Author: Schizanthus Nerd

Sketched – E.M. Townsend

I loved the concept of Sketched. You’ve got a police sketch artist who has an ooky spooky second sight connection that allows her to go into trancelike states where she’s able to draw photograph quality portraits of people who (with the exception of her mother) she’s never seen before – while she’s blacked out.

After a face and location are revealed to her via her supernatural connection, Piper winds up face to face with Dixon’s very own serial killer, the Dixon Demon, and survives (barely). She then goes into hiding eight hours away from her hometown.

Fast forward five years and Piper’s ability is stronger than ever. The Dixon Demon is back in the business of making townsfolk disappear and Piper is drawn back to her hometown to face her own demons as well as the elusive Demon.

I found the story intriguing and entertaining. I really enjoyed the atmosphere the author created. There’s a dark, creepy foreboding that follows you through the book. I wanted to continue reading to learn more about the killer’s motivation and how the various threads were going to be tied together. However, I had some problems with the characters in this book, mostly due to my lack of connection to any of them.

When someone dies during the book, my response was, ‘oh, okay’ and that wasn’t okay with me. Usually I’d be outraged or ecstatic or would at least have some sort of feeling about it, especially when they were an important person in another character’s life, but I didn’t.

The serial killer was unusual in that their victimology changed during the course of the book. While their motivation remains fairly consistent their crime scenes reflected a mix of organised and disorganised elements. I enjoyed learning their backstory and connecting the dots to discover how this person became so freaking messed up.

They are a huge fan of the baddie monologue and take mother issues to a whole new level. Take my word for it: this mother could probably teach Norma Bates a thing or two. I really liked that there were three characters with various mother issues in this book, all responding with their own versions of lashing out and engaging in self-destructive behaviour.

I never really understood the role of Piper’s psychiatrist. While he’s still advising Piper (mostly to actually eat a meal and not drown herself), his role appears to be more Boy Friday than anything else. He’s the chef, the executive assistant, the friend, the babysitter.

I wondered why one alcoholic got the DT’s at a certain point when the alcoholic that was with them at the time didn’t. It’s also noted that a body is too decomposed to be identified using dental records. My forensic knowledge is amateur at best but I thought teeth were one of the best identifiers when a body is decomposed.

I found some of the sentence structure awkward. One portion of a sentence, as an example, read, “their flashlights the only light source of light.” (76%) Although to be fair I read an advanced copy so it’s likely that sentences like this were remedied prior to the book’s release.

Favourite sentence:

“What if she finally surfaced only to find herself still submerged?”

Had I connected to the characters this book would have been a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I’m interested in reading more books by this author.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, S. Prescott Thrillers and BookBuzz.net for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Fledgling police sketch artist Piper Cooke has always been different. 

Gifted with second sight, but cursed with a life of tragedy, she has survived the feral streets of Dixon and has triumphed over her troubled upbringing. Piper faces her biggest challenge yet, however, when her visions compel her to disobey police orders and send her right into the wicked grasp of a madman. 

Her life should’ve ended back in the blood soaked suburban basement, but it didn’t. Instead, the brutal trauma that should’ve been the end of her only makes her unique abilities stronger. 

Years after her escape, a series of hideous visions force Piper out of hiding and back into the city that almost destroyed her years ago. Plagued by premonitions of doom, she finds herself compelled to track down Dixon’s most twisted serial killer yet. 

Follow Piper through a horrifically unsettling labyrinth of family secrets, corruption and the sickening workings of humanity’s darkest minds. 

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Swirl #1: Pumpkin Spice Secrets – Hillary Homzie

A book with a name that includes a type of muffin and frappé, both of which feature in the book? Sold!

This is one of those cliché tween first crush books that follows the usual script:

  • Shy girl meets first crush / dreamy boy of her dreams.
  • Shy girl plans on gushing about dreamy to her outgoing friend.
  • Outgoing friend gets in first and tells shy girl about dreamy new crush.
  • Turns out dreamy 1 and dreamy 2 are actually the same boy. What’s a shy girl to do?!
  • Shy girl pretends not to be crushing on dreamy while internally cringing every time outgoing girl openly crushes.
  • Dreamy starts spending more time with shy girl and develops his own crush. Aargh! Panic stations!
  • Outgoing girl finds out she’s not the only girl in the world and some boys will actually like someone other than her. Oh, no! The sky’s falling!
  • Friend break up scene …
  • Drama, drama, drama.
  • Friends make up. Aww!
  • Shy girl and dreamy are free to live happily ever after – until one of them develops a new crush.

