I haven’t read the first two books, but now I need to!
This is the 3rd instalment in the Butterfly Club series, it is very fast paced story with a lot of historical details. The reader is taught about Harry Houdini, Vincenzo Peruggia, Leonardo Da Vinci as well as Mona Lisa. The book is a combination of mystery, history and science fiction.

A Secret Victorian society wants to change the future by sending its members into the future with the guidance of Professor Edward Lorenz. Aiden, along with his friends Luna and Konstantin feel like Houdini is the best man for the job when it comes to stealing the Mona Lisa.

A lovely book for KS2 children.

Ooooh, a history adventure series for kids and it is fabulous!!! I received book three to review, but had to go back to the first two in the series… and they are available on Audible. This is a time traveling, changing history kind of a series… Luna has been left with her Aunty, who has a Butterfly Club… it sounds like “Dullsville”, all I can say is beware of dull looking aunties… Luna finds herself on adventures of note with her friends Konstantin and Aidan. It turns out that the Butterfly Club are actually plundering technology from the future, and Luna and her mechanical friends step back in time. These books have a steam punk feel to them, and middle graders will enjoy the technology trend.

The Ship of Doom: In the first adventure the three friends are sent back in time to 1912, and to rescue a very important piece of technology, Marconi’s radio only it is on board the famous passenger liner, the Titanic…
The Mummy’s Curse: In this adventure our trusty trio head off to the Valley of Kings and the curse of Tutankhamen’s tomb, well is it real or imagined? Just before Howard Carter is set to discover the great pharaoh’s tomb, and in era where you are between World Wars.
The Mona Lisa Mystery: In this adventure our team of three, together with Houdini, are off to a little Paris Gallery to steal a painting called the Mona Lisa, only to discover that they are not the only ones after the painting… not to mention the painting is full of hidden clues to a previous era, the world of the Middle Ages and the genius, Leonardo Da Vinci.

All in all this is a great series. The pace is fast and gripping, and just great stories. Definitely grab the audibles for road tripping!!!

THE MONA LISA MYSTERY sees the kids travel forward in time, this time to explicitly undertake a heist.

I love heist books and all the cunning illusions, switches, and misdirections that come with the genre. And to make things even more fun, the heist is masterminded by none other than Houdini himself. It's such a fun plot, with plenty of trickery and broken locks. (Heist books also make it VERY hard to say anything about the plot with spoilers, suffice to say, I loved how they stole it and the various ways Leonardo da Vinci's notebook was used.)

The book is based on the real theft of the painting in 1911 and I loved seeing how the events were altered and adapted for this book. If you know the real story of the theft, then there are plenty of Easter eggs for you - but you still won't be able to guess how it pans out in the book.

This book also leans heavily into hinting that the Butterfly Club might not be as noble and virtuous as it seems. It also sets a spanner in the works for the kids' involvement in the next story and I'm interested to see how that's resolved (and how the issue of the Butterfly Club will resolve.)

Plus, with time in the kids' home period rapidly approaching the date that Luna's dad warned her to stay well clear of back in the first book, things are getting very interesting in the series-arc. Luckily, the fourth book is not too far away...

I make no secret of the fact that I am a huge fan of the The Butterfly Club books. They have captured my imagination since their fated trip on the Titanic and then into the tombs of ancient Egypt.
Luna, Konstantin and Aidan have learned so much about the future of the world, and it is not all good. War is in the future for them and some of those atrocities have been forewarned. However, The Butterfly Club has a new mission, just a couple of years before the outbreak of WWI.
They want to steal the Mona Lisa, a painting, that at the time is often overlooked and unremarked upon. The plan to steal it becomes intertwined with a greater plot for the team, one that will not sit morally with Luna.
I love these time travelling tales, based within events in history, with the knowledge that only small changes can be made, War cannot be stopped, ships will still sink…but small changes can be made.
The friendship and relationships between the characters has grown and changed over their missions and we can see challenges that lay ahead for this intrepid trio.
A fourth book is previewed and it will certainly have me waiting impatiently for publication.

I loved the cover and the blurb, enjoyed the story which is perfect for children. It was entertaining and well plotted.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Having read and enjoyed the first two books in this series, I was thrilled to be able to read the latest installment in The Butterfly Club series.
Once again, Luna, Aiden and Konstantin bravely set off on a new adventure, this time to uncover the hidden secrets of the Mona Lisa. From the very first word, I found myself once again drawn into the mysteries and the intrigues that surround the friends as they travel through time. It was lovely to find out more about Aiden and his love of engineering. Who will come to their aid and who will attempt to hinder them? Is Luna right to have the doubts that she does? I must confess, I did find myself having similar thoughts to her so I'm hoping these will be resolved once and for all at some point in the future.
The twist at the ending has set up the next book beautifully - I can't wait to find out about their trip to the moon!

