Solid 3 stars for me. I received an early copy of this book courtesy of Netgalley and 47North Publishing and in turn I’m giving my honest review.

It was definitely great to see MG and the gang back at it again, solving crime and taking names. I also loved that we got to see more Lawrence in this one. I’m pretty Ute he’s my favorite character so I’ll take as much of him as I can get.

Just like with the first book in the series, the pop culture references were a bit too heavy for me. Some of them served a purpose and some just felt like they were thrown in there for the sake of reminding us that MG is a “cool comic book chick unlike other girls”. Just my personal opinion. I didn’t see the reveal of the Mad Hatter coming, which is both good and bad. Good because I love unexpected surprises, bad because it seemed a little random. Looking back on what I read I can’t find nothing that says “oh yeah ok I see the connection/potential.” Could be just me.

Now the Golden Arrow reveal, was the complete opposite. I saw that coming a mile away (or should I say a book away). That was built up to be a bit obvious, which makes me wonder if that was the REAL GA reveal or a decoy and set up for a follow up book.

Over all it’s a quick read and decent enough that I’ll check out the next book even though I’m sure the pop culture references and slightly annoying MG rambling will be back in full force