The moral of the story: If you can communicate openly and honestly you will never secure a leading role in a romance novel.

Snarky, anti-romance, I’m going to die alone surrounded by my cats sarcasm aside? This was actually quite a sweet story. Sure, I wanted to strangle shy girl and outgoing girl, and tell them to wake up to themselves and actually talk, but I accidentally enjoyed reading this one.

I loved that dreamy wasn’t a pretentious pretty boy. I liked that shy girl had an older sister who came through with some sisterly love and had a surprisingly rebellious attitude beneath her studious exterior. There’s a café in this book so major props for that. The school sounded like one I’d like to attend. I loved the birthday locker idea. The girls play soccer.

My favourite thing about this book is that the tweens actually acted their age, and even a tad younger sometimes. It bugs me when the 12 year olds are really 20 year old characters in disguise. The tweens in this book spoke and acted like kids. They didn’t sound like walking thesauruses. They got cranky and grounded. They planned sleepovers. There weren’t any drugs or tween sex or even any swearing that I can remember. It was just a really sweet book.

And did I mention the pumpkin spice muffins and pumpkin spice frappés with whipped cream, caramel swirls and sprinkles?? Yum! 😋 I definitely need to find more books with food items included in the title.

Favourite sentence:

“Mom doesn’t get angry very often, but when she does, she spews like a shaken-up soda can.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Sky Pony Press and Xpresso Book Tours for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Just as Maddie picks up her favorite pumpkin spice drink from the coffee shop counter, she spills it all over the cute guy standing behind her! Luckily, her embarrassment evaporates into a crush when she starts chatting with him – his name is Jacob, and he’s just starting in her grade at her middle school. 

But before Maddie can tell her best friend Jana about him at lunch the next day, Jana announces her huge new crush – on the same guy! Maddie doesn’t want to cause trouble, so she keeps her feelings hidden. Jana will get over her crush soon, right? 

Add major school stress to Maddie’s secret, and it’s a recipe for disaster. Can she keep her cool and work things out with both Jacob and Jana before it all turns into a total mess?

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The Invincibles #3: The Beast of Bramble Woods – Caryl Hart

Illustrations – Sarah Warburton

In The Beast of Bramble Woods our Invincibles, Freddie Spoon and Nell, are working their Pester Power to try to join Nell’s brother and his two nerdy friends, William and Joe, on an overnight camping adventure.

Nell’s brother Lucas is your typical teenage boy, with some sort of fungus growing out of a coffee cup on his bedroom floor. Lucas spends a fair potion of his time asleep with headphones attached to his head during the day and has a game controller attached to his hands at 3am. In his most likely smelly room he has a doona cover I need because it has sharks all over it!

Nell’s best friend, Freddie Spoon, shows her a newspaper clipping with a photograph of a Mysterious Beast in their neighbourhood. Because they’re going to be wildlife experts when they grow up Freddie Spoon and Nell try to work out what type of animal the Mysterious Beast could be.

Naturally the five kids wind up allowed to join the boys camping – but only until 8:30pm! Once the five start hanging out they tell ghost 👻 stories around the campfire 🔥 which leads to Freddie Spoon showing the older boys the newspaper article about the Mysterious Beast. The night turns into one of dares and scares before we finally uncover the mystery of the Mysterious Beast.

I really enjoy this sweet series. I accidentally read this book first and then followed it up with books 1 and 2, so this is a reread for me now that I know how the story starts. I love the friendship between Nell and Freddie Spoon and also the relationship between Nell and Lucas. As the older brother Lucas is naturally annoyed by his little sister at times but he looks out for her as well. These books have a bit of mystery, a bit of adventure, some humour and a whole pile of feel good loveliness. I smile through these books and feel better about the world when I finish reading each story.

