New Horizons
Mandie: Her College Days #1
written by Lois Gladys Leppard
222 pages // published in 2006 // Christian YA
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Newly arrived at the Charleston Ladies' College, Mandie and Celia are faced with challenges. Despite Mandie's best efforts to make new friends, her classmates will have nothing to do with her. To make matters worse, April Snow - her rival - has also enrolled in the college. Could she be influencing the others to give the girls the cold shoulder?
Newly arrived at the Charleston Ladies' College, Mandie and Celia are faced with challenges. Despite Mandie's best efforts to make new friends, her classmates will have nothing to do with her. To make matters worse, April Snow - her rival - has also enrolled in the college. Could she be influencing the others to give the girls the cold shoulder?
Mandie Shaw and her best friend Celia Hamilton have finally made it to college -- Charleston Ladies' College, to be exact.
My thoughts?
Awww... I'm sad that the Mandie series really is over. It is a series that I loved during my childhood. And here's Mandie all grown-up, going to college now. And again, that series is over too (before it could even really get going). Yes, there's only to be 1 book in the Mandie: Her College Days series.
This book is quite different than the previous series. I could tell from the start that New Horizons stepped up the game in terms of writing style (yes!), the not quite so stilted dialogue, and some in the (slightly) maturing characters. Snowball doesn't get to make as much of an appearance in this volume (which means he can't escape from Mandie so easily, if she doesn't have him with her, now can he? ha ha ha!). But all our favorite characters appear somewhere in the storyline.
To be honest though, the plot is pretty loose. The mystery itself doesn't stand out greatly as a big mystery... but it was all a fun throwback to the original Mandie series. It has some good elements in the plot, and I'm just thrilled that the author was able to fit in one final chapter of Mandie's life for us committed fans.
(It still left me with unanswered questions though. And if you're a fan like me, you'll know WHICH unanswered question irritates me the most that I'll just never know... But I can hope. And so can you.)
A clean read. Suitable for tweens and up.
P.S. Like and vote for this review on Goodreads and Amazon.
I can tell that you and I must have grown up at the same time, because we're both Mandie fans. However, I don't think I ever read this one about Mandie going off to college. That would be a cool story, I think, to see her out on her own in the world!
ReplyDeleteVal, I really did enjoy this final glimpse into Mandie's life. I'm sure you would too! It's fairly fulfilling as closure.
DeleteToo bad that "the question" doesn't get answered, from the sound of it. ;(
Delete*sob* I KNOOOW!!!
Delete