“Dawn Chandler is newly settled in Lone Pine, and she can’t wait for the family wedding. When she and her friend Moriah discover an old letter written during the Vietnam War, they hatch a plan for a grand wedding surprise. Forming the “Smokey’s Sleuths” group with their siblings, they intend to track down the letter’s author.
As plans move forward with festivities, Dawn tries to ignore Rochelle, the one girl determined to make her life miserable and ruin her friendships. But Smokey’s Sleuths soon discover that Rochelle is the one person who holds the clue they desperately need.
Will Smokey’s Sleuths be able to track down the letter’s author in time to pull off a wedding surprise, or will Dawn’s struggle to love her enemy keep them from their goal?”
Series: Book #2 in the “Dawn Chandler” series. Review of Book #1, Here!
Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures are read, mentioned, & thought over; Bible reading; Prayers & Thanking God; Church going, singing a hymn, and listening to a sermon about love and loving your enemies (which makes Dawn cringe); Dawn thinks about her bad attitude (Book #1) and adds “It’s simply a matter of choosing joy and accepting God’s plan for my life. Good friends don’t hurt, though.”; Dawn’s mother has Bible study and assignments related to researching Scriptures for both Dawn and her brother in their homeschool lessons; Dawn listens to a Christian pop group (1 Girl Nation) but cringes when one of the lyrics is to love your haters; When Dawn reads Matthew 5:44 about loving your enemies, she closes her Bible as that’s not what she wanted to hear; Dawn says a prayer that Rochelle won’t come to an event (and is disappointed when her prayer doesn’t work); Dawn also cringes during a sermon about loving your enemies; *Spoilers* Towards the end, Dawn feels like God has been “chasing her down” by bringing up loving her enemies basically everywhere; When she discussed the girl with her mom, Dawn’s mom says that it could be that the Holy Spirit has been convicting her about it *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, & sharing about Jesus with others; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; A couple mentions of Saint Valentine as a martyr who was beheaded; A mention of thinking that a girl might become a missionary one day.
Negative Content- Some eye rolling & Sarcasm (most are teasing and not done meanly); Dawn thinks back about her bad attitude (Book #1) and how she likes the small town they live in now; Rochelle is rude and spiteful to Dawn & Dawn wonders why she hates her (at one point, Dawn asks a friend to not tell another friend about Rochelle hating her and says “Please don’t tell Caroline about me not getting along with Rochelle. I feel like if she knew she wouldn’t take my side, and she’d talk about—” “About how Rochelle’s had a hard life and she would tell you that you should be a perfect angel to Rochelle even when she’s tearing you down?” Moriah smiled and Dawn nodded. “Yeah, she probably would say that. I love Caroline, but sometimes she’s too perfect.”); Dawn and Moriah tells Caroline that Rochelle is mean to Dawn, but Caroline says that they aren’t being fair because Rochelle has had a rough few years; Rochelle makes Dawn cry & be upset; *Spoilers* Towards the end, Rochelle accuses Dawn of hating her (which makes Dawn think “wait, who doesn’t like who?”); Dawn discussed about Rochelle with her mom for the first time after this and when her mom asks if Dawn has been mean back to Rochelle, Dawn answers “kind of…yes, I have” and that she feels terrible about it, so Dawn goes to talk to Rochelle and apologizes for her part in all of this; Rochelle admits that she’s been jealous of Dawn because of her family as Rochelle’s older brother passed away in a motorcycle accident and her parents divorced after that, leaving her with her grandmother because she reminds them too much of her brother *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of mean girls & their comments; Mentions of opening someone’s mail without their permission & later apologizing for it; A few mentions of the Vietnam War, fighting overseas, & a death of a loved one; A couple mentions of a motorcycle accident & death; A couple mentions of a missing person case; A couple mentions of a possible stalker; A couple mentions of not wanting to lie; A couple mentions of a divorce; A mention of war movies; A mention of a place being a “hick town”;
*Note: In the Prologue, Rochelle thinks that she’s “almost a teenager” and doesn’t want to play dress-up like her grandmother suggested; Rochelle wears ripped jeans & a choker necklace; Dawn’s brother has his best friend saved in his phone as “Walty Baby” (as a joke); Mentions of TV shows & a movie (Gilmore Girls, MacGyver, Petticoat Junction, The 1960s Batman, Sound of Music); A few mentions of a singer & songs (Frank Sinatra, ‘If I Were the Only Girl in the World’, and ‘By Light of the Silvery Moon’); A few mentions of McDonald’s; A couple mentions of Nancy Drew; A mention of a Jane Austen movie; A mention of Star Wars (with a quote from one movie); A mention of a magazine (Seventeen which was a grandmother’s copy from the 1970s); A mention of Google.
Sexual Content- A handful of girlfriends (mainly that an older brother does not have one nor want one as he plans to be single for his whole life);
*Note: Caroline loves singing love songs & says she can’t wait for her wedding (which makes her sister tease her about who she’ll marry since that part isn’t known because Caroline may have not even met him yet; This is brought up a couple other times in good-natured teasing); Dawn says she’s excited to be allowed to wear make-up for a wedding and encourages a friend that she’s be beautiful with it & a friend teases her about being naturally beautiful; A brother teases about doing chores and getting buff from them (he tries to flex his muscles and strikes a pose; done humorously).
-Dawn Chandler, age 12
P.O.V. of Dawn (Prologue in Rochelle’s)
141 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This book picks up right after the first book ends, which I always like because then I feel like I haven’t missed out on anything!
We met Rochelle in the first book as she was the girl that had some mean comments towards Dawn being from the big city. Dawn is told that she’s “upset with the world” but that’s all we learn. In this book, we find out her story and that her home life has been rough. I feel like Dawn has some very realistic reactions and comments about Rochelle and everything involved with the two of them not liking the other. The truth and resolution come by the end of this short book and while I would have liked it to be a bit longer, it felt very accurate and realistic.
The sibling and friendship parts/conversations are so fun to read! It’s also really refreshing to see that and the post I’ve homeschooler content in this series. You can tell this was written by someone closer to the age of the main character than a lot of other middle-grade books. Particularly because there’s many little things that feel natural and explained or written like this age group would say, for example the makeup comment listed above. This has been a sweet series and I hope that there may be more books in it some day!
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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