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Fisher Key Adventure #3
The Missing Juliet: A Fisher Key Adventure
Summer’s sizzling in the Florida Keys and Robin McGee should be planning for college. Instead, she’s passionately in love with beautiful movie starlet Juliet Francine. Too bad it’s a one-way crush shared by millions of others. Robin’s better off sticking to her summer job and fighting for the equal treatment of GLTBQ teens everywhere. But when Juliet is kidnapped from a film set in Key West, Robin turns amateur sleuth and recruits her friends to help in the search. Soon the FBI, police, and paparazzi are hot on the case as well. As time ticks down and the ransom notes grow dire, Robin will get just one chance to pull off a Hollywood happy ending—and maybe a shot at true love after all.
- GenresYoung AdultMystery
264 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 2013
About the author
Sam Cameron
20 books10 followersA Navy veteran, Sam Cameron spent several years serving in the Pacific and along the Atlantic coast. Her transgender, romance, and science fiction novels have been recognized for their wit, inventiveness, and passion. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and currently teaches college in Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 27, 2013
I received The Missing Juliet from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Missing Juliet is the third book in the Fisher Key Adventure series, a fact I wish I had known when I requested it. I didn’t realize it until after I had started reading The Missing Juliet. Robin kept referencing earlier events and I knew I was missing something. Goodreads doesn’t have much information on Sam Cameron, so I had to do a little digging and found Sam Cameron’s (seldom-used) blog and discovered the existence of the earlier books in the series.
You don’t have to read the first two books to know what’s going on in The Missing Juliet. I just like to read every series in order, whether the books can stand alone or not. I get a better feel of the characters that way. I like knowing the background.
As it is, it doesn’t matter. I don’t really care for the main character Robin. She seems more like a stereotype than a real person. She’s a lesbian vegan with a little sister who has Down Syndrome and she’s super concerned about various social issues. She reminds me a lot of Emma from Degrassi: The Next Generation or Dawn from The Babysitter’s Club (shut up!), always crusading for or against something. It’s exhausting. Fortunately, Robin’s causes are really only mentioned (repeatedly). She’s not shown actually out fighting for them, but merely gives lip service to them.
That’s because she’s too busy hanging around a movie set to solve the mystery of the kidnapping of Juliet Francine, former child star of Rhoda Dakota (hmmmm), lead actress of the movie, and Robin’s celebrity crush. Robin and her friend Sean sneak onto the set to meet Juliet and her costar Liam and are hiding in the bushes when filming halts: Juliet is missing — kidnapped, according to the note her sister Karen finds. For some reason, Karen almost immediately comes to the conclusion that this unknown teenager is her only real hope of finding her sister.
The mystery of what happened to Juliet is, frankly, silly, and Robin isn’t even a very good detective. The ending reminds me of a Scooby Doo cartoon, where all the information about what happened and why is finally revealed right before the credits roll. I was expecting an “And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” I LIKE Scooby Doo, but I expect more from a book.
I don’t like the other characters any more than I like Robin. There are too many of them for me to care about and they’re not well-developed at all. A few of them (Robin’s friends) are carryovers from previous books and it’s possible that The Missing Juliet is the introduction to others who will be featured in later books. The only reason I would be interested in future books would be to check in on Robin’s romance with Molly.
I’m not sure why the cover shows three smiling girls in front of what appears to be an ocean. Robin doesn’t have any female friends and even though the book is set mainly in Key West, Florida, she never goes to the beach. She really doesn’t seem like she would be much fun to hang out with at all. She’s too dour and I imagine that she goes around scowling over all the injustices in the world, but never doing anything about them other than making Youtube videos.
I had high hopes for it, but The Missing Juliet just doesn’t work for me on any level.
The Missing Juliet is the third book in the Fisher Key Adventure series, a fact I wish I had known when I requested it. I didn’t realize it until after I had started reading The Missing Juliet. Robin kept referencing earlier events and I knew I was missing something. Goodreads doesn’t have much information on Sam Cameron, so I had to do a little digging and found Sam Cameron’s (seldom-used) blog and discovered the existence of the earlier books in the series.
