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The Blurb On The Back:

They can’t send you away. What will we do? We need us. I stop your angry, Jack. And you make me strong. You make me Rosie.

Rosie loves Jack. Jack loves Rosie.

So when they’re separated, Rosie will do anything to find the boy who makes the sun shine in her head.

Even run away from home.

Even struggle across London and travel to Brighton, though the trains are cancelled and the snow is falling.

Even though people might think a girl with Down’s syndrome could never survive on her own.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

It’s difficult to review Mel Darbon’s debut YA contemporary romance. Although she convincingly portrays a young girl with Down’s syndrome as a person with ambitions and emotions, a sex trade plotline struck me as implausible and seemed to show Rosie more as a victim driven by others than by her own desires, which undermined her agency such that the book ends up being about the reactions to Rosie and how they drive her than about Rosie herself.

ROSIE LOVES JACK was released in the United Kingdom on 6th September 2018. Thanks to Usborne Books for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Trey can’t wait to go on a grand tour of Europe with his father – until he realizes it involves dusty museums and boring business meetings.

Then, out of the blue, everything changes and they’re boarding the Orient Express, destination: Constantinople. And he’s sure they’re being followed by a sinister man with a pencil mustache.

Who is this shadowy stranger?

Trey feels like his personal hero – star sleuth Trent ‘Pistol’ Gripp, from Black Ace magazine – with his own mystery to solve!

But it’s a mystery that’s about to turn deadly – when Trey finds himself on his own, and on the run, in a city that he soon discovers has a thousand hidden dangers ...

Welcome to 1927 and a world of spies, intrigue, guns and car chases – where nothing is what it seems and you can’t trust anybody ...

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Although the historical setting is interesting, the story’s quite old-fashioned and the plot didn’t hold together well enough for me while the stereotypical dialogue for the American and English characters grated. It’s an okay read, but I won’t be reading on with the series.

Thanks to Usbourne Books for the free copy of this book.