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: Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

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Book Club Pick Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim is a story about a bi-racial Korean-American family whose patriarch goes missing.  Told from twenty year old Mia's perspective, she's not initially concerned when her younger brother Eugene comes home without their father.  As minutes and hours tick away, the entire family finally realizes is something most be horribly wrong for the father and husband not to be home yet.

This novel was selected by my book club for our June 2024 discussion.  I hadn't heard of this book or author before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I enjoy a good mystery and the synopsis intrigued me. "Meh" is my overall thought of Happiness Falls because I didn't particularly like the main character, Mia.  She seemed awfully self absorbed and unobservant, especially when it came to her younger brother, Eugene.  

Eugene is non-speaking and was diagnosed by doctors to being autistic and having a rare disease called Angelman Disease.  There is a huge twist with Eugene, and it shows that no one was actually that observant when it came to the youngest member of the family.  It actually irritated me how everyone treated Eugene like he was stupid and didn't understand anything.  With that being said, the author did a great job of teaching me some things that I didn't know about when it comes to programs for people with special needs.

The story seemed to be more focused on Eugene's story rather than the father missing.  The two are interconnected, but it just seemed like the story went in a different direction than what I anticipated. That's perfectly fine but not exactly what I was expecting or wanting in a book at that time.  On top of that, the story seemed semi-autobiographical.  I also wasn't liking that it was set during the shutdown of the world due to the coronavirus. It's just a little too soon for me.

I just didn't connect with any of the characters or the plot with maybe the exception of Eugene because everyone seemed to underestimate him.  Someone else might absolutely love Happiness Falls by Angie Kim, but unfortunately, I wasn't one of those people.  I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't love it either.  Three out of five stars.

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