The Last of August

A previous post talks about my excitement at discovering the Charlotte Holmes series – a female Holmes in the modern era. It was too good to be true. I liked the first one in the series enough to discount its plot inconsistencies. I was quite excited to read this second book but this has disappointed me. There was too much teenage angst, multiple plots going on with no connection with each other and I did not even understand what was happening at certain times. Either I was too distracted before I reached the ending or the writing itself was unclear because I did not even realize what happened at the end until I read some of the reviews on Goodreads. Now that's not a good sign.

I don't think I was invested enough in the book to give a detailed review here nor am I going to give out any spoilers. I am also not sure if I am interested in reading the next book in the series but I can be very unpredictable and I might end up reading it anyways. I don't usually abandon series in between and time will tell what I do with this one. Final word – This book is probably not for the die hard Sherlock fans

This feels like an information dump to get to book 3. So there were several pages I skimmed. There were lots of cryptic conversations. Some of them were resolved and some weren't. We get a deep look into just how messed up these families are. I get that Charlotte is at the center of it all, but I don't know why. We need more information about why Charlotte is so important to these three families. It doesn't make sense yet. I will definitely be reading book 3, but I'm not as excited as I once was.

As a casual Sherlock Holmes fan, I enjoyed the references to the classic detective in the first book in this series. I was a bit disappointed by this second novel as the references were either absent or much more subtle (that a casual fan of the classic wouldn't likely “get”). The relationship between Holmes and Watson deepens here and it's interesting to see how this develops. But the “mystery” of the plot was convoluted and I had a hard time understanding exactly what was happening. The set piece which is the climax is creative and engaging, but as I didn't fully get what led to it, I felt more confused than thrilled by it. Apparently a third (and final?) novel is in the works. I hope it offers a more engaging and straightforward mystery than this one did.

actual rating: 2.5 stars, rounded up

somehow, this book was even worse than the first one. well, the first one wasn't terrible, it just took a very long time introducing the characters and it wasn't executed very well. in this second book i expected more adventure and jamie finally showing his potential. but no, all we got was charlotte being difficult (again) and jamie being in the dark and still... kind of useless.

this is the kind of book that i read quickly just to get it over with, not necessarily because i enjoyed it. although i didn't enjoy this book, the mystery lover in my just needs to know what happens to the characters. i'm probably still going to read the next book in the series because i love the concept of a modern day sherlock holmes so much that i'm still going to give the series a chance. the next book, the case for jamie has a better rating than its predecessors, so i'll probably read it, BUT it's definitely not high on my book queue.

In this second installment of the Charlotte Holmes series, Charlotte and Jamie are off in London and then traipse about Europe in order to find out what happened to Charlotte's uncle, Leander. Along the way, they discover secrets about their friends, their families, and even about themselves.

I did not like this one as much as I liked the first one. Don't get me wrong, this was an alright book. I enjoyed listening to it on my daily drives. As a young adult book, it was fine. As a mystery, it was confusing in parts, but overall it was alright. The thing that made me like this one less than its predecessor is the relationship between Jamie and Charlotte. As many have pointed out below, their relationship and the angsty romance between them was too much in this one. What I liked most about the first one is that yes, there was hints of romance between the two lead characters, but the main focus was on the plot and the mystery. It almost felt like, in parts, the romance and the relationship was the most important thing and the mystery and the story was second priority.