?

It was magnificent.

Rialto starts with following Ivy and Dahlia Vicar, on their way to Rialto, Missouri for a family vacation to visit friends. The sisters are currently a little at odds with each other. Dahlia is dealing with anxiety and is looking forward to a new destination to try for their trip, which comes with an abandoned amusement park that their Mom is interested in researching for a book. Ivy is trying to understand how to be the big sister that Dahlia needs while longing for the times when they were younger and the traditions that they had in the past. Once they arrive in Rialto, it is obvious that things are going to be very different for their vacation. The town looks like it was swallowed by a forest and stories say that the town woke up one morning to find that the trees had grown up around them overnight. While driving through the town Dahlia spots a giraffe with antlers and after meeting Remy and his family, who own the house they will be staying in, she sees a leopard with wings through the window. Remy and his family inherited the house from their Aunt Jess, who has left bequests for Remy to give to her friends now that she has gone. Remy decides to ask Ivy and Dahlia to help with the bequests and the trio start to realize that there is a mystery to solve about the town that goes back to when Rialto was still open to visitors. In order to solve the mystery, they must believe in the magic that seems to be in the town that was swallowed by a forest and has strange creatures roaming its streets.

There is so much in this book, so many things that make it yet another brilliant Milford book and yet more at the same time. Greenglass House has held the title of favorite Kate Milford book for quite some time but Rialto might have just knocked it from its place of honor. Ivy felt so familiar to me as a kid who loved to solve riddles and mysteries and her trying to understand her sibling who has started to change in ways that are difficult for Ivy to accept. As soon as it was revealed that Dahlia had anxiety and was seeing a therapist, I was completely invested in these girls and their story. I loved the things that Milford added for Dahlia, the fact that she had methods to deal with her anxiety when she was out in public, the fact that she needed to retreat to her room and have time on her own to deal with the way the day unfolded and how it affected her sense of well-being. I loved that Ivy had a hard time accepting this new normal, how she wanted to cling to the way things were and how she needed her parents to help her with understanding how to be what Dahlia needed.

I also LOVED the fact that Mr. Vicar had his own social issues that made him able to understand Dahlia and how the fact that he had his own issues meant that Mrs. Vicar knew what to do to help both of them or when to give them space. This was a family unit that was in tune with each other. It was believable that these parents made an effort to understand and help their kids and that Ivy and Dahlia never doubted the support they would get from their parents. When Dahlia started to see the amazing things hiding in Rialto, I was excited to see how quickly her logic had her reasoning the existence of magic and how she made the decision to believe that there was something more to the town. It made sense that Dahlia would be the character to get the ball rolling for the magic of the book and I loved how Ivy, in trying to support her sister, was brought along for the ride and evolved as well.

On the other side of the characters is Remy, his parents and everyone else in town. These are the characters that know the ins and outs of Rialto, they've grown up in the town and some of them know everything about the town. Remy is the perfect character to bring Ivy and Dahlia into the world of Rialto. He knows SOME of the truth but he knows things in the sense of stories that have been handed down, the legends that make up the place. He knows some things, he's seen the animals that Dahlia has seen, but at the same time he's been kept at a distance in the town because he's not a resident. His belief in the sisters to be the best companions for him and his quest endeared him to me. I loved how quickly he became Ivy's number one supporter in asking her for help with the clues and knowing how she could solve the mystery. Remy's parents were also supportive and I liked how they defended the kids as they worked on the mystery. There's a scene with Bailey, Remy's dad, and some of the residents of the town where he backed up the circumstances up to that point and how the kids were involved that just made me want to stand up and applaud. He had no doubt in his son and his son's new friends and he was in their corner and I loved every parent in this book, seriously, the reveals about the town and how these adults helped the kids just made me want to be just like those parents. I'm too old to say I want to be Ivy and Dahlia when I grow up but I'll settle for being any combination of the four parents in this book.

