Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly

Series: N/A, Standalone

Publication date: August 6, 2015
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Genres: YA, Contemporary, Mystery
Format: Paperback, Review copy
Source: The publisher in exchange for an honest review
Pages: 314

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Sherlock meets The Breakfast Club in this story of a wisecracking girl who meets a weird but brilliant boy and their roller-coaster of a semester that's one part awkward, three parts thrilling, and five parts awesome

After her parents get divorced, high school junior Zoe Webster moves with her mother from Brooklyn to upstate New York, determined to get back to the city and transfer to the elite private school her father insists on. But then she meets Philip Digby--the odd and brilliant and somehow attractive?--Digby, and soon finds herself in a series of hilarious and dangerous situations all centered on his search for the kidnapper of a local teenage girl who may know something about the tragic disappearance of his kid sister eight years ago. Before she knows it, Zoe has vandalized an office complex with fake snow, pretended to buy drugs alongside a handsome football star dressed like the Hulk, had a serious throw down with a possible religious cult, challenged her controlling father, and, oh yeah, saved her new hometown.

For fans of John Green and David Levithan, this is a crime novel where catching the crook isn't the only hook, a romance where the leading man is decidedly unromantic, a friendship story where they aren't even sure they like each other, and a debut you won't soon forget.

I was a bit hesitant to request Trouble is a Friend of Mine at first, but when I heard something about Sherlock Holmes and this book I was sold. Even though I haven’t read any of Arthur Conan Doyle’s books I have watched the movies countless of times and I just love a good mystery!

I didn’t have a hard time getting into this book at all. I started it and suddenly I’d read 100 pages!

Trouble is a Friend of Mine is told from the point of view of Zoe Webster. Zoe’s parents have just been divorced and she has switched schools. Zoe meets Digby and Digby really means trouble!

The characters

I think Digby and Zoe are great characters. They’re quite peculiar and definitely opposites but somehow it just works! They’re both 16-years-old but Digby is incredibly wise for his age.

Zoe has had it rough with her father’s cheating and her mothers ignorance but she is finally noticed when Digby shows up. She starts coming out of her shell, she becomes more confident and seeing this change from shy, next-door-neighbour girl to this confident, badass, strong character is so great! I love seeing character development and this is definitely one of the better developments!

Another thing I love in books is diverse characters and Digby is definitely a diverse character! He suffers from a variety of things and he’s quite quirky – but he’s also very intelligent. He’s a bunch of different characters in one and I really like him! I didn’t know how to feel about him in the beginning but as the story progressed I realized he might be one of my favourite characters ever!

Even though Zoe is the main character I feel like the story is more about Digby than Zoe. Don’t get me wrong, I liked getting to know Digby and I really feel sorry for him – he’s definitely had a tough life!

Zoe wasn’t really my cup of tea in the beginning but the Zoe in the end was just to my liking! She’s so fun and she’s definitely come out her shell!

The story

This is a YA and usually I don’t have that hard a time following story lines in YA books since they’re quite simple. In this one I had no idea how things where connected, I felt like the mystery they’re trying to solve was quite complicated and I’m still not sure how everything fits together.

So much stuff happened and even though it made it a fast-paced read it also confused me. The mystery is such a big part of the story and in the beginning I thought it was multiple mysteries they were trying to solve so that might be why I was so confused at times but I really hate having no idea what’s going on!

I had not expected this book to be that funny! I laughed out loud multiple times throughout the story and I just had so much fun reading it.

To summarize: the characters a great, I mean really great – especially Digby but the story was confusing at times. I really enjoyed the book though and I’ve decided to give it 4 out of 5 berries!