The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry
**

I was so excited to get this book the premise sounded interesting. I thought a story of Goblins with possibly a new approach enjoyable. However that is about as far as it went, this story was painfully slow for me. The plot looked to have potential and then stalled out after the first quarter of the book. It did pick up a bit toward the end or last quarter, but by this point I didn't much care what happened. I think this book might have good potential if marketed for a younger age group eight to twelve year old change the ages of main characters and keep them just as friends that would be all it would take. There just was not enough depth, to plot or characters for my liking. I started off liking Lena the main character but as time went on I lost respect for her. She was a lousy friend to Jimson, and Mr. Bearsly, naive, shallow, self serving. She does redeem herself a little in the end but it just was a little to late for me. She seemed rather immature in her friendships for an 18 year old girl to not out right confront them and be honest in her suspicions and concerns. Jimson was probably my favorite character he was naive and gullible, but kind and good natured. Mr Beasley was an interesting sort mysteries and concerned for others well being. The plot was soooooo slow, and had spurts or moments of movement, most were predictable, and not that exciting. I would say if you are a younger YA you might enjoy it as for myself it was just not up to speed.

clean language
clean romance wasn't much at all

Thank you to Netgalley and ABRAMS publishing.