The mystery was engrossing from the start. The idea that this town had been swallowed up by a forest and that no one was able to enter the Rialto amusement park again was so intriguing, I wanted to know everything about it. Which is good because Milford does not skimp on the world development, on the stories that surround the town and the people that are in this place. I've tried to think if there was anything I had questions about once the book was done but I honestly believe that anything and everything I questioned or wanted to know was revealed and answered over the course of the book. It's a sign of great writing and a great story when I can get to the end of the book and feel like the whole thing was complete. If there is ever a story that can branch of from something in this book though, I will try my hardest to be first in line to read it. The mystery itself deserves to be discovered by the readers that try this book so I won't delve further into it. Once the reveals are made, I was a self-declared number one fan of this book. I'm older, so I had my suspicions about the reveals that ended up being right but it still felt perfect with everything the book gives to the reader.

I have loved every Kate Milford book I have read. I have a signed copy of The Left-Handed Fate and a numbered and signed copy of Bluecrowne. I have waited years for another Kate Milford book and I will continue to look for a new book every year until we readers are given another book. I am a fan for life of Kate Milford's books and I hope that more readers find their way to these novels. I'm counting down the days until my kids are old enough to sit and listen and imagine while I read them these books.

Rating on my scale: 10 STARS!! This is one of the best books I've read in recent years. I know when I sit down with a Kate Milford book, I will be enthralled and Rialto did not disappoint. Read this book if you like mysteries with magic and characters that can change and make changes and defeat evils and triumph.

My thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins Children's Books and Kate Milford the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

Book Review: The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

My thanks to Netgalley, Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore and Silvia Moreno-Garcia for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

As a book collector, in the sense that I am able to acquire books for my library, whether they are used or new or discounted or special releases, I have to follow some rules. They're not always set in stone, some of them change as the years go and my interests change for what I want to read for always and what I can borrow to save money, time and space. Still, I have to have some kind of rules in place, something easy to keep things from going overboard. One rule is that everything is on a calendar, so I know what releases I have to look forward to and when to expect their arrivals so that nothing gets lost. I've had books never arrive and having everything laid out in an easy to access space keeps the system moving. Another rule is that if I'm going to get multiple copies of a book, they better have a lot of bonus content to make it worth it and I should try gift and/or donate the original copy. Don't ask me how many times that has actually worked. And another rule that I ALWAYS follow is that any Silvia Moreno-Garcia book is an automatic pre-order for me. End of story.

What I love about Moreno-Garcia's writing is that nothing follows the same formula from one book to another. Sometimes we have a magical realism book to look forward to, sometimes it is horror, and other times we have a classic noir. This book belongs more with Velvet Was the Night than it does with Mexican Gothic or The Bewitching. I loved every moment of this which is funny because I'm not usually a noir fan. I studied the genre in school but every time I tried a noir, I had a hard time connecting with it. That wasn't the case with this book. Once we got to the main setting, I was completely invested in the story, in the characters, just everything worked for me with this book. I want to pass this book around my family and have them read it, that's how much this book made me smirk and grin and laugh with glee. Because I have a bit of a vindictive bone in my body and when villains don't get their comeuppance, it makes me gripe. The ending to this book was in a word, delicious, and I can't wait until I get my copy.

The Intrigue follows Ulises, a con artist in 1940s Mexico who scams women out of their money by writing them letters, charming them until he can ask for some kind of payment for help. But Ulises has fallen on harder times and he wants to make enough money to settle down and stop long enough to be comfortable before making his next move. Ulises decides that opportunity is with Perla, his latest correspondent who runs a boardinghouse in Veracruz. When he meets Perla though, he finds a woman who is difficult to get close to and his usual tricks aren't good enough for her. Perla also has a niece, Inés, who discovers what Ulises is doing and she'll help him with his scheme for a cut of the money. The idea is to convince Perla to marry Ulises so he can have access to her money and then they can take it all. But Perla isn't what she appears, with secrets she has kept hidden for decades. And Ulises is starting to think that Inés is more than she appears with his focus constantly turning back to her. Now Ulises needs to figure out how to get his money before the secrets in the boardinghouse destroy everything.

The whole of this book interested me from the start. I thought Ulises was interesting in the sense that he seemed to be a con artist with a little bit of a conscience. I thought Inés was the best character of the story, and I loved when the book focused on her. I thought Perla felt familiar, reminding me of characters I've seen before from old stories that have some kind of background in Mexico. What started as a simple story about Ulises wanting to finally get himself enough money to make a difference quickly turned into a story about the kinds of secrets a family would be desperate enough to keep as long as it meant they could keep up the illusion they have cultivated for years. It was fascinating to see the way this family tried to keep itself in some kind of position of power, even if it was a lie. Perla Inclán had been raised to believe that her life was meant to go a certain way and when none of that manifested for her, she was determined to make sure she could still walk around as if she had everything she could ever want. That need to keep the facade going is what drove her every decision and it had a ripple effect for Inés and for Ulises, who do not believe that the old ways that Perla clings to are the way things should remain. The book is as much about the way the town makes its occupants act as it is about the secrets the Inclán family had managed to keep in the boardinghouse they own. 

