Hello Friends :)
I pray today finds you all well, and I want to thank you for joining me today here on The Preppy Book Princess.
I've mentioned quite a bit in the last couple of years, that I'm not picking up as many secular novels these days.
I've been heavily turned off by the content that's making its way more and more into titles, and I've often ended up being disappointed in titles being publishing by Christian publishers, much less the secular ones.
That being said, once in awhile, a book will still catch my eye that I want to give a try, and in the bookstore one day, I happened to stumble upon the Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series by Marthe Jocelyn.
I happen to love middle grade mysteries, and I was really looking forward to trying out a new one. I read and reviewed the first book in the series, which you can find below, and I honestly found it kind of hit or miss.
Regardless, I decided to go ahead and dive into the second book anyways, as I was especially intrigued to see it was set during the Christmas season.
Keep reading for my full review.
Peril at Owl Park by Marthe Jocelyn:
Source: Bought For Myself
Publisher: Tundra Books
Publication Date: September 22nd, 2020
Genre: Middle Grade/Mystery
Series: Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen
Synopsis:
For young detective Aggie Morton and her friend Hector, Christmas becomes a lot more exciting when a dead body is found.
Aspiring writer Aggie Morton is looking forward to Christmas. Having just solved a murder and survived her own brush with death in her small town of Torquay on the coast of England, Aggie can't wait to spend the holidays with her sister Marjorie, the new Lady Greyson of Owl Park, an enormous manor house in the country; Grannie Jane and her fellow sleuth and partner in crime, Hector Perot. Owl Park holds many delights including Aggie's almost cousin Lucy, exciting and glamorous visitors from Ceylon and disguises aplenty in the form of a group of traveling actors, not to mention a secret passageway AND an enormous, cursed emerald. Not even glowering old Lady Greyson (the Senior) can interfere with Aggie's festive cheer. But when Aggie and her friends discover a body instead of presents on Christmas morning, things take a deadly serious turn. With the help of a certain nosy reporter, Aggie and Hector will once again have to put their deductive skills and imaginations to work to find the murderer on the loose.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
I had found the first book in the Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series to be kind of hit or miss for me, but since there were still many parts I enjoyed, I wanted to go ahead and give the second book in the series a try. I definitely enjoyed this one more than I did the first, but it still isn't a new favorite, and I'm just not sure going forward if this would be a series I'd continue reading or not.
I personally loved the setting of this one. Owl Park is gorgeously described throughout the course of the story, and the reader can easily feel like they're right there experiencing everything right alongside Aggie, Hector and Lucy. It was also nice to get to see more of Aggie's sister Marjorie in this one, and have a whole new cast of eclectic characters to keep the story engaging with the reader. The mystery was pretty well done, and while I'd definitely guessed at certain points of it, there were still enough things that left me surprised to make the overall reveal not a disappointment.
However, I really felt this story dragged in quite a few parts, and it seemed way too long for a typical middle grade mystery. I still think it's a tad more morbid than usual for the targeted age group, although this one is definitely less that way than the first one was. There were definitely a few characters I didn't care for, and I honestly felt in this particular story that it was really hard to keep track of who was who, especially when considering the members of the actors group that's come to Owl Park to provide holiday entertainment
All in all, I'd say this one has its positive moments, but I wouldn't say I loved it, and further titles in the series are not high on my priority list to get to.
Final Rating: 3/5.
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
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