In episode 32, we review The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek, a YA fantastical thriller from Rhett & Link (Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal).
Also available on Spotify:
Book Review Podcast Episode 32
amreading
Book Review: Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics, the Graphic Novel
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics, the Graphic Novel
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series
by Chris Grabenstein
illustrated by Douglas Holgate
My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Children’s adventure, graphic novel
Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.
After their big win in Mr. Lemoncello’s escape game, Team Keeley is challenged by basically every kid in the country. They all want their chance at stardom (starring in commercials for Mr. Lemoncello games) and are unhappy that the contest was so localized. So Mr. Lemoncello grants them their wish, because hey, that means he gets to create more games! The top teams in each region of the country are chosen and invited to Ohio to compete for full college scholarships—against Kyle’s team. The only problem is that Kyle isn’t so sure he’s up to the challenge this time.
I read and reviewed the original book (see review here), so this review is less about the story and content than it is about the graphic novel format. That being said, I enjoyed the story a little more this time than the previous, and I think that might just be because the graphic novel format lends itself so well to this series! Mr. Lemoncello is such a character as it is, and he’s really brought to life in images. (Maybe they should have gone with animation when they made a movie out of the first book.) It’s fun to see the library itself, as well, and being shown the puzzles feels more natural this way (not that I’m complaining about Grabenstein including visual puzzles in the original books). As for this book, though, I think that fans of the series will enjoy this new format, but I’d imagine that the idea for it is more to encourage kids who don’t care to read regular books to pick up this illustrated version and enjoy the story. Since I had already read the original book, I can’t say for sure how the story will come across to a newcomer, but I think it would be a fun read for 8-12-year-olds!
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Find out more about Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics, the Graphic Novel
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review: Castle in the Air
Castle in the Air
Howl’s Moving Castle #2
by Diana Wynne Jones
read by Jenny Sterlin
My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy
When Abdullah purchases a magical flying carpet, he quickly meets and falls in love with a sheltered princess who is then snatched away by a very powerful creature. In his attempt to rescue her, Abdullah ends up traveling with a band of magical and non-magical creatures alike.
I’m really sad about this follow-up to Howl’s Moving Castle, which overall was an enjoyable, whimsical book with characters that I fell in love with. Though Abdullah grew on me throughout this story, most of the rest of the characters were kind of flat or ended up being…something unexpected. The story is at least as meandering and difficult to follow as its predecessor, but without as much of the charm I enjoyed in the previous book. On top of all of that, I was really surprised by some of the choices Diana Wynne Jones made with this book. Two overweight women are used as compensation and grateful that at least they’re able to get married. In fact, there was so much degradation of women in this book that I kept forgetting that it was published in 1990 and not decades before AND written by a woman. I’m not normally one to point out this kind of thing, but it really threw me off. Plus, I’m not a fan of insta-love, which is a major point in this book.
Because of the connections to the previous book, there was a point nearish the end that I began to speculate about how Howl, Sophie, or even Calcifer might be included in this story, and that probably ended up being my favorite thing about the book. Of course, being near the end of the story, it just wasn’t enough to redeem the rest of the book. And to explain any further would involve spoilers, but I will at least say that I have read many reviews that lamented how little characters from the previous book were involved here, whereas I was pretty satisfied with it overall (after all, this isn’t a continuation of their story, but a separate story that they are involved in, and I think that’s pretty clear from the synopsis). If you read the previous and loved the characters enough to want to see anything else involving them, you might give this book a try. Otherwise, I don’t think there’s much to recommend about this book. There is one more book left in the series, and since it’s also narrated by Jenny Sterlin (who does a spectacular job), I’m looking forward to seeing if the last book brings back the charm of the first.
Find out more about Castle in the Air
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
The Lightning Thief – Chapter by Chapter
At the urging of my social media director (aka my 15-year-old daughter who is much more “up” on things like Bookstagram than I), I have started to read the first book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, a chapter at a time, recording my thoughts about each chapter as I go. The resulting reels are being posted on my Instagram account. Click the picture below to be taken to chapter 1 and my Instagram account, where so far chapter 2 is also up (I won’t be posting here with every new reel). I wasn’t sure how this would go, but it’s been fun so far!
Book Review: And to All a Good Bite
And to All a Good Bite
Andy Carpenter #32
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner
My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Mystery
When a man who once saved a puppy from a burning building is arrested for murder a year later, defense attorney Andy Carpenter is a little less reluctant than usual to take his case. A man who can save a dog’s life can’t possibly want to harm a human, right? This case takes Andy into another area that is foreign to him—high end art.