What I found most interesting was the Notes at the end of the book, the part where Moreno-Garcia explains that a Mexican novel like this one which focuses on customs and habits of a particular society are called novelas costumbristas. The Intrigue has a large focus on the society that is seen in Puerco Ahogado, the fictional town this book is set in. As much as this story focuses on these three characters, the town itself and the way these people have to work to fit into it is another character altogether. The town has this family in a stranglehold that has kept them tied up for decades and the only way to fix it is to escape. I loved seeing everything come to light, the way Perla was raised and how she turned around and treated everyone in her life. The novel focuses mainly on the 1943 storyline and it goes between our three leads as narrators. Whenever Perla was the focus, there was a lot of information given about the past for the family, the expectations they had and what happened to Perla and her siblings. The more that was revealed, the more I wanted to know, which is exactly what you want in a book like this. The villain of the book is not who I thought it would be but when the ending hit and they got their comeuppance, it made me grin. I still smile and chuckle a little each time I think about the ending.

This is another great from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. If you're a fan, this is another to add for your collection. I still have a few novels to get for my shelf to be complete so I'll be working on that for when The Intrigue is ready to join them. 

Rating on my scale: 10 Stars. If you like a good noir, this is a highly recommended and respectable read. Even if you are not a fan of the genre, this could be the book that makes you one. I know I'll be looking into reading a few more noirs this year. I'll also be on the lookout for the next release from Silvia Moreno-Garcia, whenever that comes for us readers.

Book Review: The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss

My thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Young Readers Group, Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

Wow, this was one unexpected ride. I'll admit, I've never had the opportunity to try an escape room for myself but while it seems fun, after this read, I think I'll just have fun watching other people solve them. I've seen quite a few of them over the years as a plot point on a television show and they've always intrigued me, the effort it takes to not only create puzzles to solve but to also have these puzzles interlock together. It seems like so much work and to tell the truth, the creating of these escape rooms holds just as much appeal to me as the act of trying to solve the rooms and escape. I really liked the overall story of this book and I'll admit, the creation of the world and the escape rooms in this book kept my attention just as much as the central plot.

The Escape Game follows a group of teens on season five of the show, determined to win the season and it's prizes. There's Adi, with a talent for breaking codes; Carter, a teen with a talent for solving puzzles and an influencer with a huge following; and Beck, a teen who has created a few escape rooms of their own. The team is rounded out with the addition of Sierra Angelos, a previous contestant and the sister of season four contestant Alicia Angelos, who was found murdered on the set by her sister while Sierra's team was trying to solve the escape room. Viewers think Sierra got away with murder and now that she is back for season five, tensions are running high. But Sierra has another reason to be back. She's determined to find out what happened to her sister and bring the true culprit to justice. As the team learns to trust each other, clues start to appear on the set that hint at the true identity of Alicia's killer. But someone wants to keep the truth from coming out and Sierra, Adi, Beck and Carter need to solve the puzzles if they want to uncover the truth and survive.

This world was so interesting. The puzzles, the clues and the way it all fit together kept me invested in the story. I wanted to understand the workings of the rooms and in some way, I wished this book had some illustrations to give just a little more details about the escape rooms because it feels like something that I wanted to see for myself. I had no idea something like this existed and I've been researching where to try the few shows I've found with this same premise. Honestly, I love mysteries so this feels like something I need to add to unwind in the evenings. I enjoyed every set and the puzzles given and the reveals felt earned as each page turned. There are a few questions left unanswered and I'll definitely be back for the next book.

The characters were all lovable in their own ways. Sierra and her team each have a point of view to follow, allowing readers to learn about their past as well as their present as they become friends and start to work together. I loved Beck and Carter in particular and I hope the next book has more of those two in any way, shape or form. I liked Sierra from the start and I wanted her to find justice to clear her name and find out exactly what happened to her sister. I liked how Adi seemed to be just like Sierra, wary of trusting people and his motivations concerning his family. I wanted these kids to win and I wanted them to figure out how to be each other's people. The way they started to become family made me smile and when they were on the page, I couldn't stop reading.

