Riddles of Love #148

Part mystery, part romance, and part melodrama, "Riddles of Love" provides an adequate, but unremarkable representation of each genre. The novel tells the story of grieving teen Darby Sutton, who must solve a series of mysterious riddles in order to receive her inheritance and to clear her grandfather's name of accusations of senility made by other members of her family and the community. Enlisting the help of brash neighbor Alex Colton, Darby struggles to solve the mystery left by her grandfather and the much greater mystery of love. Despite its loftier ambitions, the novel seems to spread itself too thin at times, rather ineptly melding the various conventions of the genres it seeks to emulate; nonetheless, the novel at no point fails to entertain and consistently engages the reader with its quick pacing, interesting characters, and the relative novelty of its riddle-based subplot. (By the way, if you like this one, try reading Sweet Dreams #213 Finders Keepers. It has a rather similar plot.)