A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes Trilogy Series #1)
4.4
31
5
1
Paperback(Reprint)
USD
8.99
$8.99
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780062398918 |
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| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 01/03/2017 |
| Series: | Charlotte Holmes Trilogy Series , #1 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 352 |
| Sales rank: | 34,487 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.79(d) |
| Lexile: | HL750L (what's this?) |
| Age Range: | 13 - 17 Years |
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
A Study in Charlotte
4.4 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
31 reviews.
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Who doesn't love Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson....follow a story of their great, great, great, great.......whatever grandchildren stuck in a boarding school in Connecticut. Took me a bit to get into the story, but after the first few chapters things started moving right along. I enjoyed the story and will most likely buy the next story and check out the adventures of Charlotte Holmes & Jamie Watson.
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Even though some aspects of of the story could've been more fleshed out, I enjoyed reading this book. I absolutely loved reading this short mystery novel even though some might say it's wish fulfillment
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This book doesn't take itself too seriously, and Cavallaro writes with a playfulness that is wholly lovable and entertaining. But the mysteries and the murders are still terrifying! Charlotte and Jaime are heroes you can root for, and the added background of their family history was a fun and interesting component. I dreaded putting this book down, it was such an enjoyable read!
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This book is a retelling of Sherlock Holmes, except that in this universe both Sherlock Holmes and his author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are real, and the storyline follows descendants of Holmes and Watson thrown together seemingly by fate at a prestigious school in Connecticut and then framed for murder. Although Charlotte Holmes is the titular sleuth, the main POV is that of Watson, who besides being recruited for a sport at which he is terrible, finds himself shipped across an ocean in an effort by his mother for him to get to know his estranged father and step family.
I saw a book trailer for A Study in Charlotte sometime ago and assumed it was a movie. You can find it here. When I realized it was a novel, I immediately added it to my TBR and eagerly awaited it's release. Not only did the cover speak to me in a decidedly Nancy Drew kind of way, but the characters seemed interesting and I am a person who always loves a good Sherlock Holmes story.
The novel was gritty and twisting, and in true Sherlock form, much was left unexplained until the big reveal at the end of the book. Although this frustrated me as I read, it was obvious that Cavallaro was attempting to make it recognizable as the formula of all the Holmes stories. Because a lot of details were saved for the reveal and the story was told form Watson's inexperienced point of view, I had no idea what was going to happen until it did. In this age of technology and surveillance equipment, it seemed odd to me that it took them so long to put all the pieces together, especially when Charlotte had a lot of experience in mystery solving pre-storyline and much of the framework for the case comes from the original Sherlock stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which both Holmes and Watson have read to death. However the turn of events was original enough to be interesting.
I was feeling rather meh about the quick wrap-up, I'll be honest. The epilogue, however, provided us with a brief Charlotte POV, which finally had me looking forward to a potential sequel or series and the idea of getting to know Holmes and Watson better as characters as they mature together. I think the storyline could have been a little stronger, but I think the characters will develop themselves further throughout the series, which I believe is going to be a trilogy.
This book is definitely on the upper end of YA. It takes all the dark parts of the Holmes family and fits them onto a teenage girl: Depression, unrequited love, alcoholism and drug addiction, sociopathic genius, and ever rising stakes. Add in a rape and a murder and you've got enough material to make Charlotte Holmes a tortured creature. Yet she manages to rise above everything that's happened to her and those around her and focus unwaveringly upon the mystery at hand. Author Brittany Cavallaro had a lot of work to do to rein in a character like that, and I think she did a pretty great job.
Curio Street Reads Rating: 3.5 stars
www.CurioStreetReads.wordpress.com
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This is a fun who-done-it based on the Sherlock Holmes stories but with a twist. Holmes is a girl and Watson a boy, generations later to the original pair. The voices are cheeky and fun with a couple of plot twists to keep you thinking. If you are a lover of Sherlock Holmes this is a good one and even has sprinkles of information nodding to the original.
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So if your are a Sherlock Holmes fan read this book! It is extremely well written and you will not want to put it down. Looking forward to reading the rest of this series.
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I really, really, really enjoyed this book.
