Adventures in Funeral Crashing

I'll admit to an obvious bias. The entire "quirky female teenager with out-of-place hobby falls and manages to hook guy supposedly out of reach who, too, has a quirky out-of-place hobby" (am I losing you?) trope? Love it. This is probably why the main issue many seem to have with the book - the voice of our female protagonist - doesn't seem to affect me. She should be bouncy, all-over-the-place. That's who she is. Frankly, I kind of loved it. When our protag was excited, I was excited. When she was sad, I felt like the older sister who had to see her through to the end.

Unfortunately, even with the odds skewed in its favor on my part, this book had just a few too many nails in its coffin.

Issue one is not the most obvious. The pacing in show more this book takes a sudden turn from jog to full-on leap, especially at the very end. For the most part, Harris knew how to keep the story moving. We never lingered too long on a particular issue before it was either solved, resigned, or shown from a different perspective. This was a good thing - there weren't pages worth of dialogue bemoaning the main character's lack of friends, for example, which tends to be a persistent problem with this type of literature. While I won't spoil the end of the novel, I will say that it comes from absolutely nowhere. The ebook itself isn't that long, so I suppose that this was to be expected, but the fact that the mystery revealed itself instead of the characters solving it themselves felt a little cheap and very, very rushed. Especially for a book priding itself on having a crime-solving, Nancy Drew feel. Didn't Nancy, you know, actually manage to figure out the majority of the case before her final confrontation with the "villain"? There's none of that here; the crime pertaining to the mystery of the dead girls is basically just a network of loose information none of the main characters seem to figure out.

Problem two is one that crime novels in general tend to have. The idiocy of the police is astounding. Again, no spoilers, but there's just too many coincidences obvious for the police to not be a bigger part of the overall story. It kind of stunk to see them relegated to the background, pretty much just there to stop our "meddling kids". There was a lot of potential for some great interaction between these two forces. Reading the synopses of other books in this series, it appears that this is no longer a problem, so that's at least good.

Problem three, the final one, is the persistent feeling of a "second book syndrome". As in, this book just feels like a massive lead-up to the second one in the series, which will far outshine it. Characters have to be introduced, backstories have to be established, quirks have to be polished. The pacing I mentioned before makes all of this bustle less pronounced, but it doesn't change the fact that it's bustle. Compounded to the fact that the story itself is so short, you walk away with the feeling that "Adventures in Funeral Crashing" was supposed to be just a massive launching pad for the series in general, not its own story. On the one hand, Harris did a great job with this, because, for all its flaws, I certainly do want to pick up this series. But on the other, it's quite a shame.

Is it worth getting? Considering that it's free, I would give a definite "yes". If you end up not liking it, you won't have wasted much time with it, considering that it clocks in at one hundred something pages (a lot of the end is just a preview for the next book, pushing it to two hundred ten pages). And if you're like me, and see the seed of something here, you might consider picking up the sequel. show less

Since her mother's death, Kait has found solace attending funerals. Any funeral will do. She calls this funeral crashing and loves to hear people telling the stories about the deceased. When she attends the funeral of a young girl who overdosed, she is surprised to find out that this girl was the half sister of the cutest guy in school, Ethan Ripley. Ethan is curious and questions Kait about how she knew Liz, Kait has to fess up that she really did not know here. Ethan is disappointed because he thinks his sister was murdered and hoped Kait knew something. Some other girls have recently died of overdoses. Kait soon agrees with him and they begin to investigate.

This was a really fun book. Kait is good at investigating despite being show more constantly distracted by Ethan's silky hair. The mystery was pretty good and there was some action and suspense. The love story (such as there is) is sweet. This book would be appropriate for teens and tweens. It does have some language but I found it consistent with kids the age of our heroine. I am looking forward to the next book in the series. show less

Thanks to the R2R program to give me an opportunity to read and review this book!

This is a fantastic, witty YA mystery with romantic, and almost Scooby-Doo-like elements. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

The premise:

Kait is your average social pariah at school, even the "nerds" would be demoted by asking her out. Her mother passed away from cancer, and ever since then one of her coping mechanisms has been to continue to attend funerals.... for people that she has never met. It comes from a good, innocent place, but she is essentially a funeral crasher. Before her mother had gotten sick, she had the normal "average" teenage life. But once her mother became sick, and her best friend, Airel, suddenly fled to the popular crowd ... Kait show more had been given the short end of the stick in terms of death and friendship.

