2.5-3 stars. Nearly quit this around 50% but kept going, it got a bit more interesting so I got to the end. ( )

This book warrants 2.5 stars. Although the premise and aspects of the novel were intriguing, the plot and characters felt under-developed and lop-sided. ( )

I love this author’s storytelling and writing style. I love this author’s characters. It’s easy to care about them, one way or the other.

I enjoyed reading about all sorts of places I know in the San Francisco Bay Area! Many of them were real and even the made up ones did a good job of describing the areas around the San Francisco Bay Area.

The town in this book is fiction. I still tried to guess where it was supposed to be. I ended up thinking Hillsborough, or maybe Woodside, or maybe even San Mateo. I don’t think Palo Alto or Menlo Park because they were in the wrong direction. The author mentioned other real towns that were not it so I knew they were other towns. Included were Burlingame, Atherton, and Belmont.

I love the “wonder test” questions at the start of every chapter. What a hoot! Also, fun that they gave a faint hint of what was to be in that next chapter.

I get a kick out of when this author makes subtle references to her own previous books. In this book I noticed it on page 95 of the hardcover edition. It’s always fun when she does this.

Just FYI: On page 72 there’s a huge spoiler for the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I didn’t appreciate that. I first read that story when I was 13 and in 8th grade but I know adults who’ve read it for the first time just recently.

I love this author and I love that she dedicated this particular book to her son, but I will say I had to suspend disbelief big time that she would do the activity she did with her son, no matter what the circumstances, and what she chooses to do and to not do after the event seems even less plausible. I did enjoy the entire story anyway and also liked how it ended, even though much of the happenings were too hard core for my usual taste in entertainment. This book was less out there than her last book The Marriage Pact and I liked this one better than that one. I really liked this one, but The Year of Fog and No One You Know are the novels that remain among my all time favorites. I think this one will stick with me though, in a good way. I’d love to know what will happen with these characters and I wonder if there will ever be some sort of sequel.

4-1/2 stars ( )

Mostly entertaining. The plot is ridiculous, but at least it is modern. Schools, real estate, Silicon Valley, parenting all tie in. Better than a super-villain trying to blow up the moon with a laser. The epigraphs—supposed to be questions from the titular test—are terrible. Richmond seems to be aiming for a short-chapter thriller, but then she interrupts every chapter change with an implausible, poorly considered problem. Certainly after the first few chapters, by which time her creativity was dwindling, she should have axed the epigraphs. They destroy any momentum, and remind us—banging it into our heads over and over again—that the novel's central concept makes no sense. ( )

A few years ago, my sister gave me a book and told me I had to read it. It was called “The Year of Fog”. Soo good. When I requested this book, I didn’t realize it was the same author, but I loved the write-up and the tie-in with the cover! So happy to have rediscovered this author!

The Wonder Test, is intense to say the least. If the questions asked at the beginning of each chapter are any indication, I’d have failed miserably! As our kids pre for SATs, these NoCal kids prep for the Wonder Test. It is all this elite district can think, talk and care about. Newly widowed Lina and her 15 yo son, Rory, leave NY to close her father’s home. Lina is on leave from her FBI job, but an agent is always an agent. Previously, a teenager was reported missing and turns up weeks later, walking out of the ocean on the beach. Then another teenager goes missing, but this one is closer to home. As the mystery evolves, Lina becomes more and more involved until it comes to a frightening end.

This story will keep you reading and on the edge of your seat. Richmond shows how far a mother will go for her child, and the lengths some people will go to to stay No. 1. Emotions are raw with Lena and Rory, and you can feel the love and loss between them. Even though I thought I new where the author was going, she definitely threw some twists in there.

Thanks to Ms. Richmond, Atlantic Monthy and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone. ( )