Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

Goodreads

Publication Date: April 16th, 2019 by Simon Pulse

Pages: 432

Genre: Contemporary, YA

Thank you so much Netgally and Simon and Schuster Canada/Simon Pulse for the opportunity to read this book early in an exchange for an honest review.

The main character Birdie, is sheltered, homeschooled and obsessed with mystery novels. She lives in a fantasy world, where she's a heroic detective like Nancy Drew and everyone is suspects. She gets her first job before college, working the graveyard shift at a hotel in Settle. This hotel is a historical landmark and has a gruesome unsolved murder that happened in the hotel, I mean don't all historical landmarks have this?

Enter Daniel, the van driver at the hotel. He shows her friendship, love and shows her around. She begins to let him in and grow closer. Daniel tells her about a reclusive writer who meets someone at the hotel, and the two investigate who the author is visiting.

I think this book was cute. I liked Birdie a lot, she had the right amount of innocence and awkwardness without it being overwhelming and tropey. I liked Daniel to as a love interest and his character, his development and characterization was well done. I loved the positive consensual sex message! It also talked about condoms and birth control. There was less common topics explored, such as, single parents, raised by grandparents, disabilities and mental health issues in a real way. The atmosphere buildup of Seattle was great and the hotel seemed beautiful. The quotes from famous mysteries (movies, tv shows and books) is a nice touch!

I have never read a Jenn Bennett novel before but I'd love to read more. The writing was well done, characterization good and the plot moved at the right page. Bennett is great at fleshing out the characters (even side characters) and I think she's ahead of a lot of YA writers in this regard. My one complaint was pacing, at times it was too slow. But as someone who doesn't typically read contemporary, I loved it.

I recommend this to anyone who likes contemporary romances, is a sucker for first love and wants a good character driven story. I do think this is definitely a YA book, which is great it's who it's intended for. The sex positivity is great, and I think good for young teens to read.

4 wine glasses out of 5.

Cheers,

Jen.