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Geeks and the Holy Grail (Camelot Code #2), by Mari Mancusi, for Timeslip Tuesday

The first book in the Camelot Code series, The Once and Future Geek , mixed time travel between the medieval world of King Arthur and our own, and it is a very entertaining book.  The second book in the series, Geeks and Holy Grail (Hyperion, October 2019), is also entertaining (though not quite as funny; King Arthur as a modern day high school student is hard to beat....). When Morgana, sworn enemy of King Arthur, attacks the druids of Avalon, Nimue, the youngest of them, takes the Holy Grail and runs with it.  King Arthur is dying, and only the Grail can save him.  Desperate to keep it from falling into Morgana's hands, she stumbles into Merlin's Crystal Cave.  But instead of Merlin there to help her (he's on vacation in Los Vegas, in our time), there's only his very inexperienced apprentice, Emrys.  His attempt to hide the grail works, in a sense--as a small, flatulent dragon, it sure doesn't look much like a grail.  But it isn't much use to Arthur as a...

The Secret

The Girl Who Was Supposed To Die

Here's another book by April Henry. You can see my brief review on her other book Girl, Stolen here.

I can't mention the character's name and the plot changes direction every chapter, so I can't say much without giving away at least half the book. Maybe I can describe the first four pages: She (the main character) wakes up, dazed and confused. A disembodied voice above says "Take her out back and finish her off." That's where this story starts. She wakes up with no idea what's happening to her or how she got there. She has amnesia, and someone is trying to kill her. Dun, dun, duuuuuunnnnnnn.

If I were to describe this book as a whole, I would call it an action movie. Unfortunately, this is a problem. The book is interesting, but the whole thing isn't... realistic. In all seriousness, if this book were an action movie it would be pretty good if not run-of-the-mill. We'd see martial-arts style fighting, secret agents, guns, a corporation looking for power, an explosion or two, convenient happenstances, and even cheap romance. A character with a mysterious past and unknown skills and people trying snub her out? It all fits on the silver screen. So does her family and all other characters she interacts with, with one or two exceptions; they're wax dolls in the book. You don't really see them and their actions are just a bit too cookie-cutter. I wish I could write a better review about this book, but this is the hard truth of it. I even feel sorry for writing this. I don't want to make it sound bad because it isn't a bad book; I could feel the same emotion and tension as the main character as she learned more about herself and her situation. There's still writing to be commended here. Hmm, I guess I'm saying that it should be edited a bit.

I'll have to give this book three stars. Many people will probably enjoy it without second thought, but in my eyes is has potential to be better.
If this book were a food, it would be spaghetti and orange juice. They're both good separately, but together they're not at their best.

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