Moving right along with my SPFBOX reads. Nearly there!
The Lambros family has never fit in with the town of Pandora, even from the very beginning. Since their ancestors immigrated from Greece with magical creatures in tow, the townsfolk have never trusted them and that hasn’t changed in the centuries since. Now, Melpomene, Calliope, and Thalia struggle to live their every day lives. When new girl, Asha Singh moves to town, everything changes. Thalia, once determined to escape Pandora upon graduation, finds herself growing closer to the heiress of the new resort in town and puts her plans on hold as their relationship develops. All the while, a man has entered the grounds, sent by their mother to help prepare for the newest creature en route to the house. His intentions come into question as he tries to befriend the distrustful Calliope, whose own abilities with the animals seem something out of a fairytale. With their mother missing, Melpomene struggles to keep the house together amidst the changes in the town, the newcomers to their lives, and the impending threat of their secret life being exposed to the community and the world. As the three sisters deal with their own personal problems, the divide between them grows wide when they need to band together the most or else it may end with one of them in the hands of their greatest enemy.
The Humane Society for Creatures and Cryptids is the story of 3 sisters named Calliope, Melpomene, and Thalia who live in the town of Pandora, Colorado (which is a real place and not super far from where I live, as the three-legged crow flies).
The people of the town of Pandora don’t trust the Lambros sisters, and assume that they are witches. They do live in the middle of a secret forest that nobody is allowed to enter. In reality, their house is a refuge for several mysterious creatures, including Bigfoot (whose name is Harriet). Their mother is out and about finding new creatures for their sanctuary and has sent back a couple of her associates to help a new one settle in. Shenanigans ensue, of course!
I liked this one, but I thought that it was trying to do a bit too much at times. Each sister has their own POV chapters, and their own love interests, and combined with the shenanigans going on with the creatures, and the baddies, and their own personal problems, it was a lot to digest at times. Perhaps this is just a me problem. That’s entirely possible. There are a total of 4 POV characters here, one of which is a love interest for one of the other 3, so I thought that the love interests for the other two sisters were kind of tacked on as an afterthought at times.
I did like the characters, especially Thalia, the youngest Lambros sister, and Asha Singh, who is the daughter of the owners of the new resort in Pandora. She and Thalia’s relationship was cute and I cheered for them to have a happily ever after.
The creatures themselves were interesting and I thought that they added a lot to the story. My favorite was Strige, the owl demon who speaks in riddles and can see the future. He 1000% lives in my brain as The Great Owl from The Secret of NIMH and I will not be disabused of this notion.
I liked the writing, the characters were easy to cheer for, the creatures were interesting and unique. The big baddies were a little mustache-twirly for my liking, but I still had a good time with this one all told. I’d read more in this series, and may read more from this author in the future. 7/10 stars!~
superstardrifter 
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