Amanda Flower brings us a great new character set to star in a series. Andi Boggs appears in her first Andi Boggs novel, ‘Andi Unexpected’.
Andora ‘Andi’ Boggs and her sister, Bethany, have become orphans after their parents’ plane crash. Sent to live with flighty Aunt Amelie, the girls are uprooted from everything they’ve known. Since they became orphans, they’d been staying with uptight family friends in their own hometown. Now, they’re off to Ohio.
Bethany is angry at the world and immerses herself in art. On the other hand, Andi looks for a distraction. Once Amelie allows her to redo the attic into her own room, Andi dives in to the project.
Accompanied by new neighbor Colin, she makes a startling discovery in the attic. Hidden in a cubbyhole, Colin and Andi come across evidence of a child that has an unusual name. Unbeknownst to them, there was another Andora in the Boggs family. They’ve never heard of her and they smell a mystery.
Embracing this new distraction, they dive headfirst into the Andora mystery. But as clues begin to develop, they soon realize that there’s much more to this than they thought. Can they solve this puzzle while Andi comes to grips with her new life?
Technically, Amanda Flower has penned a YA novel. Honestly, the book is ageless. I loved it. After the first page, I no longer looked at it as a YA book. Andi and Bethany’s orphan status is dealt with in a realistic way and with grace. It’s not glossed over, but talked about in much the same way you’d expect a ‘real’ child to handle it.
I appreciated that our main characters searched for clues within the confines of law and when they overstepped, our author was quick to point out the consequences they faced. It’s absolutely clean and the fact that Andi and Colin are platonic friends is fantastic. Our authors may have put in a bit of romance. I’m thrilled that Amanda Flower was able to stand on her own merit and leave it out. Great writers don’t need to stoop to these measures.
I’m looking forward to more from Andi and Amanda Flower. If you have kiddos that like Nancy Drew or even Scooby Doo, introduce them to Andi. Don’t rule it out as YA either. You don’t want to miss this one!
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.
