This was a really interesting and unique YA mystery! It had a very interesting twist, and I did not guess what was going to happen. I would definitely recommend to those who think it sounds good!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I in particular loved the kind of supernatural sci-fi element of Holmes and Watson. I really liked our main character and the disability awareness was done very well. The ending felt a little rushed but overall the mystery was very enjoyable.

I really wanted to like this one, since I enjoy Sherlock and Watson, but the story was just weird. I liked the main character and found her struggles with hearing loss and learning to live with hearing aids unique. But, the mystery and paranormal side of the story lost me.

Aww, this one was such a fun read! I loved the entire story and think mystery lovers will as well!

Jules Montgomery is having a dream come true by attending the Ashford College writing seminar in London. After she arrives, she finds her aunt who she is staying with. Her dream turns out to be a little scary when she must learn to navigate a new city and is dealing with recent hearing loss that she would prefer to keep secret from her new classmates. Now that she is at the seminar, she can’t think of a single thing to write about. When the class is out and about on a field trip one of the students goes missing and Jules along with her new friends, Percy and Suruthi have a new mystery to solve. Along with searching for their missing classmate, they are trying to figure out their odd Professor Watson and a strange man who keeps coming to her aunt’s antique shop who goes by the name Sherlock Holmes. With more than one mystery afoot and time running out, the new friends will have to work fast to solve this case that spans more than a century.

I love picking up a clean, fun young adult book that I can confidently pass down to my kids without worrying about any of the content. Alison Gervais has done a fantastic job with A Game Most Foul, a fun mystery with lots of twists and turns and great inclusive characters. The way she included the hearing loss Jules deals with and her hearing aid will be a great thing for readers dealing with that or similar issues to see a character in a fun book learning to deal with that. The mystery with Sherlock and Watson was so fun and well played out. This book had a great mystery to it and it was all clean without language, sex or dark violence and gore that was so fun to read and refreshing. I would recommend this book to young readers that want a mystery and parents wanting a good clean book for them to enjoy.

A Game Most Foul was a cute, overall enjoyable read. It was definitely on the younger end of YA, which I don't mind, but a cute little mystery with some nice disability rep. I liked that Juliet, the MC, is newly adjusting to hearing loss and we get to see a little bit of that journey, which is real for so many people. The main issues that knocked it down a little for me were 1) I wish we got to see a little more of London and the setting, especially with Juliet being an American in a new place. Some of that is there, but it could have been elevated a little more. 2) I didn't enjoy Sherlock and Watson as much as I expected to. Their characters felt a little forced and not as natural, and even their dialogue with each other feels a bit off. For one, they frequently say each other's names at the beginning or end of sentences as if wanting to make sure we don't forget who they are, which is not how people talk in real life. They just didn't give me the feeling I wanted them to, and the mystery of them being alive/real wasn't as exciting as I wanted it to be. That being said, the plot twist of the other big mystery of the story was actually really good, and I did not see it coming. Overall, it's a nice fun read if you want something a little silly, a little sweet, and with a touch of nostalgia.

this was a fun idea and enjoyable enough but it just felt like something was missing from it. I think I wanted more deduction and detecting. More clues. It felt like all the resolution got handed to us very easily and all at once and it just left me wanting but not in a good way.

This book started off strong but kinda felt flat and the ending felt very very rushed. Overall wasn’t super impressed with this book.

Started strong, characters were kind of annoying, completely derailed and did not care for the ending. Wasn't what I had expected or hoped going in. Thank you netgalley for the arc, but this was not for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Game Most Foul. I really liked the diverse characters and the disability representation. The main character being American in London I felt was depicted well, being from the UK myself I felt the other representations of characters were slightly lacking which I imagine is due to an American writing about a place they're not familiar with, I say this with no disrespect and I didn't particularly find it damaging to the storyline, I only mention it as the characters all introduce themselves and it's only the American character that has lots of detail about her.
Storyline wise I was gripped, I really liked how this story developed the twists and turns were somewhat surprising and I really enjoyed the mystery of it all. I thoroughly liked Watson and Holmes, I felt their storyline was really good, it was creative and unique.
The writing did capture me and I was eager to find out the ending, the pacing was well placed and the story flowed really well. I certainly would read more by Alison Gervais.

This was such a wonderful and enjoyable read!!!! I loved this book and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked how this story had hearing loss representation. I will say that I feel like the plot got a bit derailed when it came to the mystery element because at one point it was about the missing student, but then it started to become really centered around the Sherlock Holmes of it all. I really enjoyed Surathi a lot, however, I feel like the romance between Percy and Jules was a bit forced honestly. Lastly, I think that the author did a bit of a disservice to the dynamic of Holmes and Watson and that’s ultimately why it fell it bit short for me.

This book had a good premise and the first 3/4 of it were really strong. It was a mystery story that was intriguing and I was invested in what happens next.

The ending however felt rushed, and very flat. A disappointing payoff that was unexpectedly dark in tone.

This was very "scooby meets sherlock". Overall I thought it was a fun and interesting story but there are some misses for me. I think that some of the hints or plot points seemed forced in. I did like the paranormal additions and thought they did flesh out the story. It was a great premise and could have been an amazing story but it was just okay.

Thank you so much Blink YA Books for this NetGalley ARC!!

I loved In 27 Days by Alison Gervais, so I knew I had to request this ARC as soon as I saw it. This was a very fun YA mystery for lovers of detective stories like Sherlock Holmes.

I did not expect that dark plot twist at all! Of course, I knew a classmate would go missing based on the synopsis, but the turn it took was amazing and enthralling. Sherlock and Watson definitely make an interesting dynamic duo.

