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Puzzle Me a Murder
Puzzle Me a Murder
Roz Noonan | 2024 | Mystery
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Missing Pieces
Alice Pepper enjoys having her friends over to work on puzzles most nights. Among the group is her childhood best friend Ruby Milliner. When Ruby arrives home from a business trip early, she catches her husband with his mistress. The next morning, Ruby’s husband is dead, and the police are looking at Ruby as their prime suspect. Alice jumps in to find the killer. But does she have all the pieces to solve this puzzle?

Despite the fact that I’m not much of a jigsaw puzzle guy, I thought this sounded like a fun premise for a series. Sadly, I was wrong. I didn’t feel like the characters ever went beyond being types, and it felt like they had too many interests or skills in their background. It felt like the author was checking boxes instead of making well rounded characters. There wasn’t attention to detail, so these things bumped me out of the book. The novel could have lost 60 pages without losing anything, the pacing was that off. And the climax, while logical, seemed abrupt to me. I really did want to like it more, but I won’t give this series another chance.
  
New Beginnings
New Beginnings
Rebecca Emin | 2012 | Young Adult (YA)
8
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
New Beginnings by Rebecca Emin is a book about a girl named Sam Hendry who faces bullying at her new school. The subject of this book that is carefully dealt with is bullying. Bullying is a problem that many students face today. This book also deals with the everyday life of a soon-to-be teenager.

Sam is a girl who is about to leave her primary school and friends to start at a new school. At the new school Sam does not know anyone there. Sam wants to stay at her primary school where she feel comfortable. She does not want to have to find new friends, but she does not have a choice. Even worse, at the new school Sam is the target by the bully of the school. Life does not seem to be going well for Sam but luckily she finds friends. She joins the drama club where she is able to express herself and nurture her talents.

Sam’s life involves her friends, talent, interests and first crush. The plot line effectively covers it all. It was refreshing to read about life through innocent eyes. I wish the author had given the reader a more indepth look at the lives of the different characters. I enjoyed reading this innocent story.