"Charlotte Illes Is Not A Detective" by Katie Siegel is a witty and engaging mystery with a refreshing twist. Siegel's storytelling combines humor and suspense as Charlotte, a lovable but unconventional protagonist, stumbles into solving crimes. The quirky characters and clever plot make this book an entertaining and lighthearted read for mystery enthusiasts.

I feel bad for not enjoying this, especially as I feel like it was designed for someone like me (big fan of snarky YA, mysteries, diverse and modern characters....) but something about it just didn't work for me. I didn't like Charlotte or find her relatable or interesting, I found the plot a bit silly and unrealistic, and the "quips" the characters make were distracting rather than charming or funny. I can see why someone would like this book, and the mystery itself was quite interesting, but overall, it just wasn't for me.

The premise of this sounded so up my street, as I love a good detective story, but unfortunately, I found Charlotte's reclusiveness hard to get past when it continued after reading the vast majority, and I didn't love how she treated her family and close friends. The mystery didn't quite pique my interest enough for me to be wholly invested.

This book starts really strong - I was a huge lover of Harriet The Spy as a child, and I was really hoping that this would be like reading a continuation story - Charlotte Illes as Harriet's cool, queer, older sister.
This wasn't *quite* that as such - it seemed a little less murder mystery focused, and much more character based. They're emotional millennials, and many chapters are just lengthy friend-scapes with Lottie and her lifelong best friends. I wouldn't call it a thriller, as such, but it's fun to watch them try to unpick the mystery before them.
However, I'd say this book fell flat for me overall. I liked the majority of the characters and fully support the incredible diversity the author brought in, but their descriptions were often formulaic (age, hair colour, ethnicity, quirky comment/bit of flair) and I didn't find many of them engaging. I wish there'd been more focus on Charlotte and Landon, too - the family angle started off strong here!
Overall... I think I might've been too old for this book to "get" it. Which is fine... but made me feel quite old! I would definitely recommend it to others, but it didn't quite hit as hard as I was hoping it to.

I really wanted to enjoy this book and had pretty high expectations. I quite enjoyed the sticky note mystery and was surprised by how that turned out but I found the rest of the mystery/the bigger plot to be really predictable. The repetitive nature of the book in places was an aspect of the writing style I didn't get on with.

I didn't realise it was a web series (not implied just by saying "TikTok sensation") until I finished it and watched the full series to see how it compared with the book. It allowed me to understand Katie's voice a lot better and I could see that the audiobook version of this book with her narrating it would be a much more enjoyable experience.

As a child, Charlotte Illes solved mysteries. In fact, she was quite famous for it.

But now, as an adult, Charlotte is trying to stay out of the detective business. In fact, she's not really in any business anymore, and as a result, she's rather lost. But when her brother asks her to find out who has been sending his girlfriend strange notes, Charlotte is drawn into something far bigger than she anticipated. It seems that once a detective, always a detective?

Overall, this was an okay read. I'm not familiar with the webseries that this is based on, but I don't think that lack of knowledge impacted my experience. In general, I'm not much of a mystery reader, but for those who like a less bloodbath style of detective story, this would fit the bill. For me, the mystery was the weakest part of the story - it just wasn't that engaging and the stakes never felt that high. But I did enjoy the interaction between Charlotte and her two best friends: it was nice to have a central trio who bounced well off each other and I really enjoyed their scenes together.

In general, it was fine - but just not my sort of thing overall. But I imagine it will be a great book for those who enjoy this type of genre.

I really enjoyed this and found the book to be highly entertaining and fun. It was a little bit slow to start with, but the pace quickened up and I couldn’t put it down. I adored the friendship dynamics and the feeling that these friends are 100% ride or die and I love that. I am a massive fan of the queer and trans rep in this as well as the main protagonist being Jewish I believe. I don’t read enough books with Jewish representation and I’m here for it. I’m very new to this type of genre of cosy/mystery and I’m starting to enjoy it. The personality of Charlotte was something that stood out to me, it made me think of myself and a mixture of people I know. She felt familiar and homely and I miss her already. The book was hilarious and I found myself laughing from page one. It fell close to home when it came to how Charlotte felt lost and feeling like she didn’t know what she’s meant to be doing, constantly denying her true passion of being a detective and solving mysteries. She simply doesn’t feel good enough and that absolutely hits home for me. I must admit one thing that irked me was the fact that Charlotte kept ‘chewing the inside of her cheek’, like just stop, that doesn’t need to be mentioned at least once every chapter 😂 it’s just annoying okay. I thought the ending was cute and I love how everything gets wrapped up, but the very last chapter was a bit odd and I didn’t quite get it? I had to read it a few times to try and understand what was happening and why it was there (especially as the final chapter?) - but overall I had a great time and I’m definitely intrigued to see how this series pans out!

Thank you to @netgalley and the author @katiefliesaway for this #gifted #arc in exchange for an honest review. Charlotte Illes is not a Detective is out on the 27th June 2023 so go grab yourself a copy asap!!🕵🏼‍♀️

For those who grew up reading Nancy Drew and desperately wanting to start their own hometown detective agency, this book will fill you with nostalgia. Theoretically, I quite like the characters. Charlotte is burned out and scared that she peaked as a child detective, her friends are trying to reconnect with her and rekindle their friendship,. and her brother just wants to make sure she's okay. While I appreciate their intentions, I couldn't help but feel that these characters just felt flat. I didn't particularly dislike any of them but I really didn't care about them or find them believable as people. The way they speak is also quite stilted and jarring, as if the author is trying a little too hard to imitate real life "banter" between friends but falling short.

I appreciated the emotional journey that Charlotte went on but it did seem too easy. The author told us more than showed us her struggle and it was kind of obvious where it was going. As for the mystery aspect, it was sort of engaging but honestly not interesting or twisty enough to make up for the flat characters.

Ultimately, it was a fun and easy read but not a book I'd be interested in re-reading or one which allowed me to come away with anything special.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an Arc for honest review. I really wanted to love this book and from its Goodreads ratings it is loved by many!! I am led to believe that this book has evolved from a TikTok video series so the main character is already loved by many! Not having seen any of the videos myself I found it difficult to like Charlotte, I just found her extremely frustrating. I love a good mystery but I found most of the book hard work to get through and just so unbelievable in parts but maybe that is the point! Maybe the book is suited to much younger readers and those with a familiarity of Charlotte Illes child detective, but the book was definitely not for me.

What happened when Nancy Drew grew up?
Lottie Isles loved solving mysteries when she was a child and she got quite the name for herself
Now she doesn't want to and life is making her sad.
But when her brother and her best friends try and get her to help them things change for the better!
Great fun

DNF for me. The main character just didn’t seem very nice and came across very whiny. I learnt more in the first few chapters about her LGBT background and friends than I did her actual sleuthing background which is what the story is actually supposed to be about, so I soon lost interest. Less personal background and more mystery is needed

This is fun book and great idea but sadly I think am too old to really enjoy this books. I think it will be prefect for younger readers mid teens to early twenties, the concept is good fun and it’s full of all the stuff they like. It’s a modern take on a classic but for my tastes I like the classics. Sure it will be a big hit regardless of my old woman opinions.