Teenage sleuth, Nancy Drew, travels to the Grand Sky Lodge, an eco-friendly ski lodge in Montana, for its grand opening. Owner Archie Leach is desperate for the grand opening to be a success; otherwise, he and his business partner face bankruptcy and the loss of the resort. However, the lodge seems likely to fail when it becomes clear that unknown forces are conspiring to sabotage the opening festivities at Grand Sky…not-so-accidental skiing accidents, fire, poisoning, and potentially lethal bear traps are only some of the disasters plaguing the resort. Is it the work of the greedy business interests who are determined to run an oil pipeline through the Grand Sky property? Or does all of the sabotage have to do with the legend of the lost treasure of gold rumored to be hidden somewhere in the lodge? Nancy sets out to solve the case before the determined saboteurs remove her from the investigation—permanently.

The re-interpreted Nancy Drew in this series of books doesn’t bear a whole lot of resemblance to the original character of Nancy Drew. This new and not-so-improved Nancy comes across as more immature, not as syrupy sweet, and a whole lot dumber than the old Nancy. For example, I think the old Nancy would have been able to easily tell whether or not her own leg was broken; this new Nancy just comes across as really confused and suggestible.

The updating of Nancy’s adventures to include the modern trappings of computer technology do nothing to add to the appeal of the stories; they just detract from them. Including repeated references to what is going on “on the ‘gram” and characters like Carol Fremont who are glued to their devices was just tiresome. I’m surrounded by those kinds of smartphone-addicted goons everyday; I don’t want to be subjected to them in my escapist literature, too.

Also on the debit side, at times this book tends to be heavy-handed on the preachy side. Grand Sky is an ecology-oriented resort, so we get a lot of sermonizing about the environment woven into the narrative. Caring about the environment is vitally important, but why am I getting it jammed down my throat while I’m just trying to relax and read a silly YA mystery?
Among other things, the reader is also subjected to a lecture about the heroism of para-athletics, as well as an excruciating ‘hack off’ battle between Frank & George which concludes with Joe commenting, “my bro stomped all over you in a totally equal-opportunity, gender-nonspecific way.” Ugh. I actually vomited a little in my mouth at that point. Nancy Drew should be about light little mystery stories for teens and general audiences; it shouldn’t read like an indoctrination tract.

On the plus side, the setting of the ski lodge at Christmastime is positively delightful. The snow, the log cabin lodge, the miniature Christmas trees on the dinner tables, the fireplaces, the sleigh rides, the cocoa…it all sounds so cozy and alluring! It made me want to don a Nordic sweater and hop the next train to Sun Valley! The setting is very well done and really brings charm to the whole adventure.

The mystery itself is also engaging. The duplicitous oil men and greedy townsfolk pushing for the hazardous pipeline, as well as the lore surrounding the lost treasure of gold, provide a lot of really sleazy, as well as a lot of seemingly harmless, suspects from which to choose. It never really loses its interest, even though the actual culprits are pretty obvious from the get-go (for the reader, anyway—not for Nancy!).

The Hardy Boys (primarily Joe Hardy) make a guest appearance in this book, although their participation in the action of the story is minimal. And they, like Nancy, bear little resemblance to their original characters.

In general, this is an ok, reasonably enjoyable book featuring a painfully modernized Nancy Drew. If a copy comes your way, it’s worth a read. However, the original Nancy Drew stories are far superior; if you have the choice, choose those—they’re a lot more fun! ( )

A perfect Christmas read. And also, one of the longer stories in the ND series. Over 340 pages, though it was still a fairly quick read with its large type print. Nancy is visiting a snow resort and gets entangled in a case involving environmental issues and strange accidents that are happening at the resort. Nancy is even injured in a freak ski run (or was it an accident?) and breaks her ankle in the very early going. She spends the rest of her time solving the case from a wheelchair!
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Especially when Frank and Joe Hardy make an appearance. I did expect that. The case was particularly tough to crack as there were many possible suspects. Though I was correct on one of my hunches.

This was only my second ND Diaries book I've read. If others are like this one, I've found a new pool of ND mysteries to read. ( )

This is a very updated version of the Nancy Drew I grew up reading. All the best elements are still here. It's a real page turner. A touch of Rear Window in that Nancy is stuck in a wheelchair. A good compelling mystery. Nancy is still able to run the show even when she's temporarily disabled. ( )

Mystery hits holiday cheer in an exciting edition to the series, which is sure to have young fans on the edge of their seats the entire way through.

Nancy Drew is off on a Christmas holiday at a ski resort. While everything is packed with Christmas cheer, her vacation soon takes an unlucky fall. After breaking her leg on ice and being forced to rest, she realizes that accidents and problems are occurring again and again at the resort. Add the tension of a incoming storm and her own impatience, and she's off on another mystery to find out who's trying to destroy the place.

The biggest bonus for me was the short visit of the Hardy Boys (I was always a fan of their books over Nancy's). Not that this had much to do with the story (and was short), but I appreciated it. Next was the mystery. It is well twisted and placed with lots of wonderful clues. Tensions stay high, secrets lurk in the most hidden places, and it's almost impossible to guess who the real villain is until the end. So, that end offers everything it should and is fun to read.

Nancy solves her mystery well, and the added troubles of dealing with her broken leg slipped in a lovely dose of empathy. I've always had trouble connecting to her, and in this one, she had even a pinch more loftiness. But the other characters are lovely and she was as to be expected.

With all of the solidness of this tale, I was a bit disappointed by the added, heavier preaching on the environmental end. A message is fine, but this was more. Also, some scenes dragged a little thanks to longer explanations, which weren't really necessary. But all in all it's a nice read, and one that Nancy Drew fans are definitely going to want to pick up.

I received a complimentary copy and loved the dash of thrills. ( )

Nancy is invited to a ski resort as a thanks for her help on another case, but her relaxing vacation soon takes a turn for the worse when she gets injured on her first day. And, it appears that the brand-new resort is being sabotaged so that it will fail. Can Nancy crack this case without hurting herself further?

While I was an avid fan of the classic Nancy Drew mysteries growing up, this is the first time I picked up one from the new-ish Nancy Drew Diaries series. It did not disappoint. Nancy and her old pals (Bess, George, Ned) are all still there alongside the mysteries, but now they have a few things like FaceTime, tablets, etc. to help them out. This book also had an ongoing theme about socially conscious and climate-friendly actions, which was great to see. And, as an added bonus, Nancy teams up with Frank and Joe Hardy in this book!

I'm not sure where this book is in the order of the Nancy Drew Diaries series; I just selected it because of the Christmas theme (which is albeit pretty slight) and my familiarity with the classic Nancy Drew mysteries is that the order doesn't really matter. So I'm not sure if the other case Nancy helped on (which leads to her being at the resort) is actually covered in a previous book or not, and it was fun to see Nancy meeting the Hardy boys for the 'first' time here.

The mystery itself was interesting and its denouement was unexpected. One thing that I really enjoyed was how active Nancy was throughout the case. When she first injures herself and is told she needs to rest, I was expecting a bit of a Rear Window situation in which she would be just watching things unfold from a distance. Instead, she manages to get around as much as she possibly can. While her wheelchair use is temporary, it was still encouraging to see that she was not sidelined as a result. I can't help but think that might be encouraging for children with disabilities to see (and for those without disabilities to realize that just because someone has to do something differently doesn't mean they aren't capable of being fully involved).

For the audiobook listener, the narrator here did a fine job of bringing the various characters to life. ( )