Review: The Thirteenth Circle by MarcyKate Connolly & Kathryn Holmes

Of course I was going to read this adorable looking middle grade book. As I have been a fan of MarcyKate for so many years now. I have not read anything else by Kathryn yet, but I am thrilled that they wrote this book together. And that cover is simply stunning. I love it lots. This book ended up being a three star for me, though.

As I was a little disappointed in some things. But I also really liked this story. I adored both girls, though I was all kinds of upset with one of them for a long time. But the growing friendship in this was stunning, which I liked very much. And the alien mystery was also pretty exciting to read about. I liked the science parts of this story.

I'm not going to end up writing a long review for this book. Since it was a fast read and a quick story to get through. Which I did like. The writing was good too, I liked that this book was told from two point of views. We get to know both Cat and Dani. I adored them. They are in seventh grade and doing a science project together, both hoping to win for different reasons. They are not friends. Cat is the weird loner girl who believes in aliens. Dani being more of a quiet science girl with three best friends. These two girls are thrown together for this project, as they were the only ones signing up for it. And so they have to work together. Which is not easy, with Cat having sent in the project proposal without letting Dani know, deciding on their topic all by herself. This creates issues.

So they have a somewhat difficult start to their partnership. But they get there, somewhat. I liked getting to know both of them. I liked them getting to know each other too. I felt like they needed each other. They needed the friendship they were building. But it did have some issues. Dani is lying to Cat for most of the book, having decided to do their project her own way, and not letting Cat know. I kind of hated this. Since I knew it would cause drama when Cat did find out, and I was truly not looking forward to that at all, haha.

But anyway. Want to share a little about each girl. I did love Cat the most. She was a bit much at times. And I loved that about her, honestly. She was all kinds of excited, at all times. And very much a believer of aliens. I'm not, not really. But I liked that she did. I liked getting to know her mom a little, she seemed sweet. But her dad seemed like a jerk. Having moved away, never really calling or showing up. Except giving her expensive gifts so she could do all her science research. Yeah. I did not like him at all. Hmph.

But Cat was so adorable. It hurt my heart to read about her being all alone, though. Didn't seem like she had ever had a friend. And I hated that, honestly. But also adored reading about her. But yeah. That was a little sad and a little rude. Especially how everyone was laughing at her and teasing her. Yeah. I did not approve at all. But anyway. Cat wanted to research the crop circles that had been showing up in her town every thirteen years. She wanted to prove that aliens were real. I liked how she did her best to prove this.

Then there was Dani. I was a little more unsure about this girl, considering she started out by keeping secrets from Cat. I did not approve. And she did not seem to like Cat much at all either, at first. I did not like that either. But she did start to like her, after a while. But besides that, I liked Dani. Her parents were the worst, though. Dani just wanted to do her science. And I so loved that. Her three friends were kind of okay. But also kind of jerks and I did not really like them. Oops. Dani fit better with just Cat, to be honest.

I'm not going to say much more about this book. Cat and Dani are researching the crop circles, as they are coming again this year. I liked how they did their research well. I liked the science part of this book. Though it also felt like a bit too much for me at times, haha. And the kind of villain in this book. Yeah. It was obvious from the very beginning, so I was a bit disappointed. Wish it had been hidden more. I liked how the book ended, though I wouldn't have minded more about the supposed aliens, ha. Wanted more.

But yeah. Giving this book three stars. I did not love it, and had some faults with the story. But I adored it too. I liked several parts of it and I'm glad that I read it. The Thirteenth Circle was not perfect to me. But it was an enjoyable story and I really liked getting to know Cat and Dani and their new friendship. Oh. Also. Cat wanted to win the science award so her dad would notice. Dani wanted to win so she could go to the summer program. I liked both their reasons for wanting to win. I also think you should give this story a try.

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