Good adventure book for children. The story evolves around puzzles and friendship, I'd be interested in reading the next part.
Thanks NetGalley for the free arc.

I loved the characterisation in this one. The incredible dynamic of friendships and how everyone is different and should just accept each other for their quirks and what makes them, well, them.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Thoughts:

The blurb for this book caught my interest right off the bat, and I thought it sounded like a really cute mix between an adventure and a low-key mystery ... and I was kind of right? I am NOT the target audience for mid-grade books (obviously), but I have a daughter who is, so I end up reading a bunch of mid-grade. This book was cute, but it felt like more of a miss for both of us. In the end, I think it was mostly the book just wasn't a good fit with us and followed some mid-grade tropes that neither of us enjoy.

I think this book would be a good fit for kids who are more into straight-up adventures (as this leaned heavily on that), love the "incompetent adults/kids save the day" trope, and don't read too much into the story/characters. It's an enjoyable read on the surface, as long as you're not looking for anything deeper than that.

The Positives:

- The book was really slow to get into at first, but it picked up pace pretty quickly and held it until the end. After the initial setting the stage scenes, it moved along at a nice quip, where I didn't find myself getting particularly bored with it.

- The mystery and clues were easy to follow along with and at a good level for the target audience. My daughter had no problem figuring out the clues with the characters, and since she's big into puzzles/riddles, she enjoyed that aspect of it.

- I like the assassin, and this should surprise absolutely no one. He's got a code of ethics and sticks to it, darn it. He's all brooding and mysterious and refuses to say anything about his backstory. Of course he's my favorite. Not that we learn much about him in this book, but it was enough for me to like him.

Sticking Points:

- This leaned too heavily on the "incompetent adults/kids fix everything" trope for my tastes. In the end, the kids didn't really do anything particularly spectacular. Nothing that even a semi-capable adult couldn't have done, yet all the adults were bumbling fools. I'm not at all against the kids saving the day trope. Isn't that sort of the point of a lot of mid-grade? But this just felt so unrealistic that I didn't buy any minute of it, and neither did my daughter.

- I didn't connect with any of the characters at all. They all felt sort of shallow and the same? Even now, I can't tell you anything particularly unique about any of the characters except Ethan, and that's less about his character and more about the circumstances. All the rest sort of blend together, and they serve purposes, but they don't exactly have personality.

- The resolution was ridiculously easy, and the main character had a sudden radical transformation in 14 days to complete his character arc. Most of which we don't actually see. I was very disappointed, since it's the main character and his arc is important, and it felt just glossed over and unsatisfying.

I received a free copy of The Three Hares: Bloodline by Geoffrey Simpson through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Ethan Drake and his friend Jacob are living in a dying town. When someone runs for mayor on promises to revitalize the economy, that person wins. There’s no surprise that the new mayor is corrupt, but how deep does the corruption run? Is it just your typical shifty politician or is there a conspiracy? Ethan and Jacob embark on treasure hunts and other adventures that ultimately lead them to the answer. The book starts out “The Goonies” and ends up “The Skulls.” Though written from the viewpoint of very young men, the vocabulary used is geared toward adult readers.

Some of the story points were a little strange. For instance, the amount of responsibility/control/leadership almost instantly ceded to a child from all of the adults in the organization. Though Ethan, through intense meditation "matures" twelve years in twelve days, the adults gave Ethan absolutely no training in anything other than how to wield a bokken. There were no classes in leadership, strategy, spycraft, or even the history of the conflict. Maturity does not equal knowledge or experience.

I would like to thank Net Galley for my copy of The Three Hares: by Geoffrey Simpson. I read this book with my grandson age 11 over Spring Break. We both liked the book very much. A tale of good versus evil. The book was well wrote and flowed very well. My grandson loved Ethan (his favorite character) and his two friends. The book is full of adventure and fast moving. He is looking forward to another adventure of this type.

DNF. I'm not that into supernatural fiction, so perhaps I am simply not the target audience! I'm sure people who are fans of The Raven Boys would enjoy this story.

This is an interesting story that holds the attention through a somewhat different type of plot. There are a number of areas that could be better developed. The characterization is not strong; whilst there is a differentiation between characters, there is little development of richness of personality. The lead character is indicative of this; he goes from just another teen, through risk, pain, and death, to become a charismatic leader within a very short period of time and yet there is no angst or personal change to accompany this. There is a point at which he 'transforms' but the transformation process is not examined and there appears no noticeable change in character at the end of this period. The twist in the tail character was also so heavily flagged throughout, that the reader waits for the revelation for so long that it becomes anticlimactic when it does occur.

The setting is generally well explored, but given the nature of the fox and hare vendetta, it seems strangely localized. Connections to the outside are used, but it is unclear why this very small area hold such a constrained focus for the story.

There is a measure of the fantastical about the story as characters gain extrasensory skills as well as physical powers that far outstrip the norm. It is unclear why or how this is achieved and the reader is left to accept what is happening at face value. Sadly this undermines the credibility of the tale.

As noted above, there is a twist in the tale and the plot is left open-ended with clear issues that remain to be explored in subsequent books.

The story has a lot of potential and it was not an unpleasant read; however, the writing would need to be a lot tighter in subsequent books if they were to be of further interest