Judy Bolton #17 The Rainbow Riddle and #18 The Living Portrait

In Judy Bolton #17, The Rainbow Riddle, Judy and Peter are married in a double wedding in which Arthur and Lorraine are also married.  Roberta arrives unexpectedly just before the wedding and seems quite afraid that Judy and Peter will be injured.  Roberta disappears with one of the wedding presents, and shortly thereafter, an explosion is heard.  This is passed off as nothing, and Peter acts mysterious.

I can't stand it when Peter keeps rather important details from Judy.  This book isn't even a mystery, and it bored me.  The book is a favorite among many Judy Bolton fans, and those people likely enjoy sentimental books much more than I do.  I want a good mystery and care nothing about sentiment.

I skimmed much of this book.  This is really just a wedding and honeymoon story.  The Rainbow Riddle is now my least favorite book in the series. I do not like it.

In Judy Bolton #18, The Living Portrait, Roberta now lives with Judy and Peter.  She acts as if the portrait in the living room is real and that it talks to her.  She calls the woman her teacher, and Judy doesn't understand what Roberta means.  Prowlers roam around the property at night, and it soon becomes apparent that they want the portrait.  What is special about the portrait?

Why does the portrait, as seen on the cover, look like Judy?  The girl is not supposed to look just like Judy.

This book is interesting at first but then it drags in the middle and towards the end.  Way too much time is spent looking for Blackberry, and I became bored.

Once again, Peter keeps details from Judy, and of course, the case is his instead of hers.  This is supposed to be the Judy Bolton series—not the Peter Dobbs FBI series.

On this reading, I found this story to be a bit slow and uninteresting.  It is still overall good.