Oh, what a delight to delve back into this steampunk Victorian London! Prudence is every bit the child of her three parents, although she seems most influenced by her adopted father. This book reminds me of everything I loved about the previous series and made me want to reread the last few books to remind myself of previous events. I do believe you can enjoy this one without having read the previous books, although it will make a lot more sense if you do have some familiarity with the work.

I'm a sucker for a good romance, and I love me some Bollywood stories, so this is right up my alley. I loved Sweetie a lot, and I could see how her life was tough in some parts, but really good in others. I loved the Sassy Sweetie Project, and could very much relate to that idea. Ashish was a little harder for me to get behind, but I hadn't read the Dimple/Rishi story in a while, so I couldn't remember if I liked him in that or not. I enjoyed this one and gobbled it up.

Another topping book from Carriger. I just love her style so much. She's one of two authors that I have to buy whatever comes out by her, and probably the only one whose entire published works I have read. Of course, gobbling them up as they come out can lead to forgetfulness between books, as I don't often have time to reread, but the story is still fun and understandable. If you're looking for action, romance, history, and steampunk, you really can't go wrong with one of her books.

The poems weren't necessarily my favorite, but I could see it being really good in classroom use, especially for including fun forms.

Some good ideas here, but boy, is she obsessed with lavender spray.

I didn't really enjoy this one. I found it kind of weird and didn't make sense to me.

I actually really liked this one and it made me more curious about the Mother Goose on the Loose program. Great ideas for storytime in here.

Too real at times, but overall good.

So I listened to this one, and I think this is one of those instances where reading it might have been a better option for me.

There are things I thought were really well done with this book: it feels timely, and like it could happen tomorrow. The details of how are realistic, and the use of quotes that certain elected individuals have used certainly adds to the realism. Add what is happening at our border, and you've got a potent mix. I can also see how National Guard would be drafted into being "exclusion guards" and how they would react to that news. Even the way the majority of the teens acted was fabulous.

My problems were with being inside Layla's head

and this is where I found it to be perhaps an audiobook problem for me. Why was Jake so drawn to Layla? Was it really just that happenstance meeting on the train? I was also frustrated by how much time Layla spent worrying about David, but I also wasn't a high schooler who dated people for more than 3-4 months at a time. The whole David/Jake/Layla dynamic was frustrating for me. Why would Jake sneak her boyfriend into the camp? Why did he care so much? So I'm wondering how much of this is my own internal issues versus the book itself.

I do remember being a teen and being frustrated by adult inaction. I just wasn't sure I enjoyed being in Layla's headspace and wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it on the page.