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Book Review: Masterminds

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Masterminds
Book #1
by Gordon Korman

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Serenity, New Mexico may seem like the perfect small town, but five teenagers are about to discover that there’s a lot more going on, both in their town and in the rest of the world, than they ever knew. 

This is the kind of book that is difficult to explain the premise of without giving too much away. There are five main teenagers, and each of them has their turn as the POV character. That is a lot of different perspectives to keep straight, and while so often that many doesn’t work out, Korman did a good job of keeping them all different. In fact, the story is in 1st-person from each of these perspectives, yet their voices are all unique enough to keep me from being confused (for the most part). I really enjoyed the way everything played out, though, and how the five teens got started on their investigation. While the main catalyst for the teens’ investigations comes from the main character, Eli, having bizarre symptoms when he rode his bike out of town with his friend, the other teens basically start on their own questioning and digging in other ways. When their individual quests come together, the story really picks up. The synopsis compares the book to Stranger Things, and unlike the last book I read that had that comparison, this one works.

I didn’t realize this was the start of the series until I got to the end, and while it’s not an outright cliffhanger, it definitely left me wanting more! My 13-year-old daughter read this book before me, and she and I are both excited to continue the series. We also both recommend this book for teens and even adults who enjoy suspenseful teen books.

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Book Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Hercule Poirot #1
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This is the first Agatha Christie book I’ve ever read, and now I’m wondering what took me so long, especially since I’ve been a fan of mystery books all my life. I think when I was younger, I figured older books would just be boring, but as an adult, I definitely appreciate the simplicity of books written or set in historical time periods. Though I think the narrator, Hastings, needed more development as a character, Poirot is an interesting detective-type character, and I look forward to getting to know him more. I had some theories about the mystery, though I don’t know that the clues to the true answer are really given to the reader. Poirot plays things pretty close to the vest, allowing Hastings, who acted as his sidekick, to go down quite a few wrong paths. Though some say it’s not the best idea to start with this book if you’ve never read any in this series before, because Christie was still figuring out who Poirot is or for other reasons that might keep someone from liking the series enough to want to keep going, to me, that just means it’ll get better from here. And though Poirot may have over-explained after the mystery was solved, I enjoyed the story overall. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser and thought he did a great job. I’m looking forward to continuing on in this series!

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Book Review: The Traitor

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The Traitor
Michael Vey #9
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 1 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Prisoner of Cell 25.

The Electroclan has to decide how to stop the Chasqui from destroying a town, free their friends, and deal with their friend who betrayed them.

I can’t pretend to know Evans’s motivation in opening this series back up again after a clear ending, but this book in particular made me feel like he doesn’t really care about the series anymore. The bad guy has (no surprise) turned out to be pretty much a slightly different version of Hatch. Multiple major side characters die, which might not seem like a big deal, but it’s quite different for this series. And the big kicker, to me, is that it appears that Evans completely forgot that he’d killed off an entire tribe of people way back in book #3. While, yes, the news that the Amacarra tribe had been wiped out could have been false, it has never been revealed to us that any (or apparently all) of them survived. Yet when they suddenly appear again in this book, no one is surprised, confused, happy, anything (except me). To me, that kind of huge continuity issue smacks of apathy.

Books 1-7 of this series have an overarching plot—the Electroclan trying to stop Hatch’s schemes and eventually bring down the Elgen. Whatever issues I had with those books, the desire to see the Electroclan triumph was basically what kept me going through 7 books. No matter what the real reason is that Evans continued the series after neatly wrapping it up, after only 2 books, I’ve lost my motivation to keep reading. I don’t care enough about the new bad guy, because he’s far too much like the old bad guy (plus, spoiler, he’s already stopped by the end of this 2nd book), and the new threat just doesn’t seem as globally dangerous. 

Rather than continue to complain about style issues, Evans’s weird pacing decisions, and other things that I’ve mentioned in multiple previous reviews already, I’m just going to say that this is the end for me, and be done with it. This is the last published book to date, but since it came out only 4 months ago, given what was left hanging, I assume at least one more is planned. I won’t put myself through the frustration of reading any further, though. As for recommendations, though I mildly enjoyed much of the first 7 books, I don’t know that I’d recommend this series, especially for adults. Teens are probably better able to overlook some of the shallow characterization and style issues I had with it.