The cover and blurb are really promising. I had previously read book 2 only, and thought the initial concept fun and original. I think a younger audience might enjoy this series. As for me, I didn't feel engaged enough in this new adventure to fully appreciate it, unfortunately.

The more books that I read, the fussier I am about those that I add to my list of books to be read primarily for my own pleasure. After purchasing the first in this brilliant series in my local indie after it was highly recommended by a couple of friends on Twitter, I was delighted to discover Book 2 on Net Galley and went straight from one to the other – something that I almost never do. Discovering at the end of that read that this was to be the third title in the series, I immediately added it to the Upcoming Reads I Cannot Wait to Get my Hands on! page on my blog and was thrilled when this appeared on the virtual Net Galley shelf, forcing myself to wait patiently until my physical proof pile had almost disappeared before I allowed myself to request it.

As with the titles that precede it, I swiftly found myself absorbed in the world of The Butterfly Club – a secret Victorian society, determined to alter the future of humankind by sending its members into the future under the guidance of Professor Edward Lorenz – a resident of 1969, whose knowledge of modern history allows him to plan missions to retrieve artefacts that will influence how the 20th Century unfolds. Combining top-notch science fiction, history, mystery and adventure this is another cracker of a book which I found difficult to put down and one that has again resulted in my adding the next in the series to my must-reads list.

For time traveller Aidan, since returning from the excitement he experienced in Book 2, life has settled back into his usual day-to-day routine of helping his navvy father on the new railway line leaving King’s Cross Station. But all is about to change when he is approached by a strange man who approaches him, looking for some chains. The strange man is none other than escapologist and illusionist Harry Houdini, who invites Aidan together with his friends Luna and Konstantin to watch his show as a reward for his help.

Impressed by what they see, the three friends believe that Houdini is the ideal man to accompany them to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre as the Butterfly Club believes it hides clues to greater treasure within its brushstrokes. Taking a sketchbook belonging to the master artist with them to further aid them in their mission, the party of four travels to 1911 Paris and swiftly visits the famous museum to check out the lie of the land but it is soon clear that stealing the painting is not going to be an easy job.

As they return to the masterpiece’s home again and again, and capture every detail of the museum’s workings, it soon becomes clear that the Butterfly Club members are not the only ones interested in stealing the painting. With security within the museum seemingly unbreakable, can Houdini pull off what is possibly his greatest trick of all time?

After their exploits accompanied by the more serious Arthur Conan Doyle in Book 2, here Luna, Aidan and Konstantin find themselves working alongside Houdini – an individual no less intelligent or methodical in his methods but definitely one more used to manipulating those around him for his own ends. For him, the whole adventure is more about proving his own abilities and coming out as top dog, whereas for Conan Doyle there was far more empathy for those around him and his concerns were focussed on doing the right thing. As the novelty of Books 1 and 2’s time travel starts to wear off, the three children are starting to question more and more what exactly the Butterfly Club’s long term goal is and just who their missions are benefitting.

There is no doubt that the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world and yet here it is clear that it is not seen as anything particularly special – at least at the start of the story – which came as a somewhat of a shock to me, as – no doubt – it will to many younger readers. This leading the reader to think carefully about the plot and contrasting what they know from their lived experience with history makes for a highly intelligent story, which works brilliantly on so many levels. While many would identify this first and foremost as a historical read or a mystery, perhaps, I think those youngsters who see science fiction as all space and aliens and who possibly wouldn’t choose stories within that genre will be delighted by this and may expand their range of reading choices as a result – always a good thing in my book.

I absolutely adore this series and cannot recommend it highly enough. You could probably get away with reading this as a standalone book but I suggest you would be much better starting with Book 1, The Ship of Doom, as there are lots of little details that you will miss if you don’t, as well as a few recurring characters that will mean more to you if you are familiar with them. With Book 4 – The Trip to the Moon – publishing on 12th October, this is a series that gets more and more exciting with every read and I for one cannot wait to see what Luna and her friends get up to next.

The third instalment in the Butterfly Club series did not disappoint. Fast paced but easy to follow with characters who make you care. A real page turner full of historical detail designed to teach the reader about not just the Mona Lisa but Vincenzo Peruggia and Harry Houdini too. An introduction to the amazing works of Leonardo da Vinci at a level young readers can understand and marvel at.

The book is about 3 time-thieves planning on stealing the Mona Lisa. The cover caught my eyes and the first few pages explaining what the Butterfly Club is about are rather gripping. They time travel but never backwards. The premise itself has a lot of promises. I would have loved to see the characters better developed.