Once again I loved the illustrations by Sarah Warburton. Each book in the series has its own colour and this book is various shades of orange. Keep an eye out for sneak peeks of the beast throughout the book! My favourite illustration is the goofy looking snake in the sewer pipe on its way to bite some unsuspecting toilet user on the bum.

I really hope there’s going to be a book 4!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Nell’s big brother Lucas and his nerdy friends are camping out in the garden. They’ve got a fire and marshmallows and everything! Nell and Freddie Spoon are desperate to join in but they have to go to bed at eight-thirty. Eight-thirty! So they come up with a plan to sneak back out and play some tricks … They steal the marshmallows, and put a frog in a sleeping bag, but their best prank is to pretend to be The Beast of Bramble Woods! But Lucas catches them and they run off into the woods so they don’t get told off. And then they get lost. And then they hear the noises. But it’s just Lucas, isn’t it? 

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Clifford Celebrates Hanukkah – Norman Bridwell

Clifford and Emily Elizabeth celebrate the eighth day of Hanukkah with Emily Elizabeth’s classmate Melissa and her family. They learn about Hanukkah traditions and eat a dinner that sounds so yummy before going to the town square to see the giant menorah. Clifford even has the opportunity to save Hanukkah when the menorah’s lights go out. This would be a lovely book to use to introduce kidlets to the traditions of Hanukkah.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen Clifford look any more adorable than he does in this book. When he first meets Melissa’s family he’s sitting wagging his tail with this goofy cute smile and waving at them. There’s no such thing as a bad Clifford book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Clifford and Emily Elizabeth are celebrating their first Hanukkah. They love hearing the story of Hanukkah, eating “latkes” (fried potato pancakes) and “sufganiyot” (fried jelly donuts), and playing dreidel. 

After dinner, Clifford and Emily Elizabeth take a trip into town to see the giant menorah. But when they get there, they discover that one light is broken. It’s too late in the evening to call a handyman, but maybe Clifford is big enough to help save Hanukkah!

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Clifford the Small Red Puppy – Norman Bridwell

Reading this one for the second time because, well, it’s Clifford’s origin story! The first time around I read a library book. This time around it is one of Mum’s many new hide-and-seek Clifford books. I hide them for her and she finds them. It’s so much fun hiding presents for people at random times. I highly suggest you try it!

Anyway, Clifford. While there are a few sad parts in this book, ultimately it’s a story of the power of love between a child and their pet. Clifford may have been the runt of his litter but with Emily Elizabeth’s love, this little red puppy became the big red dog readers adore. Aww! 💕

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

How did Clifford become such a big red dog? Read and find out how a simple wish from Emily Elizabeth led to Clifford’s amazing growth.

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Ruby Wishfingers #5: Funny Money – Deborah Kelly

Illustrations – Leigh Hedstrom

This is my second favourite Ruby Wishfingers book. I loved the originality of the first one and then enjoyed 2 to 4 but they didn’t seem to have the charm of the first. In book 5 it felt like I was rediscovering the whimsy of the first.

Ruby wants to go to a concert with Todd but neither of them have enough money saved. She plans on doing some household chores with Todd to earn the rest of the money they need. Suddenly Ruby begins to find shiny new coins wherever she goes. She knows it’s not her magic making them appear and it’s not Jellybean’s magic either. So where are the coins coming from?

Throughout the series I’ve enjoyed watching Ruby’s father flat out denying the existence of magic, even though it’s been a big part of his family’s life for generations. I appreciated the humourous results of his disbelief in this book. As good ol’ Ruby helps to save the day in each book I keep wondering what she’d wish for if she wasn’t so busy using up all of her wishes to help everyone else.

Once again Leigh Hedstrom’s illustrations are perfect for this series. I particularly liked the contemptuous look on cranky cat Jupiter’s face in his illustration.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It must be Ruby’s lucky day! She keeps finding coins everywhere. But there is something funny about this money. Why is it so bright, shiny and new looking? And where on earth is it coming from?

When Ruby’s new wishes appear much earlier than expected, she wonders if someone else in the Wishfingers’ household might be developing magical powers of their own. But who?

You can bet your bottom dollar this will be a magical adventure to remember.