To start off this review, I actually want to pause and shout out to the main narrator, Graham Halstead. I rarely talk about the narrators in my reviews even though most of my reading is audiobooks. That said, when one is either very good or very bad, I like to highlight it. Graham Halstead is fantastic. Aside from having just the right cadence and buttery tone to embody James Watson, I’ve never noticed a narrator pay attention to the detail in book about the voice. At one point, Watson mentions when he’s angry, his accent thickens… and Graham Halstead spoke with a thicker British accent during Watson’s angry dialogue. I just… wow? So immersive. So good. It needed mentioning.
As far as narrators go, Julie Whalen is always wonderful as well, but she only narrators the epilogue, so don’t get too excited for that.
OKAY.
On to the book itself.
I am finding myself in the midst of a lot of Sherlock Holmes retellings lately, and I am okay with it. There’s a quirky charm to them, and A Study in Charlotte is no exception. Rather than creative a pure retelling, this is a continuation of sorts, revolving around the descendants of the famed Holmes & Watson duo. I liked that, because while we can see reflections of their predecessors in them, James and Charlotte are very much their own people.
These characters are interesting, unpredictable, and layered. One of the qualms I have with anything retelling-esque is that it tends to rely on the reader knowing the original story and character details. Brittany Cavallaro makes no such assumptions, but she is not tedious. These two are vibrant and complicated and interesting. At the end of the book I found myself wanting to know more about Charlotte, so I’m quite glad this isn’t a standalone.
The story draws some inspiration from classic murder mystery boarding school tales (which are practically always fun) and some sparks from Sherlock Holmes, but this is also an awkward friendship/probably romance (in later books, I’m assuming) and a story about finding friends, family, and fitting in. There are a lot of elements in the plot to like about this. The writing is interesting, the deductions enjoyable, and the descriptions are not too heavy. Generally… this is just a well-written book I found highly enjoyable!
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I had my doubts going into this because I love Sherlock Holmes so much and I’m always nervous about retellings, especially when the times they take place are so different, but this re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes’s legacy absolutely blew me away. I am in love with this series. I think it’s perfect that it isn’t quite a retelling, but more like a continuation of the Holmes and Watson families if they were real and existed in the present-day.
What I appreciated the most was the level of thought and detail that went into this story. We have a Holmes who is meticulous to a fault and very shrewd; what’s great is that these traits aren’t explained away as inherited from Sherlock or genetic, but it’s known that the Holmes family trains their children from a very young age to be able to discern and perform all sorts of strange things that make them super geniuses and able to solve mysteries. It also heavily references the original stories, which is a lot of fun if you’ve read a lot of Holmes books.
The mystery itself is intriguing, but that’s not what drove the story for me. I loved watching Jamie and Charlotte get to know each other and develop a relationship. I really appreciated the humor and inside jokes they develop with one another–I was laughing out loud quite a few times while reading this. Jamie is a wonderful main character and reading about him slowly realizing exactly what’s going on with his dad, his school, Charlotte, etc. is a fun time.
Some stuff struck me as odd; I’m not really sure what two British kids are doing at a prep school in Connecticut. I feel like the author vaguely tried to justify this, but it was still kind of strange. I also couldn’t quite pin down exactly how to feel about James’s relationships with each of his parents. Aside from that, though, I loved this and I’m really excited to continue reading this series.
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loved+the+family+generational+twist
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+ note: rape tw
+ I love love love Charlotte and Jamie’s relationship. They’re so CUTE and FRIENDSHIP is magic askdkljd. They’re nerds and they love each other. Be it romantic or platonic or whatever. It’s love. And it happened extraordinarily fast, but I’m going to chalk it up to stress and heredity. Shhh.
+ I have come to understand that most male/female friendships will not remain friendships — there will, 98% of the time, be some sort of romantic interaction at some time. And that is the case here. BUT as I’m going to talk about that in my The Case for Jamie review…I’ll just leave that here.
+ Besides that Watson/Holmes relationship, the best part is definitely that a rapist is dead. And that the author talks about it. About how Charlotte still has problems with people touching her, with being intimate. Thank Brittany for addressing trauma without defining the character by their trauma.
