" Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of the Island Idol, by Carrie Cross is a rip-roaring young adult adventure/romance story that will keep readers on their toes. Centered around current technology and full of references younger readers will appreciate, this book has everything needed to engage readers and keep them coming back for more from Skylar and her gifted cohort." -- Excerpt from Literary Titan 5-Star review. Bastiian is having a party next Friday night. Anyone welcome at 3 Palms at 10 is invited. Free food, no parents, and we’re playing My Secret Kiss. Who’s going? My Assistant Detective Alexa pointed at the screen. “Sky. A boy-girl party and Daniel’s going. Brendan and Dustin signed the list too. We have to go.” “Alexa, what’s My Secret Kiss ?” “Everyone secretly draws names picking who they have to kiss. Then everyone rates the person they kissed. The bad kissers with the least points get eliminated.” “No way .” My mind was racing. The disgusting possibilities were endless. Would I be forced to make out with boys I didn’t like, or guys I didn’t even know, just to act normal at a party? Was I crazy for even considering going? My brain started to tick. I’d paid for some new gadgets with chores money, and I’d gotten others for Christmas. These filled out my detective kit nicely. My night vision goggles might come in handy. The Soundtrap would let us eavesdrop on conversations. Best of all was a canister of Invisi-powder. When you dusted it on your face and hands and wore black clothing, the non-metallic, gray-black powder let you blend into the shadows, so you were completely invisible. “We are going to go to that party. But nobody’s even going to know we’re there.” Sneaking into the party sounded risky, and pretty scary. But it wasn’t until after the field trip began, and I’d put my detective skills to a true test, that I really found out the true meaning of terror and danger. Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of the Island Idol won the coveted Literary Titan Gold Book Award. Three Skylar Robbins mysteries have been Amazon #1 Bestsellers in Children's Detective Books. Other accolades include being voted Book-of-the-Month by LASR readers, three 5-star Reader's Favorite awards, a winner in the 2021 IAN Book of the Year Awards, and one was a Top Ten Finalist for an Author Academy Award in the YA/Middle Grade category. ★★★★★ "Skylar Robbins has been preparing for this for months. Daniel made a promise to be her partner in the next ACE adventure, and she believes he meant what he said. As part of the elite group of students who take part in the Accelerated Courses and Experiments program, Skylar and Daniel are no strangers to adventure and mystery. The only mystery right now, however, is how Hannah Hilton made it into the program and why Daniel seems to have forgotten that Skylar exists. What promised to be a fantastic summer is now looking like a huge disappointment. Will the trip to Koma Island turn things around for Skylar or will it be more than they all bargained for? Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of the Island Idol, by Carrie Cross, is centered around young Skylar Robbins-gifted and talented and a member of ACE. With all the angst and stresses of late middle and early high school years, she is the perfect protagonist for today's young readers. It is refreshing to still see writers placing an intelligent and forward-thinking female lead in their stories, and Skylar rivals and surpasses the budding detectives many of us are used to-Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. Kudos to Cross for putting motivated and capable young women at the forefront of her series. Our middle school readers need to see this more regularly. Mysteries need to pop. They need to move quickly and hold the reader's interest, especially when younger readers are the group toward which a series is aimed. Cross is a master at this. Skylar thinks quickly on her feet, and her friendship with Alexa provides a nice sounding board for her ideas. There lies within Cross's work an amazing little cast of characters that provides readers with plenty of opportunities to visualize a vast array of personality types. It's nice to see such a well-drawn cast of characters-all having wonderful quirks and offering their own contributions to Skylar's role in the story. Skylar Robbins: The Mystery of the Island Idol, by Carrie Cross is a rip-roaring young adult adventure/romance story that will keep readers on their toes. Centered around current technology and full of references younger readers will appreciate, this book has everything needed to engage readers and keep them coming back for more from Skylar and her gifted cohort." --Literary Titan 5 Stars Reviewed By Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite Nancy Drew step back; here comes Skylar Robbins on another adventure of sleuthing and solving mysteries. This one takes her and a group of extra-bright kids to Koma Island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean beyond the Hawaiian Islands. The you