Book Review - The Liars Society by Alyson Gerber

The Liars Society by Alyson Gerber is about a young girl, Weatherby, who wants to learn more about her father. Weatherby loves sailing and spending her time on the water. When she and her neighbor win the local sailing regatta, she is ecstatic. Especially when the head of the prestigious Boston School approaches her with a scholarship to attend. Weatherby is beyond happy to attend because it's the same school her dad attended. She hopes that she can learn more about her dad and his world because she never got to meet him before. However, Weatherby has a secret that she knows will ruin everything if it gets out. She is desperate to keep it hidden from everyone.

Jack and his family come from a long line of wealth and privilege. His entire family has made their own distinctive mark at the Boston School. Jack is struggling to make his own impression at the school since he feels that he is mediocre at everything he does.  He desperately wants to prove to his distinguished father that he has value to the family. Like Weatherby, Jack also has a secret that he knows will ruin everything if revealed.

Both Jack and Weatherby are excited for the annual school trip to the school’s private island. However, when the money for the trip is missing, Jack and Weatherby are heartbroken. The pair gets tapped to an exclusive private secret society to help solve the mystery of the missing money. If they solve the mystery, they get to join and if they don’t, they risk making enemies of many rich and influential people. 

The young adult novel was a quick and entertaining read. I liked reading about how Weatherby and Jack put aside their differences and other peoples’ expectations of themselves to be better people. I was surprised that there wasn’t more drama between the different characters. The book had a few twists and turns but most were predictable. The book focused a lot on sailing and I do wish the mystery part started sooner. I would be open to reading the next book in the series.  

Book Review - Pack Your Bags, Maggie Diaz by Nina Moreno

 

Pack Your Bags, Maggie Diaz by Nina Moreno is about a young girl who is excited to spend Spring Break with her two best friends. Maggie has been working hard in school and loves running as an extracurricular activity. As a seventh grader, Maggie is able to take her first overnight trip with her school friends, Julian and Zoey. She is looking forward to their first trip together to St. Augustine.  Maggie wants to spend time with her friends because she also needs a break from her family. Her parents are overprotective, her sister is lovesick and excited about prom, and her abuela is overly involved in her life. Maggie feels that she has everything worked out and nothing will be able to stop her plans from happening.

Even though Maggie has it all planned out, things start to fall apart. Maggie’s friends are excited about prom and who they are going to take, instead of focusing on the group trip. Julian has a crush on the new girl at school and starts inviting her to hang out with the group. Maggie is thrown by the new addition and feels that the dynamic is thrown off and she might lose her friends to the new girl. Her other friend, Zoey, is stressed about maintaining her straight A streak. She is so stressed that she can’t focus on anything else.  Maggie also thinks that Zoey is interested in Julian, as she sees jealousy peeking through from Zoey with the attention Julian shows his new friend.

When Maggie feels like everyone is ensnared by the love bug, she can’t stop thinking about Eerie Eddie, who is a classmate of Maggie’s. She isn’t sure about how she feels about him or why she can’t stop thinking about him. She feels that she, Julian, and Zoey have been three best friends for years and now everything is changing. Will Maggie be able to keep her friends when everyone is interested in being romantically paired off with someone else?

The book was a fun and quick read. Readers are taken on a journey as Maggie tries to navigate her new friendship dynamics and her own growing feelings for a classmate. I enjoyed reading how she tries to understand and process her feelings. Maggie is fond of creating plans and following them. When things do not go exactly to plan, it was exciting seeing her work through different situations.

I like that they included tidbits from their trips and modern cultural references. I didn’t like that the book had a few Spanish phrases that weren’t translated. I felt like it took away from my enjoyment of the story as I would need to stop reading to look up what was said. The book was filled with black and white illustrations that were funny. I think the novel would be perfect for young readers who are trying to navigate friendships and their budding romantic feelings for other people as they come of age.