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annagwritesandreads 's review for:

4.0
emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book!

Note: I do love puzzles. I feel like that's important to note. The puzzles are were not super clear in the eArc, but I'm sure the physical book will be such a treat for you to follow along with the puzzles!

4/5

Description: Clayton's lived with the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers his entire life. He was left on the doorstep of their commune in a hatbox as an infant and the commune's creator, Phillipa (Pippa), took him in with open arms. However, Pippa passes away, but leaves one last puzzle for Clayton to solve: the mystery of where he came from. Clayton goes on to not only unravel his past, but gets an opportunity to explore a future he never thought he'd have.

All the goodies:
- The puzzles were SO cute and fit the story. They keep the story twisty and will also encourage you to solve the. mystery with Clayton.
- I really loved Clayton's character growth throughout this book.
- The ending left me EXTREMELY satisfied. One of the best stand-alone endings I think I've read in a while.
- The cast of characters you meet along the way are all marvelous and I did tear up over a few side storylines.

The loss of a star:
- I feel like the pacing was inconsistent. The beginning felt very slow, then the latter half felt too fast! 
- As I mentioned earlier, the formatting on the eArc just made it tough to read and I was taken out of it. There were also very random letters placed into some words that were not part of the puzzle, which again, I think was just an eArc issue but I'm not sure. I would highly recommend the physical version of this book, or I'm hoping the official eBook will fix their formatting.

Overall: If you like puzzles and character driven stories, this should be your next read.