As much as I wanted to rave about loving this book, there were a few quibbles that made me a little frustrated. First of all, after a bit this book started to feel like it was too long. There was so much information, so many things going on, at some points I started to feel like it was a bit of a marathon. As interesting as I found the world and the people, it was a LOT to get through, and then it just ends. We find out who killed Alicia and we get a bit of setup for the next book. YES, I will read the next book, I have to find out what happens to this team, but I will take my time with reading the book if it ends up with the same page count.

The second thing that irked me was the motivations of the villain. I'll be honest, when it comes to stories like this, I have a tendency to strain the muscles in my eyes when I roll them too hard when I hear the whys behind the villainous actions. I get it, people kill for really dumb reasons, this isn't any different. But it still irks me, it makes my eye twitch and my shoulders itch because come on! The villain ends up being almost disappointing. After everything that I'd read, everything these kids had to go through, to find out the reasons behind it were something like that just made me feel a bit meh. It's not the feeling you want to end with, especially when it there was something like ten or fifteen pages left once it was all said and done. Like I said, it just ends and it left me feeling like I wanted more. Which I guess is the point but still, this book had already hooked me for the sequel, it didn't need to cut itself off without enough time for everyone to really process what had happened before they dive into the next mystery.

In the end, by the time I got to it, I didn't love this book as much as I thought I would BUT I still really, REALLY, like it. I want to see more of these kids. I want to understand the next setting and what it means for all of them to come together and figure it out. As far as I can tell, it's going to be a duology, with the next book set for release in 2027. I'll just be here, waiting for the chance to read it.

Rating on my scale: 8.5 Stars. Seriously, I think this book will prove to be better once the second one is released. There is so much set up here with the world and proving these characters are worth loving, it is definitely worth the read if mysteries and escape rooms are your jam. It's a very respectable read, no doubt about it. I'm sure I'll love the series as a whole more than individual books once the next book is released.

Book Review: Heiress of Nowhere by Stacey Lee

My thanks to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and Stacey Lee for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

This was such an interesting story. I have a habit of collecting books by authors even if I haven't had the chance to read them yet and Stacey Lee is one of them. I have several hardcovers and digital copies of past releases and have always meant to read them. I just haven't had the opportunity to read them yet. Heiress of Nowhere is the first time I've had the chance to sit down and enjoy a book by Stacey Lee and I'm so glad I read this book. It had solid writing, well-rounded characters and an intriguing plot. I've already pre-ordered an official copy to go on my shelves where I have confirmed I have my other Stacey Lee novels. It will be a 2026 goal to now work my way through the past books that I can happily say I'm grateful I own for myself. It's always good to find a new author and their work to enjoy.

Heiress of Nowhere follows Lucy Nowhere in 1918 on Orcas Island, Washington. She has been working for her employer all her life and has just been accepted to attend a university. But the day she decides to inform her eccentric boss of her plans, she finds his severed head on the beach. Rumors swirl that some kind of monster is responsible for the death, along with a previous victim from some years before and other things that have been happening on the island. The belief is that it is a curse and the people are scared and uncertain of their future. Then Lucy is named heiress of the estate of Nowhere and Lucy realizes that whoever killed her boss will now focus their attention on her. Lucy has to focus on finding who the true culprit is before she becomes the next victim.

I love the opening to this book. It starts with Lucy out in her canoe sketching the "sea wolves", or the orcas that live off the coast of Nowhere. Everything about this scene highlights what the readers should know about Lucy and it is a great introduction to her and to the book. She reflects on what people believe about orcas and then quickly has to get herself back to land when a couple of whales get too close to her canoe. She's scrambling to get back to safety and yet quips about the danger she's in and jokes about herself being not worth the effort of eating. Lucy shows respect for the animals around her, knowing the threat they pose should she fall into the water. She took a risk to work diligently on her drawing which is meant for her employer, who has given her the task of getting sketches of plants and animals around the island for a book he is working on. She's ready to move on to a new life which happens to be pursuing an education at a university which shows that she's ambitious and has a need to travel and learn more about the world.