+ I don’t read a lot of crime novels but I have a soft spot for Sherlockian crime solving.
+ Everyone is really in character (yes, I know, they’re characters! but) — they act like their BBC counterparts do, and my BFF says that the BBC characters act mostly like the original book characters, which is good enough for me.
+ Also I would like to state for the record that I called Bryony from pg. 323. Yes, it is I, the new Sherlock Holmes.
Originally published on Devour Books
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I was out of the book loop for longer than I would like to admit (as in, I live two minutes from the bookstore and haven't been sleeping there) but the Charlotte Holmes series reeled me right back in to the world of reading. I'm obsessed with these books and this YA couple that has such a unique and refreshing relationship. Sherlock and Holmes' best friends-to-lovers-to-still-best-friends-to-lovers- is exactly the kind of romance I love. And the role reversal is a big sell for me. Please give me more emotionally detached female characters, who are dark and mysterious, it's all I ask universe.
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I loved this book before it even came out. I was never able to really devote myself to reading the original Sherlock Holmes because I could never stand the style of the writing. Enter A Study In Charlotte, with modern writing and a modern story. I loved that the author focused so heavily on establishing the friendship between Charlotte and Jamie instead of setting up a romance. That friendship over romance distinction is the forefront of the novel, and as the first book in the series, there is a lot of time spent on the pair getting to know each other while working towards a greater enemy. LOVE LOVE LOVE
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I love these characters! the plot was really interesting and very intriguing. the pacing was excellent. this series hooks you right in and it does not let go.
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Review I admit that I was skeptical when I first saw this book on my Amazon Recommendations. Of course, the clever title caught my eye, and I'm a sucker for Sherlock Holmes - but that is exactly why I had my doubts. I am wary of retellings of Holmes that rely on tricks and the sometimes unbearable cleverness. There are only so many ways to make Holmes different.
I'm glad to say that my wariness was unfounded. I find Cavallaro's world a fascinating practice in retelling without erasing the importance of the original texts in literature and pop culture. Jamie and Charlotte (and Milo!) serve as delightful homages of their ancestral counterparts, while simultaneously endearing themselves to me by their own right. Jamie's voice captivated me from the beginning of the small excerpt, and I found myself purchasing the book immediately upon finishing the sample. (I then finished it at 3am because I couldn't bring myself to put it down!) Additionally, Cavallaro's handling of Charlotte's drug usage and sexual assault was heartbreaking, earnest, and sympathetic in a way that many other Holmes stories do not quite manage. I respect her work in making these conversations prevalent and important in a YA novel.
Finally - and surprisingly - I enjoyed this book so much that I wasn't even disappointed in the (SPOILER) eventual romance. When I started the book, I was enamored with the idea of Holmes and Watson as an ultimate platonic friendship and loathed the idea that they'd get together because they were a girl and a boy. However, as I read, I warmed up to the concept as their relationship evolved organically - especially because not much seemed to change in their dynamics. By the time the Big Kiss happened, the characters felt ready for it, and so was I. This romance was no shoehorned in - I appreciate that greatly.
Overall, this book had me in suspense from page one, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Jamie and Charlotte yet!
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“And even so, before I had ever met Charlotte Holmes, I was sure she was the only friend I would make in that miserable place.”
I adored everything about this book! Not to mention the cover of this book is to die for!
The relationship between Charlotte and Jamie just works so well, the way that they meet and how they start working together. It's nice to just have a friendship in a book that could be something more, but they also work amazingly well as friends.
Something that always bothers me in YA mysteries are that they are usually very predictable, but this book's plot twists and turns worked perfectly!
Charlotte is a character with so many layers, she's not just a frilly girl at a boarding school, she has actual real life problems and nothing for her is perfect.
Jamie just made me smile almost every time he interacted with Charlotte, I mean, what's not to love? Come on, he plays rugby!
I don't think any other author could've pulled off such an amazing spin-off of the Sherlock Holmes series as Cavallaro did. The characters are her own, even though it's a retelling of sorts, which takes an amazing amount of talent.
