I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just couldn’t let this book go. Spies? Love it! Zoos/animals? Sign me up! Nathan Reed illustrating? UM YES YES YES! And I am very glad that I read this book because it was tons of fun! I laughed, I cheered, and yes, I was also frustrated (more on that in a bit). This will be a good/eh review, because I am just so tired and I have been meaning to write a review since June 29th (and it is now July 4th). My body is just so so tired all the time.

😍Loved that it took place in a zoo and that we got to see some fun things at the zoo!
😍Loved all the animal facts. Haha, I could relate to Idris, well at least partially. I know when I was around his age I had a time that I was obsessed with animals and facts. Still read a lot about animals, but it isn’t as dedicated as back then. Haha.
😍The spy stuff (not Lucia though) was pretty fun.
😍The illustrations were just fantastic and I really enjoyed them!
😍I loved that these two families had gotten together and that they were having such a good time together. Making meals. Helping each other (well OK, Lucia can learn a lot).
😍The later parts got very exciting and I loved the cute animals.
😍The villain was well written, and sorry, I just want her car. 😛
😍What is going on with Budi, I would also be off my food and get a lot less cheerful if that kept happening.
😍The cover.
😍The title. It was the one thing that attracted me to the book.

🤨It just felt like the writers themselves were pushing the whole zoos are bad agenda. I am glad Idris learned that zoos are good. OK, maybe not all of them, but most are trying their best to help the animals. To make sure they are happy. To make sure the species continues to live. Yes, it may not be the best place, but what do you want to do then? Just let them go extinct?

😒I am sorry Lucia. I don’t like you. I think she goes WAY too far in her obsession with things. We learn that each summer she apparently goes bonkers about a theme and bites into it. Like the time she was totally into cars. But this year she is into spies and doesn’t give a hoot’s ass about anyone’s feelings in the progress. And that bothered me. It is fantastic if you are enthusiastic about a topic and fantastic if you dive well into it. But it is a whole different story when you target the only parent of your stepbrother and just go on and on and on about it while he tries to ask you to stop. To not go there. To just leave it. To not push. I mean, Idris, the stepbrother and our MC, was just not happy in the book. The whole OMG YOUR MOM IS A SPY just made him sad, and I just wanted to give him a hug. Even later when mom gets kidnapped. Instead of Lucia being there a bit more for Idris, she just pushes on, totally obsessing about the tin and what it held. Sure, she got him some cookies and something to drink because she FINALLY noticed that he wasn’t doing well, but before that and right immediately after that? She kept on going on and on and on, while her stepbrother was 1) done with it all and 2) his mom just got freaking KIDNAPPED 3) there are some revelations that shocked him. I just found her incredibly rude and I think she should consider other people’s feelings for once. If someone says NO. Or Hey, quit it. Then stop. Go on in your own time, but don’t bother anyone with it then.
😒 The complete 180 at the end which just felt like, oh we want to write more stories with these characters but we can’t when they are x, so here we go. I just didn’t feel it. Especially with how that character was so opposed to it all until right before that question. It just felt off.

Sadly, these two points were what made me rate the book lower. Lucia is a huge part of the book, almost a second MC, and so having one so annoying and blatantly not caring was just not my cup of tea.

All in all, I did have fun with the book, but I won’t be continuing with the series.