Book Review: Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin

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Missing Since Monday by Ann M. Martin follows Maggie and her older brother when their father and stepmother leave on a long-delayed honeymoon, trusting the siblings to care for their four-year-old half sister, Courtenay. When Courtenay fails to come home from daycare one Monday afternoon, Maggie and her brother are thrust into a frightening mystery. With no adults around to help, they must piece together what happened and find a way to alert their parents before it’s too late. This standalone novel for readers ages eight to twelve was one I completely missed as a kid, but as an adult and a longtime fan of Ann M. Martin’s The Baby-Sitters Club  series, I couldn’t resist picking it up. The first chapter or two felt a bit choppy to me at first, but once the story found its footing, everything began to come together nicely . Because this is a short children’s book, the characters aren’t deeply developed, which is to be expected. That said, Martin does an excellent job conveying Maggie’...
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Book Review: The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

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book review the accidental beauty queen teri wilson tiara crown
While scrolling through my Instagram feed, I came across a post from OnTheBookList that featured the novel The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson. Having been a former beauty pageant contestant and beauty queen, the name of the book intrigued me. I immediately looked at the synopsis on Goodreads.com and decided that I had to buy and read this particular book.

The Accidental Beauty Queen is a romantic comedy about identical twins Charlotte and Ginny Gorman. Charlotte decides to fly to Orlando, Florida a few days early to visit Harry Potter World while her sister Ginny is competing in the Miss American Treasure pageant. However, in less than 24 hours of being in Orlando, Charlotte has to rush Ginny to the hospital when she has an allergic reaction to something that makes her face swell up and a rash break out. Not able to compete in the pageant until her face clears up, Ginny convinces Charlotte to pose as her in the pageant.

book review color cover the accidental beauty queen by teri wilsonIf you'll be going on vacation soon, this is the perfect book to take with you. It was fun and lighthearted although a bit predictable. I was able to finish it in one sitting and would actually classify The Accidental Beauty Queen as chick lit. What I loved about this book is that the author actually seemed to actually have an idea of what really goes on in beauty pageants and didn't bad mouth them. This actually made my day.

Another thing that I loved was all the mention of different books but especially of the Harry Potter book series. Since the main character, Charlotte, was a librarian, it made me wonder if the author is too. I'd love to have a career as a librarian myself, but unfortunately, it requires a Masters Degree where I live, and they aren't paid very well. When I finished the book, I did find out that Teri Wilson (the author) has judged a few large beauty pageants and that is likely why she has such a good handle on writing about them. It also made me wonder if she had competed in them herself.

Even though this book was very predictable, it was written extremely well and kept my attention the entire way. Because of all this, I gave it four out of five stars.


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