Twelve year old Amanda Lester is a descendant from G. Lestrade, a detective that worked with Sherlock Homes. Her father, Herb, is a detective and her mother, Lila, is a well-known author of detective novels. Is it any wonder that Amanda wants nothing to do with the detective world. She wants to make movies and living outside Los Angeles is the place to do it, that is until the family moves to the UK and she is enrolled in a secret school for detectives. Only descendants of famous detective families are allowed in, but Amanda wants out, until ....

The school seems rather strict and she has no choice what team she is on or who her roommates will be but she has lucked out. When they find blood droplets, pink sugar, the garage explodes and the cook gets murdered, Amanda and her friends are up to their eyeballs in clues to solve the mystery. But, is this a real crime or just part of the elaborate crime set up each year for the students to solve. When Amanda's father disappears, she begins breaking the rules to save him.

Move over Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon, this is an updated to the twenty-first century female buddy crime solving series. Amanda's friends are loyal and smart, her nemesis is handsome and sometimes smart. She uses both her detecting skills and her movie knowledge to find clues to solve the mystery. Her friends stick by her even when she is wrong and does not tell them what is going on. She learns to trust others and use their skills as well as her own.

I thought the cast of kids that make up Amanda’s circle of friends were well done and entertaining. There’s just enough drama, puppy love, and special skills between the lot of them to draw in a young reader. There’s also a good bit of danger. There were some spots that seemed a little long and too drawn out, but overall the plot was engaging and moved well. After the story, there’s a listing of famous sleuths, both fictional and real, and their claims to fame as well as a list of book club questions for young readers. The beginning of the book included information such as the types of classes etc which I believe would have worked better at the end of the book. To be honest, I skimmed them and went back and looked at them later in the book.

This would be a great series for girls looking for a hero or role model in the 9 to 12 year old range. It might pull in some of the boys as well.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

***This book was reviewed for Lola’s Blog Tours.***

Bernstein's Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy is the first in a new middle-grade detective series a lá Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and The Three Investigators. This is a world where the great literary detectives are real people. .Amanda is a young aspiring film director descended from one Inspector Lestrade, of Sherlock Holmes fame. Against her will, her family moves to the UK, enrolling her in the Legatum Continuatum, a special secret school for training young detectives. To get in at all, one must be descended from one of the great detectives.

Once there, however, Amanda finds a group of friends, and finds herself caught up in the classes, and in solving the appearance of patches of pink sugar that show up in places all over the school grounds. Add to that mild mystery explosions and murder, and her attention is thoroughly captured. She realises she can equate being a detective with filmmaking, helping her enjoy it more. Along with this comes the realisation that one occupation doesn't need to eclipse the others.

I will admit, I had a difficult time getting into this book, though I enjoy detective stories of all varieties. The writing felt flat at first. Once at Legatum, with new people, things improved.

At the beginning, Amanda comes across as a completely unlikeable protagonist. She's too bossy, not in a good way, and she seems very scatter-brained, jumping from topic to topic. Part of my dislike is her entrenched hatred of Sherlock Holmes. I love Doyle's stories, and I'd love to live in a world that contained, or once did, a living, breathing Sherlock. I think I'd like to attend this school. Haha, I do need to suspend my disbelief more though. Some of these skills they are learning need very specialised training. I have a grounding in forensic anthropology/archaeology. That alone was enough study to last me several years.

Based on later revelations, that required a bit more suspension of belief than I could muster, I would have given a rating of 3. My cubs of relevant age, however, absolutely loved it. They reminded me of my own philosophy as a writer. There are myriad worlds, and the rules for each are never the same.

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Recommended for fans of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and The Three Investigators. ( )

Twelve year old Amanda Lester is a descendant from G. Lestrade, a detective that worked with Sherlock Homes. Her father, Herb, is a detective and her mother, Lila, is a well-known author of detective novels. Is it any wonder that Amanda wants nothing to do with the detective world. She wants to make movies and living outside Los Angeles is the place to do it, that is until the family moves to the UK and she is enrolled in a secret school for detectives. Only descendants of famous detective families are allowed in, but Amanda wants out, until ....

The school seems rather strict and she has no choice what team she is on or who her roommates will be but she has lucked out. When they find blood droplets, pink sugar, the garage explodes and the cook gets murdered, Amanda and her friends are up to their eyeballs in clues to solve the mystery. But, is this a real crime or just part of the elaborate crime set up each year for the students to solve. When Amanda's father disappears, she begins breaking the rules to save him.

Move over Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon, this is an updated to the twenty-first century female buddy crime solving series. Amanda's friends are loyal and smart, her nemesis is handsome and sometimes smart. She uses both her detecting skills and her movie knowledge to find clues to solve the mystery. Her friends stick by her even when she is wrong and does not tell them what is going on. She learns to trust others and use their skills as well as her own.

