{"id":25510,"date":"2025-11-05T17:17:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=25510"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:15:13","slug":"the-game-is-afoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25510","title":{"rendered":"The Game Is Afoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Game Is Afoot<\/em><\/a> (2025) Elise Bryant<\/a> (Mavis Miller #2)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>I’m not rating this book.<\/p>\n

I had a very difficult time reading and finishing it (it took me more than a month) so I don’t think I can clearly judge it.<\/p>\n

Why? Because for most of the book Mavis is in denial about her anxiety and PTSD and needing therapy to deal with both.<\/p>\n

… of course my school psychologist boyfriend is going to give me my very own personal session of Making Friends With Big Feelings. If only he didn\u2019t look so cute doing it, and then I could be a lot more annoyed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And we can clearly see her spiraling.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like an alarm bell has been rung and now my body is living in the reverberation, trapped in this pulsating, overwhelming beat. And it\u2019s all rushing together as it plays on repeat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I struggled to get through those passages, and ended up skimming several of them. Because I know those feelings all to well, and watching someone else go through them and not being able to do anything about it… no.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, Pearl remains delightful.<\/p>\n

Bowel movements, bowel movements,\u201d Pearl repeats, trying it out in her mouth. \u201cThat sounds funny!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“It\u2019s the mystery,\u201d she continues, \u201cof why Mr. Forest gave Anabella the lead in Annie when she can\u2019t even sing! She sounds like\u2026like\u2014permission to say that bad word you taught me?\u201d<\/p>\n

“Permission not granted.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I like her father and how he’s enjoying his retirement.<\/p>\n

But watching Mavis deny her issues and see her making her problems worse was just too much.<\/p>\n

Characters<\/strong>: Mavis Miller, Pearl Harding, Corey Harding, Mr. Miller, Polly, Jack Cohen, Ms. Joyce, Nelson, Trisha Holbrook, Anabella Holbrook, Florence Michaelson, Jasmine Hammonds, Leon Hammonds, Langston Hammonds, Dyvia Mehta, Marigold, Hank, Bethany Bowman, Rose, Axel, Dakota, Ruth Gentry, Elijah Miller, Derek, Dom Dwyer, Sally, Della Lively, Charlie Lee, Mackenzie Skinner, Detective Berry, Detective De La Rosa, Principal Thomas Smith, Mr. Forest, Angela Hart, Cole Robinson \/ Dabrowski, Irene Dabrowski, Christine, Mrs. Alene Tennison<\/p>\n

Cover by Camila Pinheiro<\/p>\n

Publisher: Berkley<\/p>\n

Rating: NR<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Game Is Afoot (2025) Elise Bryant (Mavis Miller #2) I’m not rating this book. I had a very difficult time reading and finishing it (it took me more than a month) so I don’t think I can clearly judge it. Why? Because for most of the book Mavis is in denial about her anxiety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[897,292,204,207,8,653,934],"tags":[210,820,821,212],"class_list":["post-25510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-ebook","category-good","category-mental-health-rep","category-mystery","category-nr","category-trigger-warnings","tag-anxiety","tag-elise-bryant","tag-mavis-miller","tag-ptsd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-6Ds","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24343,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24343","url_meta":{"origin":25510,"position":0},"title":"It’s Elementary","author":"Michelle","date":"March 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Elementary (2024) Elise Bryant (Mavis Miller #1) The principal has disappeared and the head of the PTA was seen wearing latex gloves, paper booties, and lugging black trash bags into her mini-van in the middle of the night. Are these things related? Mavis Miller, the newly volun-told head of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"It's Elementary","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Its-Elementary-195x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14159,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14159","url_meta":{"origin":25510,"position":1},"title":"Banquet of Lies","author":"Michelle","date":"March 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Banquet of Lies (2013) Michelle Diener (Regency London) Set in London in 1812. Giselle Barrington fled Stockholm after witnessing the murder of her father. Now she has to find not only the killer, but also someone she can trust with the papers they were supposed to bring back to England.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Banquet of Lies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Banquet-of-Lies-e1511038599836.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23609,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23609","url_meta":{"origin":25510,"position":2},"title":"Banquet of Lies","author":"Michelle","date":"May 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Banquet of Lies (2013) Michelle Diener (Regency London) Set in London in 1812. Another favorite. \u201cWe\u2019ve been fattening Mavis up,\u201d Iris said, and something in the way she said it made Gigi go very still. 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After reading Death Below Stairs I wanted to re-read a favorite of mine that also features a woman working as a cook in historical Britain. Every time I read this I love it a little bit more--there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Banquet of Lies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Banquet-of-Lies-659x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9205,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9205","url_meta":{"origin":25510,"position":5},"title":"Banquet of Lies","author":"Michelle","date":"August 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Banquet of Lies (2013) Michelle Diener Set in England in 1812. Giselle Barrington has spent her life following her father around Europe, collecting folklore and working secretly for the Crown. She's developed her own strange passion: food, recipes, and cooking. \u201cWhat do you do with the recipes?\u201d The woman looked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Banquet-of-Lies.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}