Reviewed by Nicole Lynn on
The Tiara on the Terrace by Kristen Kittscher follows Sophie Young and Grace Yang–two best friends who’ve just recently finished solving Luna Vista’s biggest crime. Now the two are trying to enjoy the upcoming Winter Sun Festival activities, that is until they come across another crime mystery! Young and Yang team up again to try and solve the latest mystery to hit Luna Vista–the murder of Festival president Jim Steptoe. In order to do so, the two girls join the Royal Court as royal pages. Amidst fashion emergencies, float decoration and figuring out how to walk in high heels, Young and Yang must also try to find the killer!
Not having read the first book in this series, I was unsure if I’d be missing any details. However, Kittscher does a great job of adding in some summarization of the first book. I quickly picked up on who most of the characters were and was introduced to new players as well. (I’ll definitely be going back to read the first book though!). So, it’s not necessary to read the books in order to understand and enjoy this mystery.
Young and Yang are great main characters! The story is told from Sophie’s point of view, but readers get to see a lot of Grace as well. It was great seeing the characters develop together. Like all friendships, their relationship hits some snags along the way, but the two of them ban together (with the help of some friends) to solve the mystery. I really enjoyed Kittscher’s focus on friendship. Coming from reading mainly YA, friendship isn’t always a focus in a lot of the books I’ve read. It seems Middle Grade tends to focus more on friendship–which I appreciate.
Kittscher has definitely created well developed characters that readers will enjoy and connect with. I found a lot of the instances that Sophie and Grace went through to be similar things I went through as a young teenager/tween. Sophie has her first crush; Grace develops new interests like fashion which draws the eyes of the “popular” crowd. Trista, Sophie & Grace’s friend and new mystery-solving partner, is into mechanics and engineering. All three girls are growing and struggling through the first years of adolesence while also retaining their childhood innocence/nature. I felt that Kittscher did a great job of capturing this age–twelve/thirteen years old. She also did a great job of making the characters unique with their own clear voice.
The mystery part of the book was also well done. While I had some inclinations on who it was, it did take me some time to actually figure it out. There were multiple possibilities, but I’m happy I figured it out before the girls did
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 15 May, 2016: Finished reading
- 15 May, 2016: Reviewed