I may have sounded a little snarky in my synopsis, but really, sometimes Andy’s belief in a client’s virtue simply due to how they treat dogs makes me roll my eyes. Still, that doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book (maybe because I’ve gotten so used to the crazy amounts of dog love in this series). I always enjoy Andy’s team, and I liked seeing the inclusion of Corey, a former K-9 cop that is one of the major characters in the spin-off series, The K Team, which I haven’t read yet but plan to start soon. I really liked the angle of Nazi-stolen art in this story, which I felt was a fresh and interesting area to explore for this series. And the conspiracy, though twisty as always, comes together really well in the end.
Andy sarcasm in this book reminded me of why I love these books, and overall, this one ranks up there for me in this series. I don’t know how much longer the series will go on, but it’s good to know that Rosenfelt still brings an enjoyable story 32 books in. And Grover Gardner continues to portray Andy perfectly. If it’s not clear, I recommend this book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, as well as the books that precede it in the series.
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Find out more about And to All a Good Bite
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review Podcast Episode 31
In episode 31, we review all 3 books of the Summoner trilogy—The Novice, The Inquisition, and The Battlemage—young adult fantasy by Taran Matharu.
Also available on Spotify:
Book Review: The Final Gambit
The Final Gambit
The Inheritance Games #3
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA mystery, romance
Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Inheritance Games.
Avery Kylie Grambs is now only weeks away from inheriting the huge estate left to her by a stranger, but not only does she still have to live at Hawthorne House for the rest of that time in order to inherit, she has to survive. When a stranger shows up asking for help, Avery Kylie Grambs may not trust her, but she can’t stop the Hawthorne brothers from forming their own opinions—opinions which may or may not lead to destruction. A very risky gamble.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first 2 books in the series, but I pressed on for my daughter, who considers this one of her favorite books series ever. That is mostly because I was not a fan of the love triangle/romance angle in the first 2 books, which was based way more on physical attraction than I prefer and involved Avery Kylie Grambs toying with the hearts of 2 brothers. In the first couple of books, I assumed Avery Kylie Grambs was going to end up with Grayson Davenport Hawthorne, if only because of romance tropes I’m used to, so I was surprised that she “chose” Jameson Winchester Hawthorne by the end of book 2. I thought that would mean that there would be a lot more angsty romance stuff in this book, but fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as I expected (not that there wasn’t some, though, including weird flashbacks to a scene that I figured I must have forgotten in book 2 but turned out to not actually be in book 2 and eventually, after teasing us about it several times, was shown in its entirety in book 3). But that means that I was able to enjoy this third book more for the puzzles and investigation, which were always the main draw of this series for me.
Though this ended up being my favorite book of the series, I still didn’t love it, and that has a lot to do with the fact that I started to strongly dislike Avery Kylie Grambs in this book. And Grayson Davenport Hawthorne. Though I liked Jameson Winchester Hawthorne more, so I guess the brothers part evens out some. (I still think they’re all ridiculous though). Xander, who has been my favorite Hawthorne brother throughout the series, retains his place and actually has an arc in this book that was one of my favorite things about the series.
Here at the end of the main series, I have to say that I am not much of a fan of Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s style. Both her prose style and her overall plotting style. In my review of the previous book, I mentioned that we seem to get an answer for why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire estate to Avery Kylie Grambs, who was a complete stranger to him, making it a very risky gamble, but in the 2nd book, we’re given a different reason, but with half the book to go, we find out that that actually isn’t the reason either, and by the end, I didn’t know if any answers given in that book were “final” or not. Yeah, no, they’re not. It’s one thing to let a story or mystery stretch over 3 books, but it’s a whole other thing to give “fake” answers along the way that are discounted in the next book. I just do not care for that. As for her writing style, if you were at all confused or annoyed by my usage of full names throughout this review, then you understand my feelings. This is not the only time I’ve seen/heard full (either first and last or even first-middle-last) names used in what is supposed to be a romantic setting, and I’d heavily dispute whether there is actually any romance in that. But here, it’s used all through the story, including by the villain, and I’m sure that’s not supposed to be romantic. Even besides that, Barnes has a tendency toward repetition, with phrases, scenes, etc. Like “a very risky gamble” being overstated to death by the end of this book.
