Saturday 30 September 2017

The Red Ribbon Blog Tour - Excerpt

I am honoured to be able to take part in this blog tour, for the beautifully written, touching book. I'm delighted to be able to share a excerpt of this book with you all here today. 

People laugh at fashion. It’s just clothes, they say.
Right. Just clothes. Except, not one of the people I’ve heard mock fashion was naked at the time. They all got dressed in the morning, picking clothes that said, Hey, I’m a successful banker. Or, I’m a busy mother. Or, I’m a tired teacher . . . a decorated soldier . . . a pompous judge . . . a cheeky barmaid . . . a lorry driver, a nurse . . . You could go on for ever. Clothes show who you are, or who you want to be. 
So people might say, Why do you take clothes so seriously, when there are more important things to worry about, like the War?
Oh, I was worried about the War all right. The War got in the way of everything. Out in the real world, outside of here, I’d wasted hours queuing at shops with empty shelves. More hours hiding in the cellar when bombers flew over. I’d put up with endless news updates, and Grandad plotting battle lines on a map pinned to the kitchen wall. I’d known War would come – it was all people talked about for months. We learned about War in history lessons at school. War was something that happened to other people a long way away. 
Then it came to my country. My town. 
It was War that brought me to Birchwood – known, in a harsher language, as Auschwitz-Birkenau. The place where everyone arrives, and nobody leaves. 
 Here people find out that clothes aren’t so trivial after all. Not when you haven’t got any. The first thing They did when we arrived was make us strip. Minutes off the train and we were sorted into male and female. They shoved us into a room and told us to undress. Right there. With everyone watching. Not even underwear allowed. 
Our clothes were folded into piles. Without them we weren’t bankers, teachers, nurses, barmaids or lorry drivers any more. We were scared and humiliated. 
Just clothes. 
I’d stared at my pile of folded clothes. I memorised the soft wool of my jumper. It was my favourite green jumper embroidered with cherries, a birthday present from Grandma. I memorised the neat folds of my trousers and my socks, rolled into a pair. My bra too – my first-ever bra! – that I’d hidden from view along with my knickers. 
Next They took our hair. All our hair. Shaved it off with blunt razors. Gave us limp triangles of cloth as headscarves. Made us pick out shoes from a pile about as high as house. I’d found a pair. Rose obviously hadn’t been so lucky, with her one silk shoe and her one leather brogue. 
They said we’d get our clothes back after a shower. They lied. We got sack dresses with stripes. As Stripeys we ran around like herds of panicked zebras. We weren’t people any more, we were numbers. They could do what they liked to us. 
So don’t tell me clothes don’t matter.

I hope you enjoyed this extract and want to read the rest of the book. For the rest of the blog tour see the banner below: 


Thursday 28 September 2017

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 384
Publisher: Simon and Schuster 
Released: 10th of October 2017 

Find your magic

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy. 

What I Have to Say 

This book was slow. I think if I'd relaxed, I would have been able to enjoy it a lot more. Other than the pacing, I loved it. The magic system was really interesting, I liked how each of the children had a gift that was just theirs and that they exhibited it without even trying, so that there was literally no way of escaping their magic. 

I think I also would have enjoyed it more if I had read Practical Magic first. There were probably references and stuff that I didn't notice because I hadn't read it. It had enough to stand on it's own, but I do think that reading Practical Magic first would probably be better. 

I liked the relationships between the siblings. I liked how they were close and always had each others backs. I think that and the magic were the main draws of the book. 


My thanks go to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with this copy for review 

Monday 25 September 2017

The Book of Fire by Michelle Kenney

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Publisher:  HQ
Released:  25th of August 2017 

Life outside the domes is not possible. At least that’s what Insiders are told.
Twins Eli and Talia shouldn’t exist. They’re Outsiders.

Their home is a secret. Their lives are a secret. Arafel is a secret.

An unexpected forest raid forces Talia into a desperate mission to rescue her family while protecting the sacred Book of Arafel from those who would use it as a weapon. As Talia and her life long friend Max enter the dome, she makes some unexpected discoveries, and allies, in the form of rugged Insider August, that will change the course of her life forever.