Once Lucy is back on land and moving back up to the house, I knew I was going to like this girl. I thought she had a clear way of thinking, a healthy respect for the things around her and a clear motivating factor, trying to find somewhere to belong as she is an orphan who was taken in by the Nowhere Estate and its own, Mr. Sanders. Everything about this first chapter was strong, drawing the reader in with the threat of the sea wolves and the girl daring and stubborn enough to do something that could have gotten her killed. I wanted to learn more about this girl and wanted her to find out more about who she is after learning how she was found in a canoe before she was a day old. Nothing revealed felt out of place. It all flowed with an easy rhythm, giving the information readers needed without making it feel like a barrage of facts.

All the characters from that point on were well-developed, showing the readers what they needed to know as the book went on, proving who was an ally for Lucy and who we needed to keep an eye on concerning the central mystery of the book. I liked some characters more than others and the overall cast was diverse and interesting. I enjoyed Lucy's point of view, the way she had to expand her world as the new heiress by tackling new things and learning who she could trust from her new lady's maid and her new secretary, to the people who helped run the businesses she is now in charge of and the people tied to the estate. The way everything unfolded kept me focused on the story and each person in this book had something important to contribute to the plot. It shows that Lee has a deft hand with the writing when the entire cast of a book has something to add and no one feels tacked on or out of place. . I did want to wring the neck of Lucy's "childhood friend" mentioned in the synopsis but fine, they're teenagers, it's expected that they are going to be bull-headed. It shows that Lee is talented if I still want to knock that boy over the head this long (an entire morning) after reading the book.

In terms of the plot, I was hooked on the summary reveal about a head found on the beach. That was only the start of the mystery but it's enough to draw readers in without a doubt. I wanted to know who could do something like that, why these people were targeted. The stories and legends about the orcas added to the mystery, lending a strange twist to the plot of a person who used the fear of the residents against them, to keep them focused on something supernatural so they could hide their actions in plain sight. It helped to show what kind of person the villain was so that when the reveal finally happened, it hit a certain way because of everything already seen. The buildup was worth it and I love when a book manages to make the leadup they've established make sense at the end of the book. It leaves a very satisfied feeling behind for me as reader.

In the end, this was a very respectable read from Stacey Lee. I'm looking forward to when my copy arrives in the mail. I will be reading all of Stacey Lee's past books and paying attention to all future releases from now on. There were a few things that I felt a little miffed on but not enough to really detract from my love for this book. 

Rating on my scale: 9 Stars. As I said, while I mainly loved this book, there were a few things that bugged me about that stubborn kid that I mentioned but I was happy with how Lucy processed everything around her and was impressed with how she ended up handling him. Nothing was drawn out and there was no waffling so it helped cement that I needed to order this book as a new addition for my library. Next, I'll be looking through the Stacey Lee books I have and working out which one to read next for the new year.

Book Review: Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line by Elle Cosimano

My thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Elle Cosimano for the SAMPLE of the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

Let's just get this out of the way, first things first and all that jazz: I LOVE the Finlay Donovan series. I own all of Cosimano's books and was immediately a fan of Finlay within the first few chpaters of book one, Finlay Donovan is Killing It. I've only had the chance to read the first 12 chapters of this entry but I wish with my whole heart that I had the entire book in my hands. I swear, I read this in a couple of hours, in between baths and bedtime stories for my kids. I finished the entirety of book 5 yesterday and that last line had me floored. I was so grateful I had this sample to read but good grief, it leaves me hanging AGAIN and now I have to wait so long to finish this book. It's the holidays, so I'm just going to say it: Bah Humbug.

Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line follows Finlay to Maryland, on a mission to help Vero who has been extradied back home on charges for theft. Vero swears she did not steal the money from her sorority, where she was treasurer, but without the guy she was with available to alibi her, she fled the state. Vero is now living with her mom and her aunt on house arrest and things are getting serious as a stalker is sending threatening messages to the house. Now Finlay is determined to solve the case to help her best friend and nanny to clear her name and get her back home.

