Book to Share: Final Word (The Winterton Deception #1), by Janet Sumner Johnson

I have such a fun book to review today! It was released in 2023 (and I even received it as a Christmas gift!), but somehow I didn't get around to reading it until this Fall. Which turned out to be perfect, because mysteries are essential fall reading as far as I'm concerned—and also because now I only have to wait a few weeks until Book #2 comes out! Final Word, by Janet Sumner Johnson, is a perfect mystery read for a sensitive reader—not too scary, not too intense, but with puzzles galore, wonderful characters, and an atmospheric old house full of secrets. 

Here's the publisher's description:

Thirteen-year-old twins Hope and Gordon enter a spelling bee in a last-ditch effort to save their family from financial ruin, only to find themselves in a cut-throat competition to uncover a fortune and dark secrets about the wealthy relations they’ve never known.

Hope Smith can’t stand rich people—the dictionary magnate family the Wintertons most of all. Not since she and her twin brother, Gordon, learned that their dad was one. So when Gordon enters the family into the Winterton’s charity spelling bee, Hope wants nothing to do with it. But with their mom losing her job and the family facing eviction from the motel where they live, they desperately need the money, and it looks like Hope doesn’t have much of a choice.

After winning the preliminary round, the Smiths are whisked to Winterton Chalet to compete in the official Winterton Bee against their long-lost relatives. Hope wants to get in and out, beat the snobbish family at their own game, and never see them again. But deceased matriarch Jane Winterton had other plans for this final family showdown. Before her death, she set up a clue hunt throughout the manor—an alternate way for Hope and Gordon to get the money that could change their lives.

Still, others are on the trail, too. With tensions at an all-time high, a fortune at stake, and long-simmering family secrets about to boil to the surface, anything could happen.

I loved so many things about Final Word: spelling bees and dictionaries! old houses! Jane Austen references galore! big family dynamics! mercy and healing and hurt and peace. Really, it was wonderful, and one of my favorite reads of the year. 

Some topics parents/teachers may want to be aware of before handing this to a child:
​--a lot of discussion of a character's death, including the resulting trauma and guilt that his family suffered because of it
​—the main characters' parents were not married (and the father is now dead)
​—one adult is very emotionally abusive to his family and others (this is not justified in any way in the story, but it can be hard to read at times)
​—some very mild crude language on a couple occasions

I hope you get a chance to pick this up soon (read it while it's still fall!), and I'll keep you posted on what I think of the sequel!

For more Marvelous Middle Grade Monday recommendations, check out Always in the Middle: http://gpattridge.com