purplepenning's Reviews (1.72k)

A charming and admirably kind book about personal and professional growth, about corporate structure and influencer culture, about intentionality and serendipity — and romance (with a great meet-cute and good banter). Fairly predictable but settled in a detailed landscape of D.C. and the podcasting world, it feels fair and interesting and held my attention once it was caught.

I like Linda Holmes and her voice, but the audiobook really wasn't working for me. When I switched over to the print edition, I had to play a couple rounds of "wait, who is that again?" because I hadn't been retaining names (who knows how many other details I missed) but the book was instantly more engaging from that point on. 

Perfect for readers chasing that You've Got Mail high. It's a little too long, creating some lag in the middle, but has one of the best bookish grand gestures I've ever read near the end, making it well worth the extra effort. 

I'm hoping this is the first of a Mason & Mann series because I'm going to need more of these Hollywood misfits solving crimes and getting justice! Ex-actress Julia Mann — sharp-witted, bad-tempered, and driven — teams up with Natasha Mason, her gig-working Gen Z sobriety sponsor, to solve the murder that she has been accused of. The murder of the former business partner of the husband she already went to prison for killing. And that's not even the messiest this gets! 

Perfect for readers who love flawed but fiercely resilient female protagonists, great found-family vibes, a unique odd-couple setup, a dazzling and messy Hollywood setting, Finlay Donovan, and cozy mysteries that don't shy away from on-page death.

Removed my 3-star rating after recognizing the antisemitic stereotypes that another reader pointed out. It isn't particularly subtle — Yael's Hebrew name + their family's control, wealth, and greed + their long generations of wealth-building pact with a demon — and I'm disappointed that I missed it.

You know I love me some middle grade adventures, but this is a tough one to rate and review. On the one hand — I love the idea of eggs carrying extraterrestrial living beings (ELBs) just showing up on Earth, each with a single white calling cards with a single word on it, and then being lovingly hatched, studied, and cared for by Ava's family (who interpret the words on the cards as each baby being's name). The descriptions of the ELBs are excellent — real Pokemon or Lilo & Stitch energy and details. There are a few too many for me to really hold in my head as I follow Ava through her daily care routines in the beginning or gallop along into the high-stakes adventure that makes up the second half of the book (where the "on the other hand" comes in) but this is a series opener so maybe a few ELBs will be the focus of each book. Also, Ava and Harley are a pretty good pair of new friends slash adventure buddies and have some refreshingly honest conversations about grief, mental health, and real struggles. 

But, on the other hand... the adventure gets real high stakes real fast with some disturbing scenes of the ELBs being hunted

and torturously experimented on

. And then it gets even more disturbing. Like maybe we were introduced to a character with PTSD because Ava will be dealing with that herself going forward? Except that the conclusion comes very quickly after the traumatic scene and doesn't really mention the trauma, so maybe not. Also, that conclusion, is ... odd? Or at least doesn't seem to follow the internal logic of the story? It's meant to indicate that this is a series and the story — and the extraterrestrial zoo — will continue, but it seems to directly contradict a pretty important revelation that Ava has about the zoo in general. It definitely muddled some ethical considerations about the care and keeping of the ELBs. So... it was more confusing/annoying to me than it was an effective teaser about what's to come in the next book. 

I'd recommend this one, with some reservations and a tip to definitely check the content warnings, to upper middle graders interested in delightfully weird creatures and the people who care for and protect them.