Book Review: Dear Pen Pal (The Mother-Daughter Book Club, #3) by Heather Vogel Frederick

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Dear Pen Pal (The Mother-Daughter Book Club, #3)  by Heather Vogel Frederick  is the third book in a middle grade book series that is being rereleased. Chaos erupts in this third installment as the daughters in the book club get themselves into trouble. Each of the girls have big changes in their lives:  Jess is going to boarding school; Megan's grandmother comes to live with her; Emma starts a campaign against school uniforms; Cassidy has a lot of unexpected change coming to her family. Will the mother daughter book club stay together? I'd like to thank NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, and Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Dear Pen Pal  by Heather Vogel Frederick with it's upcoming rerelease to the public. I always love a good book that involves books, even if its target audience is children between the ages of eight and twelve. It wasn't until I reached the end of the book that I realized that it...
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Book Review: Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen

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book review wrecker carl hiaasen

Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen is about a teenager named Valdez Jones VIII, who goes by the name of Wrecker due to his heritage . . . many of his great grandfathers salvaged shipwrecks.  When Wrecker comes across a speedboat stuck on a sand flat, the men onboard pay him to keep silent about what he saw.  He's happy to oblige, but then, Wrecker keeps seeing the men all over Key West, and now, they want more than his silence.

A huge thank you goes out to NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy of Wrecker by Carl Hiaasen.  Having heard a lot of good things about this author, I was thrilled to be approved to receive a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review and was not disappointed in the least.

Although this book written for middle grade children, it seems more mature for lack of a better word.  I would have thought the target audience was young adults.  Don't get me wrong, there isn't anything that isn't appropriate for kids, it just seemed to be written for older kids.  It was extremely well written, and I enjoyed it as an adult.

The storyline was fantastic and mostly believable.  I loved the fact that Hiaasen used COVID-19 as one of the major themes in the story.  So many authors haven't written about it for whatever reason, and I am glad that some of what the world went through is captured in Wrecked for all eternity.  Hopefully, it will give generations down the road a glimpse of what life was like during the pandemic.

I really enjoyed the main character and his stepsister.  They were written very believably.  And, although I didn't care for Wrecker's mother, father, and stepfather, I felt like they were written realistically as well.  The setting was Key West, which I have been able to visit twice before, so I enjoyed the fact that I could picture some of the island and more touristy attractions.  I definitely want to go back there to visit and spend more time there.

Four out of five stars is what I gave Wrecked by Carl Hiaasen.  The only reason I didn't give it a five was that some of the story was a little slow.  I look forward to reading more books by this author.

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