very similar plot from book one - but if a different ghost problem but still very similar. 

the writing was well done and the idea is good but it’s still quite underdeveloped and just gives answers in very small selected doses and even than not always answers that really give the whole view of what’s going on. 
for example why are some ghosts as they are and how do they become as they are while other with similar if not same death circumstances seem to not become ghosts? 
no clue. 

also i find it a bit strange how all adults seem very easy going with a lot of what’s going on and how it is happening in this book series. 

cassidy is a child and is basically allowed to run free in historical sides without someone by her side to make sure she doesn’t touch or do anything she’s not supposed to? 
and the people that run those places are just okay with that? mhm. 

i did like that we got a little bit more of Grim the cat in this but i would still like a bit more about him since it’s a housecoat that is being carted around the world, it would be nice if the owners of that cat didn’t behave as if it’s perfectly fine to just leave that cat alone for the entire day in a completely strange place without any real accommodations for said cat. 

i also think that in this book the author explained a bit too much. maybe that’s the difference between the USA and European children but i knew what Catacombs where? i knew spiffing french foods and while i might i have been able to really understand anything else as kids before elementary school we knew how to count in a lot of different languages -italian, french, spanish, english… and i certainly wasn’t gifted with languages or that this knowledge as anything special?

so for me it’s a bit strange to see that portrait here as something completely normal to not be able to do that? 
maybe it’s a correctly pointed finger at the USA school system that’s clearly lacking behind in overall world education. 
feels a bit like it since Lara makes a reappearance in this book and she understands the very simple french as well. 

 

overall this was okay. 

it wasn’t bad but put wasn’t a great read either. 
it was good enough that i can see other people enjoy it more but not different enough from book one that i can see the need for one more book of that’s one as similar as the two i have now read.

it’s still a good middle grade ghost fantasy read without being too spooky or horrific but still a bit of a scare factor to it depending on what a MG reader is used to. 

i do think it’s a nice series and it’s a good easy read that does what it does pretty well. 


but i would recommend reading the books spaced out from another and not one right after the next since this book did spend maybe between 10-20 pages reminding the reader about things that were already said it happened in book one.