"It’s easy to see where the strength of Lyra Belacqua came from!

Sally Lockhart is a sixteen year old orphan, independently wealthy by bequest, but hamstrung and constrained by the misogynistic rules of Victorian England. When she walks away from life with her mean-spirited aunt, it will take all of her wiles to avoid the legal clutches of the domineering lawyer who is the executor of the estate left to her by her father. On top of dealing with that, she soon finds herself up to her bloomers in murder and mayhem � a mystery swirling around letters, puzzles, opium, smuggling, Chinese secret societies and a priceless ruby.

Sally Lockhart is an enigmatic, strong, courageous, multi-faceted heroine. She’s also easy to like, easy to care about and easy to cheer for. How’s this for a description of a unique, young polymath?

“Mr Lockhart taught his daughter himself in the evenings, and let her do as she pleased during the day. As a result, her knowledge of English Literature, French, History, Art and Music was non-existent, but she had a thorough grounding in the principles of military tactics and book-keeping, a close acquaintance with the affairs of the Stock Market, and a working knowledge of Hindustani. Furthermore, she could ride well (though her pony would not agree to the Cossack procedure); and for her fourteenth birthday her father had bought her a little Belgian pistol, the one she carried everywhere and taught her to shoot. She was now nearly as good a shot as her mother. She was solitary, but perfectly happy …�

One might definitely wonder if Nancy Springer took the liberty of taking a page (and an idea or two) from Philip Pullman’s book when she created Enola Holmes, Sherlock and Mycroft’s younger daughter, who lived in London with that same gritty streak of determined independence.

I’m definitely a new Sally Lockhart fan and I’m looking forward to finding a copy of THE SHADOW IN THE NORTH, #2 in a series that is sure to be exciting and entertaining. I should also add that, in addition to character and plot development, THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE does an excellent job of evoking that creepy, fog-bound and mysterious Victorian setting that fans of the historical mystery genre are so familiar with.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss"

"**4.5-stars rounded up**

As Good As Dead is the third, and they claim, the final book in Holly Jackson's popular A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series.

Personally, I feel like Jackson may not be done with Pip. There's so much more story that could be told. I'm hoping she pulls a Maureen Johnson, a la The Box in the Woods.



By this point in the series, y'all know, Pip has been through it. This isn't a cozy YA Mystery series. Pip has faced very real dangers and she hasn't come out unscathed.

Particularly after solving her last case, she's left with PTSD surrounding those events. Her emotional state of mind is fairly dark. She's struggling for real.



Adding to her stress, because like all she's been through isn't enough, someone is harassing her.

While Pip is used to trolls, any person with a public presence on the net is, she begins to take special notice when one particular troll asks her the same question over and over: who will look for you when you're the one who disappears?



The harassment quickly escalates and Pip begins noticing things popping up around her house that indicate this person may be close by, watching her. Before long, there's no question, she has a stalker.

As Pip starts to look into who this person might be, she discovers connections that may link her stalker to a local serial killer case purportedly solved six years ago. Is the wrong man in jail? Is the killer still on the loose? Will Pip be his next victim?



When the police refuse to act on her behalf, Pip does the thing she is best at, she investigates herself. Is she finally in over her head?

It's no secret that I absolutely love this series. Pip is one of my favorite characters in the literary world, but this novel finds her in a totally different headspace.



Gone is our sparkling baby girl with all the optimism of a newborn pup. The world has beaten it out of her. She's seen the dark side of humanity in a way many people never do.

I actually really appreciated that aspect of Pip's mental health being showcased. So many times in books, the protagonists go through incredibly horrific things and just seem to get over it. They bounce back in a way us regular peeps could never even dream of.



The fact that Pip really struggles with recovering from her experiences made her feel that much more real to me. You can really empathize with her character.

The tone of this entire story is much darker than the previous two and I feel like some people may not like it as much because of that. For me, it felt like the natural progression of Pip's story.



As always, Pip is completely focused on the task at hand, even to the detriment of some of her relationships. I was concerned for a while about her relationship with Ravi; he's just such a gem.

