I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but the last half was very uneven, so much so that at times I wondered if someone else's heavy hand were on the author channeling her writing. Though I would agree that this girl needed to get out of the department store and into real life, how that real life played out felt, mostly, totally wrong. A great pity because this book had the makings of an excellent read.

A new title to me, but sounds like something I'd definitely pick out for myself. Thanks Maggie, you do seem to have a good eye for what I might like. :)

Doubt I'll get to this before the end of the year, but marking it as a definite read for early 2016.

Like Secretariat, I enjoyed the first part of this book. It just grabbed me from the beginning and I was enjoying it. The characters were likable and fun. However, once the threesome got going on their trip, the book just didn't have the same appeal. I'm not sure exactly what was lost in that transition for me, but something was certainly off. The ending didn't sit well with me (although we get a bit of a blurb about the future, we don't get to see what happens if/when they find Millie's mum) and I was left wondering why the heck Agatha said Karl had abducted her when they were "caught" on the train. I also never really felt that Agatha and Karl had a romantic connection. I did like that Manny was a constant throughout the story, and was quite sad when he was thrown into the ocean.

Taking back to meetup.