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Book Review: Joy in the Morning

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Joy in the Morning
Jeeves #8
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

If I could forget a lot of what I had read in previous books in this series, I think I would have enjoyed this installment a lot more. The problem is that the problems that arise around Wooster tend to not be different enough to be interesting. A friend’s engagement is in danger, so Wooster takes it upon himself to help them reconcile. A woman he doesn’t care for randomly decides that he must want to marry her, so he finds himself engaged, despite his utter lack of desire for such. And he’s too much of a gentleman to say, “No, thank you,” so he has to plan some scheme to get out of it or, oops! He might just find himself married! I will say, at least, that the intricacies of how some of these mostly unrelated messes are twined together so that one solution can somehow fix them all is usually clever enough to provide some fun while I’m listening. And Wooster’s trademark humor, combined with Jeeves’s straight-man wit, still makes me laugh, even amongst the feeling that we’ve “been there, done that.” Jonathan Cecil is a great narrator for these books (though I still miss Kevin Theis).

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Book Review: The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers

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The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers
Book #29
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

I’m not sure I have the motivation to write an actual review for this book. It’s feeling like deja vu anymore, since I don’t have much different to say than I did for the last few books in this series. I’ll get to a few specifics from this book in a little bit, but first I just want to say what an overall pleasure it’s been reading through this series. Though the last few weren’t spectacular, and overall, there were some duds (for me), in a series of 29 books, one thing Braun did well throughout this series is give me a sense of community. Once Qwilleran arrives in Moose County for the first time in book #5, the county and especially the town of Pickax becomes a character unto itself, growing and changing, going through tragedy and triumph, like a well-rounded addition to the family. After almost 30 books, I feel connected to the county and its people and am sad to bid them farewell.

My biggest issue with this book isn’t that the mystery was light or that Qwilleran again has the solution sort of handed to him. It’s the way Braun seemed to thumb her nose at long-standing institutions from her series. (Warning, spoilers ahead.) It feels like the intentional end of a series, but evidence shows that she had a 30th book planned to follow this one. So why did she destroy both Qwilleran’s relationship and home, to start anew in the next book, this late in the series? If she was bored with them, then considering her advanced age, a better solution would have been to call this the end, and leave us happy, knowing that Qwilleran would continue with his life as we have known it. And even worse, Qwilleran doesn’t seem particularly bothered by either of these losses. I kinda get the barn being almost a relief, since he expressed frustration in this book at having a home that people always wanted to tour and gape at. But minimal effort is given to make it believable that he not only didn’t care that Polly was moving to Paris but also was ready to move on within days.

After all is said and done, I do recommend the overall series to fans of mystery, especially with a somewhat old-fashioned mindset, but definitely start at or near the beginning. I can see myself re-reading this series again someday, but I’ll probably stop at about #24, the last one I remember liking much at all. After that, even the love of the community around Qwilleran isn’t enough to sustain me through lackluster mysteries.

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Book Review: The False Prince

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The False Prince
Ascendance #1
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
read by Charlie McWade

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

Street-smart orphan Sage is tagged as one of three candidates to pretend to be the king’s long-lost son, in order to prevent a civil war that would lead to destruction by the nation’s enemies. He’s not so sure he wants to be the prince, but the alternative is death.

By halfway through this book, I was really beginning to wonder what so many people saw in it. It was slow and not terribly interesting, with cliched characters and politics that caused the story to drag. Characters make terrible decisions, and Sage himself doesn’t seem to know when to quit while he’s ahead. Just the fact that nothing interesting seemed to be going on caused intrigue as I tried to figure out what kind of twist might be coming that would cause so many people to give the book 4- and 5-star ratings. Then came a twist, like I was expecting, but not quite what I was expecting. And to say much more at all would be a spoiler, so before I get into that, I’ll say that, though I did appreciate the twist and how it made me look back on the rest of the story in a different light, it wasn’t quite enough to completely redeem that first 75% of the book. Also, the narrator is fairly monotone, and while I do intend to continue the series with the audiobooks, it’s mostly because his voice is already so ingrained in my head as the voice of Sage, I’ll hear it either way, so I might as well listen to him reading it. Now, read on if you choose, but beware that at least mild spoilers are ahead.

