Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor by Ally Carter

Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor

by Ally Carter

Kindle Edition, 336 pages

Published March 3rd 2020 by HMH Books for Young Readers

Goodreads synopsis: 

April didn’t mean to start the fire. She wasn’t even the one who broke the vase. 

She had absolutely no intention of becoming the only person who knows that Gabriel Winterborne, the missing-and-presumed-dead billionaire, is neither missing nor dead and is actually living in the basement of Winterborne House, sharpening his swords and looking for vengeance. 

Now that April knows Gabriel Winterborne is alive, it’s up to her to keep him that way. But there’s only so much a twelve-year-old girl can do, so April must turn to the other orphans for help. Together, they’ll have to unravel the riddle of a missing heir and a creepy legend, and find a secret key, before the only home they’ve ever known is lost to them forever. 

***

5 Stars

This book will do well with the younger readers for sure. It feels like a new book akin to Harry Potter. It seems to unassuming but this book has some meat to its bones.

April has lived in foster care for most of her life so she knows the drill. A new home means meeting new people. She has a key given to her by her mother when she was an infant and she keeps this close. On the key is the Winterbourne crest. So when her new home is Winterbourne Castle, she needs to find out what this key opens and what legacy her mother left her. She runs into roguish missing billionaire, Gabriel during her search. No one believes she has seen the elusive man even the woman taking care of them who knew the man personally. He is thought to be dead and his uncle is about to make that happen legally so he can take possession of the Winterbourne fortune.

This reminds me of a comic book in some ways. I can see all the Batman colorations hidden in plain sight here. But this book has its own vision. I am hoping this might only be book one in a bigger series. I can see how it could expand for further development. Many threads were left hanging at the end.

The main question I was left with was… why was April left such an important key to the legacy revealed at the end? What is her connection to it all? She asks a similar question throughout the book. Even though it wasn’t answered, that doesn’t make me hate this book. It just makes me curious for more. I need more in the Winterbourne series.

Such a fun book. I totally recommend it for adults, middle grade and teens. We all can learn something from these scrappy and inventive kids.

If you love a good middle grade mystery book, you need to pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed. I was hooked all the way through. Good stuff!

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.