Goodreads | Waterstones

Raised in isolation and home-schooled by her strict grandparents, the only experience Birdie has had of the outside world is through her favourite crime books.
But everything changes when she takes a summer job working the night shift at a historic Seattle hotel. There she meets Daniel Aoki, the hotel’s charismatic driver, and together they stumble upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—is secretly meeting someone at the hotel.
To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell, and in doing so, realize that the most confounding mystery of all may just be her growing feelings for Daniel.

I don’t read as much contemporary as I used to, but Jenn Bennett is an auto-buy author for me. I’ve loved all of her books so far and I only have Starry Eyes left to pick up now. She has a great knack of writing compelling contemporary books with very real characters and always with an interesting, mysterious twist, and Serious Moonlight was no different!

Although Alex, Approximately remains my favourite Jenn Bennett book, this one might be a close second. The characters in this book felt so real and alive. They are dynamic and make a lot of mistakes, but not without reason and I actually quite enjoyed how layered the characters felt because of it. I think one of my favourite small things about the way these characters were written is it’s all in the detail. It’s in the way Birdie wears a flower in her hair and had a sheltered childhood. It’s in the way Daniel likes magic tricks and David Bowie. All of the tiny details made every character feel vibrant and beautiful and I fell in love with each of them a tiny bit. The side characters were diverse and amazing in every way.

Judging other people unfairly doesn’t define them; it defines you.

I also loved the plot of this book. I never expect to have so many twists and turns and I definitely didn’t guess what was going to happen along the way! The plot is interwoven mystery and romance, with one sometimes coming to the forefront of the story. Although a little far fetched sometimes, I was so invested in the story and I couldn’t stop reading at the end because I just needed to know what was going to happen to Birdie and Daniel.

There was so many tiny things I loved about this book. I find Jenn Bennett’s writing always brings the location to life and I find I always want to visit the settings afterwards. I also loved the food in this book (no surprise there!), which seemed to have constant talk of pie, and a great sushi scene. The characters were really sex positive and talked a lot about sex, which was not only brilliant but also made for some very humorous scenes!

And in the end everyone will be disappointed.

This book was so quirky, cute and just an all around amazing. It was also really diverse, with a compelling plot and beautiful cast of characters. I will definitely continue to read all of Jenn Bennett’s books!

★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

| Shop | Goodreads | Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook |