Tag: ya mystery

REVIEW: Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer

REVIEW: Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. This book is scheduled to release on September 6th.]

Summary

Enola’s friend, Lady Cecily Alastair, had been through a lot in their short acquaintance, and the pair had quickly become best friends. Enola was the one who had figured out that Cecily had two distinct personalities – one confident and clever, the other meek and helpless.

When Enola goes to visit her friend and is turned away at the door, she is concerned. Turns out, Cecily’s father has been holding her captive, locked in her room with no clothes other than what she is wearing and no food. Enola is able to rescue Cecily, but the girl soon goes missing  before Enola can find her a safe haven.

Almost immediately, Sherlock is on the case at the behest of Cecily’s mother who is also locked away, although with a bit more support than Cecily had. Enola is only too aware of the trouble Cecily can walk into, out in the world, alone, especially if her more helpless personality takes hold. So Enola needs to find and rescue her friend while dodging her brother, the famous detective. Well, it’s not like she hasn’t done that before!

Review

This was great! I enjoyed the mystery and loved Cecily and the other characters who help Enola with this case. The dual personality portion of the story was well done. (Earlier books in this series establish Cecily and Enola’s relationship and some of these factors. While I have read the earlier books, it’s been AGES, but I had no difficulty following this story without a review of the earlier tales.)

The relationship between Enola and Sherlock is as delightful as ever. I didn’t notice the Netflix tie-ins as much as I did reading the last book, Enola Holmes and Black Barouche, but it’s been awhile since I watched the movie. It’s not as fresh in my mind as it was when I read the previous book.

Mystery fans, Enola fans, and even Sherlock fans should definitely give this a try. I think fans of historical mysteries and historical fiction in general might enjoy this as well. There’s a lot to love! You can read more about Enola’s books here.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥ = Great. Might re-read.

REVIEW: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson

REVIEW: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Last summer, Alice returned from Egypt to news that her best friend, Brooke, and her boyfriend, Steve, had “fallen in love” while Alice was out of the country. In her rage and heartbreak, Alice decides to pull an Agatha Christie and disappear. When she returns, her whole town has turned against her for the stunt. She ends up on house arrest.

Back at school in October, Alice is a social outcast. No one will have anything to do with her – except Iris, the tutor Alice’s parents have hired to help her catch up at school. But Iris is only doing it for the money.

But when Brooke goes missing after a Halloween party, and Iris and Alice are among the last people to have seen her before she disappeared,  they team up to look for clues, asking “What would Agatha Christie do?”

Review

This was exceptionally good – a perfect read for me! I loved Alice and Iris. Their individual journeys were engaging and dovetailed nicely with the mystery. I cared about the girls and loved seeing them start to lean on each other. The rest of the crew that helps with the case was great too – I’d love to see more of them.

The mystery is excellent! The pacing was perfect. There were no slow spots and plenty of twists. I loved it! This will be one of my favorite books of 2022.

By the end, I was thinking, “Please be a series. Please be a series.” There are a couple other events the characters could dig into, so I have my fingers crossed. Amazon has the Kindle version listed as book 1, so here’s hoping. I am here for anything these creators want to put out starring these characters.

Mystery fans should run right out and pick this one up. It’s outstanding! (Language, references to sex and domestic violence)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥+++*

♥♥♥♥♥+++ = Best of the best

BLOG TOUR: Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer

BLOG TOUR: Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy from Netgalley and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. This book releases August 31, 2021.]

Summary

Called to her brother’s home by Dr. Watson, Enola finds him in a debilitating melancholy. He won’t acknowledge her efforts to rile him, and he essentially ignores a young woman who comes to him for help.  Enola draws out the details of her case, and eventually Sherlock is intrigued enough to join in the preliminaries.

Miss Glover has been told her twin sister has died, but she refuses to believe it. And there is some evidence that the claim is false. Besides, Miss Glover’s brother-in-law lost his first wife, too, from another “sudden fever” which raises suspicions. So the Holmes take on the case. Enola works her angle, even gaining help from her friend, the Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether, while Sherlock works his own leads.

Review

The book opens with a prologue, penned by Sherlock, outlining Enola’s earlier adventures as well as a description of his transformed feelings for her and about her – annoyance to begrudging respect to fondness. It’s a GREAT opening. I could hear it in my mind in Henry Cavill’s voice (from the delightful Netflix Enola Holmes movie). And it was only the first of many things I loved about this book!

I love Enola! She is an exceptional sleuth, challenging all of her famous brother’s garbage assumptions about women by just being herself. I thoroughly enjoyed how she and Sherlock worked their own aspects of the case while always managing to return to one another. I enjoy them so much as partners.

It’s been ages since I first read the early books in this series (this is technically Enola’s 7th adventure), so I’m not sure if the Netflix movie did an exceptional job of capturing the tone of the characters from those earlier books or if *this* book does an exceptional job of capturing the tone of the movie. Either way, I had the movie characters firmly in my mind as I read, and I found this story just as enjoyable as I did the movie.

The sleuthing was satisfying, and the resolution of the case was, too. Frankly, I thought the book was perfect! (Don’t be alarmed by the low reviews on Amazon. Apparently a lot of folks didn’t realize they were reading a TEASER and not the whole book. And then they wondered why it was so short. Ugh.) Mystery fans, Sherlock fans, and Enola fans should run right out and pick this one up when it releases next week. It’s an absolute treat!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥♥ = Outstanding!

REVIEW: Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

REVIEW: Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Lizzie Bennet longs to become a barrister and study the law and argue cases. But as a young woman – with a mother who thinks only of seeing her daughters married – that is never going to happen. But she holds out hope that her father will hire her to be a solicitor and investigator. He’ll have to be convinced, though, so Lizzie decides she will solve (another) case to prove her ability.

There’s been a murder and an arrest. Mr. Bingley is accused of killing his brother-in-law. Lizzie hopes to convince him to hire her father’s firm to represent him. (They could use the business!) And Bingley is impressed by Lizzie. But he already has help from his good friend, Mr. Darcy. Darcy is arrogant, condescending, and dismissive of Lizzie from the start.

Darcy’s plan seems to be to present Bingley as “too good” of a person to be a murderer. But Lizzie knows the only way to truly protect Bingley is to find the real killer. And she feels she is just the person to do that.

Review

Delightful!!

I have to confess: I’ve never read – or watched – Pride and Prejudice. I’ve never been able to make myself care enough to push through the reading. I love the Sense and Sensibility movie, but I could not get into that book, either. Austen just doesn’t click for me. But I do enjoy retellings in general, as well as mysteries, so I decided to give this a try. And I thoroughly enjoyed it!

There are TONS of nods to the original plot (which I read online) with regard to the characters and relationships, but also lots of twists to keep fans engaged. But you don’t have to have read Pride and Prejudice to enjoy this. The author takes some liberties with the timeline (which she explains in an engaging author’s note), but it didn’t bother me in the least. I am not a purist about such things.

The mystery was fantastically twisty. I figured out part but not all of it before the end, which I enjoyed. I like both solving the puzzles and being surprised by them. And I can’t wait to read more mysteries in this series. Book 2 – Sense and Second-Degree Murder – will release in 2022 and book 3 – Manslaughter Park – will release in 2023. Mystery fans and Austen fans should be sure to pick this one up asap!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥♥½ = I loved it! Would re-read.