You don’t have to read the first two books to know what’s going on in The Missing Juliet. I just like to read every series in order, whether the books can stand alone or not. I get a better feel of the characters that way. I like knowing the background.
As it is, it doesn’t matter. I don’t really care for the main character Robin. She seems more like a stereotype than a real person. She’s a lesbian vegan with a little sister who has Down Syndrome and she’s super concerned about various social issues. She reminds me a lot of Emma from Degrassi: The Next Generation or Dawn from The Babysitter’s Club (shut up!), always crusading for or against something. It’s exhausting. Fortunately, Robin’s causes are really only mentioned (repeatedly). She’s not shown actually out fighting for them, but merely gives lip service to them.
That’s because she’s too busy hanging around a movie set to solve the mystery of the kidnapping of Juliet Francine, former child star of Rhoda Dakota (hmmmm), lead actress of the movie, and Robin’s celebrity crush. Robin and her friend Sean sneak onto the set to meet Juliet and her costar Liam and are hiding in the bushes when filming halts: Juliet is missing — kidnapped, according to the note her sister Karen finds. For some reason, Karen almost immediately comes to the conclusion that this unknown teenager is her only real hope of finding her sister.
The mystery of what happened to Juliet is, frankly, silly, and Robin isn’t even a very good detective. The ending reminds me of a Scooby Doo cartoon, where all the information about what happened and why is finally revealed right before the credits roll. I was expecting an “And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” I LIKE Scooby Doo, but I expect more from a book.
I don’t like the other characters any more than I like Robin. There are too many of them for me to care about and they’re not well-developed at all. A few of them (Robin’s friends) are carryovers from previous books and it’s possible that The Missing Juliet is the introduction to others who will be featured in later books. The only reason I would be interested in future books would be to check in on Robin’s romance with Molly.
I’m not sure why the cover shows three smiling girls in front of what appears to be an ocean. Robin doesn’t have any female friends and even though the book is set mainly in Key West, Florida, she never goes to the beach. She really doesn’t seem like she would be much fun to hang out with at all. She’s too dour and I imagine that she goes around scowling over all the injustices in the world, but never doing anything about them other than making Youtube videos.
I had high hopes for it, but The Missing Juliet just doesn’t work for me on any level.
December 6, 2013
I received The Missing Juliet from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Missing Juliet: A Fisher Key Adventure is a light and fun romp about a teenage detective who gets pulled into an absurd escapade surrounding Hollywood movie stars with some light gay & lesbian romantic elements on the side. Overall it's a somewhat predictable high school adventure story that is only distinguishable because of its characters. The problem is I didn't like the characters very much.
Sam Cameron writes a self-righteous liberal lesbian seventeen year old absolutely perfectly. She nails the constant stream of social commentary and resolute belief that just by saying something she's making a difference. Her protagonist, Robin, made me cringe in recognition at points having been a queer politically active teenager growing up in Florida myself.
That said, self-righteous teenagers are extremely obnoxious. And spending several hundred pages in the mind of one became grating very quickly. I found myself distracted by her running social commentary and frequently wanting to either argue with her (oh, you have bigger priorities than checking your own transphobia? I'm shocked...) or try to skip ahead to the actual storyline (yes, I get it, she wants her breakfast burrito to be vegetarian...) Robin comes across as someone who enjoys holding her knowledge over the world rather than someone who cares about changing it.
I was far more interested in some of the subplot and side characters and was disappointed they didn't have more page time. I'm not sure if Cameron is planning to focus on them in other books in the series or not, but I wanted more backstory about the young gay couple, the starlet's sister, and Robin's best friend in particular. It felt like they had the potential to be far more interesting than they were given room to be, which is a microcosm for how I felt about the book as a whole.
I'm excited to see LGBT youth have the focus in a series of young adult novels. But I'd be more excited if they starred in stronger stories and were given the opportunity to be stronger characters.
The Missing Juliet: A Fisher Key Adventure is a light and fun romp about a teenage detective who gets pulled into an absurd escapade surrounding Hollywood movie stars with some light gay & lesbian romantic elements on the side. Overall it's a somewhat predictable high school adventure story that is only distinguishable because of its characters. The problem is I didn't like the characters very much.