I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to continue with the series that follows this one or the bridge book. Part of me feels like it could be better, because the love triangle will be behind us and Avery is in them less, but part of me feels like it could be a waste of time if my other issues with these books persist. I’m interested in one of Barnes’s earlier series, so I may read some of that to see if I can handle reading her books outside of this trilogy. As for this book and series though, I think most people probably won’t be bothered by the same things as me and would enjoy this more than I did. But if you struggle with high-angst love triangles or a love triangle involving siblings (or the normalcy of people who barely know each other sleeping together, which I didn’t even get into in my review), you might want to pass on the story.
Find out more about The Hawthorne Legacy
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Hercule Poirot #20
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser
My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery
I think I’m starting to get burnt out on this series. I spend a lot of time while listening to these books guessing at reasons why each different character could be the murderer. But not using logic and reason within the story, rather I try to figure out which is the least likely or the one that will surprise the me the most, and then try to figure out how and why they might have done it. I’m usually wrong. I’m not sure if enough information is given to the reader to allow us to truly use logic and reason to pinpoint the killer, but even if it were, I’ve never been great at guessing mysteries correctly anyway. That said, I did have a correct guess about the killer in this book, but that’s partly because I’ve been waiting for this particular outcome for several books now.
I did like the overall mystery in the end, and Poirot is in fine form. I miss Hastings though. And I’m noticing more and more than he goes through several “possible” reveals before he gets to the final one, and by the time he gets to the final one, I’ve got mental whiplash. I think he’s telling us the truth, but that’s not it…then maybe it’s this, but no…it’s not. Because of the aforementioned waiting for this type of killer to come up, I know I’ll never forget the outcome of this book, but with others like that, I can’t really remember who ended up being the bad guy. In the end, I liked the book, but maybe I would’ve liked it more if I weren’t listening to them all so closely together. Still, I think this story is worth reading—or listening to the narration by Hugh Fraser, which is as great as ever.
Find out more about Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review Podcast Episode 30
In episode 30, we review books 2 & 3 of the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins and discuss all 4 movies in the main series.
Also available on Spotify:
Book Review: Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzle Quest
Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzle Quest
by Chris Grabenstein
My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure
Twelve-year-old Benjamin Broderick is into puzzles and random knowledge. Eighteen-year-old Ethan Broderick is into sports and girls. These brothers don’t have much in common and aren’t very close, and it won’t get any better once Ethan leaves for college in the fall. Though being coerced into taking a road trip together isn’t how Ethan wants to spend the beginning of his summer, he can’t deny that the perks might just be worth it. Especially when Benjamin wins them a chance at a million-dollar prize, and all they have to do is work together to solve a series of puzzles set up by the eccentric puzzle purveyor, Ms. Pennypickle—before their competition beats them to it.
This book was a lot of fun overall to read. I really felt for Benjamin, who keeps trying to connect with his brother without being pushy. And Ethan isn’t mean or bad, he’s just an 18-year-old about to go out into the world and not exactly thinking about how his little brother fits into his life anymore. There were parts to this book that felt a little too convenient or coincidental or just unrealistic, but it all made sense in the end, and in a way that I really enjoyed. There’s a twist to this book that I didn’t see coming, and then a second, smaller twist that I anticipated, based on the first twist, though that doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy to be right. It actually reminded me of one of my favorite movies, but to even say what that movie is would be a spoiler for this book, to those who know the movie.
The book has a lot of interesting trivia in it, especially about Route 66, introducing me to locations that I’ve never heard of and probably never would have, but I have to admit that it made me want to take a road trip to experience some of these places. There is also plenty of humor and a fun shout-out to Grabenstein’s much-loved Lemoncello series. And speaking of that, I appreciate Grabenstein wanting to go in a new direction from that popular series yet still wanting to include puzzles in this book. I felt there was more diversity in puzzle types in this book, and I really liked trying to solve some of them along with the characters. And while it’s difficult to avoid comparing Ms. Pennypickle with Mr. Lemoncello, due to them both being eccentric, rich, genius puzzle creators, I noted some personality differences in Ms. Pennypickle that made her her own person. And the story focuses more on family and relationships than the end goal. I don’t know that this book can become a series, but I do hope Grabenstein continues to write puzzle-filled, adventurous books like this. I really recommend this book for kids around 8-12, and for parents too—any age, really, especially those who like games.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.
Find out more about Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzle Quest
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
A Journey of Words 