Curse of the Arctic Star Nancy Drew Diaries

3.5 // tarantulas in cream puffs, buckwheat pillows, near death experiences that somehow don't effect Nancy at all, and an obvious culprit that she's oblivious to...classic Nancy Drew!

I grabbed this audiobook from my library because I wanted a short audiobook to listen to for my last two days of work this month. Something easy to listen to wile working, that I knew wouldn't upset me. (Especially after my last two attempts.) (I had originally thought to try for a romance audiobook, but I'm picky enoough about my romance reads, without trying to limit myself to only those 4-5 hours long.)

Anyway, I've been a fan of Nancy Drew since the days of the yellow hardcovers and have read several iterations. (Girl Detective and the ones where she was in college particularly stick in my mind. Also, there was one where she was younger, but for the life of me, I can't recall the name. Notebooks?) Anyway, this was a pretty standard, typical fare - except for the one singular reason that I dropped the rating from four stars down to three: Bess' boyfriend, Alan.

He is a needless contrivance that only serves to make Nancy have to sneak around even more - because while he knows she's an amateur detective, he doesn't know that she's on a case. And Nancy, Bess and George all seem to be in agreement that keeping him in the dark - and allowing him to invite himself along - is the best course of action. (Even though he and Bess have only been dating a few weeks.)

Possible spoiler speculation on the second book of the series.
Of course, I think the only reason he's there in the first place is to be the culprit of the second book, because there's several strong indications that he's the one that perpetrated the loose ends that Nancy hasn't been able to solve yet and the jewelry heist at the end of this book. If he's not the culprit of the next book, I will officially be shocked.

Admittedly, the culprit of this book was...kind of obvious. As soon as the clue was said, I was wondering how long it would take for Nancy to catch on. At least she didn't constantly go ‘I can't remember something important' like so many other sleuths seem to.

Already got the second book downloaded for work later in May and am actually a little excited for it.