This book had a lot of themes going through it but it worked. Miriam, an 11-year-old girl is the protagonist in the story as her family moves into a rundown motel, in the hopes of creating a new future for themselves and the business. They had only planned this to be a short-term plan, hoping to save some money and then move on. Moving into a small community was different than New York City and the longer I read, the more I realized what this family was hiding internally.

As the family moves into The Jewel Motor Inn, the two children live in one of the rooms and the parents’ take-up residence in an adjoining room. As an 11-year-old, I thought that would be fun but I could understand the novelty wearing off. Maria, continues to work at the Inn, taking care of the housekeeping issues and helping the family become familiar with the motel. I loved how she helped Miriam learn Spanish and I felt that Maria was a very kind and tolerant individual. As her parents start the clean-up process, Miriam pitches in. On an errand to the diner next door, she meets Kate. Kate’s grandmother owns the diner and eventually, Miriam ends up helping out at the diner making pies.

Now that Miriam has met a friend, the two girls start hanging out together. While talking about their small town, they come up with a plan that they think will benefit everyone in it. Now, if only they don’t get caught creating their plan! An innocent plan which when you think about it, was harmless. I thought the girls were rather clever. As guests arrived to the hotel, Miriam meets Anton. This child was a gem! Anton arrived with his mother and his wheelchair. Miriam saw the wheelchair. I really think she saw the wheelchair before she saw Anton until Anton met her in the swimming pool. After that, Miriam changed how she looked at him. Anton was not the only person who tried to help Miriam with her fear of water, Uncle Mordy tried his hand at that, too. Uncle Mordy arrived to help out the family so he decided to help Miriam. Slowly, he introduced her the water, letting the water touch her upper thighs, it was a start.

The girls felt guilty for what they did for the town but they didn’t want to admit to anyone what they did. Just as the family is enjoying their new home, they discover something painful and disturbing at the motel. This event has a snowball effect on the community which all began because of emotions and the lack of accountability. I cringed to see this happened to them and I had to hope that somehow, they found find strength to fight it.

A middle school read that packs religion, faith, friendship, disabilities, and family all in one book. I found it to be a fast read and I really enjoyed it. 4.5 stars

" They stand with their arms around each other. The man points and traces somthing in the air. The woman nods and smiles and I see tears rolls down her cheeks. "
"Is what we did good or bad? Yes, we fooled people, but if it makes them happy and gives them hope and saves the motel and the diner, is that so bad?"

Poems where the author looks back on his past and his current life and is not happy where he is. Some poems rhyme. Some are verse.

I found most of these poems and drawings depressing. I did like Alexandra Leaving and Boogie Street.

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I really enjoyed this audiobook! After enjoying the first book in the series, I was eager to see what would happen next to Mina Murray. This story picks up right after the events of the first book and I do recommend that you read the series in order. I thought that this book was at least as good as the prior book and maybe even slightly better. I am so glad that I happened upon this series.

As I said this book picks up right after the events of the first book so there may be some spoilers for the first book in this review. Mina, Abe, and the rest of the group are working to get Mina's fiance, Jonathan, back from the vampires. This is not going to be an easy task and it is going to be very risky.

I really enjoyed learning more about Mina. I was rather surprised to learn how she was connected to the vampires and how connected everything really is. I loved the fact that Mina is fiercely loyal. She literally is risking everything for the sake of her fiance and does so without any hesitation. She cares deeply about others and tries to keep everyone as safe as possible.

I thought that this was a very exciting story. I was never quite sure how things would turn out and there were more than a few surprises during the story. I liked that the action was balanced with some more thoughtful and emotional scenes that focused more on the characters. It was a really nicely paced story that I found hard to set aside.

I thought that Danielle Cohen did a fantastic job with the narration of this book. I loved the quality of her voice and I thought that the voices she used for the various characters were performed very well. I really liked some of the accents that she used and I thought that her delivery helped to set the scene for the story. I thought that she added a lot of excitement and emotion to her reading. I found this book easy to listen to for hours at a time.

I would recommend this series to others. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this story. I felt like this book really helped to complete the story that began in the first book and opened up the series to future adventures. I can't wait to see what Mina does next!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Initial Thoughts
So this book picks up after the events of the previous installment in the series. I do think that this is a series that would be best when read in order. Mina and her group are getting close to catching up with Jonathan and are serious about their goal of destroying Vlad. There was a lot of excitement in this story and some great development in the characters' relationships. I felt like this book was the conclusion to the story arc started in the first book. The way the book ended has me pretty excited to see Mina's further adventures. I listened to the audiobook and thought that Danielle Cohen did an amazing job with this story.

Lol, my "non-fiction true crime list of books I want to read" just went through the roof. These sound all amazing.

I haven´t read any of these books, but again: I want to read them all. And I definitely have to shoehorn another non-fiction book or two into my bingo reading. 

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Interesting concept, but one that could’ve gone further, and didn’t.

The novel tells the story of “Lou”, who in one life was born a girl, and in another a boy, and takes them through events of life that aren’t always the same, nor with the same outcomes, depending on the character’s sex.

I enjoyed the characters in general, whether the main one(s) or their best friend and parents, and the parts of the narrative where they had to come to terms with the impending death of a beloved one: the latter came, in one case, with heavy baggage of secrecy and forgiveness that could potentially not be given, which is always a delicate theme to explore. (Or, at least, it is for me, because it’s never all black and white, and the part of me that feels the character should not forgive constantly clashes with the other part, which isn’t a vindictive one. I’m not a very revengeful person in my own life, after all.)

While it was a quick read for me, and I liked following Lou’s path overall, I wasn’t awed, though. I think I was expecting more out of it: more of the many subtle, day-to-day ways society enforces gender stereotypes, for instance. The novel has some, such as Louise starting to wear contact lenses as a teenager because “you’d be so much prettier without glasses”, or her grandmother chiming in with “ladies don’t do this and later you’ll marry and have children because that’s what girls do”, but those were more tiny bits lost in the narrative. I also felt that some parts resorted to easy shortcuts: the corresponding gender stereotypes for Louis were mostly the oh so typical “are you gay or what” (there are so many other ways gender stereotypes are enforced for boys), and Louise’s “catastrophic night” event was… so expected that I guessed it just from the blurb. (Someone please tell me -that- is not the only dark/striking event a woman can have in her life… I mean, no such event at all would be better, of course, but there are so many other possibilities, and I believe one should’ve been tackled here, instead of resorting to the obvious choice.)

Conclusion: 2.5 stars. It is a pleasant read, one that raises valid points and lends itself to reflection, but for me, it took the easy road, where it could’ve explored so many other paths.