Sam Cameron writes a self-righteous liberal lesbian seventeen year old absolutely perfectly. She nails the constant stream of social commentary and resolute belief that just by saying something she's making a difference. Her protagonist, Robin, made me cringe in recognition at points having been a queer politically active teenager growing up in Florida myself.
That said, self-righteous teenagers are extremely obnoxious. And spending several hundred pages in the mind of one became grating very quickly. I found myself distracted by her running social commentary and frequently wanting to either argue with her (oh, you have bigger priorities than checking your own transphobia? I'm shocked...) or try to skip ahead to the actual storyline (yes, I get it, she wants her breakfast burrito to be vegetarian...) Robin comes across as someone who enjoys holding her knowledge over the world rather than someone who cares about changing it.
I was far more interested in some of the subplot and side characters and was disappointed they didn't have more page time. I'm not sure if Cameron is planning to focus on them in other books in the series or not, but I wanted more backstory about the young gay couple, the starlet's sister, and Robin's best friend in particular. It felt like they had the potential to be far more interesting than they were given room to be, which is a microcosm for how I felt about the book as a whole.
I'm excited to see LGBT youth have the focus in a series of young adult novels. But I'd be more excited if they starred in stronger stories and were given the opportunity to be stronger characters.
October 25, 2013
Thank you Netgalley and Bold Stroke Books for granting my request to view this title.
I loved it. An intriguing mystery, well written, entertaining, with excellent characters and a great plot that kept me guessing right till the end. The writing was snappy, the dialogue witty and the characters were well rounded.
The story starts with its main protagonist, Robin, and her friend Sean, trying to sneak onto a movie set in their home town of Key West to get a glimpse of their favourite stars. Robin is a die hard fangirl and in love with actress Juliet Francine, and Sean has the hots for her costar Liam. Whilst sneaking on the set they learn that Juliet appears to be missing, Juliet's sister Karen is distraught, where her jackass co star seems to not care at all.
Robin manages to get hired by Karen to help her find Juliet as she's the only one who seems to believe that Juliet is really missing. So Robin gets to work on investigating. Robin knows exactly who she is, she's a lesbian who's totally comfortable with who she is and total advocate for Mother Earth and healthy stuff and environment. She was fun and well written with her beliefs and didn't preach about them, which made her more likeable. Each to their own, but don't throw it in my (the reader's) face. Robin was an excellent lead.
As she continues to investiage, she learns more about the movie making business, and the co star Liam and nothing is as it appears. The mystery is full of twists and turns, and at certain points seems to rather predicable in where it's going with the story, then it twits and throws you off balance going in a completely different direction.
A cast of fun lively characters, though a few times I felt like I was reading information I should already know about the supporting cast, like maybe this was part of a series, but that didn't really matter because it was so well written you could follow along easily without any trouble understanding who was who.
It wrapped up sweetly, with a realistic believable ending.
I loved it from start to finish.
I loved it. An intriguing mystery, well written, entertaining, with excellent characters and a great plot that kept me guessing right till the end. The writing was snappy, the dialogue witty and the characters were well rounded.
The story starts with its main protagonist, Robin, and her friend Sean, trying to sneak onto a movie set in their home town of Key West to get a glimpse of their favourite stars. Robin is a die hard fangirl and in love with actress Juliet Francine, and Sean has the hots for her costar Liam. Whilst sneaking on the set they learn that Juliet appears to be missing, Juliet's sister Karen is distraught, where her jackass co star seems to not care at all.
Robin manages to get hired by Karen to help her find Juliet as she's the only one who seems to believe that Juliet is really missing. So Robin gets to work on investigating. Robin knows exactly who she is, she's a lesbian who's totally comfortable with who she is and total advocate for Mother Earth and healthy stuff and environment. She was fun and well written with her beliefs and didn't preach about them, which made her more likeable. Each to their own, but don't throw it in my (the reader's) face. Robin was an excellent lead.
