The PDF that was sent to me via overdrive would never load, so I'm gonna give this a 5 star and just call it a duel.

I did not realize this was the fifth book in a series, however there is enough info at the beginning of the book (practically info dumping, kind of annoying, but not a deal breaker) so the reader is caught up to speed and can follow the story well enough.

The MC is a teenage male who has experienced a lot of things, including losing his best friend to a tragic car accident. He's sullen and not talking about it with his parents, who are concerned, so they take him out of school on a ten day vacation to help him work things out, open up about it, etc.

The MC is snarky and kind of rude and I wasn't fond of being in his head, but I can see a middle grade or YA boy being into it. Also, this kid is kind of a "James Bond" type of character, with a different girl/love interest in every book. Blonde, red head and two with black hair. Kid gets around, though they don't do more than hold hands, hug and one rather chaste kiss. Still, I was kind of rolling my eyes about all of the ladies he was into who were also into him. And they, of course, were all into him. But too far away to actually do the whole dating thing, but texts, etc.

Kind of Scooby Doo ending, "And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"

Also, I don't know if the MC is ACTUALLY seeing the ghost of his dead friend or if he's just imaging it from grief, so there is that. There is a SLIGHT paranormal vein that runs through this book and some things aren't explained at all, so the reader is left wondering if it was all in the minds of the characters or if it really happened.

I also didn't like how the MC lied to his parents and snuck out of the house, at first to avoid the adults and mope, but then to meet up with the love interest. Not to do "adult" things, but to get to know her better, as she was mysterious and alluring. The MC never really gets punished for doing it and it normalizes that sort of behavior for kids.

Maybe I'm just an old fart, but I like my fiction to be respectful of adults and children. I know that doesn't happen in real life, but I don't read to read real life, I read to escape from it for a bit.

So, while I didn't like the realism with how the MC acted re: his parents, lying, sneaking out, etc., I also don't know how true to life it was that all of the girls were hot for him, but in a chaste way. I'm not a 16 year old living in Canada, which is where this book takes place, so I have no idea how true to life it is. I did like the setting of Canada, though the MC mentioned a lot that Canadians were very polite and he stressed when he was being polite because he was Canadian.

This book would probably be good for male middle grade to YA readers, though girls would possibly like it too. The mystery was what kept me reading past the info-dump beginning and the mean thoughts of the MC, so the story was really interesting and the location of Canada, while described by the MC as "boring", sounds beautiful to me and makes me curious about going to see more than just Niagara Falls!

Not a bad book, but not quite for me. 2.5 stars, round up to 3 because I didn't hate it and it was written well. It just wasn't quite my cup.

My thanks to NetGalley and Nimbus Publishing for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.