What this book taught me is that I’ve become far too trusting with narrators. I’ve always known about the potential of an unreliable narrator, but I haven’t come across them often and certainly not one to the degree that this book has. What I took as other characters making incorrect assumptions or Sage being unnecessarily cagey was actually just the reader being kept in the dark. And the sad thing is that even when it started to be revealed to me that some things had been kept from me, I didn’t follow that through to the Big Secret. I made guesses about the Big Secret, but the only way I could see it being true would be if the author used a really cliched trope. When I began to realize that Sage was keeping secrets from the reader, I should have realized…but I didn’t, so the twist mostly caught me off guard.

My guess is that most of the readers of the age group this is intended for would be blown away by the twist and would learn a good lesson in being too trusting of a narrator in fiction (like I did). While I do wish that the first 75% of the book had been more engaging overall, I still recommend this book to kids around age 10-13 and to anyone else that is interested in the premise.

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Book Review: Open and Shut

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Open and Shut
Andy Carpenter #1
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When defense attorney Andy Carpenter dad dies and leaves him with a request to appeal the murder conviction of a man whose case his dad prosecuted and an unexpected inheritance of $22 million, Andy suspects that there’s more going on than a wrong conviction. He has to dig into the past to find the truth, and he might not like what he finds.

I have read 2 books from much later in this series, and liked them enough to start back at the beginning. It was interesting to read about where Carpenter’s money came from—money that in those later books allow him to be more discriminate in the cases he chooses to take on. Though this reference will likely be lost on most, this first book reminded me a lot of the pilot of Due South, an underrated Canadian show in the 90s. Though Andy Carpenter is certainly no Benton Fraser. I enjoyed the mystery in this book, the various paths Carpenter treads to build his defense case for the convicted murderer while also following thin threads related to his dad and the money he left. What makes this book stand out a bit from other mystery novels, to me, is the wit and snark of the main character. I often found myself smiling or even chuckling along the way.

I listened to the audiobook, and it didn’t take me as long to warm up to the narrator as it often does. Gardner did a great job bringing Carpenter’s often-sarcastic voice to life. I look forward to making my way through the rest of the series in the same format. Fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas should consider reading this book.

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Book Review: A Beautiful Disguise

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A Beautiful Disguise
The Imposters #1
by Roseanna M. White

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian historical mystery

Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother Yates, an earl, may have inherited a grand estate, but their father left no money to keep it running. He blew it all on entertainment, which fortunately included circus acts that gave Marigold and Yates the training they needed to earn money as private investigators. When Sir Merritt Livingstone brings them a case involving possible espionage and treason, the investigation brings the Fairfaxes a little too close to home. Marigold’s carefully cultivated disguise of wealthy, vapid noblewoman might just blow up in her face.

This book drew me in right away, and I loved it all the way to the end. The story alternates between 3 POVs—Marigold, Yates, and Merritt. I worried it might be too much at first, but I really appreciated all 3 of these perspectives. I enjoyed the balancing act that both Yates and Marigold had to perform as anonymous investigators hired by Merritt and as acquaintances in social settings. While there’s a subplot of romance, it is not a focal point of the book, in my opinion. In fact, I feel like there’s more of a friendship base before anything further develops than normally happens in a book where the romantic pair start off as strangers.

The mystery that Merritt brings to The Imposters, Ltd. is not super complex, yet was not easy for me to unravel on my own. It actually seemed a little too simplistic at first, but then it became more complex as it went. Overall, it kept me engaged, as did the unique lifestyle of the Fairfax siblings, living on their estate with circus performers, complete with a monkey, a peacock, and Marigold’s lion friend.

