30256105Title: The Last of August

Author: Brittany Cavallaro

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Publication Date: February 2017

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book Two

 

Synopsis can be found here.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review:

 

Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson are back again for this sequel to the very popular and well crafted first book in the trilogy A Study in Charlotte.

The wonderful things that made the first book stand out are still very visible in this sequel. Charlotte is hard to know yet somehow easy for Jamie Watson to love. Their families have a long standing history of friendship and awe dating back to the original Sherlock and Watson. But that was so many years ago and Charlotte is very different from Sherlock, kinda.

After recently solving a creme at their boarding school, Jamie and Charlotte are somewhat happy to go to Charlotte’s home in England over winter break to meet Charlotte’s family. But as soon as they arrive, lot of things begin happening, including the mysterious disappearance of Charlotte’s favorite uncle and her mother’s slow and brutal alleged poisoning.

Mystery can’t stop following the duo so Charlotte and Jamie try to solve these crimes, hopefully before anyone gets killed. And unfortunately for both of them, the path leads right back to Charlotte’s old nemesis and ex-crush August Moriarty.

The plot is very fast, but I was less enchanted by this sequel than the first. Perhaps because there were so many different cases to solve at once. Perhaps because Charlotte is still not telling Jamie anything and we’re forced to grope blindly in the dark like Watson. And while the ending is pretty good and shocking (I had to read it twice), I couldn’t really say it was satisfying. It left me feeling melancholy and sad, which might just be what the author had in mind because now I can’t wait for the third and final book in the trilogy.

While Charlotte’s character is still col and detached, yet secretly yearning and vulnerable, Jamie comes into his own a little more by being a bit more aggressive, trying to take matters into his own hands. I liked that a lot because the first book Jamie was okay casually standing back and watching everything happen while in this sequel, he wants to be more involved. And really doesn’t like when information is being withheld from him.

Overall, The Last of August is a solid sequel that propels this reincarnation of Holmes and Watson further than a lot of the other ones I’ve read recently. I think you should try it. It is clever and fun and isn’t afraid to be smart.

Sherlock would approve.