In many ways this was a smart and fun middle-grade, and my kid and I mostly enjoyed reading through it together. But the back and forth between Finlay and Honey Bee was overdone and slowed the pace of the book too much for both of us, and E said it was boring when they went back and forth too much (except for the "and then something really big happened", when Honey Bee kept getting it wrong - he was talking about how funny that was days later). I also felt like the way the book plays with plot in the foreground and background of the book was interesting, but he wasn't quite old enough to pick up on the interplay there and just wanted to finally get to the rescuing bits. I think when he gets older and reads this on his own, he'll enjoy it better. While I didn't love this, I loved first one, and can't wait to read the next book.