She crashed the funeral of a college student found dead of an overdose. She always has certain rules she follows in an attempt to not get caught, but every explanation falls right out of her head when confronted by the hottest guy at school, Ethan. Turns out Liz, the college student, was his half sister. With no idea how to answer for her attendance, she flees, thinking that her status as a social pariah might mean he would forget about her. Instead he confronts her at work, and reveals that he thinks that Liz was murdered instead of an overdose...

An thus begins a social status defying partnership to investigate the circumstances of Liz's, and several other college girls all found dead of heroin overdoses.

What I thought:

This is so witty and refreshing. Parents will not have to worry about sex-crazed teenagers, but with the hottest guy in school and even a murder suspect being very easy on the eyes... there was still fodder for your imagination. It really develops the friendship between Kait and Ethan at a realistic pace. I found it believable- even with teenagers investigating a murder. Everything fell within the realm of believability and was true to their age. It was still enjoyable for me, as an adult reader. I would have no problems recommending this book to a teenager to read. Likely, because of the main character being a female, it would appeal most likely to girls, not boys. It really has some witty moments, and the youthful tenancy to obsess just a little about certain things (for Kait it was peanut butter banana drinks) really added special touches to make this an absolutely enjoyable read. Great YA book! show less

To read more reviews and fun things go to my blog; Drugs Called Books!

I give this story 3.5 stars.

It's a cute, fun story. I, for one, finished it in a day. It's from the kind of books that are most enjoyable in those busy, suffocating times you need a break from. It just rolls right out, glides down and makes you forget for a blissful couple of hours that there are other things in the world, other than Kait and Ethan's obliviousness.

However, this is not for those who love a deep, twisting mystery. Sure, there is that whole murder investigation, but I for one saw the ending from miles away--at least I had a very strong suspicion.

I mean, first rule: the most obvious suspect is rarely the one to actually do it, so I knew it couldn't be show more Troy. It would've been too easy, too... everything.
I knew right away that girl who sent Liz the Email Troy was dating her did it. It just screamed crazy, possessive stalker. Especially when Kait was told other girls who dated him thought he was cheating. I just didn't know who that crazy person was, yet.
But after that, we were down to just two suspects: the deceased Vanessa's sister (Jenna), or Suzie. And Suzie was never really an option. I did find it peculiar that Vanessa/Jenna used the names of authors Suzie was reading to send her mails (too bad that was never explained), but Suzie was too damn sweet for it, and if she liked Kyle she couldn't possibly be a crazy stalker in love with Troy, could she?
Now we were down to one: Vanessa. First of all, the moment Troy told them he dated Jenna the switch was completely obvious. I had my suspicions before, but after that it was, like, "Okay, Jenna is not Jenna. Jenna is Vanessa." Seriously. And I was damn right. A bit disappointing, really. I wanted it to be some else entirely, something surprising.
But this isn't a book meant to surprise you. It is, in the end, a romance story, about the un-popular girl and the school's hottie. Cinderella all over again - but I happen to like Cinderella and romance so I'm fine with it.
I did wish there was more to the investigation, but I guess they did fine for someone their age, or something. Still, I like a good mystery novel, and this is not that.

What I disliked about this book was the repetition. Like the Milkshake thing. God, how many times are you going to tell us it's heaven on earth, or mention it? And just for that last sentence... It drove me mad. Or how hot he was. Was she really only interested in him because he was hot? Obviously, we know it ain't so, but at times it really seemed like that.

Still, a fun read, definitely. Super cute. I will be reading the next book in the series. Hopefully, there will be more romance and it will not try to disguise itself as a mystery novel, because you need more than just a murder to write something like that... show less

*I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book*

I was an avid Nancy Drew fan growing up so I was definitely interested in reading this book. Aside from solving mysteries, Kait is an interesting character. She is kind of a loner and doesn't have many friends. The thing that makes her interesting is the fact that she crashes funerals. Just like Nancy, Kait is headstrong and dives right into a mystery. This series seems perfect for junior high kids. I will definitely be recommending it to my daughter.

Kait Lennox loves a funeral, now put that together with a little detecting, a boy and a mystery.

This was a fast, fun read. All age groups can read and enjoy this title. I am looking to read more from Milda Harris.

This is such a wonderful book for teenagers. A mystery romance with lots of action. It was the first book that I read by this author, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It seems there is hope for the awkward social outcasts out there. They do sometimes get the popular guy!