November Minireviews // Part 3

Final set of reviews for November!!  Woohoo!!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

The Shallow Waters of Romance by Charlotte Darcy – 3*

This was a free Kindle book I finally got around to reading.  Not sure why I didn’t read it was soon as I got it, considering it’s only 65 pages long.  That was also the main problem with this one – 65 pages just wasn’t enough to actually tell a story.  The bones were there and they were good, but overall it felt pointless because there is zero real character development or opportunity for anyone to do anything.

Doctor’s Boy by Karin Anckarsvard – 3.5*

This is another one that has been on my shelves for absolutely ever.  A children’s chapter book, I was utterly charmed by it at first – a delightful story about a young boy learning about poverty and the importance of helping those around us.  However, this book literally just stopped – to the point that I wondered if my book had been published with a missing final chapter??  I’m still confused by the way this book ended without any real conclusion, and still am wondering if something was lost in the translation from its original Swedish!

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie – 3.5*

This was November’s Christie book for the Litsy group that is reading through her entire bibliography, and while perfectly enjoyable, it’s not one of my favorites.  It’s all a little melodramatic, and I always prefer Poirot to be there the entire time instead of showing up in the middle.  Still, even though I had read it before I couldn’t remember the conclusion, and quite enjoyed watching the story unravel.

The Singles Table by Sara Desai – 3.5*

After really enjoying the first two books in this series, The Marriage Game and The Dating Plan, I was a little let down by this one.  First off, there was virtually no crossover from the earlier characters, so I’m not even sure why this is considered to be a part of the series.  Secondly, it felt like there were way more sexy times in this one than the other two books.  Thirdly, I didn’t really like Zara and found her character development to be quite uneven – as was Jay’s.  It felt like both of them were going back and forth a lot about everything, and I wasn’t sure if I should really be rooting for them as a couple or not.  A fine little romance, but it lacked the charisma of the two earlier books.

Nordvick Mysteries Series // by Karin Anckarsvard

• The Mysterious Schoolmaster
• The Robber Ghost
• Madcap Mystery
• Rider by Night
• The Riddle of the Ring

Published in the 1950’s (except the last book, in 1964), all five of these books are set in the same small Swedish town.  The first three books are about the same group of friends, especially focused on Michael and Cecelia.  Rider by Night is a few years later and only mentions Michael and Cecelia obliquely, although another member of the “gang” is an important character in the story.  The final book, The Riddle of the Ring, is actually about one Cecelia’s younger brothers, now in high school, who was just a baby in the first book.

All of these books were originally written in Swedish and were translated into English, and at least a few of them were published as Scholastic Book Club books, because those are the editions that I have of The Mysterious Schoolmaster, Madcap Mystery, and Rider by Night.  

There are great middle grade reads.  The Mysterious Schoolmaster focuses on a new teacher that seems to be acting suspiciously.  In the midst of the Cold War, Nordvick is an important naval town, and Michael’s father is the captain of a… ship or submarine or something along those lines – so he is especially aware of the danger of spies.  I saw a couple of reviews ragging this book for encouraging children to be distrustful of foreigners (although that’s literally not at all why they’re suspicious of this schoolteacher), but I really don’t think most kids are going to read this and then thing anyone who doesn’t speak English well is actually a spy.  I mean seriously.  Anyway, it’s a fun little adventure that I quite enjoyed as a youngster (and didn’t find inspiring me to assume all teachers I didn’t like were international spies).

The Robber Ghost and Madcap Mystery are a bit more mundane but are still fun stories.  These focus more on more typical middle grade/junior high problems with new students, bad grades, and potentially bad influences.  While I didn’t like these quite as well, they are still good stories.

Rider by Night is about an entirely different girl, although she does meet with a boy from Michael and Cecelia’s group of friends.  Jenny is completely horse crazy, and the story begins when her uncle gives her a horse of her own, which she boards at the local stables.  At first all is well, but soon Jenny begins to notice that something is “off” about her horse, and suspects that someone else is riding the horse on the sly.  I actually really enjoyed this book.  Along with The Mysterious Schoolmaster, I’ve owned it basically forever, and it’s the reason that I ended up finding the rest of the books, because somewhere along the line I realized that the Michael and Cecelia that Jenny runs into are the same characters from Schoolmaster, which led to me discovering the other three books.  Growing up, I was a bit horse crazy myself (without a horse-gifting uncle, alas) and this book was in my regular rotation of horse stories.

The final book is about a girl named Tommi and her friend, Henrick, who also happens to be Cecelia’s little brother.  Through a series of mostly believable events, Tommi’s mother is gifted a valuable ring, which Tommi accidentally takes to school – where it disappears.  This is a fun mystery because the solution is just so genuinely clever, and I loved it.

Overall, these were all in the 3.5-4* range.  Enjoyable and engaging with likable characters, they aren’t exactly brilliant, gripping stories, but I loved them as a kid and still enjoy them now.