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imstephtacular

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

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Chronically Dolores

Maya Van Wagenen

DID NOT FINISH: 37%

I had a hard time with the cusp between being a MG and a YA book. It was hard for me to settle into. I was intrigued by the premise but found myself losing interest as it went on 

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot

 
This was an absolute blast! Fun, fast-paced, a solid, clever mystery, a boy-girl friendship, and full of smart kids, which I love reading about 
 
12 year old Florian is super observant (think the tv show Psych) and is enlisted by the FBI to be a consultant when an art heist occurs in Washington DC. Along with his bestie Margaret, Florian is trained and kept on standby as a young super agent. 
 
While this was published in 2016, I had some issues with some of the language and the way topics were handled 
  • lots of good guy v. Bad guy talk without nuance
  • stereotypes about other cultures which veered xenophobic in my opinion
 
Overall though I had a great time reading this! 
 
Similar titles: Greetings From Witness Protection by Jake Burt, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein 

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix

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emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Some things worked in this (the sex scenes, the intimate and goofy moments, the mix of text messages in the prose, the depth of the characters with real baggage), but the crux of the story being miscommunication / lie / mistaken identity didn't work for me at all.
I know it goes against romance rules, but I would have rather seen them NOT get together in the end. Also the "let's make a baby" on the last page was a huge eye roll

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Expand filter menu Content Warnings