Review - Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

Title: Serious Moonlight

Author: Jenn Bennett

Pages: 368

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's UK

Release Date: 16th May 2019

Blurb from Goodreads:

Raised in isolation and home-schooled by her strict grandparents, the only experience Birdie has had of the outside world is through her favourite crime books. But everything changes when she takes a summer job working the night shift at a historic Seattle hotel.
There she meets Daniel Aoki, the hotel’s charismatic driver, and together they stumble upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—is secretly meeting someone at the hotel.
To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell, and in doing so, realize that the most confounding mystery of all may just be her growing feelings for Daniel.

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US

My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Simon & Schuster UK Children's and NetGalley*

Birdie has had an isolated life filled with grief - her mother died when she was young, after which she lived with her grandparents who home-schooled Birdie, and several months ago Birdie's grandmother died.

Birdie manages to convince her grandfather to let her get a part-time job working the night-shift at a hotel. There she encounters Daniel who works as a driver. Daniel is charming and funny, but there's one problem - they have already met and it didn't end well.

When Daniel tells the mystery-obsessed Birdie about a mysterious guest that he thinks may be a reclusive, famous author, the duo decide to put the past behind them and find out what the guest is up to.

Can Daniel and Birdie solve the mystery?

Can they put what happened behind them and just be friends?

Having read one of the author's other books and enjoyed it, I was keen to read Serious Moonlight, especially as it had a mystery element.

Birdie was a good protagonist, but there were several times where I found her a bit annoying.

I actually liked Daniel more as a character - he was sweet, funny and kind, and I loved his family.

Both Birdie and Daniel had gone through a lot and I felt sorry for them.

Mona was an interesting character and I liked how close she and Birdie were, but I can't actually imagine anyone dressing how she did in real life.

The plot was good overall, but I did find myself becoming less interested and invested throughout the second half of the book- mainly because the mystery didn't intrigue me as much by that point and I felt that Birdie and Daniel were just being nosy. However, I didn't actually guess the mystery, which did end up surprising me.

I hadn't read a book before with a protagonist with sleep problems so that was different and interesting.

The writing style was easy to follow, but I wasn't gripped.

I'm disappointed that I didn't like this more, but it was a nice contemporary book.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read.