This is a case that has been in the works for this series for a while so I'm glad Cosimano has made it the focus for the next book. I have hated having this hanging over Vero's head so I'm ready for Finlay and Vero to finally figure out who was behind the theft and clear Vero's name. The two of them together are brilliant and I would hate it if the pair of them were kept apart for future books, which I hope this series ia going to go on for a while. Each book keeps me riveted, usually smiling, sometimes laughing, and sometimes, especially with book 5, almost gobsmacked because I did NOT see that reveal coming and I I LOVE that I can't guess the outcomes of these books before the 70% mark. I love the sass and the trust and the devotion between these two women, the support they give each other through EVERYTHING that they have gone through is astounding. I wish I had someone in my life like Finlay and Vero do, seriously, I envy these two.

Cosimano has a real knack for making the stakes in these books something that keeps me coming back over and over to read them. I've read the series over at least 3 times by now because I love these stories. I love all the side characters from Finlay's kids, Delia and Zach, to her nosy neighbor Mrs. Haggerty, her boyfriend Nick and her "guy in the chair" Cam. I could do without Steven, I'll be honest, but that's just the way I am, I would have left him to rot so many times but Finlay is a better person than me so he's still around. The reveals and the clues keep me guessing and the endings always make the whole book worth the journey of reading it.

This book is sure to be awesome, what I've read of it was not enough, I want to finish reading the whole book already. I'd inhale it in one sitting, guaranteed. Cosimano wastes no time getting the characters in place and starting the investigation and I have no idea who the true culprit is but I will have to wait to find out. Countdown to March and the book's official release beginning NOW. 

Well? Is it March yet??

If you love Finlay Donovan, this book needs to be added to your pre-order list. I already have my copies ordered, the hardcover to go on my shelves and the digital for me to read in one hand while I do everything else at the same time. If you haven't read this series yet, grab a copy of book 1 and try it out. These books are so much fun, you are missing out if you have not read them.

Rating on my scale? 10 stars, ALL THE STARS, seriously, tell me the truth yet, is it March? Inquiring minds need to know! 

Book Review: I, in the Shadows by Tori Bovalino

My thanks to Netgalley, Page Street YA and Tori Bovalino for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

I'll start by saying I own ALL of Tori Bovalino's books, including the anthology she edited. I absolutely ADORE The Second Death of Locke and I'm currently reading My Throat an Open Grave. Bovalino's books all seem to have an undercurrent of true feeling between the characters. I believe their connections to each other, I want only the best for them, I love so many of them in the stories I've read. This is what brings me back to Bovalino's writing and why I have all of her books even though I haven't finished reading them yet. I KNOW they will be great and I'm taking my time with them. I'm also looking forward to upcoming releases and I'm on the newsletter mailing list so I can keep up to date with all announcements and news.

I will also say, I do NOT know the play Cyrano de Bergerac although I do know the premise of it. I don't think you need to know a lot about that source in order to enjoy this book. This story stands well on its own as story about grief and love and acceptance. I can't wait for my copy to go on the shelf with the rest of Bovalino's books.

I, in the Shadows is about Drew Tarpin, who has recently moved into a new house with her Dad and stepmom, Bee. Her sibling Reece is away at school so Drew is left on their own to navigate the new life in a new town and a new school, complete with a ghost haunting her bedroom. Liam died almost a year ago and now Drew has to work to find out what is keeping Liam from moving on to whatever comes next. Drew and Reece have always been able to see ghosts but Reece was usually the one to work with them to help them move on while Drew did anything else. Now Drew is on her own, trying to remember anything that Reece has said that would help. When Liam realizes that Drew has a crush on the same girl that Liam loved, Liam's best friend Hannah, Liam agrees to help Drew with talking to Hannah in exchange for working on how to help him move on. As the pair get to know each other, something starts to come out of the woods, determined to devour Liam's soul. Now Drew has to work fast to figure out what is keeping Liam from moving on before he ends up taken by the thing in the woods.

This book made me tear up, I had to take a moment to breathe and then I could continue on with reading. Always the sign of a five star read when a book makes me cry. I loved these characters, even though they were kind of jerks, and messy, and made horrible decisions but it was those realistic traits that made me believe in them and want more for them. I knew the point was to get Liam to move on but it still hurt when he was gone. I thought Drew was interesting and endearing. I mourned for the loss of Reece as a constant for Drew, I cheered when Drew started to reach out and make friends, I hissed when Drew ignored her old friends from home because it was better to cut them out of her life now when they were all going to be graduating in a year and it was going to happen anyways. Seriously, rolled my eyes at that one but I had faith in Bovalino's writing so I kept reading. I thought Hannah was so sweet and genuine with her grief over losing her best friend. I thought Rin was a great supporting character, trying to bring Drew into the group and looping Drew in on things to help them understand everyone. I LOVED Bee, the fact that she was the stepmom and the one truly steady force in Drew's life, giving support and love at every available moment. The only character I really didn't enjoy was Drew's dad, who was practically non-existent for the most part but with so many characters to focus on, it didn't matter that we barely saw him.