My hopes were a little too high for this book, I think. It was good, but it's not going to make my top list anytime soon. Overall, it just kinda fell short for me.

3.5 stars

When I picked up A Game Most Foul by Alison Gervais, I was expecting a young adult mystery with a little bit of ‘magical realism’ thrown in (with the Holmes & Watson angle) and a dash of romance. And I got all of those things – and enjoyed them. But this book also took a direction I was NOT expecting, a couple of twists that kept me locked into the story, my mind whirring as I tried to put the pieces together. I’m still mulling over these twists, to be honest, and -while I’m not completely sure how I feel about them yet – I can’t argue the fact that the author’s clever plotting here definitely got my attention and kept it.

When we meet her, our main protagonist Jules (short for Juliet) is excited and nervous about the very exclusive writing intensive for teens that she’s been admitted to in London over the summer. I immediately liked Jules’ personality and the various layers to her character, from how she navigates being hard-of-hearing in the awkward world of adolescence to her exploration of what her love of writing will look like long term, and her low-key attraction to one of her classmates (Percy). I also think that teen readers who are standing on the threshold between adolescence and adulthood, weighing their options and trying to find purpose, like Jules is will find her infinitely relatable. Two of her classmates in the writing seminar – Percy and Suruthi add vibrancy and humor to the mix (though I would have liked to see some deeper layers to each of them beyond the archetypes they represent), and the three of them make a formidable team. Especially when one of their classmates disappears and they realize just exactly who their writing professor and his oddball friend really are. That’s when you need to buckle up because the tone of the book and the direction of the plot shifts into something much more than a ‘simple’ missing persons case from here on out.

Bottom Line: A Game Most Foul by Alison Gervais is an incarnation of Holmes and Watson like you’ve never seen before, a bit of the paranormal wrapped in mystery with a couple of stunning twists. The trio of Jules, Percy, and Sularthi are easy to picture – and easy to love – as teenagers who become fast friends who are drafted into service as amateur sleuths with the mysterious disappearance of their classmate. This is mostly a light and entertaining read that doesn’t require a lot of emotional investment or mental energy (and I mean that as a compliment) until those twists hit and then you’ll sit up and engage with the story on a whole other level. And while I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending, I would definitely read a sequel to see if a couple of loose ends (in my opinion) are tied up and explored further.

(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)

For any book that is taking a beloved IP and reworking it into something new, there are always bound to be a number of reasonably disappointed readers. It is, as they say, a hazard of doing business. All that said, there are often many who do it incredibly well, thus mitigating the quantity of those who will fall into that camp. As I started <i>A Game Most Foul</i> I had genuinely believed that this might be one of those sorts.

But, ugh! For a minute there, I was actually substantially impressed with Alison Gervais’ rework of our beloved Sherlock Holmes stories. But then that ending…

I get an odd sense that Gervais was somewhat influenced by the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film—which I loved, by the way—when she was writing this. The thing is, there are aspects of that film that worked really well largely due to the way in which it was presented. The fact that the film did not go too far in one direction, but rather left it somewhat up to interpretation with a slight leaning in both directions depending on how you looked at it, is why (at least, in my mind) the film was successful.

Gervais just jumps off the cliff of a single direction, leaving absolutely nothing to interpretation. I didn’t exactly hate this about the book since there had to be some sort of explanation and, up to that point, the characters were actually written fairly well.

But then there’s the mystery that began everything, a question to the fate of a classmate. Now, there’s usually much satisfaction in the answer to Sherlock Holmes’ mystery questions. We have a lot of fun trying to suss out what the answer will be and we genuinely enjoy being right or wrong when we do. Gervais’ book really didn’t leave much for us to guess at, unfortunately, which admittedly takes a lot of the fun out of it.

And, perhaps most unfortunate of all, the answer was awful. I was so painfully disappointed in the route Gervais went with this mystery. The big twist reveal at the end was monumentally disappointing and not at all in line with the source material she’s pulling from. Desperation may cause desperate acts, but even then I could not justify the choices she took with this book.

My dear Watson and Holmes, I am truly sorry.

This book is a mystery that follows an American in London for a writing workshop. One of her classmates goes missing and her and her friends try to find out what happened.

This book was just ok for me. I loved the setting and the descriptions throughout. I thought the characters were likable and interesting as well. There seemed to be good chemistry between everyone as well.

My biggest complaint is that I just felt a bit bored throughout. I don’t feel like the action started until like half way through and I was just waiting at that point. I think the mystery should’ve started sooner. I also feel like the dialogue felt a bit young for these characters who were 18-19. I know it’s YA but they felt younger to me.

Overall, not a bad book and I think teens would like this more than I did.

Thanks so much to netgalley and Blink for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

I was interested in this book because I love mysteries and Sherlock Holmes. However I didn’t enjoy either aspect of the story. I’ve read other books by Blink publishing, and I love that they publish YA books that have clean romance and no swearing in them. I appreciate that this book met my expectations there, but I was very disappointed by the spiritualist/occult plot points that were in the book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Alison Gervais for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A Game Most Foul coming out June 18, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really wanted to love this book. I love books set in England and anything Sherlock Holmes. I thought the hard of hearing main character brought good representation. I thought the set up sounded really good on paper, but the execution wasn’t my favorite. I thought the story was doing a little too much all at once. If it was just a story about Holmes and Watson living in modern day, then I probably would’ve loved that more. But then the first half of the story felt different than the second half. I was slightly confused by the ending. I would check out other books by this author.