Overall, I loved this book and I know I'll love the rest of the series just as much.
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For some odd reason, James Watson came back to the US and stay with his dad, but will live in a boarding school. I guess it's not so bad, Charlotte Holmes is in this school too. Having Dr. John Watson and Sherlock Holmes as their ancestors, it's in their blood to be friends, right?
My curiosity was piqued because it's a modern-retelling of Sherlock Holmes! I got excited. But it's not one of those books that I have to buy... The classic was hard for me to read so I never got into actually reading it. So I thought that reading this modern-retelling would be great and I would understand the classic. And I thought it was... okay.
I didn't really think it was amazing, but I thought it was good. I wasn't a fan of the main characters being related to the duo. And they kept talking about their lineage as if the family members were destined to be partners in crime or something. I thought it was so linear. It kinda stressed me out that in some way, the Holmeses need to be in the detective business, and the Watsons are writers or doctors.
Also, I read this as an audiobook, and I didn't appreciate the reader that much. Yes, he was doing voices but I just thought he was kinda lacking in emotion or something, I can't even point it out.
On the positive note, I did stick around and most importantly, I thought the mystery and the adventures were great! I didn't get to guess the culprit right. I also like the main characters. They still had a hint of their own selves even though they were heavily influenced by the classic duo.
Truthfully, I'm not sure if I'll read the whole series. But actually read it, not listen to it.
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Before I start this review, I just want to give you a heads up and tell you that I felt like my reading experience with this book affected my overall thoughts a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if I sat down and read this book in one sitting that I would’ve given it 5/5 stars. I just think that since life got in the way of having a little bit more love for this story.
SOOOOO with that being said, let’s continue on our bookish review journey!
While I haven’t read the original Sherlock Holmes stories (#shame. But they are on my TBR.), I am a HUGE fan of the BBC adaptation with Benedict Cumberbatch. When I heard that a YA novel adaptation was out in the world, I was so excited to read it. Usually, I’m not much of a mystery/thriller kind of person, but towards the end of the summer, I decided I needed to mix up my reading a little. August 16th seemed like the perfect time to start. The first couple chapters were okay. Nothing special, but they had my interest.
Then I looked up, and I’d gone almost two weeks without reading (#moreshame). I remembered enough to keep reading, but this was where my reading experience probably detracted from my enjoyment. But what do I know? I didn’t get to read it under normal terms to compare.
Even though I didn’t love this book, there was still quite a bit that I enjoyed:
1. Cavallaro took witty banter to a whole new level. Charlotte and Jamie had me laughing out loud.
2. The book wasn’t based on a specific story but incorporated a few different cases into the retelling. It allowed the book to become its own story.
3. Jamie’s narration is fantastic. He reminds me a little bit of Martin Freeman’s character in Sherlock.
Unfortunately, the few things that I enjoyed in this story did not outweigh what I didn’t like:
1. The retelling started out with a great idea, but the more I read, the less original it felt. I think the author was so intent on making it like Sherlock and other adaptations, it became too much of a copy.
2. It never felt like Charlotte and Jamie got to create their own identity in their world. Even though they are the descendants of Holmes and Watson, I think their characters could’ve differed from the source material and from the TV show.
3. Overall, the story and it’s references to the original felt forced. It just didn’t feel natural.
I wish I got to experience this book differently, but maybe it just wasn’t for me. I can say that I won’t be continuing on with this series in the future, though.
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A Study in Charlotte is the first in the Charlotte Holmes series. Brittany Cavallaro puts an interesting twist on the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson characters by imagining what their descendants would be like. Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson meet at boarding school in Connecticut. Holmes has been solving crimes since she was a young child, and Watson is a typical teenage boy. When a fellow student turns up dead, the pair strike up a fated friendship and set to solving the case.
I’ve never read Sherlock Holmes, but I have watched the BBC show Sherlock and the Robert Downey Jr. movies, so I am familiar with the characters. I really enjoyed this reimagining of the classic characters. The murders in this book seem to be copycats of the murders in the Sherlock Holmes books, so that added an extra element to the plot.