I thought the plot was interesting, using a ghost to help you win the girl of your dreams, or at least the girl who could end up being the girl of your dreams. I know it was supposed to come off as a bad decision to use a ghost to trick a girl but I really didn't see it as a horrible decision. Misguided? DEFINITELY. But I felt like it fit with teenagers making stupid decisions. In today's day and age, it didn't feel too far off from what could happen to get a pair of kids to like each other. It started off as just prompting Drew to talk because she got tongue-tied around her crush and it just went from there. But I will say that my impression of this plot probably has a lot to do with the fact that I think this was more of a side story to the main plot of figuring out what was keeping Liam stuck as a ghost. I really liked this kid and I hated that this horrible thing had happened to him and now he was stuck watching his friends and family move on without him. The tragedy of it was heartbreaking and I wanted him to find peace and I wanted Drew to focus on how to get him the help he needed. That journey kept me flipping pages and the outcome was worth everything that came before.

The world of this book was so intriguing. I wish there was more in terms of the background and I still have a few questions about certain things with characters and the ghost world in general. When the book started, I honestly wondered if there had been another book because of how readers are just dropped into the story. I searched through what I could find but there wasn't a previous story with these characters. I think that is a point for Bovalino in the sense that this felt like a world that was fully developed even though this was our first time stepping foot in it. As a result, I want MORE but who knows if that is in the cards.

This book was a beautiful, thoughtful exploration of grief and loss and what it does to the people left behind in more ways than one. It goes through how it changes intentions, how it makes people make decisions they never would have before, and how it can bring people together and make them stronger. I loved this book and I love this author. I'm a fan for life, as previously stated. I'm so happy I have more books of Bovalino's to read instead of waiting for more books to be released.

Rating on my Scale: 9.5 Stars because this is a short, heartbreaking kind of story and I wish there was more to come from this world in general and answers to some of the questions I still have. Still, very VERY respectable and exactly what I would expect as a book written by Tori Bovalino. Read this book if you love ghost stories and the people who can deal with them.

Book Review: Sybilline by Melissa de la Cruz

My thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Young Readers Group and Melissa de la Cruz for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

This is my first book by Melissa de la Cruz. I bought the Beauchamp Family books but have not gotten around to reading them yet. When I saw the gorgeous edition of this book up for preorder, I read the synopsis and decided to give this book a try. For the most part, this book held my attention and I was really liking the development of the story and the characters. I was certain this would be a 4 Star read at least. I had read some of my fellow reader's reviews and was more or less prepared for some specific reveals to come up in the story. I thought in the end, I'd still end up sincerely liking the book. It was the ending that knocked another star off my rating. It was going great until the last 40 pages where things went just a little wonky. I'll also say now that this definitely feels like the start of a series in the sense that this book might feel stronger once the rest of the books are released. That being said, I'll definitely be reading the next book. 

Sibylline is about 3 magical teenagers, Raven, Atticus and Dorian. This trio have been friends for years and together, they dreamed of attending Sibylline, a magical ivy league school that would help learn about magic and how to cast it from the best. They each have a unique magical ability and they worked hard on their applications. When they're each rejected from attending the school, they come up with a plan. They decide to apply for jobs on the Sibylline campus and when they can, they'll sneak into lectures and steal texts that would allow them to learn on their own. As they execute their plan, the attractions between the three of them start to grow, further complicating their plans and their friendships. As they work to navigate these new developments, they start to notice things happening on campus. Something is killing students and is starting to destroy an important building. Raven, Atticus and Dorian have to put what they have learned about the school in the present and in its past in order to save the school before its destroyed.