It is never difficult for me to explain what I don’t like about a book (and I’m usually the outlier, struggling with books that most others loved), but it is often difficult to put into words what I enjoy about a book. What I have expressed above doesn’t adequately explain my love for this book, but I liked it so much, I’m going to immediately add previous books by this author to my TBR list, plus I’m so excited to see the next book in the series has already been announced! I highly recommend this book for fans of Christian historical mystery (this is set during the Edwardian era in London), but be aware the romance is a fairly slow burn.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bethany House for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Top Reads from 2023

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It’s time for another Top Ten list from That Artsy Reader Girl. The topic today is a look back at our favorite books from the past year. Since I already pick out my favorite book at the end of each month of reading, it wasn’t too hard to narrow the books from the year down to 10. I also made sure there was only 1 book from any series, so I had to add runners-up from some months. Here they are, listed in the order in which I read them throughout the year.

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I never planned to read these books, and I liked it a lot more than I expected to. See my full review here.

2. The Office BFFs by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey
I specifically enjoyed the audiobook, which is narrated by the authors. Though I also flipped through the ebook to see the pictures they reference now and then. See my full review here.

3. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Another audiobook, I anticipated a plodding read through a depressing winter, but it ended up being one of my favorites in the series.  See my full review here.

4. Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson
This series has surprised me by being quite engaging. This book is one of my favorites so far. See my full review here.

5. Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary
Third audiobook on the list, and while I enjoyed all of this series, I especially appreciated this one, where Ramona bonds with her father. See my full review here.

6. The Woman from Lydia by Angela Elwell Hunt
Probably one of my favorite Biblical fiction books ever. I’m really looking forward to future books in this new series! See my full review here.

7. Beneath the Swirling Sky by Carolyn Leiloglou
I have been recommending this book to everyone! I loved it, and I’m not even an art lover! See my full review here.

8. Annabel Lee by Mike Nappa
This one surprised me by being a stand-out suspense/thriller novel with a Christian worldview. See my full review here.

9. Children of the Shadows by Erica Vetsch
I can’t say enough about this series, for which this is the final book, or the series that it follows up!  The possibility that this is the end of this story world makes me immensely sad. See my full review here.

10. The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
Not only did this teach me about a man whose name I’ve heard but whom I knew nothing about, it gives backstory and explanation about Hitler’s rise to power in a way that isn’t dry or boring. See my full review here.

Have you read any of these? What were some of your favorite reads this year?

Book Review: The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell

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The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell
Book #28
by Lilian Jackson Braun

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Cozy mystery

The possible murder of an out-of-towner kicks off a season of deaths, as Pickax City’s summer-long sesquicentennial celebration is underway. Former crime reporter Jim Qwilleran is distracted by the various ways he’s asked to be part of the festivities, but that doesn’t stop him from noting Koko’s odd behavior.

The fact that I have almost the same thing to say about every book in this series anymore is probably telling in itself. I feel like we’re just limping to the end now, which maybe how others felt as these were being written and published. Considering Braun’s age at the time these last books came out, I can’t help but wonder if they were just pushing to get to a nice round number for the series. This book does have the benefit of including some enjoyable goings-on in Pickax, a town that practically has its own personality. I do like the way this county 400 miles north of everywhere has grown and developed over the nebulous period of time since Qwilleran first came to it, enticing other transplants from “Down Below” over time as well. That makes is all the more sad, though, when one of those transplants dies needlessly in this book. It’s not part of the mystery, and in fact, it’s sort of thrown in near the end amongst major happenings that are part of the mystery, which makes the whole thing seem completely senseless.

The mystery itself is…well, I can’t say it’s non-existent. But it’s really in the background for much of the story. It’s there if you can look for it. But to really confuse us, the first death in the book turns out to be completely unrelated to the mystery and apparently nothing more than the initial assumption made by the police. I kept expecting it to come into play again, but it doesn’t. I guess that’s kind of a spoiler, but really, I think it’s helpful for people to know what they’re getting at this point in the series. I’d say it feels like lazy writing, but it could have more to do with Braun’s advanced age. I don’t recommend jumping into any series at/near the end, especially this one, but I do still recommend the overall series to fans of mystery, especially with a somewhat old-fashioned mindset.

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