A Study In Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) by Brittany Cavallaro : Book Review #2016DeAuthC

Title: A Study In Charlotte
Series: Charlotte Holmes #1
Author: Brittany Cavallaro
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Published Date: March 1st 2016 by
Genre: Mystery, YA, Retelling
Page Count: 321
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.
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 My Review:

“Truth be told, I liked that blurriness. That line where reality and fiction jutted up against each other.”

I really enjoyed this story. I know a lot of people aren’t huge fans of it because of how many of these types of books are coming out right now. I personally find that it is better to separate all of them from each other and enjoy them as individual things that have the same type of theme but are completely different.

This is the first type of book that I have read what Holmes is a girl and Watson is a boy. This made things far more interesting to me, especially once we get to know Charlotte and how her brain works and what she had to deal with as a child to become what she is today. It was also nice to see Jamie’s point of view and how he was trying to figure out who Charlotte was at the same time we were, all while still having to do school work.

Jamie is a teenager who has some anger issues, which lead him to be placed on a rugby team and then later on sent to an American boarding school where he got a scholarship. This is where he meets Charlotte and tries to befriend her. This doesn’t work though until someone dies and they both have motive for wanting the deceased dead. They end up working together so they can clear their names. In the process we see their friendship grow a little bit; we also see why Charlotte was sent away to boarding school.

"At best our friendship made me feel as though I was a part of something large, something grander; that, with her I'd been access to a world whose unseen currents ran parallel to ours. But at our friendship's worst, I wasn't sure I was her friend at all. Maybe some human echo chamber or director for her brilliant light."

Once these two get called in by the police though is when things started to get really interesting. Not only does this cause Jamie’s dad to get involved, but they also start learning why they are being framed and who might be framing them. Plus we also get some information on Charlotte that she had been hiding from Jamie, and how to exactly handle her when she is doing illegal things. 

"What I didn't understand was why they'd bugged my room. Who was I, anyway? I wasn't the extraordinary one. I was Jamie Watson, would be writer, subpar ruggar, keeper of the most boring journal in at least five states. I couldn't even get people to call me by my full first name. If I was important it was only as a conduit. Holmes’s only access point."

Disaster of course ends up happening and one of them is left to try and save the other one from disaster, all while still trying to get their names cleared by the police. 

"You don't see it-- that I'm not a good person. That I spend every minute of every day trying not to be the person I know I could be, if I let myself slip. And I'll bring you downwith me. I have Look at us. Look at where we are."

I really loved this story, and can’t wait till the second book comes out. There might be some romance between these two characters way way down the road, but right now they really are just good friends who happen to have Holmes and Watson as their last name.

"Maybe Charlotte Holmes was still learning how to pick apart a case; maybe I was still learning how to write. We weren't Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. I was okay with that, I thought. We had things they didn't, too. "