Hello! This first book in the series is The Mystery of the Painted Book, and you can read my review of it here. Anyway, here is my review of The Mystery of the Golden Ball, by K. S. Mitchell.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the synopsis or really any information on the book on Goodreads or anywhere else, except for the cover, which I got from the cover reveal.

The Mystery of the Golden Ball is the second book in a series about the adventures of twins Pen and Quin. Pen is itching for another adventure, however her brother Quin is much less excited, after having broken his arm.

The book takes place after their last adventure, and although it mentions and references the previous book, and brings up the twins’ past adventures, it isn’t really a continuation, and could easily be read as a standalone.

However, when I was going into the book I was really hoping for more of a continuation of the first book. The book wasn’t at all what I expected, but there were some aspects that I did enjoy.

The dialogue and banter was very fun to read. I really enjoyed this in the first book, and the funny conversations the different characters were great!

I also really liked the sibling relationships, and how close Pen and Quin were, and also how close they were with Archie, their older brother.

The new characters that we met in this book were interesting and fun to read about, however, I didn’t feel like I could really connect with them.

The overall plot was good, it just didn’t feel like it lived up to the book that came before it. There was a lot of soccer in it, in fact, that’s what the whole book was based around, however, I felt like that there was a little bit too much focus on that.

There was a tiny bit of romance, but it felt a little forced into the plot. There were hints of what was to be in the previous book, but some of it seemed to move to quickly.

KS (Kimberly) Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. She has hiked the Inca Trail, walked into Panama on a rickety wooden bridge and once missed the last train of the night in Paris. She believes magic can be found in life and books, loves to watch the stars appear, and still dreams of backpacking the world. Now she writes adventures to send her characters on journeys, too.

Website | Goodreads

This was a fun read, however, I didn’t like it as much as I enjoyed the first book. The book didn’t turn out how I expected it to be, however, there were still things that I liked, such as the banter and the sibling relationships.

I didn’t have a lot of reaction to the book, but I am glad I read it. The plot was interesting, and the characters were fun. My favorite aspect was probably the dialogue, which was exciting and nice to read through.

My rating: 3/5 stars

Recommendable: Yes

To who? A soccer fan looking for a fast-paced middle-grade mystery.

Have you read The Mystery of the Golden Ball? What did you think of this review? Chat with me in the comments below!