First of all, the book is written very well. De La Cruz has a way with words that invoke the images of a beautiful campus and the yearning of teens desperate to find a place that can keep them together and help them learn. I was pulled in from the start with the connection between Raven, Atticus and Dorian. I thought the scheme they came up with was impulsive but they're kids so it made sense that they thought it would work. I wanted to know WHY they were rejected if they had made themselves into the best candidates to be accepted at the school. I thought their individual powers were interesting and the way they were portrayed kept my attention as they were shown dealing with their everyday lives with magic. Each chapter follows a separate character, showing what they are doing with their jobs on campus, the people that they meet and the parts of the mystery that they get to witness. I will also say that I preferred Atticus and Dorian to Raven. I'm not sure if that was the intent but there were several instances in which Raven was shown to be selfish and spoiled and completely unaware of the difficulties that her friends have without money and yet they just sigh and shake their heads because they love her still and I just rolled my eyes. The way she was written, Raven was just spoiled, end of story, and I wasn't as focused on her chapters compared to the others.

As for the plot, I was more intrigued by the force that seemed to targeting students and the buildings. The storyline about the three teens trying to spy on classes and teach themselves did not have as much importance. It was the reason for getting them to the school but it did not have as much of a driving force to keep them focused on this. Over the course of the book, the three of them read ONE book, and only a few pages from it, and they snuck into ONE lecture. For this being the point of them being on the campus to begin with, it was relegated to a side plot. I wonder if it would have been better that they were accepted on a wait list type of study, to give them opportunity to work on campus to get to know the faculty and then try to listen in on lectures if they can find the time. All for the purpose of proving they should be accepted as students but the no one has managed to get accepted from there. It just felt kind of pointless in the overall plot of the book.

The pacing was also a little confusing. Atticus was working with a team trying to save a historical building from crumbling into ruins. Every time that was the focus, it felt like more had gone wrong than should have been possible with the way time was moving in the story. I got the impression that this team had been in place and had been working on this for a while. But now Atticus is on the page and everything is deteriorating faster and it didn't make sense to me with the way time was moving on the page. I think the course of the book was the entirety of one semester but I couldn't tell if the season's were changing or if they were getting paid for their work at certain intervals, anything that could have helped to show how long they were working and how things were progressing. The main focus that gave any indication of time passing in the book was the way the building seemed to be getting worse. Pair that with the lack of actual spying on class lectures and reading magic books and it was enough to irk me so that I only really liked the book but didn't love it.

Which brings me to that ending. I was all for the development seen, the reveals from the past and the ideas it gave, it all made me invest in the story and how it would end. But then I noticed that I maybe had about 30 or 40 pages to go in the book and I thought, with the pages it took to get HERE, how is it possible to wrap this up? And it barely took anything to wrap up the conflict and then there was that development between the characters that made my eyebrows up and disappear. Maybe I'm too old for this kind of book because I didn't get the appeal, I thought it was something that seemed out of nowhere. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I didn't truly believe the love and attraction between some of the characters. Some of them felt more genuine than others and when that ending hit, my impression was that maybe it should have been left to a future installment to get that right feelings to hit. I believed in the connection between a couple of the characters but one in particular didn't hit the right notes and as a result, that ending made me just stop in my tracks because it felt like an almost easy answer instead of having to make a choice. I didn't believe the emotion so the ending felt flat. Then there were the reveals from the school and I thought what? I'm supposed to believe all of this was because of that? It was all part of the plan kind of ending just make me frustrated because I never can believe that with the way people are, the plot will work out just the way it was meant to without key characters aware of the role they are playing.

So there it is, another star off for what was a good book before that ENDING hit. I've been talking about this book and it always goes, this part was great, but then that ending, I though this was interesting, but then that ending, this could have used a little tweaking but then that ENDING. Maybe I'm not the right audience for this, maybe I'm not aware of how this fits into the current book world. I liked this book, I was REALLY liking this book, I just do not meld with the way it finished, or was left unfinished. I have not found anything about a continuation for the series but I'm not ruling it out as a possible future release. I'm still interested in seeing where this world and its characters go and to see if future books make this one feel stronger. It feels like the start of something that had to end too soon for the story to stand securely on its own. A respectable read for those that like dark academia and magic, with a few caveats to keep in mind.

Rating on my scale: 6.5 Stars. I'm a firm believer that this one just needs more books to be considered great. It had all the right starts, it just needs more time to really prove that it will be awesome.