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The Good Samaritan – John Marrs

There’s a visceral quality to John Marrs’ writing that I love! I read the blurb and immediately judged Laura. I mean, there you are, at your wits end and you call End of the Line. A woman named Laura picks up the phone and her voice is soft and soothing. She listens carefully and without judgement to all of your problems. You feel like finally someone understands what you’re going through so you call a second time, hoping to speak to Laura again. Over time she earns your trust and she goes above and beyond to help you … right over a cliff.

How can you feel anything but disdain for someone who actively encourages people to die by suicide? Read The Good Samaritan and you’ll discover that there are many contradictory and confusing emotions you can attach to her character. I found I developed an empathy I wasn’t expecting to feel for this villain/victim. What shocked me was that I found I could understand where she was coming from and why her actions made perfect sense to her.

I really appreciate when an author can take something I see as a moral no-brainer and adds enough grey that I can no longer accurately distinguish whether something is more black or white. The complexities of Laura’s character had me rooting for her, against my better judgement. I wanted everything to turn out okay for her, despite feeling from the get go she was destined to crash and burn. (Or was she?!) Even after I learned more about her from the perspective of other characters I still liked her.

Accompanying Laura on this journey are her husband, two daughters and son. Running parallel to Laura’s story is that of Ryan, who is grieving the loss of his pregnant wife and desperately searching for answers. We also meet a number of helpline angels who are doing their best to support callers through their most vulnerable times. I would love to tell you all about the story but telling you just one more thing would cause an avalanche of explanations of why that is important, who it relates to and why, and how that’s then going to spiral into something unexpected and extraordinary.

While the themes in this novel are dark, the storytelling is brilliant! I got caught up in the intricacies of the major players’ characters, motivations and actions. With so many pieces of half-truths and hints of information to come being dangled in front of me throughout the book I wondered how the author could possibly wrap it all up in time. Not only were my questions answered, they were satisfying and mostly unexpected. When you have so many people involved in morally questionable actions at best and reprehensible ones at worst, how do you determine what outcome is fitting for them?

The exploration of the events that help mould us into the people we become and our responsibility in determining whether we use the potentially devastating events in our lives to propel us forward or to get stuck in the mire was fascinating. The interplay between nature and nurture is an area of interest for me. The half a psychologist in me (the half that doesn’t pay) got sucked in by the character studies of Laura and Ryan, and gave me so much to chew on I expect I’ll be thinking about them for a while to come.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this book. I have to read everything that John Marrs ever writes!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her – Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to …

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.

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Dork Diaries #12: Tales from a Not-So-Secret Crush Catastrophe – Rachel Renée Russell

Once upon a time, Dork Diaries was a lovely series about adorkable Nikki, her BFF’s Chloe and Zoey, her crush Brandon, and her arch-nemesis Mackenzie. With misunderstandings between friends, deep and meaningfuls in the janitor’s closet at school and an abundance of embarrassing moments, I found this series relatable, appropriate for its target audience and really cute.

Recently Nikki’s had her own reality show and in this book she has the hugest problem! She has to choose between going on a national tour with her band as an opening act or go to Paris, plus two boys have crushes on her. Girl, the plebs that don’t live in your ivory tower wish we had your problems.

I’m not sure if it’s just me but it seems like the boys in this series are becoming prettier than the girls. But that’s an aside because I basically adore the sweetness of the illustrations in this series.

Yes, I’m whingeing about this instalment. Yes, I’m going to read the next one. I just want it to get back to its roots, being a positive influence for adorkable girls trying to find their way in a super awkward time of their lives.

Favourite sentence:

“Why is my life such a giant bucket of puke?!!”

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

In Nikki Maxwell’s newest diary, it’s the countdown to the end of the school year, and Nikki’s juggling some big questions about how she’ll spend her summer. She’s also facing an unexpected crush catastrophe – there’s a new kid interested in Nikki, but the last thing she wants to do is accidentally hurt Brandon! It all comes down to a big decision Nikki has to make, and drama like she’s never faced before!

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The Heartbreak Cure – Amanda Ashby

Confession time! I accidentally got sucked into wanting to read this book purely because of the brownies and then kinda sorta maybe quite enjoyed the read, despite having the best intentions to rip its romantic heart to shreds. Sure, there were some soppy sentences, mostly focused around how people smelled for some reason, but overall I really enjoyed the story. I feel like I need to apologise to myself because I don’t do romance novels so I’m more than a little disturbed that I liked the characters so much but if I enjoyed it, then the target audience are going to love it!

