I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on 4/16/19
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 432
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Raised in isolation and homeschooled by strict grandparents, she’s cultivated a whimsical fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. But her solitary world expands when she takes a job the summer before college, working the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel.
In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide. The hotel’s charismatic young van driver shares the same nocturnal shift and patronizes the waterfront Moonlight Diner where she waits for the early morning ferry after work. Daniel also shares her appetite for intrigue, and he’s stumbled upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—might be secretly meeting someone at the hotel.
To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell…discovering that most confounding mystery of all may be her growing feelings for the elusive riddle that is Daniel.
Short and Sweet Review
Birdie loves mysteries and has an over active imagination mainly due to the fact that her strict grandparents had her isolated and homeschooled. But since her grandmother died Birdie’s grandfather has given her a bit more freedom and now she has a job in Seattle at a hotel. Birdie doesn’t think she’ll know anyone but then she runs into Daniel, a boy she had an awkward encounter with in the past. Now that they’re working together and Birdie is still standoffish, Daniel suggest they solve a mystery together about one of the hotel guest; an author who may be having a romantic relationship.
Serious Moonlight is one of those books where the premise sounds exciting but the execution wasn’t great. Birdie is one of those people that hasn’t had a lot of experiences due to being confined to one place. Now Birdie has a job and she runs into Daniel a boy she had a romantic encounter with that didn’t end well. Daniel tells her about an author that frequents the hotel but comes under a fake name, Birdie is determined to find out the authors true identity. I thought that this book would revolve more around the mystery but we see a lot of Daniel trying to get back on Birdies good side and try to be a romantic interest to her. We also learn what happened between Birdie and Daniel which is pretty funny in a the situation did not call for that kind of way. Anyway I didn’t like the romance between these two, they would have been better off as friends and just seeing the dynamic between the two it didn’t work. I didn’t like Birdie much and its one of those situations where when someone is on such a tight leash and they get some freedom that they’re indecisive and all over the place, that was Birdie. The ending of the book made me mad, I won’t spoil it but Daniel has some nerve and the fact that Birdie thinks she’s in love with him is mind boggling.
Overall, I didn’t like this book. I wanted more mystery but what I got was a sheltered girl experiencing her first romance and being completely clueless and giving us a snooze fest of a book that was 432 pages. I feel like Jenn Bennett has books for me personally that are hit or miss and this was a miss.
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