The gender swap was fun. Charlotte is as aloof and unemotional as her great-great-great grandfather and Watson is devoted to her, just as he ancestor was to Sherlock. The book is written from Jamie’s point of view. I don’t read many books narrated by male characters, so that was interesting. His narration includes a lot of emotional turmoil, sarcasm, and other humor. The audio book was very well done.
I was very excited that the second book was already out when I read this one, so I could immediately get more of these characters.
http://opinionatedbooklover.com/review-a-study-in-charlotte-by-brittany-cavallaro/
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The great-great-great grandchildren of Holmes & Watson meet in boarding school. After a couple of deaths at the school they have to prove their innocence by solving the crime. And they do it all with a snarky sense of humor, so what's not to like?
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Within the first few pages I was hooked and I wasn't even sure how. Despite the long paragraphs and waxing poetic of Jamie Watson's narrative, it was captivating and mesmerizing in its details and story, as well as the way he captured the essence of the other characters he encountered, as seen through his eyes. The burst of life from said characters snagged my attention from the get-go, with the dynamic between Watson and Holmes being perfectly both like and unlike that of their ancestors, full of ups and downs and imperfections but at the end of the day still each other’s best friend. It's been over a decade (oh my god really?) since I last read any of the Sherlock Holmes' adventures, and while this had me nostalgic for it, it was by far so completely its own story that I did not find myself making too many comparisons, which I loved. The plot was intriguing and had me constantly guessing as I tried to solve the puzzle with the two, and the pace of it was spectacular. Brittany Cavallaro has brought the Watson-Holmes dynamic into a new, modern light in a creative spin on the idea of ‘retelling’ a known story, with characters that feel alive and a plot that had me unable to put it down. I could not stop thinking about Jamie and Charlotte and their relationship with one another, and every hidden mystery that there was to be found and still to learn. 5 stars.
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I really enjoyed this story! Lovably flawed main characters, improbable conclusions, and the promise of more to come.
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I really enjoyed this story! Lovably flawed main characters, improbable conclusions, and the promise of more to come.
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When I first saw this cover and synopsis, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be reading this book. First of all, the cover is adorable! Secondly, it takes place in Connecticut! I rarely find books that take place in my home state, so when I do I HAVE to read them. Add in the Sherlock retelling aspects and the the boarding school setting and it was a no-brainer. I'm happy to say that overall I really enjoyed this one!
Admittedly, I had a few issues with it... but let's discuss the positives first. I haven't read (or watched) Sherlock, so really I have the bare minimum information that we all have, but none of the specifics. So I can't completely comment on how accurate of a retelling this is. However, I did thoroughly enjoy the Sherlock aspects! And I liked that the genders were reversed in this book. Major points for that!! I also really enjoyed the mystery. I had no idea how this story was going to turn out, and was really pretty shocked once I reached the end. So yes, more major points for that!
Now, the few things that kind of irked me. First, the pacing was a tad slow in parts. Not majorly slow where I wanted to put it down, but just slow enough that I was a bit bored and waiting for things to pick back up. I also was a little confused about the timing of the story and the characters being descendants of Sherlock and Watson. The story was stated as being written by Doyle, yet Sherlock and Watson were real people and not fictional characters. This was never addressed, unless I missed it, so I really was a tad lost on that aspect of the story. And lastly, my biggest issue, which is totally a "it's not you, it's me" type of issue. But it's a huge pet peeve of mine when characters have issues, the issues are addressed, yet nothing is ever done in regard to those issues. In this case, Charlotte had a drug problem. It was addressed so that we all knew it was there, yet there were never steps taken to help her resolve this problem. It was just kind of expected that since her ancestors had drug issues, she was bound to also. This bothered me quite a bit. I don't mind when characters are flawed and have their own personal baggage. Let's face it... we all do. But to have the others basically turn their other cheek because it "ran in her family" kind of bothered me. Yes, drug abuse can be genetic, but at least try to help this girl out. Just a little. Please.
Overall, this was a very fun mystery that kept me guessing til the end. I just recently noticed that this is actually the first book in a series, which I didn't know before, so I'm eager to see where the next book will take us.
(Thanks to Katherine Tegen Books for the review copy!)
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