Three Times Lucky

This is a fun middle grade mystery. I enjoyed following Mo and Dale around as they solved a crime and saved the day. A few times, there were frightening moments for Mo and Dale, and they had to handle stuff that many middle grade kids will not (operating a store, protecting people from abuse, etc.)

Along the way, Mo discovers that she might be adopted, but she doesn't need to search for her parents because she already has a home.

Setting: well done - I could feel small town North Carolina
Characters: varied & dimensional, children and adults
POV character: young, female, adopted
Topics: adoption, alcoholism, domestic abuse, robbery, murder, amnesia, economic inequality
Tone: strong, adventurous, curious

I love these kids! They are cool with being very much themselves. And the adults encourage them to be themselves as well. They all are facing hard things, but they don't run away from them. And there is a mystery!

Three Times Lucky:
Overall Rating - 6.7/10 or 3/5 stars

Characters - 6
The characters were certainly unique, but most of them weren't fleshed out enough and they seemed a bit one-dimensional. None of the characters seemed relatable which made the story more about the drama and plot instead :/

Atmosphere - 7
The town was interesting and as a reader I could understand what the town would feel like, but it lacked description of the roads and spaces between the main buildings mentioned. I give props for the map on the inside cover, but I wasn't feasibly going to flip back to look at it while reading.

Writing - 7
The writing flowed decently and didn't stray from the southern idiosyncrasies used as far as I could tell.

Plot - 7
It felt a bit jerky but as it was a plot-based story, it was fairly better than the characters.

Intrigue - 8
Intrigue was what mainly kept me going with this book. I wanted to know the outcome of the mystery and as much as the wacky characters went, they didn't stop me from continuing to see where it ended.

Logic - 6
Most of the story made sense but some of it was just nonsensical.

Enjoyment - 6
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, and I won't be continuing the series, but I still enjoyed it enough to finish it. :)