Six stars - fantastic book! ( )

Rachel and Mycroft are nearly halfway through their final year of school when, without any warning, Mycroft heads overseas to assist his boss. It’s an investigation involving not only a stolen Shakespeare folio but a carjacking similar to the one which killed Mycroft’s parents. So Rachel, with the help of her brother and his girlfriend, buys an airfare to London so she can be Mycroft’s moral support. Whether he wants here there or not.

The Australian setting was a big part of the appeal of Every Breath, so I was a little disappointed that this book took its characters to the most clichéd city ever for a murder investigation.

But this is an engaging YA mystery. The tension shifts and builds, first arising from Rachel’s relationship with Mycroft and then from the dangerous situation she finds herself in. Rachel gets to visit Oxford. I like Rachel’s relationship with her brother Mike, and the way Mycroft deals with the answers about his past. And I’m not going to say no to snuggling for warmth and comfort, nope not me.

So I’m not going to complain.

Oh, no, wait, I am! I found it unconvincing that Rachel and Mycroft didn’t have impending exams. Also, one of the twists was very obvious -- and I know this is for teenagers, but I’d read stacks of murder mysteries by the time I was in my final year of school, and if you expect your readers to cope with kidnappers who engage in torture, even if it’s fade-to-black torture, then I think you should also expect some of them to be genre-savvy.

But in all honesty, those things didn’t stop me from enjoying this book. ( )

Second book of a trilogy. I really enjoyed this one as well. I certainly didn't find as hard a time with the vernacular here as I did with the first book. I'm not sure if this is because I was just getting used to it, or if the author was writing more towards a more western audience. Regardless, I think this author does a fantastic job with her action scenes and the shippy scenes between the main characters.

This story picks up just a few weeks after the end of "Every Breath". Mycroft is still limping, but Watts is well enough that she is now a roller derby action hero. When Mycroft finds out about an accident in England eerily similar to the one that killed his parents he jumps at the chance to do some personal investigation. Unfortunately when he decides to leave Watts behind, without letting her know he is leaving, it leads to quite a bit of tension between the characters.

I think that the author got it spot on the teenagers are generally kind of myopic. Especially when it comes to family. In Watts' case I believe it will take some time before her parents will ever trust her again (if ever). As a mother myself, I can get where they are coming from.

I've ordered the third book and am really looking forward to reading it although I think I'll be a bit sad to see the story end. ( )

"Every Word" picks up shortly after "Every Breath", the first book in the Watts and Mycroft series by Ellie Marney. This is a great combination of mystery, action and romance and Marney blends the three perfectly throughout the book. The characters are very likeable and more complex than you might expect. The story is a bit implausible but I didn't care because it kept my attention so well and because I really found myself caring about the characters. I liked this installment in the series every bit as much as I liked the first book and I can't wait to read the next one! ( )

Second in the "Every" series by Ellie Marney. Rachel Watts and James Mycroft are not your typical seventeen-year-old teens. Now a Couple, though their physical feelings for each other are yet to be consummated. Told in Rachel Watts' first-person voice, it opens with Rachel on the track with her roller-derby team the Fitzroy Furies. Her family is there to cheer her on. Mycroft is there too, and he leans over the rail to yell Rachel's roller-derby name, "High Voltage!" She at once says, "A sizzle of electric current passes from my eyes to his."

Thus, what opens the story in chapter one just about describes the action and palpable tension building throughout.

Two chapters later, James Mycroft--because of his forensic interest and now being an assistant to a Prof. Walsh--goes off to England with the professor to help in an accident investigation that's way too similar to that of his parents' car accident/murder seven years prior. Rachel--unbeknownst to her parents, or Mycroft--follows after him with her brother Mike's girlfriend, Alica, who coincidentally just happens to be on her way to tour Europe with London as first stop. James is none to keen to see Rachel show up, though he, and Prof. Walsh, soon realize how much she is needed. Since the accident inquiry has already turned to a murder investigation, with shots having been fired by a motorcyclist at the car's driver, just like the circumstances of the accident James had been in that caused the death of his parents, the strain of the investigation has put him on his worst behavior. As usual, Rachel manages to calm him and a page-turning crime investigation ensues. There's an autopsy, rare book of Shakespeare's First Folio stolen from Oxford's Bodleian library, a kidnapping, a bit of torture, and even a Sherlock-like saving of the day by James Mycroft's use of explosive Chemistry.

Chemistry is the operative word, and any which way defined applies. Rachel and James' interplay, the details in the middle that move the story forward, the crisp language, all elements making it an intelligent YA read. Also it seems to fit the "New Adult" genre, or could appeal to any Sherlock Holmes aficionados. ( )