The League of Beastly Dreadfuls by Holly Grant 336 pages

What a bizarre little story.  It had a feeling to it, rather like the Series of Unfortunate Events, but with hints at magic.  Poor Anastasia is pulled from school one day and told her parents were in a terrible vacuum cleaner accident and she must go live with her two great-aunts.  They take her to a crumbling former asylum, St. Agony's Home for the Criminally Insane.  It doesn't take a lot of imagination or insight to see that these two aren't actually her relatives, and Anastasia's hero is a Francie Dewdrop, a mystery novel series character.  Anastasia sets out to solve the mystery of the asylum, before she's really sure there's even a mystery there to be solved.  The whole story just had such odd and quirky characters and occurrences it was never something where I felt completely invested in the story, but it was a very interesting ride!  I would say that if you have a 2nd - 6th grader who loved the Unfortunate Events series, you could definitely recommend this one to them.  Please note that at this time, the library only owns this book on audio CD, but the reader, Rosalyn Landor, was exceptional.

In Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward 311 pages

I usually enjoy reading debut novels.  It is sometimes a great way to discover a new favorite author.  However, I found this novel to be a disappointment.   In my opinion, the characters were not fleshed out enough for me to identify with.  The story did not draw me in.  Overall, a thumbs down.
In Derbyshire, England, in 1978, two young girls are kidnapped on their way to school.  One is found several hours later, traumatized, but otherwise unharmed.  The other is never found. Fast forward thirty years later.  The mother of the missing girl commits suicide.  Days later, a teacher from the school ( not the girl's teacher) is found strangled in the woods.  Rachel, the surviving girl, is now a genealogist.  She uses her research skills to see how the recent deaths could be tied to the kidnapping.  In the process, she also uncovers some family secrets.  Has she also put herself in danger?