She’ll stop at nothing to save her family but will she sacrifice her heart in the process?

What I Have to Say 

I have to say I wasn't as impressed by this book as I hoped I would be. The idea sounded great and at the start I was really interested in Arafel and their lifestyle. The Roman based life in the Dome was also really interesting, but beyond that, nothing really hooked my attention. 

Talia as a character was good, but she was so determined to get her family back and for most of it, she did nothing but what others told her to do. There was so much waiting around as she predictably got involved in a love triangle and got distracted from her goals by it. 

There was so much there that would have been great but for the most part it was just the same as every other dystopia book out there. There was nothing there that set it apart and there needs to be something, especially in this genre. 


My thanks go to HQ and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 



Thursday 21 September 2017

The Taste of Blue Light by Lydia Ruffles

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 352
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books 
Released: 7th of September 2017 

'Since I blacked out, the slightest thing seems to aggravate my brain and fill it with fire'

These are the things Lux knows:
She is an Artist. 
She is lucky. 
She is broken.

These are the things she doesn't know:
What happened over the summer.
Why she ended up in hospital.
Why her memories are etched in red.

'The nightmares tend to linger long after your screams have woken you up ...'

Desperate to uncover the truth, Lux's time is running out. If she cannot piece together the events of the summer and regain control of her fractured mind, she will be taken away from everything and everyone she holds dear.

If her dreams don't swallow her first

What I Have to Say 

This was a really interesting book that went in a lot of unexpected directions. I wasn't sure how it would go at first, but I quickly really came to like the characters and the school was so interesting and creative. While the school probably wouldn't work in real life, it was really cool to imagine. It also had this cult-like undertone that gave a good in-joke type vibe. 

The trauma that Lux showed was really intense. I loved how they gave such little pieces of information at a time. I couldn't possibly have guessed what really happened. 

In all though, it's hard to say much without giving too much away, but I just loved the atmosphere of the book and the secrets and lies involved in the mystery. 

Definitely a good book about trauma. 


My thanks go to Hodder Children's Books and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

Monday 18 September 2017

The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

Synopsis (Goodreads)

Pages: 290
Publisher:  Lake Union Publishing
Released: 18th of July 2017 

What would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie?

Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.

Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married. Forced to move out of her family home, Nina returns to the rundown Southampton council estate—and the sister—she thought she had left far behind.

But Nina can’t let herself be overwhelmed—her boys need her. To save them, and herself, she will have to do what her husband discouraged for so long: pursue a career of her own. Torn between the life she thought she knew and the reality she now faces, Nina finally must learn what it means to take control of her life.

What I Have to Say 

I have to say that this book was not for me. It was interesting to see Nina slowly thinking more and more about her relationship with her husband and realising how little control she had; how little she knew about what was going on in her life. 

The portrayal of the children I found a bit off. Obviously they were upset by all the changes in their life and sometimes they rallied around their mother, but a lot of the time when they were being nice to the mum, it felt a bit false and unlike something a teenager would actually do or say. And when they weren't being nice to their mother it felt a bit like a cliché teenage getting upset about moving house/ losing their father. 

To be honest I was a bit bored. A lot happened, but there wasn't much to interest me. After everything was uncovered about the Finn and their finances, there just wasn't much of a hook to keep me reading. 


My thanks go to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review


Saturday 16 September 2017

The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 416
Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Books for Younger Readers 
Released: 1st of November 2016

Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator's daughter, Sidonia. There's no one Nemesis wouldn't kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia.

She must become her.

Now one of the galaxy's most dangerous weapons is masquerading in a world of corruption and Nemesis has to hide her true abilities or risk everything. As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns that there is something stronger than her deadly force: the one thing she's been told she doesn't have - humanity. And, amidst all the danger, action and intrigue, her humanity might be the only thing that can save her, Sidonia and the entire Empire... 

What I Have to Say 

I was completely blown away by this story. From the moment it started I was completely hooked. Nemesis was such an interesting character and seeing everything from the perspective of this creature that was breed to protect another person was such a unique and intriguing thing to read. 

