Posts

Showing posts from October, 2019

Book Review: Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin

Image
Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin follows Maggie and her older brother when their father and stepmother leave on a long-delayed honeymoon, trusting the siblings to care for their four-year-old half sister, Courtenay. When Courtenay fails to come home from daycare one Monday afternoon, Maggie and her brother are thrust into a frightening mystery. With no adults around to help, they must piece together what happened and find a way to alert their parents before it’s too late. This standalone novel for readers ages eight to twelve was one I completely missed as a kid, but as an adult and a longtime fan of Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club  series, I couldn’t resist picking it up. The first chapter or two felt a bit choppy to me at first, but once the story found its footing, everything began to come together nicely . Because this is a short children’s book, the characters aren’t deeply developed, which is to be expected. That said, Martin does an excellent job conveying Maggie’...

Book Review: Love Shack (Ocean City, #2) by Katherine Applegate

Image
Since I reread Ocean City (Ocean City, #1) by Katherine Applegate, I decided to continue rereading the series and continued on to Love Shack (Ocean City, #2) . I honestly do not remember most of what happened in the series even though I read it at least twice, so it's kind of like reading it for the first time. The major theme in the second installment was alcoholism. Underlying themes include illegal immigrants, racism, premarital sex, sexual advances, and suicide. Katherine Applegate did a phenomenal job in portraying the struggles of what an alcoholic might go through to have just one more drink and that no matter how many people try to help them, people with an addiction have to want to change. I'm not sure how I feel about an eighteen year old already being an alcoholic as I feel like someone that age would be more likely to have a drug addiction, but regardless, I felt like it was a great teaching moment for teens. I thought it would have been beneficial if the...

Book Review: Suspect in High Heels (High Heels Mysteries, #10) by Gemma Halliday

Image
One of my favorite cozy mystery book series is Gemma Halliday's High Heels Mysteries . It originally caught my eye from an email I received from BookBub.com. The first five books could be bought in a bundle for the amount of 99 cents, and the synopsis included a description of the main character being a fashion designer for shoes. After reading the first book in the series, Spying in High Heels (High Heels Mysteries, #1) , I was hooked. When I heard that the latest edition, Suspect in High Heels (High Heels Mysteries, #10) , was coming out on October 1, 2019, I could hardly wait. Suspect in High Heels (High Heels Mysteries, #10) exceeded my expectations. Both of the people I suspected of being the killer (one more than the other) were not the killer. Usually one of the people I suspect is correct, but I definitely was in the wrong this time. I love the main character, Maddie Springer, and how she always seems to get herself in trouble and that her husband is so forgiving of ...