I thought the cast of kids that make up Amanda’s circle of friends were well done and entertaining. There’s just enough drama, puppy love, and special skills between the lot of them to draw in a young reader. There’s also a good bit of danger. There were some spots that seemed a little long and too drawn out, but overall the plot was engaging and moved well. After the story, there’s a listing of famous sleuths, both fictional and real, and their claims to fame as well as a list of book club questions for young readers. The beginning of the book included information such as the types of classes etc which I believe would have worked better at the end of the book. To be honest, I skimmed them and went back and looked at them later in the book.

This would be a great series for girls looking for a hero or role model in the 9 to 12 year old range. It might pull in some of the boys as well.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Amanda Lester and The Pink Sugar Conspiracy is the first book in the series. It is directed towards middle schoolers but I have to say that I loved reading it and I am an adult sometimes. LOL The cover is striking, that is what caught my attention but when I opened it and began reading I didn't want to stop. I loved reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries as a middle schooler but would have loved to have had the chance to read this series too. Harry Potter also came to mind while reading but without the magic. It is packed full of mystery and detective work by some very bright kids.
Amanda wants to be a film maker but her parents expect her to follow in the foot steps of her descendant, Lestrade. He was a detective that would work alongside Sherlock Holmes. Actually lets tell the truth he kinda messed somethings up. Embarrassing! Her parents have planned this her whole life to end up going to a secret English school for the descendants of famous detectives. YIKES, not really her idea of a good time at the beginning. She does come around and makes some new friends as well as ends up in a mystery. What is the pink substance they keep finding??? Is this really a mystery or some school assignment that no one knows they are participating in???
Things turn very serious very fast when her father goes missing and the cook is found dead! This is no game! She and her friends are now in the middle of this mystery and must find all the clues and solve this crime. They need to do this quickly before her father is missing permanently. There is a catch, a nemesis of Holmes, Moriarty has a descendant at the school too. Does he hold the key?
I am looking forward to reading the rest of this fun series.
I recieved this book from NetGalley for an honest review. ( )

For someone who is a descendant of the ever famous Inspector G. Lestrade, a colleague of Sherlock Holmes, Amanda is not very happy about it. In fact, she is already fed up since that’s what all her parents want to talk about. All she hears about everyday are either stories about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Inspector G. Lestrade or anything related to detective works and she’s already sick of it! Can’t her parents understand that she doesn’t want to do anything with it, and directing movies is where her passion really lies? Her goal in life is to be a successful director like her favorite, Darius Plover.

However, her parents are not the only problem she had to deal with. She also had a fight with Laurie Wong and Jill Javor, her co-members of the Stick Dog Filmmakers Club and Production Company. Their secret meeting for the Kangoroo Egg Film Festival was ruined and turned into a brawl when Jill suggested that they should make a detective story and forget all about the Psychological Thriller. With that she doesn’t have anyone to help her do the movie.

What Amanda thought a bad day turned to worst when her Uncle Randy mentioned a letter she received. She was pretty excited about it thinking it came from the West Coast Young Filmmakers, but all her hopes were gone when she saw ‘Legatum Continuatum: The School for Detectives’ written at the envelope. Her parents enrolled her to The Legatum Continuatum School, the most prestigious detective training institution in the world. They did it without her knowledge and without saying goodbye to anyone from her previous school, her family moved to UK during the Christmas Break.

Everyone was very excited about the move except for Amanda. Her mother told her that her father was offered a job from the Crown Prosecution Service in London, just a few hours away from her school. Since she had no choice but to comply to her parents decision, Amanda started her spring term in her new school. There, she met a lot of people such as her three roommates — Ivy Halpin, her guide dog, Nigel, and Amphora Kapoor. She also met the handsome, Nicholas Muffet or Nick for short and Simon.

Needless to say, her new school literary changes her life and her whole perspective of the detective world. In there, she finally accepted her destiny and heritage little by little.
I’m not gonna lie, the very first time I saw Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy, I was literally in awe. I mean, it has the most colorful and beautiful front and back covers I’ve ever seen! I can still remember myself staring at the monitor for hours just looking at the book covers. I was just mesmerized by it!

The front and back covers are very helpful for the readers because it will give them the idea of what the characters looked like and the overview of the school, and some parts of what happened in the book. Aside from that, the first pages had a floor plan of the whole school and important notes about the rooms and class descriptions while the back pages had a summary of some of the famous detective in the world. I think this is a brilliant idea because I was able to picture the whole thing!

This book reminds me of Harry Potter but full of twist, and brought me back to the days I was still Nancy Drew! There are four houses at The Legatum Continuatum School —- Dupin House, Father Brown House, Van Helden House, and Holmes House which made me think of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Overall, this book is a complete package! It has an amazing cover with fun characters and a great story line that every reader will totally enjoy and get hooked with!

**Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.** ( )