AGHM #11-14

Man, these last four have taken me ages to slog through.

Set in 1904, Minstrel's Melody is an interesting story, but the lead's mother is such a horrid bitch that it's hard to get through. She's basically abusive out of fear, thanks to something that happened in the past, but you're left with the feeling at the end that she's not going to change too much, except to allow the lead to play her music instead of trying to stop her.

I liked how the lead's eyes were opened to what life on the road in a travelling minstrel show was really like. She was a good character and I was left wondering what happened to her in her future.

This is the only AG book by this author.

Prairie Bride, set in 1878 Kansas, was the most enjoyable of this batch of four. Its main problem is that the mystery is really, really obvious. It's clear from her first appearance that "Caroline" is not Caroline. I'm not even spoiling anything there. It's that obvious. So you suffer through the rest of the story, frustrated with how long it takes the lead to get her shit together and figure things out fully.

I liked all the characters though and the concept of writing back East for a bride is an interesting one.

The author did one other history mystery before moving on to write several of the historical character mysteries.

Set in 1754, Enemy in the Fort is one of the earliest stories in the series.

Its main plot point is that the whites do bad things and the Indians do bad things. There's no right or wrong group. The lead is a bit prejudiced, but she lost her father, mother and baby brother to an Indian raid, so...yeah, it's not that off-putting to read her bitch about Indians, because it's in character. She also gets a lot of counterpoints from the ex-captive who wants to return to the Abenaki because that's his proper home now, so by the end, she's got more of an open mind.

Most of the characters are likeable, except the ones who are supposed to be assholes. I thought this was just okay though, because the actual perpetrator of one of the thefts never gets a comeuppance.

I just finished Circle of Fire and I have to admit that I skimmed the crap out of it, because I'm in a bad mood today and it wasn't the right time to reread the Klan book.

I do like the lead character a lot, although the others were weaker. Her mother is almost the same mother as the one in Minstrel's Melody, abusive and controlling out of fear and overly obsessed with her Tennessee mountain kid acting like a "lady."

I feel like this one bites off more than it can chew though. The Klan is a big and more adult topic, so this particular lead, who feels a lot younger than the other leads in this series, doesn't fit the story that well. Especially when some rather adult topics are brought up and she's all "ew, boys!"

She also saves the life of Eleanor freakin' Roosevelt, so...yeah, not very realistic.

Eight more of these to go!

AGHM #4-7

Voices at Whisper Bend takes place during 1942, so we've got a lot of the same elements we see in Molly's books. Helping on the homefront and such.

Charlotte's father operates a tugboat, so he's still at home, though her older brother is off fighting.

Charlotte gets the idea for a scrap metal drive, but when the scrap all disappears, she's got a lot of leads to follow and finds some unlikely allies along the way.

The story is pretty well-written, although Charlotte's PTSD from an incident in the river when she was young is hard to read. It's frustrating when you're reading all their suffering and it would be better if she'd just friggin' TELL someone, but she doesn't. It comes to a head when she's forced...literally forced...to help her father on the tugboat.

There's a lot going on in this one and kind of a lot of characters, but it flows pretty well. The author also did AGHM #8, which I'm reading right now.

It's the suffrage book. Yaaaaaay.

This one takes place in 1914 New York City when an Irish family of a widowed mother, the heroine and her two younger sisters take in an English boarder who turns out to be a pretty major figure in the suffrage movement.

Not that she tells anyone that. The mother ends up tossed in jail, but it's not obvious to the heroine, although it is painfully obvious and frustrating to the reader. I hate books where adults deliberately hide things from kids and this is one of those.

It's not a horrible suffrage book, but the entire mystery wouldn't exist if adults would just treat children like real people.

We've got the same problem in this one. Bessie's mother has TB, which is apparently some big horrible deal back in 1928, so her father takes her and her younger brother and runs away to Harlem.

Without telling the kids a damn thing.

I mean, come the fuck on. Tell them the mother's sick but don't tell them what it is if TB is such a freak out-worthy thing.

So of course Bessie thinks her dad's abandoned her mom and he's all stupidly secretive about what he's doing in Harlem for work and Bessie goes running all over trying to solve the mystery.

The cover highlights one of the worst bits. No one is going to think a 12-year-old kid is an adult. Also, no 12-year-old kid is going to immediately be able to walk in heels like Bessie apparently can.

It's not a horrible book. The setting and time period are excellent. I wish AG would do a Harlem Renaissance girl and this book just fueled that want even more. But another hiding things from kids turns into a mystery book and even worse this time is annoying and takes away from what's good about the story.

Ah, this one. I love this one. Kathleen Ernst steps up to the plate here. She wrote 3 books in this series, plus several historical character mysteries and the Caroline series.

Suzette is an awesome character. She's half-Ojibwe and half-French, so she's caught in between two worlds, but as she says in the end, she wouldn't have been able to solve the mystery without skills from each part of her.

This is set in 1732, so it's one of the earliest of the series.

Excellent characters here, excellent mystery. Suzette is actually almost treated like an adult and she's got a lot of freedom to do as she pleases, so she can get things done.