Chronicle Books To be Published Oct. 6, 2015 360 Pages
Evaline Stoker & Mina Holmes are back for a third adventure. They have to locate a missing chess queen before their nemesis, The Ankh, gets there first! Coming September 29, 2015.
Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes have reluctantly agreed to act as social chaperones and undercover bodyguards for Princess Lurelia of Betrovia, who has arrived in London to deliver a letter that details the secret location of an ancient chess queen that’s been missing for centuries. But when the letter—which will heal a centuries-old rift between England and the Betrovians—is stolen out from under Evaline and Mina’s watchful eyes, the two girls are forced into a high-stakes race to ensure they find the chess queen before anyone else does. The Stoker and Holmes series is as culturally popular and compulsively readable as the Sherlock Holmes stories and Dracula were in the Victorian era.– Goodreads
If you haven’t read the first book *Wags Finger* shame on you!!! But before you go run to the store, check out the review here.
Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes are ready for their new mission. It has been a month since, they became “partners” and help solve the case of the Clockwork Scarab. So when Princess Alix request their help for a special case, they jump to the occasion.
Princess Alix is worried about her friend Willa, who is convinced that her mother is haunting her telling her that her brother is alive and must be saved.
Determined to prove that Willa’s spiritualist is a hoax, Holmes and Stoker go in full force but quickly discover some cases aren’t as cut and dry as they seem and for Stoker this case hits closer to home than she would like.
Holmes is my spirit animal. . .if I was able to spot amazing details like her. She is such an amazing character. She is flawed, she’s not a bitch, she’s intelligent, sassy and she has a heart. I love this woman.
But the biggest props goes to the author who was able to write a “love triangle” without it being a horrible piece of work or the focus of the novel. I like how despite Holmes being this super intelligent detective, she is still a young girl learning how to interact with people she cares for.
As for Stoker . . . she is a badass girl that has a lot of growing up to do. But that is okay because there is growth from the first book to the last chapter of the second book. Stoker has communication issues and self-worth issues; some are fixed in this book, others are not. I may not love Stoker as much as I love Holmes, but I cannot see this book working without her.
I can also appreciate the undead details because they were not cheezy, cliche, nor did they bring some new information about vampires that seem to have come out of thin air (-.-).
Overall, I am completely devoted to this series and for once I don’t think anything was remotely wrong with it. There was a lot of details but that is to be expected for a mystery novel and there wasn’t that much down time. I love this series so much it will be added to my collection.
I have over 260 books in the year of 2013! I’m extremely proud of myself considering last year I only read 86. But I digress. Today is the last day of 2013 and I wanted (like so many others) to take the time and reflect and break down my loves and love nots.
Love
I loved the imagery, the suspense and the realistic characters of these books. Yes, there are two maybe three missing from this list but these are the ones that immediately came to mind when I sat down and began to write.
Each of these authors created stories from old stories or themes and created something new. It showed passion, fire and love. These are series are highly recommended.
Love Not
I hate the fact that these series made the list because they had so much potential. But the biggest flaw to all of these books was characters. These characters were either selfish, bratty, and/or boring.
But this wasn’t the only issue with these books. The stories were undeveloped, lacked personality, and flare. They were a struggle to get through and showed no hope for the second book or third book.
BEWARE! the pretty titles and covers.
Love, Tanya
Making and breaking your favorite reads since 2017
Motif by Tanya 