I’m showing my age here but I’m so glad I grew up in a world without the internet. I can’t even imagine how kidlets and teens these days navigate the awkwardness of growing up knowing the world is watching and most likely recording all of their mistakes, humiliations and heartaches for posterity. Back when I was a teen [she croaks while leaning on her walking stick and wagging her finger] you could quietly hope for the next drama to unfold in someone else’s life so you could be left in peace to pick up the pieces of your shattered heart. These days your most embarrassing moments can go viral. [shudders]

So, what is The Heartbreak Cure? Brownies!!! Baked by the 86 year old grandmother of your cute ex-neighbour boy (who is only a) friend. YUM! Hey, Alex, would you please let Birdie know I feel a heartbreak coming on? 😜

Cat and Alex share the experience of being shamed for something that wasn’t their fault. Cat has been featured in a YouTube video posted by a disgusting doofus 🤬 who enlisted her as a recruit in a summer challenge:

“Ask out a loser and see how far she’ll go with you in one week before you break her heart. Bonus points if she gets a tattoo with your name on it.”

Seriously, people??? I have no words.

In the slightly unbelievable but hey, it’s fiction category, this girl’s heart was broken over a guy she dated a grand total of three times in one week? And one of those dates was a group date. Maybe I’m out of touch and not the one to comment on the believability factor here, but no one is chipping away at the icicles surrounding this nerd’s heart in just three dates.

And how did doofus find his way into her heart in the first place? He used her Goodreads addiction to pretend he liked the same parts in books that she did. How dare you use a love of books as your weapon of choice, you cowardly, despicable, pathetic excuse for a human being!!

Meanwhile, Alex has been shamed by pretty much the whole community and sadly he’s internalised the seriously bad vibes. Now a lone wolf with a bad boy reputation, he thinks he deserves everything bad that comes his way yet aches to be granted a scholarship to study engineering at a college somewhere far away from the town that’s tarred him without knowing a thing about him personally. Come on, townsfolk with the pitchforks at the ready, he’s Birdie’s grandson! You know! The one who bakes brownies? How bad can he be?!

Anyway, after knowing her humiliating heartbreak made its way to internet land, Cat is feeling pretty darn sorry for herself. She’s even got the creative writing piece where the guy gets massacred by killer ants to prove it. Our Cat is a wannabe journalist on her way to fame via Oprah’s book club. So mid-massacre, who should hop over the fence but the boy with the smouldering good looks and muscles that define any item of clothing he wears, Alex. And he brings brownies that Birdie made. (Open your eyes, Cat! He’s the one!)

Cat comes up with the perfect solution to get the attention off her ugly cry heartbreak video. Why doesn’t she pretend to have a new boyfriend? Why doesn’t she choose our so hot that you could barbeque your dinner on his muscles (did we mention his clothes look wonderful draped over them?) Alex, who kinda has a thing for Cat but of course he’s not good enough for her so she can’t be ‘his’. [Ugh, men thinking of women as property.]

Throw in Cat’s take-no-crap best friend with green hair (Nikki), scary senior editor of the school paper (Mackenzie), doofus heartbreaker rubbing it in with Cat’s ex-friend (Isabel), a liberal sprinkling of adult drama, bucketloads of internal dialogue, angst-a-plenty and a serious amount of baggage following our fake couple wherever they go. What could go wrong?

Favourite sentence:

“Wow, you look like boiled crap.”

Favourite character: Birdie, brownie baker and all round sweetie.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing: Teen Crush for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

How to get over a heartbreak:

Step one: Eat your body weight in brownies.

Step two: Throw yourself into your dreams of becoming a famous writer. 

Step three: Beg your (hottie) ex-neighbour to act as your fake boyfriend. 

Step four: Skip step three unless you’re ready for some serious fallout.

After being dumped and humiliated over the summer, Cat Turner does what any sane girl would do. She asks bad boy Alex Locke to be her fake boyfriend and show the world (and her editor at the school newspaper) that she’s fine. Problem is, the more time she spends with Alex, the more she risks getting her heart broken. For real this time. 

