{"id":6508,"date":"2025-07-02T06:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6508"},"modified":"2025-07-02T06:29:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T13:29:00","slug":"elise-bryant-the-game-is-afoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/elise-bryant-the-game-is-afoot\/","title":{"rendered":"Elise Bryant: The Game is Afoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mavis Miller #2<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Reading this book and the one before it, It\u2019s Elementary, <\/em>I was reminded that the perils of raising a kid come with a mega peril: other parents.\u00a0 The heroine of the series, Mavis, is a newly single mom who lives with her retired dad and a very adorable 8-year-old named Pearl.\u00a0 Mavis, one of the few black moms at the suburban elementary school which Pearl attends, is extra attuned to the passive aggressive judging that goes on in school parking lots everywhere. These days, facebook groups and social media in general seem to have ramped things up even more.<\/p>\n

As the book opens, Mavis is gearing up for her annual job review, hoping for a promotion and a pay bump, and when she gets neither \u2013 instead being offered an \u201copportunity\u201d to run an extra DEI workshop for the staff for a paltry sum \u2013 she gets so steamed she quits.\u00a0 This all happens in the first chapter so I\u2019m not giving anything away.<\/p>\n

What I loved about the first book, and this book too, are author Bryant\u2019s mordant and funny observational skills.\u00a0 Her descriptions of some of the mothers \u2013 one of whom runs a \u201cself care\u201d Mary Kay style empire, and one of whom is a parenting instagrammer \u2013 really are often laugh out loud funny.\u00a0 The descriptions of the other parents are just as well observed.<\/p>\n

What I had a problem with in now both books was Mavis\u2019 massive level of anxiety.\u00a0 Some of her anxiety levels are fair \u2013 she\u2019s rogue investigating the death of Pearl\u2019s soccer coach, and the detective she met in book one keeps telling, no, begging, her to stop.\u00a0 She ignores him and goes ahead breaking into places and gathering clues the police seem to have little interest in.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile \u2013 and this is a strength of the book \u2013 she\u2019s balancing a new boyfriend, Jack, as well as the reemergence in her life of her ex and Pearl\u2019s dad, Corey.\u00a0 Corey seems amazingly thoughtful and patient and I found myself wondering at times just why she\u2019d broken up with him, but Jack is equally kind and patient.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure this triangle will be a source of tension in books to come.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also wondering what the heck is going on with her Dad\u2019s podcast, which rehashes Law & Order <\/em>episodes. Her dad has a little bit of the detective in him as well though, and proves very helpful, as does her very nosy next door (and interestingly fierce) elderly neighbor.<\/p>\n

Everyone here, from the bitter school principal to Pearl\u2019s frazzled teacher to the woebegone music teacher directing a school production of Annie,<\/em> is exquisitely drawn.\u00a0 As is Mavis herself.\u00a0 I think her anxiety got to me because the author draws you in as a reader so closely to her character that she seems real.\u00a0 You actually are legit worried about her.<\/p>\n

This is a little sharper and funnier than an average cozy, and Bryant\u2019s background as a romance writer is apparent in her well drawn and thought out love triangle.\u00a0 The mystery part \u2013 the death of the soccer coach \u2013 is of course a part of the plot, and the resolution is actually quite clever, but it\u2019s not the main attraction.\u00a0 The main attraction: Mavis herself, and Bryant\u2019s keenly honed writing. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mavis Miller #2 Reading this book and the one before it, It\u2019s Elementary, I was reminded that the perils of raising a kid come with a mega peril: other parents.\u00a0 The heroine of the series, Mavis, is a newly single mom who lives with her retired dad and a very adorable 8-year-old named Pearl.\u00a0 Mavis, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[189,2171,1742,484,2168,2170,2172,2169],"class_list":["post-6508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-berkley","tag-elementary-school","tag-elise-bryant","tag-humor","tag-mavis-miller","tag-parenting","tag-soccer","tag-the-game-is-afoot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6533,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508\/revisions\/6533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}