Invisible Things by Jenny Davidson

Invisible Things by Jenny Davidson
"Sixteen-year-old Sophie knows there is more to the story of her parents' death. And she's on a mission to find the truth. To aid her in solving the decades-old mystery, Sophie has enlisted her best friend, Mikael, whose friendship has turned into something more. It's soon clear that Sophie's future is very much wrapped up in the details of her family's past, and the key lies with information only one man can provide: her parents' former employer, the elusive billionaire Alfred Nobel.

As the threat of war looms in Europe, dangers to Sophie and her loved ones grow. While her determination to solve the mystery doesn't waver, forces beyond her control conspire to keep her from her purpose. Then, news of her great-aunt Tabitha's death sets off a chain of events that leaves Sophie questioning everything.

The more Sophie learns, the more she realizes that nothing—and no one—in her life is what it seems. And coming to terms with the dark secrets she uncovers means imagining a truth that she never dreamed possible."- summary from Amazon

I was really excited for this book because I loved The Explosionist so much. Unfortunately, this book let me down. I mean, it's a nice read, but there wasn't as much suspense or action as the first book. The Explosionist had me turning pages and not wanting to put it down. I was able to put this book down easily over the past few days. It just didn't capture me like the first book.

I was a bit confused about some things because it had been a while since I had read The Explosionist, but Davidson does a fairly good job of getting you up to speed. The problem I had was that the novel would build up to something and then it was over and done with in a paragraph, if that, and in the most boring way possible. It just wasn't as action-y as the back of the book promised (nor was there much romance). There are gorgeous settings, so the summary got that right.

I did enjoy the character interactions, especially between Sophie and her cat Trismegistus which was fun for me to read while I was out of town because it reminded me of my own cat Hershey, who is exactly like Trismegistus- on the bigger side, loves to cuddle up with me in bed at night, and is quite dignified (more so than the usual cat). So that was nice to read about, and Tris is around for pretty much the whole story, which was great.

Overall, this is a good book, though slow-paced and a bit of a let-down from the first book. If I were grading it, it'd probably be a C+ book. I highly recommend buying The Explosionist if you really like historical fiction, but this sequel is definitely more of a library book.

FTC: Received ARC at BEA (signed!). Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.