Charlotte Illes is Not a Teacher

I will admit that I only made it about a chapter into this book before I felt compelled to put it down for a couple days. It opens on a courtroom scene, and nothing is more exciting than boring court dialogue.

Except the witness, Charlotte Illes, isn't giving the normal boring court dialogue. She's being a little sassy, clearly desperate to do the right thing but not willing to compromise on her integrity (and, if we're being honest, isn't great at dealing with people in general. Her people know how she is, but in any other context, it's more an acquired taste). 

And one chapter was enough to make me realize, OK, I want to know more about this character. And I knew this was the second book in a series, and you only get one chance at a first impression. So I set this book down in order to read the first book and get introduced properly.

I was so glad I did.

The Charlotte Illes books are not romance, which is sort of a first on here. This site was never intended to be explicitly romance-centric, that just tends to be how non-straight books are marketed: How would we know they're queer if we didn't see them making out with queer people? Even in books where the relationship is sort of ancillary to the genre plot (Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet), it's still a major part.

Charlotte, by contrast, though she is queer, does not define herself (or her story) by that. Actually, she's more defined by her fame as a female Encylopedia Brown meets Harriet the Spy, and she's constantly wrestling with whether to lean into it or pretend it never happened.

I cannot describe how much I enjoy the character of Lottie (Charlotte). She's written with at least a neurospicy overtone, if not explicit definition to her character, so many of her tribulations and conundrums seem 1000% real to me. But she's also got a sweetness and a protectiveness that I recognize in many of my favorite introverts, who would absolutely ride-or-die for you even if they're not particularly comfortable behind the wheel.

And yeah, the plot is a little zany, as most small-town mysteries tend to be (at least no one gets murdered for barely any reason; looking at you, every weird mystery thriller ever). But it's fun, well-paced, and splashes among the emotional palette with the deftness of a watercolor artist, feathering from humor to anxiety to dread to joy, all in a sensible wave. 

This is not, as the kids my age say, a kissing book. But it's got the love and intrigue that adults who are looking for something a little less smarmy (but no less heartfelt) will enjoy. Though I also highly recommend first reading Charlotte Illes Is Not A Detective – after all, a lady this fine deserves your time and effort.

This review is for an advanced reader copy of the book, provided by the publisher