A charming and fun adventure story set in Gilded Age Florida.

This is a fun and light read aimed at the middle reader demographic, but I also found it enjoyable as an adult reader. The setting is well rendered and the plot is clever and exactly the kind of low stakes adventure that *feels* high stakes that I think works best for young readers.

The central characters aren’t particularly well-defined or nuanced, but the kids are likable and their adversaries are well drawn. The animals, of course, are the stars of the show, but it’s the way the kids interact with the animals and the way they wish to protect them that really sells the story.

I read this book a year ago and purchased it for my library. The narrator did a fantastic job of portraying the characters and bringing to story to life.

The cover art is what really drew me in but it totally lives up to the expectations. Filled with adventure and discovery, any kid (or adult) will enjoy reading this book. There were airships and giant squid and mysterious performers all romping around the grand hotel. I mean what kid wouldn't have fun trying to solve the mysteries they find?!

I enjoyed the asthma representation and that Algie didn't let it get in the way of his dream of becoming a naturalist. I also really enjoyed the setting of the story, the hotel and the guilded age is something I don't read a lot so I found it interesting and I ended up googling some of the historical mentions in the book as well. In the end, it had a little bit of Scooby Doo vibes in the best way. Lots of mysterious goings on and kids meddling after all. There is a lot of animal cruelty in the book which could be hard on sensitive readers.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book and really enjoyed the voice work of the narrator. They really brought the characters to life and made the action pop even more. It could get confusing sometimes when some of the voices were a bit similar but the story itself helps clear most things up easily.

I received a copy of the audio book through NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Algie's mother takes him and his elder brother Everett to a health resort on an island to see if it helps his asthma and he is excited to go there to make some scientific discovery and start his career as a naturalist. When he gets on the island he meets two sisters who are the daughters of the owner of the resort, Frankie and Lulu, and this trio is trying to find the truth about the curse that has descended on the hotel, the red tide situation and trying to protect a newly found species from getting destroyed.
Algie's journey of dealing with his asthma was definitely inspiring children with different diseases. The way he tries to strengthen his lungs and not let the asthma stop his adventures is a lesson for everyone and not just kids.
I loved the character arcs of not just Algie but all of the other characters, they elevated the story to a next level.
The adventure made this book a real page turner and I'm excited to start Fathomless asap.

The is book is magical and fantastic. The story is filled with courage, adventure, humor, friendship, amazing animals and fierce loyalty. I am excited for the second book. My biggest concern is the length of the story. It can be hard to convince kids to pick up long length books. I don’t want them to miss out on this.

I had a lot of fun with this! Spineless was a quick, fun read. I enjoyed Algie’s adventures with the octopi babies and just how difficult it was to try and corral them.

Overall, I feel like the audiobook narrator did a great job telling the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Audio for the ARC.

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an audio ARC! I greatly appreciate it!

I'm not usually a middle grade reader, but the description and the cover caught my attention, so I figured, why not give it a go? And I'm glad I did, because it was a great time! It was fun and sweet, though it dragged in parts and the animal deaths caught me a little off guard.
Also having a voice actor as the narrator was a stroke of genius! He made it even more fun!

Four our of five stars to Spineless!

Spineless is a fun MG adventure set in the late 1800s in Florida. I loved the environmentalist aspect and the way that animals are described throughout the story. I felt like it needed a little more character-building, especially at the beginning, because I had a hard time connecting with any of the main characters... but the animals were fantastic! I loved the mystery aspects & as a tween would have been all about this book.

I had the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook, and thought the narrator did an overall great job! I do think the voice for Lulu, one of the children, made her sound way younger and more annoying than she would have been in person. But otherwise, they had great, distinguishable voices.

The cover is one of my favorite middle grade covers, so great job there! I also really liked the ending, there were fantastic plot twists & dastardly deeds. It was definitely a fun read. Thanks to NetGalley, Samantha San Miguel, and Brilliance Publishing for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own.

Fun adventurous middle grade read.

I saw this cover and thought it was so fun looking the story definitely fits. Kids that want to be different kinds of scientists use their break from school to venture through South Florida.

There were some bickers parts but it was very enjoyable. Definitely for 10-13 yo but would be a fun read aloud to kids.

The audio wasn’t my favorite but it was tolerable.

Thanks to netgalley and brilliance for an alc

This is the first time I'm reviewing an ARC of an audiobook so I'm separating my review in two parts: the story and the narrator.

The story

It started interesting, however if I hadn't already known this took place in the past, I wouldn't have noticed. Throughout the entire story it's not really that obvious, if I'm honest.

It kind of turned chaotic at some points and it was hard to follow sometimes. I wasn't a very big fan of the graphic detailed of animal death, animal cruelty, and animal hunting. (Ironically, I started this right after finishing another audiobook that had this too because I thought a middle grade novel would help ease my mind.)

The characters were ok. I didn't form any attachments to them. However I did really like the octopuses.

The plottwists were good, I never suspected them. I enjoy being surprised by those!

Audiobook

I feel complicated about the narrator. His normal talking voice was good. I am VERY picky with voices, so me saying that means a lot!

However I did not like it when he did voices. I really, really did not. While the voices were obviously different from each other, they were not pleasant to listen to at all. It was also unnecessary loud and often hurt my ears.

I think I would've enjoyed this book more if I had physically read it. I'm not sure if I'd 100% recommend the audiobook. I suppose I'd say someone would have to try for themselves and see if the voices bother them as well or if they're fine with it.

Thank you to Netgalley and everyone else who made it possible that I could listen to this ARC. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Sadly I didn't love it like I expected it to, but I do want to give my honest opinions.

I won't dedicate a whole post to this book on social media because I don't like being negative about books, however since I enjoyed the story itself, I will include it in fitting recommendation posts and my October wrap-up. I did post a review on Storygraph and Goodreads. Sadly the Android app of Goodreads won't let me share a link to ghe review so I've only added a link to Storygraph.

When 12 year old Algie find himself in a health resort in South Florida in this tale set in the Gilded Age, he has no idea what an adventure he is stepping into!

A major scientific discovery brings unexpected challenges, as Algie must protect his find from a collector of exotic animals who is also on the hunt...

The story was reasonably interesting but the narration was a tad overblown. Although it may appeal to other readers, it took away from my enjoyment of the story. So this was a mixed bag.

Thank you to Samantha San Miguel, Brilliance, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The narrator, Todd Haberkorn, kinda ruined the book for me. He was very enthusiastic and theatrical, and while that can be great in a narrator for some books, that's not the case with Haberkorn. He was so LOUD. He yelled so much dialogue. No, not yelled, <i>screeched</i>. I didn't like his "child" voices, especially the girls. Just....no.

I'm afraid a lot of the story went over my head because I was so busy cringing at the narration, but what I registered was a great adventure for kids interested in exotic animals and the sea. Just be sure to remind them that this is set in a historical time period when society was different.

If you're interested in this book, do yourself a favor and read it in print! I'm going to request the ARC for the sequel, Fathomless, because it seems to be from the perspective of the girls and read by a different narrator. Maybe that book will be more to my taste.