It was very easy to fall in love with Nemesis as a character. Although she was so hardened and made fierce by her upbringing, her relationship with Sidonia and Sidonia's love for her made her so easy to empathise with and like. 

The twists and turns and all the politics were thrilling. It was impossible to figure out what would happen next. The Emperor was brutal and the other members of the elite were wonderfully venomous. It was all exactly what I like from a political thriller and set in a great sci fi background.

I'll be really interested to see what happens in the next book. 


 My thanks go to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

Thursday 14 September 2017

The Glow of Fallen Stars by Kate Ling

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 368
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers 
Released: 24th of August 2017 
Other Books in the Series: The Loneliness of Distant Beings 

I longed so hard for all the things that make life life, and I never thought they'd be mine. But now ... now they are. Now I have something to lose.

Seren and Dom have fled their old lives on board spaceship Ventura in order to be together. They crash-land on a beautiful, uninhabited planet, which at first seems like paradise.

There is no one to answer to ... but no one to ask for help. And with each new day comes the realisation of how vulnerable they truly are.

This planet has secrets - lots of them. Uncovering them could be the key to survival, but at what cost?

What I Have to Say 

This was so much better than the last book. I was worried that it wouldn't be great after the last one, but after the way the last one ended, I really wanted to give it a chance. I'm really glad I did. 

It was still a little slow, but the planet was so amazing. I love a well made world and there was so much beautiful imagery in this book that was truly wonderful to read. I want to visit this planet and see all the sights, though I think it would probably be a bit dangerous to live on. 

The stuff with the coral life was a really interesting twist in the story. I was very intrigued by what was happening and I kind of wish there had been more of it. I loved the ending though. It felt right and it all tied up neatly, even though I feel that maybe there should have been a bit more of a fight to change everything. 

I probably wouldn't recommend the whole series even though I did like this book. The first one was just not worth it, though in retrospect, I'm glad that I got the chance to read this one. 


My thanks go to Netgalley and Little Brown Books for providing me with this copy for review. 

Monday 11 September 2017

Invictus by Ryan Graudin

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 464
Publisher: Orion's Children's Book 
Released: 21st of September 2017 

Farway Gaius McCarthy was born outside of time. The son of a time-traveling Recorder from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in Rome in 95 AD, Far's birth defies the laws of nature. Exploring history himself is all he's ever wanted, and after failing his final time-traveling exam, Far takes a position commanding a ship with a crew of his friends as part of a black market operation to steal valuables from the past. 

But during a heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Armed with knowledge that will bring Far's very existence into question, she will lead Far and his team on a race through time to discover a frightening truth: History is not as steady as it seems. 

What I Have to Say 

I want to squeal and jump up and down and just tell you all to read this book. But I'll work hard to be more professional. This book was beautiful. Ryan Graudin weaved a thrilling story that went throughout history to so many great locations. 

I loved the crew of the Invictus. They fitted so great together and I would love to read a whole series of books about their various adventures through time. I think that a strong team of quirky characters is important in a book like this to set it apart like the rest of time travel book, and Graudin had both that and a story that was unique and exciting. 

I fully respect any author who can write time travel well and having a great plot and a group of characters who I really want to read more from truly makes this a book that I will love for a long time. 


My thanks go to Netgalley and Orion Children's books for providing me for this copy for review. 


Saturday 9 September 2017

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 320
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Released: 5th of September 2017 

The story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete. 
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two. 
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains. 
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

What I Have to Say 

This book caught me and kept me hooked from the first sentence, but it was a little difficult to get my head around the backwards storytelling at first, but after I'd gotten used to it, it was really great to see how each event had been triggered by the one before it. It was a very different way of storytelling but a very interesting one. 

Jules was a very interesting character. It was both hard to get to know her and very, very easy because there were some things that were very true to her, such as the superheros and the way she picked up on things so easily and could memories things so quickly. And other things that seem like a part of her but that she has lied about completely. 

This is definitely one of these books that I sped through, not wanting to put it down and am now regretting it because it's over. If you're looking for something compelling and intriguing that will keep you reading then this is the perfect book. 



My thanks go to Netgalley and Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review. 


