The Last of August

very much enjoyed this book, which is likely unclear from both my rating & my review. god, i'm the worst. anyway. my notes say

intelligent, thoughtful author. sometimes clever ("sometimes" is good; cleverness is quickly annoying). strong tone of grounding, honest earnest human-ness thru-out: exactly what is [100% emoji] about the original stories: the tempering presence of Watson. here Holmes too is human.
ending vaguely dissatisfying.

currently reading Book #1.

The Last of August picks up not too long after the events of A Study in Charlotte, with Jamie and Charlotte at her parents’ estate in Sussex for winter break. However, you can’t expect things to stay calm for long, and soon Charlotte and Jamie are whisked away to Berlin, Germany to stay with Charlotte’s brother, Milo. Now with a new mystery to solve they team up with August Moriarty, who is in fact, a descendant of that Moriarty family.

What I enjoyed about this novel was that we got to see more of Charlotte’s family, and you really learn how she kind of became the way she is. Or at least you feel bad for her by the end of the novel. Her family dynamic is… well, it’s bad. At the same time, it’s kind of to be expected just show more based off what we learned about Charlotte in the first book.

The plot was intriguing – Charlotte’s uncle goes missing and there’s an art forgery scam going on (that is linked to the other Moriarty siblings, of course). Right off the bat, after silence from Charlotte and August, Jamie finds himself annoyed with the two of them and sets off on his own with this own disguise to do some investigating. Not too long after, he’s joined by Charlotte and August and the investigation is underway. Throughout the book I feel bad for Jamie, again, because he honestly just wants Charlotte to get with the program about the “them” part of everything, but it keeps getting put off because of all the stuff going on around them… and that their lives are in danger again.

I was kept on my toes the entire book and I wasn’t really able to catch onto what was happening like the first book, so the ending was a big surprise for me and not what I had been expecting at all. As much as I like to figure out the endings myself, I also love those surprise moments.

Overall, yet another good new-generation Holmes and Watson book! show less

It's been far too long since I ventured into Jamie and Charlotte's world. I genuinely, wholeheartedly enjoy the Charlotte Holmes novels, and book two was no less entertaining than book three. They continue the have the Holmes spirit, but in an updated, modernized sense. And they're fun.

I can honestly also say that this series is one of the few where I genuinely enjoy the romance. The flirting is cute, but the messy bits also feel real and possible. The drama isn't unnecessarily heightened... Charlotte's reactions are perfect to her character. Introducing August in this book was a great addition - he's a bit of an anti-hero and I enjoyed his addition to the dynamic duo and the way he always made Jamie a little off-balance. It's very show more nearly a love triangle, but not exactly. I liked it. I like them all. August, more than anyone else in this book, kept me on my toes and second-guessing.

Charlotte's family is a mess, though. And that's not poor writing or anything, they just are very... problematic, I guess. Reactions and behaviors are so cold and unhealthy as a general rule. I think that it's decent writing - ever the pragmatist, Sherlock Holmes was much like this himself in the Conan Doyle novels, so it make sense that his family is much the same. For the most part, I felt like the setup with both Jamie and Charlotte's families was a bit overlong and things didn't really get interesting until the two set off on their own. This didn't ruin or even deeply affect the book from the perspective of my own enjoyment, but it was a little draggy in the beginning.

The writing is really easy to read - Cavallaro's writing has a fantastic flow. It's very easy to get wrapped up in this book and it was finished before I knew it. I think with a slower pace, this book would have dragged out, but for the story here, this was written very well and was easy to get into. I really like both the narrators as well - the audiobook is fantastic, if you like to ingest your books that way.

Book two in the Charlotte Holmes series was a slam dunk, and I'm looking forward to reading A Case for Jamie! show less

When Jamie Watson spends Christmas break with his friend and not-so-secret crush Charlotte Holmes, he is both bemused and dismayed by her cold and dysfunctional family although it does go along way in explaining Charlotte to him. The only member of the family who seems close to normal is her favourite uncle Leander who is also a good friend of Watson’s father.

So when Leander goes missing, Watson and Holmes rush off to Europe to try to find what has happened to him. On the way, they encounter August Moriarty, Charlotte’s own first crush who broke her heart. He is supposed to be dead but, in reality, has been hiding out from his larcenous and vicious family with the help of Charlotte’s brother. As they search for Leander, Watson and show more Holmes have their own encounters with his family drawing them into several very dangerous situations.

The Last of August is the second in the Charlotte Holmes YA series by author Brittany Cavallaro. The story is narrated by Watson who seems a reliable narrator with the occasional interjection from Charlotte who seems somewhat less reliable. But they are both interesting and complex characters that are easy to like and empathize with despite or perhaps because of their flaws, especially in the case of Charlotte. Full of twists and turns and all-round mayhem, it is a whole lot of fun. It is a bit slower than the first book, A Study and Charlotte, but just as compelling and, dare I say, addicting.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

Not as enjoyable as the first one, though I appreciated seeing the Holmes family in all their dysfunctional glory. I know Charlotte was supposed to be not a very sympathetic character in this story - she's even more manipulative, conniving, and superior than int he first book - but that didn't make it any easier to swallow. Jamie's bumblingness was also played up in this book, possibly to emphasize his foil-like nature to Charlotte.

The plot was good, but then it took a hard left twist towards the end, though it had been foreshadowed heavily earlier. I'm still not sure what I make of it. And the cliffhanger ending was maddening.

The Last of August is about descendants of the original Holmes and Watson, Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson, who met at boarding school in A Study in Charlotte.

They begin spending the Christmas break with their families back in England but after Charlotte’s uncle disappears abruptly, Jamie and Charlotte head to Berlin and join forces with a Moriarty.

I was instantly caught up in the story, but thought the ending was a bit too bleak and unsatisfying. I suspect this is second-in-a-trilogy syndrome: the story wants to leave enough loose ends for the next book. Which I’ll be reading, because I want to know what happens next, but for now, I’m left feeling a bit blank.

The Last of August is mostly from Jamie’s perspective, with a few show more chapters from Charlotte’s.

I disliked it when the term “fairy-tale” was bandied about. Most often it was used to men “whimsical”. This is inaccurate. In fairy tales, the forest swallows you up like a dinner. Your parents wrap you in a cloak and set you loose in the dark. Everything happens in threes, and only the oldest child survives. As a younger sister, I particularly resented that last implication. show less

Not being familiar with the entire Holmes canon, I found this took a long time for me to read, as I was trying to decipher clues about the 'real' world Holmes fiction and where this story was coming from. I missed being at school with Charlotte and James/Jamie. Now, on Christmas break, they spend time with both families, ending at the Charlotte's family estate. When her uncle Leander (and clearly one of the better adults in the series) goes missing, Charlotte and her sidekick take off to Berlin. Here, we get more of a feel for her brother Milo and the dead/not dead August Moriarty. Now that the uniqueness of Holmes and Watson descendants has worn off, this veered a bit into any old book area. Maybe it was because it took me so long to show more read, but the whole art world saga kind of got to me. Is it all 'found' WWII art? Was it ever missing? Are they all forgeries? A lot of close reading to get to an end that I didn't find particularly satisfying. But, crabbiness aside, I will definitely tune in for the next one, I am hooked. show less