It also helped that we had a good a supply of audio books on hand, because nothing makes time on a road trip more enjoyable than a good audio book. I thought this trip would be a good opportunity to listen to a few of the free Sync downloads I've collected this summer, and we made it through three of them. All of them were super charming and very fun, so I thought I'd just do a quick review of all three in one post.
This little story was perhaps the weakest of the three books as far as plot was concerned, but the writing was so clever and witty that it more than made up for it. This book is British humor at it's best, and had so many gems in it. My husband and I laughed our way through this one, and while we might not be intrigued enough to pick up the next book in the series, it was delightful fun.
This one was my least favorite of the three, but it was my husband's favorite. As the title implies, this series follows the development of a young (14 year old) Sherlock Holmes, and I think I only disliked it because I would have imagined a younger Sherlock Holmes differently. I guess that's the problem you have when you start with a character created by another author (endemic to all fan fiction). My husband had no problems with the way the young Holmes was portrayed, however, and I must say that I found no fault with the plot. It was a nicely intricate and exciting story very worthy of a Holmes character. My husband and I talked about how this book would probably be perfect for intellectually inclined teenage boys.
This one was just fun. The setting was certainly unique, think "fairy" meets "steampunk." It wasn't necessarily standout in any other way. It felt like a bit of a cliche story; young, disadvantaged boy must save his sister from the clutches of an evil conniving politician and ends up saving the whole of Great Britain in the process (with the help of a bumbling, cowardly privy council member who would much rather be sleeping in bed then accidentally saving the world), but it was well written and fun nevertheless. Although, can I gripe about the fact that once again, this was only the first book of a series? Seriously, why does every single YA book have to be part of a series? Every single one of these books would have made a fantastic stand alone. For the love, just learn how to wrap your stories up, okay? (I know, I know, publishers like series because it means more money. Ugh. Sometimes it works, but I think this multiple series stuff is ruining some really good stories).
Anyway, these were three fun reads that definitely made our road trip so much more enjoyable. I'd put all of them in the three star range. You don't necessarily have to seek these books out, but if you come across any of them, feel free to pick them up.
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