Thursday 7 September 2017

The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 304 
Publisher: Hot Key Books 
Released: 21st of September 2017 

Rose, Ella, Marta and Carla. In another life we might have all been friends together. But this was Birchwood. 

As fourteen-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz. 

Every dress she makes could be the difference between life and death. And this place is all about survival. 

Ella seeks refuge from this reality, and from haunting memories, in her work and in the world of fashion and fabrics. She is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive. 

Is her love of clothes and creativity nothing more than collaboration wth her captors, or is it a means of staying alive?

Will she fight for herself alone, or will she trust the importance of an ever-deepening friendship with Rose?

One thing weaves through the colours of couture gowns and camp mud - a red ribbon, given to Ella as a symbol of hope.

What I Have to Say 

This was like a fairytale set in the worst imaginable place on earth. The background setting of Auschwitz was harrowing and detailed enough to give a good picture of life there, while the story of Ella and Rose held a beautiful light of friendship and hope, which made the story one that was a pleasure to read and not just a bleak picture of day to day life in a concentration camp. 

Ella was such a great character to read. The way she tried to ignore things about the camp around her, because they were too hard to think about was just a brilliant way of talking about the horrors without going into all the gritty details. Though of course all things must be faced eventually. 

I loved the descriptions of the dresses she made as well and the process of dress making. It was nice to see how much of her identity was in her dressmaking. It was a good way to show who she was. Because she was Ella who sewed. And that was a perfect way to add to all the themes of identity in the book. 

Rose was such a beautiful character too. It made me feel like crying a bit, but she was such a light in the darkness of the camp. 

This is a wonderful book and a great introduction to the horrors that happened in the concentration camps for younger readers. 


My thanks go to Hot Key Books for providing me with this copy for review. 

 

Monday 4 September 2017

We See Everything by William Sutcliffe

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books 
Released: 21st of September 2017

Lex lives on The Strip – the overcrowded, closed-off, bombed-out shell of London. He’s used to the watchful enemy drones that buzz in the air above him. 

Alan’s talent as a gamer has landed him the job of his dreams. At a military base in a secret location, he is about to start work as a drone pilot. 

These two young men will never meet, but their lives are destined to collide. Because Alan has just been assigned a high-profile target. Alan knows him only as #K622. But Lex calls him Dad. 

What I Have to Say 

This was another book that just didn't dragged through most of the book. I liked the  setting a lot and it seemed really interesting, but so little happened except at the beginning and end. 

Alan was slightly more interesting than Lex, because it was interesting to see into the mind of someone who is so willing to kill people. It was interesting to see how he justified it to himself and how his world was shaken when it came to Lex. 

Lex however seemed only really to be there to have the romance. It just seemed rather pointless that there wasn't more to the plot like that. 

The ending was good, but I would have liked to see more that happened between the attack and the ending. I would have liked to know what happened to change everything so much. 

This book just disappointed me really and I wish it had been better. 


My thanks go to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

Saturday 2 September 2017

Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 432
Publisher: Anderson
Released: 7th of September 2017 

Through rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote.

Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university. Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women's freedom.

May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who's grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place.

But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?

What I Have to Say 

This book was so amazing and great to read but I don't really know what to say about it. I liked the characters a lot and the plot. The history was awesome and I learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know. It's an era of history that I'm really interested in, both the stuff with the suffragettes and with the First World War, so it's great to read about it from different perspectives and find out stuff I didn't already know. 

The peace stuff from May was really interesting. I had no idea how many women were working so hard to try and end the war. The whole peace conference was something that I knew nothing about so it was great to read that. 

I enjoyed Nell as well. It was great to see the idea of gender and homosexuality being questioned in a historical fiction book, because so many people pretend that this stuff didn't exist back then even though it's well documented. 

I loved the cover with the black girl on it, so I was sad that there was no mention that any of the girls were black in the book. I would have been so interested to see the issue of race and how it was treated in England back then because I only know some stuff about race and suffragettes in America and even that I don't know much about. 

This is definitely a great feminist read for anyone interested in women and history. Read it and get ready to feel powerful. 


My thanks go to Netgalley and Anderson for providing me with this copy for review.