4 Stars. Now, hang with me for a minute here. Flora is a difficult character. I struggled a bit with her, to be honest. She’s really prickly and she can get a little too self absorbed at times. I understand that she’s suffered an unimaginable loss but watching her repeatedly push away people who genuinely care for her got to be […]
4 Stars. I don’t read a lot of contemporary young adult fiction because I don’t have a lot of patience for the drama. Lila starts off with plenty of drama. She came across to me as pretty self-absorbed. But she grows. She starts to see that yes, she’s had a spring of heartbreak by anyone’s standards. But it could be worse. She […]
3.5 Stars. I really enjoyed this concept and these characters, but I wish the storyline had been tightened up a bit. Alice’s whole first mission (Or maybe two? I’ve waited a bit too long on my review) ultimately felt like filler. There’s some setup for the main conflict and the worldbuilding element but that part really could […]
4.5 Stars. Shirin is so relatable, despite our obvious differences. Who wouldn’t be angry and withdrawn after all she’s experienced, especially when she was born in the US and speaks better English and gets better grades than most of the people who give her a hard time? “I’m tired as hell, Mr. Jordan. I’ve been trying to educate […]
4 Stars. I love this series so much! Goldie can be annoyingly cocky sometimes but her friends keep her grounded. The mysteries are fun and somehow remind me of cartoons I would watch as kid. The diverse cast of characters is a delight. There were some new illustrators added into the mix in these two volumes. There are some […]
4 Stars. Volume Two was still a strong entry in this series but it didn’t charm me quite as completely as the first collection did. I enjoyed reading a bit more about Goldie’s mom but Goldie herself came across as a bit of an attention-seeker and a brat this time around. It wasn’t enough to completely turn me off but it was a […
5 Stars. Oh my goodness! This is so stinking cute and smart! I was never a big mystery reader as a kid. I could never guess “whodunnit” and that irritated me. Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys were practically nonstarters for me. I wish Goldie Vance had been around back in the day because she would have turned me into a mystery reader for sure! […]
4 Stars. I grabbed this on a whim as I was prowling through my library’s shelves last week. Who can resist a bright and cheerful cover that also portrays monsters? Not me. This was really cute and contained important messages about friendship; overcoming self-doubt; and living for your own ideals of happiness, not those dictated […]
4 Stars. In this information age, we find ourselves bombarded with facts or “facts,” as the case may be. A fringe group believing a kooky conspiracy theory may seem fairly harmless but when large swathes of the population believe anything they read that reinforces their own beliefs, we have a huge problem. Consider these sobering statistics […]
3 Stars. I’m going against popular opinion a bit in my review of this book. Don’t get me wrong; every review I’ve seen is glowing and I don’t exactly disagree. But I don’t fully agree either. First off, I do love this world. It’s interesting and full of magic and enclaves of magicians (Wizards? I’ve already forgotten what they […]
Any short story collection is going to be a bit uneven but I truly enjoyed the vast majority of these. I would like to read novels based on some of these characters and I will be seeking out longer works by some of these authors. I appreciated that the writers are a culturally-diverse group and their characters reflect that. […]