Pennies Review

This book is the prequel to the Blight Harbor series, which consists of: The Clackity, The Nighthouse Keeper, and The Loneliest Place. You can read the review for the first book here!

Pennies by Lora Senf is set in the 1920s and is about a group of friends consisting of: Mae Von Rath (the great-great aunt of Evie from the original trilogy), Lark (whom we meet in the original second book as a ghost), Claret, and Brigid. The friends love to go exploring around their town, and one day a door to the Dark Sun side suddenly appears in the woods near their clubhouse. 

The girls are told not to go near it, but one day several people in their town go missing, including Brigid's cousin, Emilia. The girls suspect an unusual boy named John Jeffrey Pope (usually called Johnny) must have done it, except everyone else doesn't think so. At the same time, Lark's aunt Meredith starts acting strange, too. 

The girls find out that Emilia was taken to the Dark Sun side by Johnny, and he and Meredith might be working together on something sinister. The girls then hatch a plan to go to the Dark Sun Side, find out what Johnny and Meredith are up to, and rescue Emilia. 

Yup, it's another mystery horror story just like the first few books, with a touch of magic! 

I gave it 4 stars, but that's just because although I thought it was well-written for the most part, it did feel like a slightly unnecessary prequel since a lot of stuff that happens in the story was already explained in the original trilogy. At times it felt like one of those prequels where it was all like "hey, remember this from the original trilogy!?" I also felt that Johnny and Meredith's goals and motivations were a little unclear (they were both bad people, obviously, but why they do what they did was never explained, or not explained well). There are also a few plot threads that were left unresolved. So I still recommend the book, just with a few caveats. I still think the original trilogy is the best though, and I will read anything this author puts out!