This one didn't turn out quite like I was expecting it to. There's one point where you think the story could be over, but then a huge twists sends it spinning off in a whole new direction.

After this, I wouldn't say I was crazy about a lot of Pip's choices, but who am I to judge?



As mentioned above, I would be super stoked if this weren't really the end. If it is though, I respect Jackson's decision and think she did an incredible job with this series.

I would definitely reread all of these book again someday. I think it would be really fun to binge them back-to-back. If you haven't read this series yet, you better get cracking. You don't want to miss out!!

"

"So I've finally taken the leap & finished a Young Adult series by one of my favorite Adult Fantasy writers, and I must say I'm very pleased with the outcome of that risk.

I've come to expect great things from Brandon Sanderson & once again I think he's delivered a gem of the genre.

Some things you might be wondering:

Is the series perfect? No, it isn't perfect. But it's a hell of a ride with some fun characters, an engaging, fast-paced story, and witty, realistic writing.

How does this series compare to Sanderson's Adult High Fantasy works? The premise is so different that it almost becomes difficult to compare the two. I think it would be unwise to go into this series expecting to come away with the same deep investment that may be inspired by huge series like Mistborn or The Stormlight Archive.

That's not to say this series isn't awesome in it's own right, but given the nature of Young Adult Fantasy, it's typically going to be less intricate & less sweeping. Which could be a good thing for those who struggled with the slow-paced, detailed storytelling of Sanderson's Adult works.

Sanderson's forte may be Adult Fantasy, but at the core he is a skilled writer capable of creating great stories across genres. What I'm saying is, those who loved & those who hated his Adult Fantasy books may be able to find common ground with this series!

I've seen a lot of people say they feel that Calamity was a weak ending to this series, but personally I enjoyed this one more than Firefight. I found the focus more interesting & revelations more entertaining. It felt like a return to the theme Steelheart began.

I do believe there was a bit too much happening at the end, and a couple oddities that did not receive an appropriate sense of closure. I was not incredibly impressed with the villain of this installment, and I would've liked a a bit more time for the final climax to unfold so that it felt less Deus Ex Machina.

But at the end of the day, and as a person who generally does not usually enjoy superhero vs. supervillian plots, I really liked this series a lot & would definitely recommend it."

"Oh, the good old times when reading about a teen country girl who had to work on her family's farm didn't bring in a ton of political discourse! In the end, this is a story about learning how to communicate effectively, and it was still good, except for a couple of caveats that didn't age particularly well. (This book is 15 years old!) This series might be the only books about sports that kept me engaged.
______
After being burned MANY times by crap YA books, I made a decision to only read those that at some point earned critical recognition (if I judged books by GR reviewer's ratings, I suspect I would have to work my way through nonsense like Hush, Hush, Evermore, and The Luxe and I am not sure I am up for it any more). Dairy Queen made it to ALA's list of best YA books in 2007, so I decided to give it a try in spite of the awful cover and title. I was not disappointed.

15-year-old D.J. is forced to take over the lion's share of work on her family's small dairy farm after her father is injured. She is overwhelmed by milking, cleaning out the barn, mowing and haying, with almost no help but her younger brother's. In fact she is so overwhelmed, that she doesn't realize that her life at the moment has no direction or point. This is pointed to her by a lazy and arrogant Brian, the rival high school's quarterback, who is sent to D.J.'s farm to help her out, learn work ethics, and get some football training. Strangely enough, Brian has something to teach D.J. too - to look at her life style closer, to do some soul-searching, to become a better communicator.

I can't say that Dairy Queen is a mind-blowing kind of book. It's not really edgy or a dark "issue book." And that's a good thing. This is a novel about balancing family responsibilities and personal desires, about what it is to be a good person, and about importance of open communication in a family. D.J. is a very likable narrator, self-deprecating, hard-working, honest. She, along with the rest of the characters, feels very real and relatable. The teen romance is very well done too. It is realistic, doesn't overwhelm the story and never becomes cheesy or sappy, which is very important to me. I will undoubtedly read the next book in this 3-part series."