In her new job, Birdie hopes to blossom from introverted dreamer to brave pioneer, and gregarious Daniel Aoki volunteers to be her guide. The hotel’s charismatic young van driver shares the same nocturnal shift and patronizes the waterfront Moonlight Diner where she waits for the early morning ferry after work. Daniel also shares her appetite for intrigue, and he’s stumbled upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—might be secretly meeting someone at the hotel. To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell…discovering that the most confounding mystery of all may be her growing feelings for the elusive riddle that is Daniel.
Review: After loving Alex, Approximately and Starry Night by Jenn Bennett, I have been really looking forward to another great contemporary romance. Unfortunately her latest novel, Serious Moonlight, which features a mystery and a romance fell completely flat for me.
The book is set in Seattle, Washington where Birdie Lindberg is a home schooled and extremely sheltered teen with narcolepsy. After the death of her single mother, Birdie was raised by her grandparents and her wild, eccentric-artist "Aunt" Mona. Birdie is great at solving mysteries and lives vicariously through her novels, but she can not find her footing in real life. On the surface Birdie is a character that I would have loved as I too was a mystery loving teen, but she read far too young for an eighteen year old. I understood her awkwardness but I never felt connected to her. When the book opens we find out that Birdie had very first sexual encounter with a boy she just met and ghosted him, which kick starts this novel. I had a very hard time believing that a teen so sheltered would do this when all of her personality descriptions suggest otherwise.
We met Birdie's mysterious boy, Daniel Aoki, when Birdie begins working the graveyard shift at the historic Cascadia Hotel, where Daniel drives the hotel van. He wants to understand what happened between them, but Birdie just wants to forget. Still, she can't resist his invitation to help solve an intriguing puzzle about a local author who takes great pains to hide his identity in weekly visits to the hotel, and their sleuthing takes them all over the city.
I thought Daniel was adorable, but he was not fleshed out as I had hoped. Bennett attempts to balance a happy, breezy love interest and one who is battling depression. I had hoped the mental health aspect would be further explored but it is not. I appreciated once again the inclusion of diversity of Daniel being half Japanese and half white with a hearing difficulty. Overall I felt pretty underwhelmed with this book and I did not feel surprised with the final reveal of the mystery either.
Rating: 2 stars
Words of Caution: There is some language, sex is referenced and implied, and weed candy is consumed. Recommended for Grades
If you like this book try: Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
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Yikes, 2 stars. What a disappointment when it sounds like there were a couple issues on which this book really could have capitalized.
I was disappointed in this one as well for most of the reasons you mentioned. I did not like how the whole relationship started. It didn’t feel right to me either.