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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2502 KP) rated Spy School British Invasion in Books

May 18, 2019  
Spy School British Invasion
Spy School British Invasion
Stuart Gibbs | 2019 | Children, Mystery
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Can Ben Track SPYDER Without Causing an International Incident?
Ben Ripley and his team of fellow spies think they have been handed the key to finally taking down the evil organization SPYDER. As it so happens, the key is a literal key. Ben’s friends piece together that it most likely belongs to a storage space under the British Museum. Since no one knows who in the CIA is really a SPYDER double agent, only Ben and his friends from Spy School can be trusted to go and retrieve whatever the item might be. And so Ben, Mike, Zoe, Erica, and Erica’s parents make their way to London. What will they find when they land?

This book picks up moments after the previous book in the series ended, so it does discuss some of what happened in that book. As a result, if you want to go into that book completely surprised, you’ll want to read the books in order. But that’s no problem since the entire series is so fun. Once again, we get a wild ride filled with twists, turns, and extremely narrow escapes. Yet in the quieter moments, we get to see some depth and growth in the characters, which I loved. The action can be a bit over the top, but that plays into the comedy of the book and series perfectly. I might not have laughed quite as much as I did while reading the previous book, but I was chuckling before I finished the first page, and I did grin and laugh the entire way through. Middle Graders will love this book, and anyone looking for a fun read will be glad they picked it up as well.
  
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ClareR (6106 KP) rated Luckenbooth in Books

Feb 14, 2021  
Luckenbooth
Luckenbooth
Jenni Fagan | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I love a book that takes me by surprise and is a bit off centre; something a bit different from books found on the bestseller lists (which is where I would hope this will end up!!), or the supermarket shelves. Luckenbooth is one of those books.
Luckenbooth piqued my interest as soon as I saw the cover photo - and then I read the synopsis. How could it possibly NOT appeal to me? I mean, the devils daughter rows to Edinburgh in a coffin to work for the Minister of Culture. I was hooked. It’s not all about her though. The book is split into three sections, each section revolving around three different characters, and we see glimpses in to their lives. There are people from all walks of life: strippers, spies, maids, a black human rights lawyer with a bone mermaid, drug addicts, poets, a medium. These are all people who live on the edge of society (within No. 10 Luckenbooth Close, anyway!), people who have little - and they live in a tenement that has been cursed by the devils daughter.
The stories seem not to be linked to one another, and their only link is the fact that they all live in the same tenement building. I really enjoyed these snapshots, any one of them could have been longer and I would have enjoyed them just as much. This fed my love of short stories though, and I really liked how reality was mixed with the more supernatural elements.
I will have to dig out my copies of Fagans books The Sunlight Pilgrims and The Panopticon, languishing in my Kindle library - this has really made me want to read her other books.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book through NetGalley.