As she continues to investiage, she learns more about the movie making business, and the co star Liam and nothing is as it appears. The mystery is full of twists and turns, and at certain points seems to rather predicable in where it's going with the story, then it twits and throws you off balance going in a completely different direction.
A cast of fun lively characters, though a few times I felt like I was reading information I should already know about the supporting cast, like maybe this was part of a series, but that didn't really matter because it was so well written you could follow along easily without any trouble understanding who was who.
It wrapped up sweetly, with a realistic believable ending.
I loved it from start to finish.
July 14, 2016
Summer’s sizzling in the Florida Keys and Robin McGee should be planning for college. Instead, she’s passionately in love with beautiful movie starlet Juliet Francine. Too bad it’s a one-way crush shared by millions of others. Robin’s better off sticking to her summer job and fighting for the equal treatment of GLTBQ teens everywhere. But when Juliet is kidnapped from a film set in Key West, Robin turns amateur sleuth and recruits her friends to help in the search. Soon the FBI, police, and paparazzi are hot on the case as well. As time ticks down and the ransom notes grow dire, Robin will get just one chance to pull off a Hollywood happy ending—and maybe a shot at true love after all.
The Missing Juliet is actually the third book in Sam Cameron’s Fisher Key Adventure series, which I wish had been clear before I pulled it off of Netgalley. The entire book made me feel like I was missing a lot in a lot of aspects.
While reading, the only introductions you get are to Robin, the actors and actresses on the set, and her various love interests. Her other friends were just sort of thrust upon the readers, her family was the same way.
The kidnapping that was the entire premise of the novel is actually extremely misleading, but I won’t spoil anything. The ending felt very rushed and mildly implausible. I found myself checking out while I was reading, which rarely happens.
As such, I didn’t really enjoy the book. Yes, the LGBTQ relationships were great to see, but as a standalone novel, it wasn’t good. The ‘mystery’ was actually pretty lousy, so I’m going with a two star rating.
The Missing Juliet is actually the third book in Sam Cameron’s Fisher Key Adventure series, which I wish had been clear before I pulled it off of Netgalley. The entire book made me feel like I was missing a lot in a lot of aspects.
While reading, the only introductions you get are to Robin, the actors and actresses on the set, and her various love interests. Her other friends were just sort of thrust upon the readers, her family was the same way.
The kidnapping that was the entire premise of the novel is actually extremely misleading, but I won’t spoil anything. The ending felt very rushed and mildly implausible. I found myself checking out while I was reading, which rarely happens.
As such, I didn’t really enjoy the book. Yes, the LGBTQ relationships were great to see, but as a standalone novel, it wasn’t good. The ‘mystery’ was actually pretty lousy, so I’m going with a two star rating.
November 6, 2013
(Review copy received from author)
Charming teen mystery set in Key West with an entertaining cast of characters and a sympathetic protagonist. Robin wants to spend the summer after high school graduation trying to get close to her crush, movie star Juliet Francine, but ends up getting more than she expects. A kidnapping, a closeted movie star, multiple crushes and a potential new love make her summer a wilder ride than she could have ever imagined. With a lot of help from her friends, she's out to survive Pirate Days, solve the mystery and get the girl...as soon as she figures out which one she wants to be with.
Charming teen mystery set in Key West with an entertaining cast of characters and a sympathetic protagonist. Robin wants to spend the summer after high school graduation trying to get close to her crush, movie star Juliet Francine, but ends up getting more than she expects. A kidnapping, a closeted movie star, multiple crushes and a potential new love make her summer a wilder ride than she could have ever imagined. With a lot of help from her friends, she's out to survive Pirate Days, solve the mystery and get the girl...as soon as she figures out which one she wants to be with.
December 21, 2013
I liked this book.
It was a fun, breezy read, but was a cute story with some romance, friendship, a bit of intrigue and mystery, crushes and fun.
I have not read the other books in the series, but this book can stand alone, so it's not necessary to read in sequence.
It was a fun, breezy read, but was a cute story with some romance, friendship, a bit of intrigue and mystery, crushes and fun.
I have not read the other books in the series, but this book can stand alone, so it's not necessary to read in sequence.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews