A Study in Charlotte [Charlotte Holmes, #1] by Brittany Cavallaro

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, you all. With the threat of COVID-19 now so close to home, I really hope you all are staying safe and healthy. Social distancing isn't easy, but it is necessary to keep this disease from spreading. 

Stay safe at home, everyone. And remember to wash your hands frequently! 

A Study in Charlotte [Charlotte Holmes, #1]
by Brittany Cavallaro

Genre: YA mystery

My Rating: ★★★★

Description:

Going to school in Connecticut wasn't Jamie Watson's idea. Not only is he going to be moving within driving distance from his estranged father, but Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the descendant of the famous Sherlock, who has inherited both his renowned intellect and caustic personality. It's awkward, and things just get worse when a Sherringford student ends up murdered. And it looks like Jamie and Charlotte have been framed.
Now, it's a race against time to find the killer and clear their names... before anyone else ends up dead.


Overall Thoughts

I liked this book. It's not a new favorite, but overall, I thought it was a great story, and I enjoyed reading it.
I had heard mixed things about A Study in Charlotte before I ever picked it up. In fact, I avoided it for the longest time because of some of the things I'd heard regarding content. While those warnings were definitely founded (this is not a book I would be recommending to young teens) it was still a good story and I genuinely enjoyed reading it.

The Characters

The characters were great. I enjoyed Jamie's narration of the events, and even though I tend not to like first person, retrospective, I did enjoy it in this book. I feel like the style worked really well for the story, especially since Jamie had a very unique and recognizable character voice and personality.
Charlotte was also a very interesting character. I can't say that I liked her all that much -- she's not a very likeable person, overall -- but as a character, she was well-developed and interesting.
The other characters were all over the place. I feel like a lot of the secondary characters got sidelined, without too much development. I also feel like several adults in the story sometimes didn't feel quite genuine/real/whatever -- their reactions didn't exactly seem human. But overall, those were really small portions of the book, and I still liked the characters overall.

Plot/Pacing

The mystery was fairly slow moving in terms of how the pieces were put together. I did like how active Charlotte and Jamie were in the plot -- they made the decisions, and those decisions propelled the plot forward. There was no "oh boy, we stumbled on this clue by accident, ha ha, how cool is that" stuff happening, for which I was very grateful.
The pacing of the book, however, was well done. I was never bored, despite the length of the chapters, and the writing style kept me engaged throughout the story.

Content (potential spoilers)

Recommended for ages 16 and up.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Drug abuse, sexual assault, rape, references to suicide.

Violent content includes a fist fight between two characters. Gun use. An explosion occurs at one point. Characters are poisoned. At one point in the story, a girl is attacked and it's found that a plastic jewel has been shoved down her throat. References to rape and sexual assault, which could be triggering to some readers.
Sexual content includes kissing, several instances of innuendo and a few references, as well as mentions of rape and sexual assault (as discussed above.)
Swearing includes several (maybe ten or fifteen) uses of the f-bomb, as well as other offensive language.
Drug abuse is discussed, and a character takes drugs (recreationally) at one point in the story. Discussion of drug dealing. A character smokes.

The Lost Girl of Astor Street by Stephanie Morrill

The Lost Girl of Astor Street
by Stephanie Morrill

Genre: YA historical mystery

My Rating: ★★★

Description:

Piper Sail's best friend, Lydia, is missing. Though the police have promised to do all that they can, Piper is convinced that they're looking in the wrong places and starts her own investigation. With the help of the young police detective Mariano, Piper begins uncovering clues to Lydia's disappearance.
But soon, she has to decide just how far she's willing to go to learn the truth... especially when the trail of clues begins to lead back to her own affluent neighborhood.

Overall Thoughts

If you're looking for a complex, twisty historical mystery novel -- this isn't the one. While The Lost Girl of Astor Street was a well written, enjoyable story, the mystery was definitely not my favorite and didn't include all of the twists and turns that I have grown to expect from mysteries (or maybe I've just seen too many episodes of Murdoch Mysteries to be surprised anymore? I hope not!)

Speaking of Murdoch Mysteries, though, this book did remind me quite a bit of the show. Not in a bad way, but it had a very similar feel -- perhaps it's the historical mystery that's making me draw lines between them.

The Characters

The characters were definitely the best part about this book. Piper was a decent main character, and I liked reading her POV. Her reactions to the situations she was faced with felt realistic, and I appreciated that. I wasn't as huge a fan of her love interest, Mariano. I didn't hate him by any means, but I would have liked the two of them better as friends. Emma Crane was also a great character, and just an all around nice person? I really related to her character. I also liked her brother, Jeremiah (who would have been a better love interest, in my humble opinion.)
I will say that the villain didn't really have the greatest motive, and I wish that this aspect of the story had been done better. (But then, I had a problem with a lot of the mystery aspects.)

Plot/Pacing

Now, for the plot. While the mystery wasn't extremely twisty, it was a decently plotted out storyline. I wish that Piper had found more clues earlier -- for the first little while, it seemed as though she was just aimlessly ambling around looking for clues and not finding any. But once she did start finding clues, the story became really engaging and fast-paced.
In terms of subplots, there were several dropped threads that I wish the author had tied up, as there was quite a bit of page time spent on some of them. For example, her father's engagement to Jane. Piper doesn't like Jane, and voices it on numerous occasions, and really, by the end of the book, it seemed like nothing had changed between them? Which I found to be sad, and also slightly annoying, considering how much time Piper spent complaining about her.

Setting

As for the setting -- I loved it. I've always had a soft spot for historical fiction (ever since my seventh grade days of binge reading Dear Canada and The Royal Diaries... ah the good old days.) But anyway, since I love historical fiction, I loved reading all the historical details the author wove into this book. The setting felt genuine and vibrant. It also explored a period of history I haven't read very much about -- the 1920s -- which I liked. It seems like so many historical novels are based during WW2 nowadays that this was a refreshing change. (Not hating on WW2 novels, though: it was an important and tragic period of history, and one that we shouldn't forget any time soon.)

Conclusion: if you like historical fiction, you might want to keep The Lost Girl of Astor Street on your radar. But if you're a die-hard mystery fan, it might be worth your while to look elsewhere.

Content

Recommended for ages 15 and up.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Kidnapping, mentions of human trafficking. 

No swearing that I can recall (this book is published by Blink, which usually means there is little to no profanity).

Sexual content is limited to kissing; there are also mentions of brothels and prostitution, as well as some talk and anxiety of what might have befallen Lydia (in terms of human trafficking). A minor character is married and having an affair with an unmarried character. One character reveals that she was sent away by her family to get an abortion. She didn't go through with it. 

Violence includes being held at gunpoint, a child is found to have been beaten, talk about a dead body and how the person died, a character experiences rough treatment including being dragged across gravel.