**Some Minor Spoilers**
I’m actually sorry that this was only a trilogy as there are so many Sherlock Holmes canon that she could have played with but it was a satisfying ending. The Case for Jamie takes place a year after the ending of The Last of August. Both Jamie and Charlotte are still reeling from the events of the last book and the death of August Moriarty. Jamie is back at school doing his best to get his grades up to get into a college. He has a new girlfriend and is still playing rugby but really he’s just going through the motions. He misses Charlotte but can’t bring himself to forgive her for what she did. Charlotte for her part is doing what she does best. Investigate. She’s trying to figure out what Lucien’s next move is as she knows that they haven’t seen the last of him. She’s doing her best not to fall back into her destructive behaviors and missing Jamie too. Strange things start to happen to Jamie at school. He’s already a little paranoid from his experience in the last year and starts to lash out and everyone around him. It’s clear that he’s struggling with PTSD. As things start to spiral out of control, it becomes clear that even though he and Charlotte are no longer together, someone out there wants to get the band back together. We go back and forth between Jamie and Charlotte’s point of views as we piece together what’s going on. As the reader who has the benefit of knowing both sides making it much easier to come to the conclusion faster than our heroes but it was so well constructed it didn’t take away from the mystery. I felt actually quite proud of myself that I was able to piece it together before the formidable Charlotte Holmes. *pats self on back* I really liked both of these characters. They were both relatable in through own ways. Jamie being the clueless boy who just want’s to fit in and have friends and Charlotte the overachiever who is consistently looking for approval. They’ve spent the last three books trying to accept themselves for who they are and not who people perceived them to be. At the end they are still working on that as it’s not something that happens overnight but they have truly learned their lessons. I also liked that after everything that happened they didn’t just immediately get back together. While reconciliation is on the horizon, they both realized there were things about themselves that were not good for each other and took time work on themselves and get to know each anew. It’s a good lesson for us to learn. Mystery fans out there, I encourage you pick this series up. I think you will love it.
I liked this one a little better than Carve the Mark. I think maybe because the world was more established and the complicated relationship between each character was more set. Also opening up the universe to new planets made and introducing more characters with darker skin as more than just warriors or brutal dictators also helped. That doesn’t make some of the character development any less problematic but I do think that Veronica Roth listened to the criticism of the first one and took that into account while writing this one. I’m also grateful that this is only a duology and not a trilogy. Knowing that this was the last book, I felt the pacing was better, the story more concise loose ends tied up. That being said, she did leave an opening to return to this world if she wanted to but I’m happy with how it ended.
The kingdom of of Orleans is obsessed with beauty because their people were cursed with grey skin and brittle straw hair. The Belles are the blessed few who were born with color and the ability to make others beautiful too. They can change a person’s skin color, bone structure, hair and make-up and because of this they have a privileged place in the kingdom. Camille is one of six new Belles and she wants to be the Favorite. The Favorite lives in the Palace with the Queen and the Royal family. She gets to help create the laws of beauty and sets the standard. She will do anything to be the favorite even if it means getting it over her best friend. However Palace life isn’t what she imagined. For one thing, the Princess is a nightmare and a psycho. She’s the technically the second in line for the throne but her older sister has been in a coma so she’s about to named regent. Camille is smart and ambitions but at times she is so slow I want to scream at her to pay more attention to wants going on! She at times is so wrapped up in being the best Belle and impressing others that she fails to see that she is falling right into their trap. It was a good set up to an intriguing series. It had a lot of world building in the this one so now that is out of the way, I think the rest of series will move at a better pace.
This novel had a lot of hype around it and I’m glad to say it was justified. From the very beginning I was hooked. With the exception of one section, it was fast paced and gripping. I immediately liked Zelie and was rooting for her to succeed. I was drawn to Amari and struggle to right the wrongs of her family and battling her own fears. Both of these women are strong and brave. They have their own flaws but when it came to helping those in need they didn’t hesitate to step in. It’s beautifully written and full of lush imagery that I felt I was taken to an Orisha just as I was taken to Wakanda in Black Panther. There is so much potential in how this series will unfold that I really can not wait to read the next book. Like I want it right now!
The final book in the Front Lines trilogy was fitting ending for all three of our heroines. The alternate history re-imagined World War Two if women had been allowed to serve and be drafted into the Military. Rio, Frangie and Rainey all enlisted as the US was on the brink of joining the war. Throughout the trilogy we have followed Frangie, Rio and Rainey through basic training, northern Africa and Italy all while trying to figure out who they are how they fit in in this new world. Does being a soldier make them any less feminine? And what future do they have to look forward to after the war is over. At the end of the last book, they were all awarded Silver Stars for their bravery in Italy. If they thought winning a Silver Star would make their lives as soldiers, they were mistaken. In some cases it only made their mostly male soldiers resent them even more. Rio’s hometown sweetheart, struggles to deal with the fact he had to be rescued by his girl and she gets rewarded for it. The gender roles have been reversed and he can’t deal with it. Our Soldier Girls are preparing for the D-Day invasion to open the final book. With it comes all the blood and carnage that we come to expect from years of seeing this battle depicted on the big screen. As the girls progress from Normandy to Paris to Battle of the Bulge in Belgium to finally Germany. They are faced with hardships and hard decisions as they continue to face the cruel reality of war. They are fighting a war against the Nazis about also about the sexism and racism in the Military. It truly speaks to what women face today. I have to wonder what our country would be like if women had been able to serve in World War Two. How would our world be different and how much would it be the same? It sort of get the sense that Michael Grant doesn’t seem to think that history would have changed all that much but also could be my own cynicism. Anyway, it was a good series full of great characters and an interesting ideas. I’m glad I read it but I can’t help but wonder what if there were stories of real soldier girls that could be told.
The Princess Diarist is as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. Carrie Fisher dusted off her old diaries she wrote while filming the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Like everything in her life, she is brutally honest about what she saw and what she did and tells it with a biting sense of humor. Reading this a year after her untimely death is definitely after bittersweet as she was more or less correct about her own obituaries would say and what pictures they would use. The bulk of this memoir is focused on her affair with costar Harrison Ford, who as you know played Han Solo. Passages of her diary talks of her struggle to deal with the knowledge she is having an affair with a married costar and how she is falling in love with him even after telling herself that she wouldn’t. She also talks about how she struggled on the set, being told to lose weight and hours in hair and make up and keeping up the facade that she was more experienced than she actually was and of course the awkward promotion of the movie after the release. Carrie Fisher became Princess Leia in this diary and the transition wasn’t smooth. There was a lot bumps and bruises along the way but she eventually found peace with her alter ego. Honestly, we are lucky to have had Carrie as our Princess Leia and as our General Organa.
So this book wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. It was more meh. I wanted to get into it but I just couldn’t. The pacing felt a little off to me. It started fast a little too fast for me. Ella’s mother has invented technology that allows people to relive their best memories and Ella has the ability to go into people’s minds and memories and look around their minds. She does this once and all of a sudden she’s an expert. She all of a sudden knows how to manipulate minds and search around strangers memories to find what she needs. Then pacing slows as we try to find out why she can’t remember the hot rebel, Jack and if he’s the terrorist or is it the government? After it moved too fast and then moved to slowly and then we finally got to the climax and was dragged out and then it was over. I was a little disappointed because I really loved Beth Revis’ Across the Universe series. This had so much potential to be a cool book that just never really got going.
2 Women, So Many Books 