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The River Keepers – Michael F. Stewart

Spoilers Ahead!

While I was reading this book I kept trying to think of ways to talk about it without including spoilers but I can’t think of any way of saying what I want to without them, so ⚠️ Beware! Spoilers ahead! Read on at your own risk! ⚠️

I’m not sure who writes blurbs for kid’s books these days but The River Keepers was not the book I was expecting it to be when I first read the blurb. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing as I was entertained by this book and expect it to be well received by its target audience, but I found I spent time trying to reconcile my expectations with reality. I thought there’d be more focus on sci fi, fantasy and magic and I definitely didn’t expect the environmentalism message.

In The River Keepers we meet 11 year old twins Natasha and Reagan, their younger sister Penny and their parents. Their father is a writer and their mother is a nutritionist. The family home is for sale and neither twin want to move house or school, and don’t understand why they’re moving in the first place. The twins plan to sabotage the sale of the property.

After lightning destroys the iconic oak tree in their farmhouse’s yard, the twins discover that the oak is hollow inside and has been the home of a gnome. They find a scroll on the table in the home and gold globs (“gnome guts”) that feel like putty inside the gnome when they accidentally fling him across the yard and break him. I’m not quite sure why one of them has no problem pocketing the gnome’s guts yet they have a problem with their father fixing and painting the dead gnome.

I won’t give away any of the adventures but as you would already know from the blurb, the sisters transform into various animals throughout the book. There’s information about ecosystems and a great message that anyone, including kids, can take action to make positive changes in their local environment.

The twins walk to school with friends Maya and Oscar (and I had the Oscar Mayer jingle in my head each time this pair were mentioned) and the twins end up roping them into their plan to steal and free all of the neighbourhood’s zombie gnome slaves. I wasn’t sure why Natasha wrote in her letter that there was a fee of $9.99. If she was all about freeing the gnomes, why add a charge? The gnome activism reminded me so much of Hermione’s Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (SPEW).

I enjoyed the adventures when any of the sisters transformed into animals and experienced the world as each animal did. This is what I thought I’d signed up for and I would’ve loved for these scenes to be longer and for more animals to have needed their help. I wondered what happened to their clothes when they transformed into animals as they are naked when they transform back into humans. I expected for the 11 year old to be embarrassed to be found naked in the kitchen in the middle of the night by her parents, especially her father, but I didn’t detect that she felt uncomfortable about this at all.

I wasn’t a fan of the book’s use of the word ‘nutso’. I understand that it’s slang but I personally don’t like the word, especially when it’s used to describe people. I also wasn’t a fan of the mouse death scene or the battle to the death between one of the sisters and a centipede.

I liked the writing style and found the book easy to read. I’m unsure if this book has a planned sequel or not but the ending felt abrupt. So, here’s the section of the review where you tell me I read too much into a book that’s aimed for a middle school audience (if you haven’t already), but I’ve always been a prolific question asker so I most likely would’ve had similar questions had I read this book as a child.

While it’s implied that the end of the story is only the beginning of the twin’s adventures, I never found out if the family did end up moving house and if so, where they went. If they moved, did the girls pass on their gnomishness to their friends? As the twins had realised that their younger sister was indeed trustworthy with important secrets, why was she not included in the decision the twins made near the end?

Did the friends continue to steal the gnomes in their neigbourhood and if so did they get caught, as Natasha clearly broadcasted her intent with the letters she wrote to gnome enslavers and the police have already asked about the missing gnomes. Did they ever get in touch with the Gnome Freedom Fighters (GFF) who made the gnome slavery video on the internet and has a hashtag something like #freethegnome gone viral? Were all of the stolen gnomes zombies or were some just statues?

Thank you so much to NetGalley and The Publishing House for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

What would you do if your sister turned into a skunk?

How about a mouse? Or a frog? Would you want to be a snake?

Have you ever wished to swim like an actual fish? Wouldn’t you worry that a snapping turtle might take a bite out of you?

In The River Keepers, two sisters must rise to meet an unexpected challenge. It’s a story infused with the magic and drama outside their backdoor -perhaps yours, too.

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